By: Andrea Krudy
Guiding Text
“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me.Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’” (Holy Bible ESV, Matthew 18: 23-34)
Hey, I’m Andrea.
As a homeschooler in Northern Michigan, I knew more chickens than humans until I was about nine years old. My family ran a hobby farm featuring ducks, cats, cattle, sheep, and pigs. I sledded with chickens, rode pigs, and bottle-fed calves. At the fair, I swung into the sheep stalls of my older siblings’ “projects” flexing on the city kids who thought all the small animals were babies. “But what happens after the fair?” I wondered. Really, I knew.
I had a gift for choosing the most obstinate animals as my own, and my family members were not bashful about nicknaming my sheep “Freezer” when they were anxious to put him there. I knew what happened at the slaughterhouse, but no one could answer why it happened. “That’s just the way it is,” was my only consolation. I wrapped my small arms tightly around my dog Rochester’s neck, thankful that a butcher’s knife would never do the same. When the butcher came to the car window to talk to my dad about “fat content,” I glared at him. I blamed him. When I was sixteen, I realized he was only doing what I asked him to do. Whether I liked it or not, I was also responsible for what happened behind slaughterhouse doors.
I am also convicted of my deep need for humility as I realize that even in my best ethical efforts I am imperfect. This truth has been exposed to me throughout the CreatureKind Fellowship Program and thanks is due to Aline Silva and Sarah Withrow King. Ultimately, I write to everyone who is curious or unconvinced that animals deserve consideration in how we serve God. I want to help people ask the question, “How can I make my life more like the one God has called me to live?”
God’s Exercise of Dominion on Earth: Shalom
“In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth…”(Holy Bible ESV, Genesis 1:1). God designed Creation and the processes through which it flourishes. “...and God said, Let us make humans in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Holy Bible ESV, Genesis 1:26). The Psalter echoes the design of this human dominion saying, “You made [humankind] rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas” (Holy Bible ESV, Psalm 8: 6-8).
God created this structure of dominion and called it “good.” In this opening Genesis passage, the original Hebrew word for “dominion” is radah. It is defined as “to rule, have dominion, dominate, tread down” (Blue Letter Bible). It is used in twenty five Old Testament verses, most often in referring to the oppressors who will punish Israel, Israel’s authority over other nations, and God’s dominion over Israel (Holy Bible ESV, et al). At a glance this authority may seem intemperate, yet 1 Kings boasts of a radah ruler who “had peace on every side'” (Holy Bible ESV, 1 Kin 4:24). More on this later.
In his book Shalom and the Community of Creation, Randy Woodley encourages Christians to immediately pursue shalom on earth. This ideal is well demonstrated in Indigenous communities, especially in relating to human peers, animals, and the natural world. While often interpreted simply as “peace,” Woodley writes that shalom can also be defined as “wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, and soundness”(Woodley, 2012). These principles with which God created the world are maintained through the diversity of Creation. Without this diversity—of fruit trees and thistles, robins, pandas, and termites—shalom is broken and with it, God’s heart. “God’s design for and delight in diversity are embedded in the creation narratives, which describe order, relationships, stewardship, beauty, and rhythm as the essential foundations for shalom, the way God designed the universe to be” (Woodley, 2012).
There is joy in participating in the shalom that God intended in this world. Author Marilynne Robison encourages Christians to view challenging situations as “a chance to participate in the grace that saved us.” (Robinson, 2004). God created community to sustain Creation and privileged humans to live among and care for God’s other creatures. Yet when God entered Creation, Jesus’s ministry was rejected by many because God’s dominion didn’t look like they thought it should. Born among livestock to a humble carpenter and a teen girl, Jesus showed preference for people who were disenfranchised and overlooked, and in doing so he revealed God’s truth. Wouldn’t it make sense for us to listen to similar voices? I take inspiration and courage from Genesis Butler, who stopped eating meat at the age of three and all animal products at six. She changed her food choices because she asked good questions about where her food came from and got unsatisfactory answers (Butler, 2017).
Human Exercise of Dominion: Abuse
Dominion was part of God’s shalom design, but we are defining “dominion” differently than God does. Many Christians point to the Genesis 1:26 passage to inform their theology on the treatment of non-human animals, too often with devastating ramifications. Yet some of us don’t examine this word that has justified so much cruelty. What is our lived definition of dominion? From my experience growing up on and around farms, and what I see in animal agriculture today, we define it in this way: “Freedom to act as we wish without regard for the consequences to others. License to cause suffering, to separate families, to confine, to maim. Clearance to ignore pain and confinement. Full and free permission to kill for human profit.” A study considering physical pain responses in pigs demonstrates this lived definition. It found that standard pork industry procedures, including tail-docking, castration, and ear-notching, caused pigs to react with “pain-specific behaviors” such as bottom-dragging, trembling, and head shaking (Ison, 2016). Yet most pigs used for food endure these mutilations even without painkillers. “...with force and harshness [we] have ruled them.” (Holy Bible ESV, Ez 34:4b).
While reading the opening parable, I picture the authority structure of Creator to Creation and of the further division of that authority between humans and earth and its creatures. I feel we, especially those of us with more societal privilege, must step into the discomfort of considering ourselves the middle-person in the parable: a forgiven debtor turned oppressor. Tempted to ignore my own responsibility, I pass blame to farmers and butchers like I did as a child. Yet, an examination of the demographics of people who work at slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants reveals that these workers, like the animals who don’t want to be there, often have few other choices. It is we who demand inhumane products (animal or otherwise)—whether we know full-well how they were produced or remain ignorant—who participate as oppressors.
In Genesis One, God did not grant any people group dominion over another people group. God’s dominion birthed a world of harmony, community, and diversity that has been upset by some humans’ desire for superiority. This yearning to take the place of God affects cultures around the world. Yet, perhaps nowhere is this better illustrated than in my home country of the United States. Here, people who look like me have driven hundreds of years of genocide, oppression, marginalization, and violence towards our BIPOC siblings, the earth, and its other inhabitants. Our food system exemplifies this injustice—a system built on the backs of immigrant laborers in unsafe work conditions, fueled by billions more animals than the landscape can support, and benefiting money-hungry corporations, all on the stolen land of people who didn’t want to leave.
Ignacio Davalos, a worker at a pig processing facility said of the work conditions, “We’ve already gone from the line of exhaustion to the line of pain.… When we’re dead and buried, our bones will keep hurting” (“When We’re Dead”, 2019). For workers at slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants, conditions are often brutal. Unbending line speeds compel some workers to wear diapers or relieve themselves at their work stations (“No Relief”, 2016). Their proximity to dangerous equipment slices skin and mingles their blood with that of the animals they are dismembering (“When We’re Dead”, 2019). In one instance, a worker was persuaded to sign away his legal rights with a pen held in his teeth after both hands were crushed in a workplace incident (Schlosser, 2020). Immigrant laborers are vulnerable to a lack of workplace protections because the legal status of some may threaten their employment. Seeking medical care, exposing sexual abuse, and requesting legal compensation could threaten their jobs, and therefore, the well-being of their families.
Is this what God’s dominion looks like? Is God’s dominion abusive? Is it painful? Does it mock suffering? Does God in gluttony take more than enough? If this is how we demonstrate God’s dominion, surely our imitation grieves God. I chose the parable at the beginning of this essay, because it reminds me that we often fail to extend to others the mercy we have received from God. I believe this should convict us in our dominion over animals.
How can we mimic God’s dominion in our food choices?
1 .We can center the voices of marginalized people and animals.
In Esther, God used a woman living in a patriarchal society, a wife of arranged marriage, and a persecuted Jewess to secure justice for her people. Following God’s example, those with relatively more social power, like myself, must listen to those with less. Look around at God’s dominion: it’s just, it’s creative, it’s diverse, it’s merciful, and it uplifts those who are suffering.
2. We can show restraint.
How do we know that we ought to practice restraint in our actions? Because God calls us to self control in every good thing except in prayer and praise; even in our eating (Holy Bible ESV, Rom 13:14, 1 Cor 6:12). Because those who are “righteous have regard for the life of their animal” (Holy Bible ESV, Prov 12:10). Re-examining the use of radah within scripture, we see God’s warning against ruthlessness. (Holy Bible ESV, Lev 25). Restrained dominion is God-like dominion.
3. We can be merciful.
God “delights to show mercy” and calls the merciful blessed.(Holy Bible ESV, Mic 7:18 & Mat 5:7). It should not be lost on us how frequently God compares Godself to a shepherd. What does a good shepherd do? “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (Holy Bible ESV, 1 Pet 5). Merciful dominion is God-like dominion.
If you still plan to eat meat, fine. Even so, I urge you to consider its sourcing, who is affected by what you put on your table, and how you are representing God to the suffering. Our daily lives, including our food choices, define what dominion means to us. Does our lived definition reflect God’s hope? I wonder if a thorough examination of the journey our food takes to our table would demonstrate God’s dominion.
Works Cited
Butler, Genesis. “A 10-Year Old's Vision for Healing the Planet .” TEDxCSULB, Youtube, 19 May 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4ptaIDAIlY.
Dollar, Nathan T. “Who Are America's Meat and Poultry Workers?” Economic Policy Institute, Economic Policy Institute , 24 Sept. 2020, https://www.epi.org/blog/meat-and-poultry-worker-demographics/.
Holy Bible. ESV ed., Good News Publishers ; Crossway Bibles, 2007.
“H7287 - Rāḏâ - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (ESV).” Blue Letter Bible, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h7287/esv/wlc/0-1/.
Ison, Sarah H, et al. “A Review of Pain Assessment in Pigs.” Frontiers in Veterinary Science, Frontiers Media S.A., 28 Nov. 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5124671/.
Jabour, Anya. “Immigrant Workers Have Borne the Brunt of Covid-19 Outbreaks at Meatpacking Plants.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 May 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/05/22/immigrant-workers-have-born-brunt-covid-19-outbreaks-meatpacking-plants/.
“The Killing Zone.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Feb. 2002, https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2002/feb/23/weekend7.weekend2.
“No Relief: Denial of Bathroom Breaks in the Poultry Industry.” Oxfam Report, 9 May 2016, https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxfam-us/www/static/media/files/No_Relief_Embargo.pdf.
Robinson, Marilynne. Gilead , Picador, New York, New York, 2004, p. 124.
Schlosser , Eric. “America’s Slaughterhouses Aren’t Just Killing Animals.” The Atlantic , 12 May 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/essentials-meatpeacking-coronavirus/611437/
“‘When We're Dead and Buried, Our Bones Will Keep Hurting.’” Human Rights Watch, 4 Sept. 2019,https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/09/04/when-were-dead-and-buried-our-bones-will-keep-hurting/workers-rights-under-threat.
Woodley, Randy. Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision (Prophetic Christianity Series (PC)), 2012. (Kindle Locations 271-272). Kindle Edition.