Written by Avweroswo Akpojaro Junior
It may seem quite counterintuitive to begin thinking about the welfare of non-human animals and justice for non-human animals as grounded in the love of God in Christ Jesus. But as I hope to demonstrate, love in the Christian faith is at the heart of animal justice and liberation. As such, there’s no better place to begin this discussion. Love is deeply entrenched in the Christian faith and is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian believer.
Without love, our claim to be God’s people would be highly questionable and empty. Love characterizes Christian faith and practice. Many Christians would heartily agree with this fact. Disagreements arise, however, in our understanding of what that love looks like in practice. Often, this is where most of the challenges Christians face in their witness exist. Sometimes we see what love entails, and other times we don’t. Whatever the case, one way or another, we don’t see the full implications of living a life of love. So how can we see more clearly what it means to love? We should look no further than God because God is love. Only then can we begin to see that living a life of love implies seeking non-human animal justice and welfare when we look at the love of God in Jesus Christ.
The Love of God
How has God loved God’s creatures? As Christian believers, God’s love is apparent in Jesus Christ. So what does that love look like? It’s plain to see that God’s love in Christ Jesus is unconditional. It does not look at the other to fulfill certain conditions before it loves the other. It does not expect the other to have certain abilities, to be a certain species, to possess certain knowledge, to be strong, or to fulfill any kind of condition at all. God loves unconditionally. This love also actively seeks the welfare and flourishing of the other. It is deeply concerned with the other’s existence. It seeks the other when the other is absent or lost. It leaves the ninety-nine to find that one lost sheep.
The love of God in Christ does not discriminate in any way based on race, tribe, sex, gender, ability, or disability. It is not ableist, speciesist, sexist, or racist. It extends infinitely, and it is distributed equitably to all God’s creatures, so much so that God’s eyes are always on the sparrow, and God clothes the grasses with more glory than that of Solomon. Nothing and no one is insignificant. This is the love that pursues the liberation and freedom of the other even unto laying its life down for the other. It forgives, seeks the healing of the other, and defends the other with its life. It never gives up on the other. Indeed, God’s love even finds its life by laying it down for the other. It is free love but this love does not bask in the glory of its freedom but willingly seeks the freedom of the other from destructive ways of existing.
It’s a love that knows no end. It is boundless and all-encompassing. No creature — yes, no creature — escapes the boundless love of God. Such is the love of God that we have in Christ Jesus. Such is how God has loved us. As Christians called to walk in such love, why do we often fail to love as we have been loved? Why doesn’t our love shudder at the sight of the oppression and abuse of any of God’s creatures? Why are our hearts often so cold toward non-human animals?
Our Failure to Love as We Have Been Loved
The challenge isn’t that we don’t love but seldom love as God has loved us. Why is this so? There could be many reasons for this, but concerning animal liberation, one of the reasons is that we don’t consider non-human animals as equal objects of the love of God. Ironically, the creature who celebrates receiving so much of God’s love is the same creature who reflects so little of it. It’s not difficult for me to imagine that many chickens and pigs feel the irony, too. Humans often become like that servant whose master forgave so much but then could not forgive others. We don’t give what we have received. We have been loved without condition, but we think non-human animals and certain persons need to fulfill conditions to earn love. We have been forgiven much, but in return, we release so much hate and animosity toward God’s beloved creatures. We become the very opposite of what humans are meant to be. Ultimately, we fail to love as we have been loved because we only look at ourselves. We misinterpret God’s love by thinking God loves only us. We think we are so special. We fail to see beyond ourselves. We place ourselves at the center of God’s love.
Our failure to not actively seek the liberation and flourishing of non-human animals is a failure to love as God has loved us. Why do we brutalize and render helpless God’s creatures? Why do we oppress them with little or no remorse? Why is it that when it comes to animals, we do not remember the words of the Lord — that if we did not show love to one of the least of these, we did not show love to our Lord? Humans must remember that our Lord became one of the weakest. Like a lamb, Christ was slaughtered. Our Lord identified with one of the poorest and most oppressed creatures to liberate them. Such is God’s love. It identifies with the downtrodden.
So why do we fail to seek the liberation of non-human animals? Why do we prey on their weakness, disability, and ignorance? Why do we not rejoice in their thriving? Why are we careless? I dare say that it is because we often forget how we have been loved by God. We forget that God unconditionally loved us in our weakest and most vulnerable, and we are to do the same to all of God’s creatures. This forgetfulness is often the source of Western Christianity’s setting of all sorts of conditions for love like gender binaries, intellectual rationality, hierarchies, ableism, etc. The great error is that we love those people and creatures that most resemble us, and this causes apathy toward other creatures. That is not how God has loved us. Resemblance is not a criterion for love. We need to love creatures for their differences from us. Our love is not meant to be limited to the human animal because God’s love isn’t limited to the human animal.
Love and Liberation
Seeing how much we have been loved in Christ Jesus, it should be obvious that the welfare of non-human animals for the Christian is not peripheral to the faith of the Christian. Such love is at the heart of living out our faith because humans are called to love as we have been loved. Many times, Christian communities view advocates of animal justice and liberation as strange or abnormal. Yet, advocates are the ones who should think that non-advocates are acting strangely because non-advocates are not following the logic of God’s love in Christ Jesus. Advocates of non-human animals see how a lifestyle of loving, regardless of species distinction, follows the ancient African traditions of being in harmony with creation and fellow creatures. All beings were recognized and appreciated by the human community.
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not lay down his life just to redeem humans but all of God’s creation (Colossians 1:20). This means God’s love is a liberating love that seeks the good of the other, no matter the species. Christians need to mirror such love to all of God’s creatures. As humans were created in God’s image, the image of God that we are to reflect is the image of God’s love which lays down its life for the good of the other. Animal liberation and justice should not be, in any way, alien to us. It should be the air we breathe because animal justice is an act of love as is seeking the liberation and flourishing of non-human animals. It is the way we are called to live. All of God’s creatures should be allowed to be fruitful and multiply while thriving joyfully and being the creatures God made them to be. We all love to be loved, so let us do unto the non-human animals what we want to be done to us.
Conclusion
No creature is left out of the great love of God. The matter of animal justice for the Christian is a matter of love which is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. As such, animal justice is at the heart of the outworking of the Christian life. As Christians, let us learn to love God’s creatures as we have been loved by God to the best of our abilities. We aren’t infinite in power and love like God is, but we can definitely love with our limited abilities in limitless ways.