Not “Either/Or,” but “And”

by CreatureKind Fellow, Estela Torres 

I was raised in a conservative Catholic environment in Monterrey, Mexico.

I felt a deep love for animals from a very young age and was very sensitive to their suffering. Perhaps it was my mother’s stories about her childhood dog, Bobby, that made an impression on me. My mother described Bobby as  an intelligent and sensitive being. In fact, my childhood was full of encounters with singular animals, individuals. These encounters were personal and felt far from the impersonal, inferior images of animal species that my church presented to me.

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During all these years, I had a hard time understanding people’s indifference towards animals. Stray dogs, whom I saw almost every day in the streets of my native city of Monterrey, were not seen as beings in need of help and compassion. They were ignored as if they were invisible, as if humans did not have any duties towards them. I also have a sad memory of a Catholic school fair where there was a stand called Noah’s Ark. You could win live animals, including chicks and rabbits. I remember children playing with the chicks as if they were balls, throwing them in the air and letting them crash to the ground. I suffered in silence for them. No one seemed to care. No adult was there to tell them to stop or to teach them compassion for living sentient beings.

In high school, I found a book in the library about animal rights, and that’s when it all started for me. I learned that some people cared and were concerned about animals. Soon, all my writing in school was about this topic. At that time, I had a very good friend who was an example of kindness to me. She was a very devout Catholic like her whole family. She was like a role model for me, but her heart and compassion stopped at humans. She even defended bullfighting. What was so confusing was that her arguments were religious. 

My love for animals also had to do with God. I prayed for animals, really believing that God cared for them. Nevertheless, I started doubting my beliefs because my church never mentioned animals. Animals were absent in a human-only vision of the world. Moreover, I began to realize that my church thought animals had been placed in an inferior category, which meant we should even keep our distance. Since then, I have carried this question about animals and my faith:

How can my religion, which preaches compassion and kindness, not extend that compassion to animals?

When I moved to Lyon, France, I started taking theology courses at a Catholic university. I did not get a positive response to my question. On the contrary, it seemed “funny” that someone was interested in animals. Some professors or priests said, “our priority is human beings.” In the soteriology course, I was told that salvation was only for human beings. In a class on Genesis, the professor angrily claimed that God had not made a covenant with animals. I tried to give a talk on animals once in my Dominican lay group and again, the reactions were of resistance. Everywhere I tried to talk about Christianity and animals, I got this kind of automatic response: “Yes, but man is the only being that....” “Yes, but man is the only being capable of...,”  and “Animals lack or are not capable of…” 

I realized that there was something different about how animals were viewed because none of the arguments I was given justified the horrible treatment humans give to animals. I felt very strongly that regardless of whether non-human animals were different or even if they were “inferior” or “irrational” as I was told, nothing gave humans the right to use or kill them. Or, another way of saying this: my fellow Christians did not see the animals. They merely thought about them. Their arguments served as a veil for not looking at the animals.

Another common response and one I wished to explore was the idea that I should prioritize human suffering over animal suffering. I have heard this type of phrase many times while advocating for animals in a Christian context. I never understood the logic. I usually responded, “Why not both?” It seemed to me that this assumption—that we ought to deal with human misery first and then think about the animals—was used to maintain a hierarchy between humans and animals, a manufactured competition. The urge to place human beings as the winners and on the top made no sense to me. As if there were a need to choose, as if there were not enough for everybody. As if God's love were not infinite, as if God were not capable of caring for all of creation.

I sometimes had the impression that Catholics were so preoccupied with human salvation and aspiration to holiness that they forgot to question the real sense of being created in the image of God and what image of God they were expressing. For me, holiness and hell did not go together. We could not be holy to ourselves and other humans while being devils to animals, aspiring to heaven while creating a hell in this life for animals and the earth they inhabit

In 2013, I found  the French translation of Andrew Linzey’s Animal Theology. The following year, I attended the Oxford Center for Animal Ethics Summer School session. The topic was about the ethical adequacy of religious attitudes to animals. It was a very enriching experience, seeing religious people concerned and interested in animals. I felt less lonely meeting other Christians thinking carefully about animals. Around that same time, I was surprised and delighted to discover a French website about animals and Christianity, the Fraternite pour Respect Le Animal (FRA). Today, I am in charge of this organization in France.

Four years later, I attended a conference and heard David Clough speak about CreatureKind and the six-week course for churches. The CreatureKind message resonated very strongly because it answered many of the questions I had been looking for. But, it was the CreatureKind approach that caught my attention and interest. CreatureKind’s inclusive position—of inviting Christians, right where they are, to start conversations about animals and the Christian faith—felt like an excellent first step. I thought that a tool like the six-week course would help Christian animal advocates in France. We are such a minority that this could be of invaluable help. Today I am part of the CreatureKind fellowship and will be soon presenting my project: a French version of the CreatureKind course!

Through the Fellowship, I am learning how justice for animals is part of a larger picture where other social justice issues (racism, speciesism, colonialism, etc.) converge. This has helped me understand  more about my country Mexico and where it stands concerning respect for animals, racism, classism, discrimination towards indigenous peoples, etc.

Every country has its particular context. By exploring with CreatureKind how these issues appear in the US context, I see the similarities and the differences concerning my own country Mexico, as well as France, where I live today. So far, my main struggle has been to convince others to include animals into the circle of Christian compassion. I am convinced that we need to advocate for humans, animals, and the environment at the same time. 

At first when beginning to explore the intersections of these justice issues, I was worried that this approach would take the attention from animals. I feared that animals could get lost among all the other causes. But it is important to remember that the aim is justice for all, not division or separation. I don’t think anti-racism means to be against white people or feminism is to be against men. So, too, to advocate for animals does not mean to be anti-human.

Reflecting on anti-speciesism as part of the CreatureKind fellowship led me to explore the concept of dualism as explained by the Franciscan friar Richard Rohr. Both of these notions have helped me understand why some humans worry that helping animals means taking away from humans. This is where understanding dualistic thinking can be helpful. Rohr says, “The dualistic mind is essentially binary, either/or thinking, where everything is separated into opposites. It knows, by comparison, opposition, and differentiation. It uses descriptive words like good/evil, pretty/ugly, smart/stupid, not realizing many variations exist between the two ends of each spectrum.” Unless we are conscious of this way of looking at the world, we will not perceive the interconnectedness of everything that exists. In one interview about racism and non-dualistic thinking, Rohr explains how the church has neglected its central work of teaching prayer and contemplation. This allowed the language of institutional religion itself to remain dualistic. A system based in duality can not perceive oneness, while contemplation allows us to see the wholeness of things.

Understanding the way dualistic thinking works helped me see why people were not very receptive to my early attempts to speak on behalf of animals. I realized that this rivalry between humans and animals could maybe be solved by understanding dualism. To end the tug-of-war, we need to stop and ask if we are seeing and responding to particular situations and ideas in a dualistic way. Exploring dualistic thinking has helped me understand these types of ready-made automatic responses or clichés that I have heard so often for so many years. The only way to respond is through a non-dualistic approach, to show that humans, animals, and the natural environment are connected, and that to harm one of these three groups is to harm them all. 

Today I am putting into practice CreatureKind’s approach of meeting people where they are to start conversations. I see this as an open, welcoming attitude, a form of invitation without obligation or judgment that makes people more willing to listen and less likely to adopt a defensive mindset. For a while at the beginning of my advocacy work, one of my priorities was to advocate for people to stop eating animals. For me, this was part of a search for coherence. Now, I think that opportunities to meet people are lost when we begin with this approach. Before talking about whether or not to eat animals, we need to reflect on the relationship between our Christian faith and concern for animals. Each Christian and Christian community must discern for themselves whether their faith has something to do with animal welfare. For some animal rights activists, this can sound like treason. I feel more comfortable having an open position towards Christians rather than starting purely from a vegan perspective.

Despite some new elements on animals’ status, such as the intrinsic value of creatures presented in Pope Francis’s encyclical, it is possible to conclude that the situation has not changed. The Catholic religion in the traditional branch remains anthropocentric. If God is the end of the universe, man is an intermediate end and is at the center. Despite this seemingly closed door, there is hope with open windows. Inside the Catholic faith, other traditions, such as the teachings of Saint Francis of Assisi, include animals and all creation into one whole community. We have the example of Saints that had special and close relationships with animals. Today, Catholic theologians are also working on these issues, which shows that it is possible to pursue a  positive current, among the anthropocentric ocean, to help change how the Catholic Church sees animal-kind.

 
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Estela Torres is an independent artist, born in Mexico, living in France, who has co-founded the FRA (Christian Organisation for Animal Respect). She studied art at the University of Monterrey and the Glassell School of Art (Houston, TX) and Animals and Society at the University of Rennes 2. Estela’s artwork places concern for animals in the midst of Christian spirituality and culture. Her CreatureKind project will consist of presenting (and translating) the CreatureKind six-week course to Christian churches in France.

Vegan – and Christian, Too

by Nathan Porter

“You’re vegan? But I thought you were a Christian!” Comments like this one are familiar to followers of Jesus who have given up the use of animal products. I have been vegetarian for almost half a decade, and recently went vegan. Although I have received criticism from both religious and non-religious people, most of the censuring has come from my fellow Christians. This is at once expected and deeply unsettling: expected, because concern for animals has come to be associated with secular social and political projects; unsettling, because I believe that Christian theology provides a powerful impetus to care for the created order. Indeed, as a bit of historical digging reveals, modern animal welfare movements originated in early evangelicalism. Luminaries such as John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Hannah Moore, Augustus Toplady (author of “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me”), and many others wrote and preached unabashedly against cruelty to animals, while William Wilberforce and several evangelical clerics helped to established the first animal protection organization.

This history has largely been forgotten by today’s Christians, but it raises important questions for the contemporary church. What was it about evangelical Christianity that gave rise to animal welfare, and does it still have value for the church today? As a CreatureKind Fellow, I am setting up conversations between scholars, pastors, and laity to make a start at answering this question. Our discussions will highlight the wealth of resources that can be drawn from many streams of the Christian tradition in the service of the Gospel, clarifying and enriching the church’s vocation to confront sin in an age of factory farming. These resources will be drawn from Scripture, patristic theology, ascetical theology, and other sources, placing them in conversation with contemporary voices in animal justice.

If dominion is part of what it means to carry the image of God, then it must be defined by the servant king who is the true Image of the Invisible (Colossians 1).

I hope that discussions like these will help the church to recognize its freedom to care for animals, not despite, but precisely because of its faithfulness to Jesus and the Gospel. For there are distinctly Christian reasons to be concerned about the wellbeing of other animals. I will consider two of them here. First, and above all, this concern is grounded in Scripture. God created a world that was inhabited first of all by animals, to whom the earth was given for a home before humanity took its first breath. God commissioned Adam to name the animals – a covenant-establishing act between humanity and other creatures that recalls God’s naming of Adam, Abraham, Sarah, and Israel, marking them out as recipients of blessing rather than as objects to be dominated. In the Flood narrative, God does not simply save humans and wipe out the animal world, but saves humans and animals alike. The concern and providential care that God exercises over all creation is a constant theme of the Psalter. The prophets witness to the terrifying effects of human sin upon other the created order (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea), and similarly express God’s tender care for animals in their suffering (esp. Joel 1-2 and Jonah 4). Jesus’ victory over Satan in the wilderness results in a moment of peaceful co-existence with the animals of the desert (Mark 1.13), and Paul claims that the whole creation groans in its longing for the revelation of God’s children (Rom 8). The sacrifice of animals comes to an end with the death of Christ (Hebrews), who dies the death of a lamb – in place of human beings, to be sure, but also in place of the animals who were thought necessary for reconciliation with God. So it is far from clear that “dominion,” whatever it means, gives humans tyrannical autonomy in our treatment of other creatures. (The work of Ellen Davis, Walter Brueggemann, and Richard Bauckham provides detailed exegesis of these and other important passages.) If dominion is part of what it means to carry the image of God, then it must be defined by the servant king who is the true Image of the Invisible (Colossians 1). Our view of animals must be subject to the judgement of the cross of Christ, where the patterns of domination that determine creaturely relationships stand condemned once and for all. The crucified Word of God, the head over all creation, revealed his lordship in self-giving love, refusing to exploit the vulnerability of others for his own ends. God’s reign in the world means liberation, a gift of freedom that extends to the whole created order.

Second, concern for animals is grounded in the resurrection of Jesus. Christians who defend the eating of animals frequently argue that our world is fallen, governed by death and broken relationships between humans and other creatures, so that abuse of other creatures is simply part of the world we live in. Of course, it can hardly be denied that something is terribly wrong with the world as it stands. It does not follow, however, that the church is justified in accepting this brokenness as determinative for its own way of life. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead has inaugurated a new reality, one in which suffering and death do not have the last word in Christian ethics. The risen Lord holds the keys of death and Hades, and the New Testament insists that those who have been baptized into Christ have died and been resurrected with him. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians, “If anyone is in Christ – new creation!” This means that followers of Jesus are not justified in giving the old order of violence, greed, and subjugation a say in Christian ethics. To do so is to deny the transformative power of the risen Lord.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead has inaugurated a new reality, one in which suffering and death do not have the last word in Christian ethics.

It must not be forgotten, of course, that the promised future of God has yet to arrive in its fullness. Nonetheless, the church exists as a kind of outpost of that future, inhabiting the frontier that divides the old order from the new reality that God will one day usher in. It should come as no surprise that giving up the use of animals is extraordinarily difficult. It demands a genuinely ascetical way of life that embraces voluntary self-denial for the sake of our fellow creatures. This is misunderstood by many Protestants as a kind of “works righteousness,” but it is best understood as part of the process of sanctification. The aim is not asceticism for its own sake. What looks like self-denial now will be ubiquitous as a way of life when Christ returns. Yet such a way of going about in the world, embodying as it does the radical otherness of God’s future in the face of present structures of political and social life, unavoidably entails an ascetical view of the possibilities that are available to those who have been confronted by the demands of the Gospel. Indeed, for many people, veganism is experienced as a rupture, a dramatic break with the sort of life they had previously lived. Many familiar and cherished foods are now off the table (literally); one’s favorite restaurants may become forbidden territory. Tensions may arise between friends, with whom one can no longer share a cheeseburger, and between relatives, with whom one can no longer share a Thanksgiving turkey. It takes a great deal of time and work to find new ways to experience flourishing as an individual and in community (though such ways are increasingly available). Those who give up the use of animals find themselves in the center of the collision of God’s future with the brokenness of reality as we know it, so we should not be surprised that it is difficult and requires self-sacrifice. Although not all struggle is a good thing (especially when it is forced upon one by others), however, struggle is not by nature un-Christian. Forms of life that are built upon the abuse and exploitation of other creatures, the social and political ways of being in the world that press upon us in modernity, stand under the judgement of God, and it is faith in the risen Lord that compels Christians to resist them.

This, at any rate, is why I am a Christian vegan. At the same time, I realize that all theology is done in space and time, and therefore from a specific location. Mine is a situation of economic, social, and racial privilege, which necessarily qualifies the ascetical theology just outlined. For many people throughout the world, eating meat is a privilege that can hardly be taken for granted. What I have just written is directed to those for whom this is not true, and I recognize that the right approach to animal welfare will look very different in different contexts. I also recognize that sins against other human beings are deeply entangled with sins against animals. Not only has industrialized agriculture been built upon and fueled by racism, but racism has even infected the struggle for animal justice. Mainstream environmentalism and animal protection have too often been defined and driven by what Christopher Carter has called the “white racial frame.” No adequate Christian approach to the crisis of modern agriculture can afford to ignore the voices of those who have suffered from it. It is imperative to include the perspectives of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people of color who have suffered from the racism that is endemic to factory farming and who are also among those at the front lines of the fight for animals. This is a matter about which I am learning more on a daily basis, and my own assumptions are increasingly called into question by those who approach the issue from very different starting points. Yet this dialogue is crucial to the development of a truly Christian conception of animal justice, and it is one to which I am committed.

It is tragically unsurprising that the church has ignored the plight of animals when its white constituency has just as willfully ignored or been the perpetrators of racial subjugation. Christians who cannot love their fellow humans will be equally incapable of loving other-than-human creatures. All forms of domination embody the reign of death that loyalty to Jesus compels the church to renounce, for just to the extent that the church remains complicit in the suffering of humans and other animals, it sets itself against the life-giving power that flows from the resurrected Christ. But the situation is not hopeless, as the unexpected blossoming of concern for animals in early evangelicalism reveals. It is my earnest hope that the church will come to recognize the wealth of theological resources that are at its disposal in the struggle on behalf of animals – not only traditional resources, but also those that can be found only in conversation with people whose voices have often been excluded. Then will the church’s pursuit of justice truly reflect “the wisdom of God in all its rich variety” (Ephesians 3.10).

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Nathan Porter is a student at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He is pursuing a career in academia (focusing on patristic creation theology) and seeking ordination as an Anglican priest. His passion for animal justice, creation theology, and preaching led him to CreatureKind, and he hopes that this fellowship will launch his life-long work on behalf of all God’s creatures.

CreatureKind Supports Call to Stand with Meatpacking Plant Workers During COVID-19 Crisis

by Sarah Withrow King

You might have seen the news reports recently about COVID-19 and meatpacking plants: that the plants are emerging as hotspots for the spread of the virus, that they are being ordered to stay open as "essential" businesses, and that workers (the vast majority of whom are people of color or undocumented persons) are suffering as a result. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) has issued a public call for "Meatless May Mondays," a partial boycott to bring awareness to the plight of workers. 

A group of Christian leaders has come together to support LULAC’s call, to let meatpacking plant workers know that we see them, we affirm their humanity and dignity, and that we are grieving alongside them. You can see the letter that we sent to LULAC here.

If you would like to stand in solidarity with these workers, please sign the letter by filling out the form below. Your contact information will remain confidential and you won’t be added to any email lists, we promise. This is just a chance to show our siblings that we love them.





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Welcome to Regents Theological College as a CreatureKind Partner

by David Clough

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CreatureKind is delighted to welcome Regents Theological College as our latest partner institution. Regents campus is on the western slopes of the Malvern hills in England. Regents is among the foremost Pentecostal Bible Colleges in Europe and one of the largest in the UK. It is also the national training centre for the Elim Pentecostal Churches.

Regents kindly invited me to give their annual Wesley Gilpin lecture in March 2018. I offered a number of possible lecture titles and was delighted they opted for ‘Eating More Peaceably: Christianity and Veganism’. A good number of staff, students, and external visitors attended and the response was encouraging: the audience was engaged and there were no shortage of questions to follow. I took the opportunity to meet with the college’s catering manager in advance of the lecture and was delighted to hear that for a long time he had been strongly committed to the idea that the college’s catering policy should reflect its Christian values.

Since then, CreatureKind has been in conversation with Regents about the possibility of their becoming a CreatureKind partner institution. CreatureKind partners typically commit to:

  • an audit to review trends in their consumption of animal products and report on where the animal products are currently sourced from;

  • an action plan to reduce consumption of animal products and move to higher welfare sources of animal products they continue to serve;

  • continued reflection on further ways to attend to the implications of a Christian understanding of animals for their institutional life.

It’s been great to see Regents’ commitment to embark on this process and to raise the issue within the Elim Pentecostal Church nationally. In the partnership agreement, Regents affirm that they are ‘committed to living into the promise of a reconciled creation by learning more about animals as a faith concern and by taking action to improve the lives of farmed animals’. CreatureKind looks forward to continuing to work with Regents as they continue along this path.

Regents affirm that they are ‘committed to living into the promise of a reconciled creation by learning more about animals as a faith concern and by taking action to improve the lives of farmed animals’.

It’s a particular pleasure for me to welcome the first Pentecostal CreatureKind partner. Pentecostal churches share my own Methodist Church roots in the Wesleyan Holiness movement. As I’ve explored in another video lecture, ‘Early Methodists and Other Animals: Animal Welfare as an Evangelical Issue’, both John Wesley and the early Methodist movements were known for their concern about cruelty towards animals. Wesley wrote an essay on the souls of animals as an undergraduate at Oxford, and he preached against animal cruelty (most famously in his 1781 sermon ‘The General Deliverance’ on Romans 8). He copied letters he received concerning cruelty to animals into his journal and published books on animal theology. Neither modern Methodists nor modern Pentecostals are often aware of this legacy, but I’m excited that institutions such as Regents are helping to recover this distinctive legacy.

If you know of an organization that might be interested in making connections between its Christian values and concern for animals, do get in touch. CreatureKind’s partner programme can support theological colleges, seminaries, churches, and Christian schools, universities, and other organizations in finding the right first steps for practical action in their particular contexts. We’d love to hear from you.

An Update from Sarah Herring, CreatureKind Climate Fellow at Eastern University

by Sarah Herring

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As the finals week and thesis deadlines loom closely on the horizon, I am struck by how much has already been accomplished on Eastern University’s campus.

This semester, I undertook a project to increase awareness surrounding a vegan lifestyle on my campus. I started the year by making an important connection with a fellow undergraduate. Claire, although not vegan, shares a passion with me for sustainability and environmental protection. Together, we were able to start a new club at Eastern this semester called “Student Association for Sustainability” (S.A.S. for short…cute right?).

As Claire and I worked together, we had extensive dialogue about the vegan diet and its advantages when trying to live both an environmentally sustainable and ethically Christian lifestyle. We decided that advocating for a vegan lifestyle should be a big part of our club’s platform as it fully encapsulates the ethics of compassion, love, and stewardship that we want to embody as Christians. Claire also decided to transition to a fully vegan lifestyle, so now our club will be led by two powerful, vegan women!

Another big change that is in the works is shifting the menu in Eastern’s dining commons. The university has a contract with Sodexo. As a company, Sodexo has a lot of great resources for plant-based eating, including a menu containing 50% vegan meals. However, much to the dismay of students at Eastern, our dining commons has not implemented this menu. Instead, we are served meals lacking nutrient dense, plant-based options. Through Sarah and CreatureKind, I was able to contact Kate at Forward Food, who has come alongside our community to persuade our dining services to implement the already available Sodexo menu. We have both been in contact with Eastern’s executive chef and the regional Sodexo representative and we are hopeful that we will start to see changes as soon as the beginning of next semester!

Overall, I have been so encouraged by the interest and dedication of students at Eastern—so many individuals are making the choice to live a vegan lifestyle even with the difficulties that come with eating on campus. Seeing so many people make the connection between the way we treat animals and our calling as Christians to love all beings has ministered to me and fueled me to continue to work for even greater change in the Spring semester!

CreatureKind Summer Round-Up

It’s been a busy summer at CreatureKind and we want to share some of the highlights with you.

CreatureKind Ministry Intern

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CreatureKind has graduated its very first Ministry Intern. Ashley Lewis is a student at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. She is seeking her Master of Divinity. Her ministry focus is how today's Church can make food choices informed by faith – to help relieve animal suffering, reverse food related injustice, and restore Earth as a harmonious dwelling place for God and all creation. She left behind a career in hospitality sales and holds degrees in Culinary Arts and Food Service Management from Johnson & Wales University-Miami. In addition to her studies, Ashley enjoys coaching and teaching in schools, churches, and workplaces. At home, she is a cat mom to Tesla and Westinghouse and the beloved wife of her childhood sweetheart, Ryan.

 

Meet Aline, Our New Staff Member

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The CreatureKind team is growing, and we have hired a new Director of Community Development. Aline Silva (Ah-LEE-nee) is a graduate of the University of Kansas and Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Aline has served as a local parish pastor in rural and farming populations for the last 10 years. Aline shares herself as a queer, multiracial, Brazilian immigrant to the US, who chooses not to eat non-human animals, who are her fellow-worshippers of God. Aline is pastoral, an excellent preacher, and a life coach. You can most often find her laughing out loud, dancing, and sharing her life with her emotional support pup and main squeeze, Paçoca (pah-SAW-kah). You can learn about Aline and her work by following her on Twitter and Instagram, @essalinesilva.

 

CreatureKind at Greenbelt

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At the invitation of festival organizers, David and Ashley (supported by CreatureKind volunteers) took a CreatureKind stand to the UK Greenbelt Festival: a four-day gathering of approximately 8,000 progressive Christians. David also gave an invited talk called, “Should People of Faith Eat Animals?”. The festival was a significant landmark for the profile of CreatureKind in the UK. Traffic to our booth was steady. Through an interactive part of our exhibit, 150 people made commitments to plant-forward eating during the festival; 100 attended David's talk and gave him an enthusiastic reception; and a number of new contacts were made with other exhibiting organizations.

 

CreatureKind and Young Evangelicals for Climate Action

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Sarah Withrow King, spent a week with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action at their annual cohort retreat. There she was inspired by college students whose energy passion, and wisdom are invested in working on behalf of all God's creation on their campuses and in their church communities. Stay tuned for an introduction to the CreatureKind Climate Fellow and learn more about her plans for the coming year!

 

CreatureKind Responds to Amazon Fires

Aline wrote “A CreatureKind Statement on the Illegal Burning of the Amazon.” There she encourages us to take righteous action alongside our siblings in Brazil. Picture taken from BBC.com, Latin American Website and story, “The Amazon in Brazil is on fire - How bad is it?”


 

Evangelicalism and Animal Liberation

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Sarah has a chapter titled, “The Groaning Creation: Animal Liberation and Evangelical Theology” in the forthcoming book Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice, edited by Mae Elise Cannon and Andrea Smith. In the chapter, Sarah writes, "The verdant planet God created is now home to well over seven billion human beings. And though we humans share the planet with 18 billion chickens, 3 million great whales, half a million elephants, and countless more nonhuman animals, euro-american evangelical theologies are rarely attentive to God’s other creatures. The consequences—to animals, to the environment, and to our fellow human beings—are disastrous."



 

In Case You Missed It

Here are a few additional blog and resources we posted over the summer.

  • Sarah met former Vice President of the U.S., Al Gore, and talked about food and faith at a ministerial conference in Ohio! Read more.

  • Ashley wrote about her experience with other Christian leaders at the Sojourner’s Summit in DC.

  • Our partner Farm Forward released a video highlighting the importance of CreatureKind’s work with Christian communities.

  • Farm Forward is also hosting a series of virtual visits with David Clough! Sign up now.

  • CreatureKind published a resource list on the intersection of animal welfare with gender, sexuality, race, economic, ability, class, and more.

That’s the end of the summer highlights!

Want to be sure you know where to find CreatureKind? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or check out our upcoming events.
















New Video Highlighting CreatureKind's Work!

Watch this great video to see how CreatureKind addresses faith, anti-racism, and farmed animal welfare, in conversation with other community initiatives that share similar concerns.

A note from CreatureKind: We are grateful and happy to be in partnership with Farm Forward, which takes seriously the role of faith communities in creation care and animal protection. We hope you enjoy this video, which talks about our work as it relates to other projects supported by Farm Forward. You can read more about the video series here.

This video focuses on the power of storytelling and identity to transform how we eat. It introduces Christian and Jewish faith leaders guiding our efforts to make compassion and justice for animals and people part of every meal.

Here’s what Farm Forward’s Erin Eberle says about our work: “Founded with Farm Forward's support, CreatureKind has worked with dozens of Christian churches and seminaries in the US and the UK to foster conversations about animal welfare and faith, provide education about factory farming, and encourage Christian institutions to adopt plant-based and higher welfare food policies.”

If you’d like to support CreatureKind’s work, please donate today! (note: donations are processed by our fiscal sponsor, ESA at Eastern University).

Truth, Freedom, and Creaturely Kindness

by Ashley M. Lewis

The work of CreatureKind, and the influence of Co-Director, Sarah Withrow King, have been instrumental for me over the last few years as I decided to leave my corporate career and pursue a Master of Divinity degree, with the hope of working in ministry related to food justice and animal protection. When I first read Sarah’s book in 2016, I never dreamed that today I’d be working with her and the CreatureKind team as a Ministry Intern. 

Last week, as a representative of CreatureKind, I had the incredible privilege of attending The Summit 2019. This conference is held annually in Washington, DC and is presented by Sojourners, a Christian publication dedicated to covering issues at the intersection of faith, politics, and culture. “The Summit is a gathering of 350 leaders committed to changing the world through faith and justice. The mission of Sojourners is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, to inspire hope and build a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.”

During The Summit’s opening keynote, entitled “The Imperative for Truth-Telling,” powerful speakers addressed a challenging part of our Christian calling – that of lighting up dark places through truth-telling so that lies, oppression, abuse, and deceit cannot stay hidden. Rev. Miriama White-Hammond of New Roots AME Church in Boston reminded us that Jesus spoke about truth and lies, light and darkness, slavery and freedom in John chapter 8. She said that truth and freedom are directly connected, and we cannot have one without the other.

Photo: Ashley M. Lewis

Photo: Ashley M. Lewis

Rev. Miriama began to describe the “Hot Mess” we are living in right now. She clarified this isn’t a figurative hot mess. It’s a literal one, where our warming Earth puts messy situations in front of us every day: deadly weather phenomena, hunger and drought, migrations of creatures – human and non-human – to distant lands in pursuit of life-giving resources they may never find. While cosmic freedom is secured through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, the freedom to flourish as earthly creatures is not enjoyed by all. Rev. Miriama offered a call to action. She strongly conveyed that we must face this hot mess for what it is, the very truth of our day. If we can’t face it, we can’t begin to ask God to help us speak truth to power. And if we do not speak truth to power, freedom will not come. 

As I took in the first event of the conference, I felt within me something like an oil and water mixture of conviction and apprehension swirling around, not knowing which one would end up on top. Truth-telling is exciting to me because of its potential to unravel harmful systems that are destroying lives as we speak. It’s a serious responsibility! Here I was with legendary truth-tellers all around, and I felt empowered to take part in this important work while also feeling scared of how my message might be received. 

The Summit was my first event representing CreatureKind, and as I sat in the auditorium, I considered what it means to bear a message that is surprising and challenging for many people: that my faith is an important part of my commitment to animal protection, and particularly the protection of animals used for food.

As a follower of Jesus, I want to shine a light on the systems that treat animals like commodities, and that cage, abuse, and brutally kill creatures for whom God has called us to care. And it’s not only animals who are negatively affected by these systems. Our US food systems wreak havoc on the world and its inhabitants through chronic disease, harmful working conditions, environmental degradation, and climate change. In countless ways, my desire for animal protection is interwoven with the desire for human rights and environmental justice. 

Systems that keep animals in the shadows are detrimental to us all. Their existence does not bring us or our world closer to freedom, and freedom isn’t only for people, but for all creation. As long as animals are locked up in literal or figurative darkness, then the Earth will continue to groan – not only for animals, but for everything God has made and Jesus has redeemed. If freedom and truth-telling go together, then our truth-telling must occur alongside the many other messages of hope, redemption, justice, and radical love that were present in a place like The Summit.

As I thought about the days ahead, I braced myself for resistance. I prepared for negative responses. I considered how I could best express the truth about our food system so that it could be heard and received. When the opening session closed, I walked out with my conviction on top, but my heart leading the way. 

Photo: Ashley M. Lewis

Photo: Ashley M. Lewis

Photo: Ashley M. Lewis

Photo: Ashley M. Lewis

Whether engaging in my Rising Leaders and Seminarians Cohort group; attending sessions like the “Sacred Economy,” “Fundraising and Ministry,” or “Bridge Building in Polarizing Times;” or networking over food and drinks, conversations about CreatureKind’s work came naturally. During the exhibitor reception, our booth had a constant flow of attendees who were interested to learn more about the harm caused by our food system, how animal creatures used for food need our protection, and how we as Christians are particularly well-equipped to respond to this need. Visitors to our table were excited to hear that CreatureKind is engaging with partners around the world in an effort to reduce consumption of farmed animals used for food and to move toward buying the animal products we do consume from higher welfare sources. We connected with several individuals who want to use CreatureKind’s resources in their own communities. We also met representatives from seminaries and colleges who want to begin conversations about food policy on their campuses or who hope to host theological discussions regarding treatment of animals and food practices – or both!

Photo: Ashley M. Lewis

Photo: Ashley M. Lewis

Your support and participation help us carry on with this imperative work. We’d love to hear your experiences about how truth, freedom, and creaturely kindness are all connected, and we hope you’ll also consider donating to CreatureKind so we can continue engaging in events like The Summit. Most of all, we appreciate the ways you speak truth and seek freedom for all God’s creatures in your own life and community, so that even the darkest of places may become a little brighter day by day.