Suffering Of The Innocents – Parts One and Two
Animals: Tradition - Philosophy

FROM

SAGC Shepherding All God's Creatures
Article by Roslyne Smith, a partner on the SAGC blog
February 2018

I was reminded how much our Lord suffered for us – the innocent taking the place of those who are far from innocent, not only to save us but to restore the created order for all life and the entire cosmos.

 Our battle for animal rights is a conflict which is running parallel to countless other battles for HUMAN justice, but I believe that OUR battle is taking place on the ‘last frontier’. At last our concern has extended beyond those of HUMAN self-centredness. We are at last praying and working for a restored harmony in the WHOLE creation.

Shepherding All God’s Creatures Emblem

PART ONE

In preparation for Lent we share the following article from Roslyne Smith‘s book, Animal Welfare: Through The Cross, A Collection of Animal Christian Concern Articles. You can order her book here. The article is one of my (Kathy’s) favorites and is written by Roslyne! As I re-read her fine penmanship, I was reminded how much our Lord suffered for us – the innocent taking the place of those who are far from innocent, not only to save us but to restore the created order for all life and the entire cosmos.
- Kathy Dunn, a partner on the SAGC blog

 

During a recent nostalgic visit to my birthplace, I stood for a while gazing at the house where virtually all of my childhood memories of my mother have been. She died when I was just four years old, following a long battle with cancer, leaving my father to look after three children, as well as continuing to run his two pet food shops. Fortunately, my mother had seven siblings, who had all taken turns to help, both throughout her illness and after her death.

Being the youngest child, I was perhaps the least affected by what had happened, but I was moved around to live with various caring relatives. Eventually, at the age of eight I came to settle happily, forming a very close bond, with my mother’s younger sister. When I was twelve, however, she suffered a massive stroke which left her semi-paralysed. Determined to continue to care for me in addition to her son, she struggled through for several years with her husband’s help, but sadly died a few months after I was married.

My sister was nineteen when our mother died and, unlike me, will have been fully aware of what was happening. She must be emotionally scarred by the memories she has of hearing her cry out in pain. Our brother was only eight and was probably affected more than any of us. He was left under the care of our father and never really experienced having friends home to play or having birthday parties, family outings or holidays.

This is just a very small example of suffering and the knock-on effect it can have upon loved ones, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. Most of us will have had our own particular experiences of suffering. In the Bible, Jesus made it clear that we must NEVER assume that personal disaster is God’s punishment for personal sin: “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no!” (Luke 13). And, certainly, despite how it may feel, we are NEVER abandoned by Him. We may well ask then, “Why does God allow our suffering?”

Furthermore, what about animal suffering? Having heard through the media about the plight of commercially and legally abused animals, this is something which had been troubling me for some time. I joined various secular animal welfare societies and, in the summer of 1985, I had a phone call from the then Secretary of the local Humane Research Trust, May Tripp, inviting me to a coffee morning she had organised in aid of that charity. I duly attended this event and met for the first time with May, who spoke with me of her concern about animal cruelty and the fact that there seemed to be no Christian voice to speak for them. On 15 July 1985 a group of 10 of us met in May’s home and Animal Christian Concern (ACC) was formed. Just over a year later this small group had grown to around 600 members and we were amongst 700 people attending our inaugural service at York Minster! Although I’d had a ‘traditional’ Christian upbringing and had been influenced by many wonderful people throughout my life, I believe that, by introducing me to May, God taught me about His love and perfect will for His Creation.

One of the first things I learnt in the early days of working with ACC (pronounced ‘Assisi’) as Co-ordinator’s Assistant was that, whether we view the Biblical account of Creation literally or metaphorically, Genesis 3 shows mankind with a choice of either remaining within dependence of God’s loving care, or of disobeying Him and eating from the ‘Tree of Knowledge’. As mankind opted for independence from God, the WHOLE creation became fallen from His perfect will and we handed over the reign of this earth to Satan and the powers of evil. Self-centredness, broken relationships, wars, natural disasters, disease and death are all attributable to the Fall: “Nation will rise against nation … there will be famines and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24).

God gives us FREE CHOICE – choices would not be free if the consequences were ‘cushioned’ by God. For man to be free, the world we inhabit must necessarily have real – potentially painful – consequences. Moreover, any loving parent knows that their child must be allowed to experience the ‘real world’ and suffer the consequences of their actions in order to learn and develop their physical and moral awareness. We are, therefore, all born into a world where the innocent, including animals, are just as likely to suffer as the guilty. Could it be then that suffering exists because humans chose this option in Eden? Perhaps the alternative is worse – a world without free will?

PART TWO

Roslyne was saying in Part One that we are “all born into a world where the innocent, including animals, are just as likely to suffer as the guilty.” The question was asked: “Could it be then that suffering exists because humans chose this option in Eden? Perhaps the alternative is worse – a world without free will?” And now the conclusion...

This highlights the importance of animal welfare: If we are the cause of and God’s reason for HAVING to allow suffering in this world, is it not mankind’s responsibility to strive to alleviate the suffering of the animals forced to share it?

Something else I learnt through working with May was that, when God came to earth in Jesus and took on that flesh, which is shared by humans and animals, His one purpose was to redeem all His creatures from the disastrous effects of the Fall. In the Old Testament, Isaiah had a vision that a Messiah would come who would one day restore harmony to ALL creation: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat … and a little child will lead them … and the lion will eat straw like the ox … they will neither harm nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11). In the New Testament, Paul describes the sufferings of a fallen creation: “all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth”, a creation awaiting a redemption which is dependent upon the fulfilment of the sons of God (mankind). Animals are AWAITING mankind’s transformation into the knowledge and love of God in Jesus (Romans 8). ACC has always aimed to unite animal welfarists and Christians in their work towards a common goal of humans taking responsibility for reducing animal suffering.

Reading through 20 years of ‘ACC Newsletters’, it has not been easy to decide which articles to include in this book. Those I eventually selected, I have placed in chronological order within each part, but they can be read in any order.

For me, one article stood out in particular: ‘Through The Cross To The New Creation’, which I hope most will find time to read. Here, May describes the Cross as “a symbol of the world’s cruelty, a symbol of the world’s separation from God (Genesis 3), which even Jesus Himself had to feel as He bore our sin at Calvary”. Similarly, WE need to “bear the pain of our own crosses, our own separations from God, for if we have never encountered the suffering that is in the world, how then can we ever hope to understand the gulf which lies between the world’s sinfulness and the purity of God?” How too, can we recognise our need of a Saviour and so become His ‘New Creation’: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16).

Campaigning for Christian Animal Welfare is stressful work, as seen in the article entitled ‘Overkill’. Not only do we have to bear the ‘cross’ of learning about the horror of legal and commercial abuse of animals, but we also have to endure opposition, indifference and ridicule from many different groups of people – yet another ‘cross’.

I suspect that most readers will be either animal welfarists who are looking into the Christian faith; or Christians who feel alone in a church which lacks the determination to say or do anything positive against animal cruelty. I do hope that Christians from all different denominations; including ‘grass roots’, vegan, vegetarian, evangelical and ‘green’ Christians, will read ‘Animal Welfare: Through The Cross’. It is also my hope that this book will be read by all types of animal welfarists; including animal rights militant, vegan, vegetarian, new age and ‘green’ ecologists. Yet it may well be that many readers will not consider themselves to be in any of these categories, but they are simply looking to gain a better understanding.

Quote from May Tripp:

“Our battle for animal rights is a conflict which is running parallel to countless other battles for HUMAN justice, but I believe that OUR battle is taking place on the ‘last frontier’. At last our concern has extended beyond those of HUMAN self-centredness. We are at last praying and working for a restored harmony in the WHOLE creation.”

Thank you for reading and following our blog; we hope you are blessed by it and share it with others!

Blessings ~ Roslyne

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