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The Fellowship of Life |
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God and Animals The Rev. R.C.R. Adkins, M.A. Reproduced from The British Vegetarian of Sep/Oct 1964 with Thanks to the Vegetarian Society:
A little time back my telephone bell rang; that is not unusual, it
is continually ringing. What did surprise me, when I lifted the
receiver, was to receive an invitation from I.T.V.(Westward) to
appear on television. I had broadcast before, but so far I had
always been in front of the television set, looking at the
programmes, not behind the set being televised.
This invitation, the producer told me, was due to the controversy
that had arisen over the action of two Devon vicars who had
invited the local Hunts to meet at their vicarages. The League
Against Cruel Sports had sent a strong protest against this to the
Bishop of Exeter, but the Bishop had declined to intervene and his
press secretary had stated that he supported the practice of
hunting.
The I.T.V. had asked the Bishop's press secretary to put the case
for hunting on television, and I was invited to put the opposite
point of view.
I was delighted to accept the invitation; I am always glad to do
anything I can for the great cause of kindness to animals.
When I arrived at the studios I found everyone most helpful. When it
came to the actual television programme I found that my opponent,
another Devon clergyman, rested his case on the words in the first
chapter of Genesis that God said to man, "Have dominion over the
fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth."
Now the fact that Man has dominion over the animals is undoubtedly
true, but it is also true that God has dominion over Man. If we
fail, therefore, to show mercy to animals, the sovereignty over whom
God has, for a time, delegated to us, we cannot expect to receive
mercy from God, Who has supreme power over us.
Jesus said, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
again."
If, therefore, we fullfil our stewardship over animals, by hunting
them for pleasure, trapping them for money, and slaughtering them in
millions for food, we can hardly complain if God says to us, when
our life here on earth is over, "Inasmuch as ye have done it to
these, your brethren, ye have done it to Me. Depart from Me."
It's strange how quick we are to take the lives of animals for any
pretext that suits us, and yet not one of us, having taken that
life, can bring it back to life.
It doesn't take the work of a moment to crush a beetle to death
under our feet, but we cannot, with a lifetime's work, create
ourselves the life that we took so quickly and heedlessly.
This does not mean that we should never terminate a life, but it
does mean that it is a very serious thing to do, and that it should
never be done lightly.
I have had on two occasions to end the life of a dog. Each one had
been my companion and friend, but they both had been stricken by
paralysis which made their earthly lives a misery. I believe,
however, that when this life of mine on earth is over, I shall meet
them again on the Other Side.
God, we believe, is Love, and therefore every person - and every
animal - who really loves has something of God, something immortal,
in him. So those animals whom we loved, and who devotedly loved us,
are not dead as we perhaps mistakenly thought - they are radiantly
alive in another plane of existence. We shall meet again.
To put animals out of their misery is the one thing we can do for
them which, under the present state of the law, we cannot do for our
human friends. Yet, as a parish priest, who has had to try and
comfort people in great pain, I have come firmly to believe in
euthanasia - to end the earthly life of a man or woman who is
suffering from an incurable disease which is also inflicting intense
pain.
We tie people to life which has become unbearable; we tie people to
unhappy marriages which have become hell on earth because of our
refusal to reform the divorce laws, but at least these fortunately
form only a small part of the world's population.
With animals, however, we are in a continual hurry to untie them
from life on this earth. A never-ending stream of animals makes its
sad and weary way to the slaughter houses, and not a voice of
protest is raised from the Christian Church. Only vegetarians seem
to care, for if vegetarianism became prevalent, slaughter houses
would cease to exist.
The continual infliction of pain and suffering on our brethren, the
animals, has also a degrading and brutalising effect on those who
perpetrate it. The agony of animals is bad enough in all conscience,
but at least they are free from sin - no human being can make that
claim. When therefore we cause animals to suffer we are increasing
still further the barrier that exists between ourselves and God
because of our wrongdoing, maybe making that barrier impenetrable,
even by God.
To my mind this is the worst part of the brutalities suffered by
animals at the hand of man, for as a soul is something of God, it
is, in fact, made up of love, for Love is God. Therefore when we are
cruel to a defenceless animal we are killing part of our souls and,
if that cruelty is committed again and again, then there is a real
danger of not only making an impenetrable barrier between ourselves
and God, but of completely destroying our souls.
And so I come back to where I came in - the controversy on
television over the question of hunting. My main contribution to
that programme was to emphasise the fact that fox hunters were doing
far more harm to their souls than they did to the poor animal they
chased. The fox, at least, only lost his life on this earth; the
hunter may be losing, what is far more important, his life in the
next world.
As I pass by a butcher's shop crowded with customers waiting for
their week-end joint, I sadly reflect that although we would be
horrified at the idea of eating the flesh of a man who, while he was
alive, did everything he could to harm us, we seem to have no qualms
at eating the flesh of animals who have done us no harm at all.
It was said of the greatest Man that ever lived, "He saved others,
Himself He cannot save." I wonder if that occurred to a man who,
seeing two rats running along together, threw a stone at this
vermin, as he thought of them. One rat was killed by the stone, the
other did not move although the stone had not struck it. The man
discovered that the animal was blind and still held in its mouth the
piece of straw by which it had been led by the other rat.
The animals look to us, themselves they cannot save, are we going to
save them?
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