First Do No Harm - Primum Non Nocere
A Christian Living Article from All-Creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

True Christian living requires us to live according to Kingdom standards which bring Heaven to earth.

FROM

D. Morton
1998

Factory-farmed animals are typically docile and kind. Because of this, mankind wreaks havoc on them. Certain Christians try to justify this egregiousness by basing it on an elusive Biblical principle concerning their superiority. I ask you, what greater evil?

Wake up, oh Sleeping Heart! A selfless Christian is beyond rationalizations. There are those Christians who do not eat animals because they know these animals suffer horrendously. They know there is nothing Christian about consuming animals. Animal consumption is an important issue because it involves tremendous suffering. We must recognize, if we are to grow as Christians, we have been brainwashed from birth to detach ourselves from truths that stare us right in the face about animals. For many who profess Christianity, it may be too late. Too many Christians feel it is just too easy to consume them and get away with it. Harriet Beecher Stowe put it well when she explained the rationale behind their callous indifference, "it is a matter of taking the side of the weak over the strong, something the best people have always done". This also applies to the best Christians.

Are there different levels of Christianity? Many of us know animals are as helpless and weak as human children. They are unfallen, yet they are consumed. What crueler evil? How intentionally blind the majority of men are to their horrendous suffering because of their lust for flesh.

I propose a different way. Instead of focusing on arbitrary dominion over the animal kingdom, let's contemplate Jesus' characteristics, and how we can apply His attributes to Christian behavior toward animals. He "was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief". This means he doesn't see a Big Mac or Whopper; He sees all the unnecessary brutality and suffering inflicted on the animals who become the Big Mac and the Whopper. But this is not the human species, we declare. How dare He! How dare He extend compassion to a tortured, gentle cow who suffers their entire life to becomes the succulent, tasty hamburger in a selfish human's mouth for a five minute flesh rush!!!! "Christians" make Christ in their own image a million times a day when they practice speciesism. There is nothing Christ-like about torturing an animal to death.

People who profess to be Christian "think" they have dominion over all animals, and are exonerated from inflicting torture, pain, and suffering, because of cultural brainwashing from birth. This purposeful disconnection, coupled with an addiction to cannibalize out of selfishness, keeps them and the animals they consume doomed.

Most farmed animals are intensively confined. As sentient beings, consider their frustration and agony. Have animal eating Christians no mercy or compassion? Why do some identify with their suffering? Are we all at different stages and levels in our walks? Has the one who eventually extends mercy been shown deeper truths than the other? If compassion is an integral part of Christianity, wouldn't it stand to reason to extend it to ALL God's creatures, and not just man? It is an obvious deception if you believe otherwise.

We are to embrace ALL life and ALL of His creation. I appeal to your moral psychic responsibility. I urge every Christian who consumes animals today to visit a slaughterhouse and observe firsthand their pain and suffering. This area of many Christian hearts are frozen solid. Consuming God's sentient beings is a selfish act straight from Hell; one in which we will be held accountable. No amount of cultural programming should quash the spirit of God.

Am I not allowed to carry the torch of compassionate for them?

When supporting old testament animal sacrifice, one salient point is forever left out. After these animals were sacrificed, they were usually consumed. Could this possibly have been a motive for these alleged ‘animal sacrifices'; all those post tabernacle barbecues? The Bible is used to justify any position.

Prayer for Forgiveness.

"Father, forgive me for caring about other sentient creatures you have placed on this Earth. Forgive me for extending Christ's compassion, kindness and mercy to recognize their suffering. I know in doing this, I place myself at great risk of being labeled a heretic or New Ager by those who say labeling a person is wrong. Forgive me for not remaining culturally brainwashed and seduced by a deceptive spirit of indifference. I am no longer my own, you see. I am no longer a white washed tomb filled with animal bones. I am the few. Please forgive me for caring about ALL life!

Forgive me that in recognition of my dominion, I grasp the horrendous pain and suffering on billions of innocent sentient creatures, and choose not to arbitrarily use animals as instruments for my own end. Forgive me for recognizing they feel, think, love, hate and have emotions, like you and I.

Caring about animals is considered by some Christians to be an evil diversion tactic. Our accusers obviously have some culturally inflicted mental wounds they are unaware of. As the Bible states, "many are called, few are chosen".

"When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." Genesis 9:16

I urge you to allow a thaw of your frozen heart that no longer allows for recognition of the animal kingdom's mortal danger at the hands of men. Anytime you want to cross the Line of Compassion to include the animal, too, we will be waiting, arms outstretched, on the other side.

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