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A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 

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Selective Psychopathology? – 9 May 2006
By Mary T. Hoffman

Frank and I were taking one of our walks when we noticed an SUV stop at the side of the road near a bridge. In the vehicle there were three people who appeared to be a father (the driver) with his two children, a girl and a boy.

The boy, who was sitting in the passenger seat, got out first; and in his hand he held one of those plastic containers full of “night crawlers” (worms)! Then the girl, holding a tackle box, got out of the back seat.

I turned to Frank and remarked, “This is an example of ‘selective psychopathology’.” Frank really “got a kick” out of my remark!

In a previous Blog, I discussed the fact that most people selectively choose to label what they consider “socially acceptable behavior” and what is considered “psychopathic” or “sociopathic.” If a person were to treat another human being the way billions of animals are routinely abused daily, there would be an enormous outcry; and that person would be labeled a psychopath. Many, if not most, people would demand that he or she be executed, or at least imprisoned for life.

We are brought up to regard certain animals as “food” and others as “pets.” When you stop to really think about it, this is ridiculous, if not out and out insane! People don’t like it when another “culture” tortures the animals they consider “pets” (cats and dogs, for example) in order to serve them as food. They don’t want to hear about slow strangulation by hanging of dogs in order to improve the quality of their meat, or the boiling alive of cats. Yet people look the other way and resent being told about the horrific suffering (emotional and physical) of the animals providing them with dairy products, meat, poultry, and fish. And what about dolphins and other animals, who are considered nothing but nuisances or collateral damage, caught in huge fishing nets? When people consume animals and their secretions, they are being “selectively sociopathic or psychopathic” because they are totally indifferent to their contribution to the pain and suffering that their diet causes.

Therefore, this father who was taking his children for an afternoon of killing fish was hardening their hearts and teaching them to have no empathy for certain other living creatures. And, as you know, a lack of empathy is what is believed separates the “psychopath” from the “normal”! Teaching children to kill absolutely qualifies as child abuse. Rightly does the Bible warn us in Luke 17:2:

2 "It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.

~ New American Standard Bible

Frank and I thank God that He opened our eyes to the truth, and that we are set free from the ignorance of the past. And we continue to learn. There is no killing in heaven; so, here on earth, we should live according to the Lord’s Prayer:

Matthew 6:10

10 Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

~ New American Standard Bible

Go on to: The Disconnect – 10 May 2006
Return to: Without Excuse – 8 May 2006
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