| World Vegan News | November 11 2007 |
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The Tuesday, November 6, Los Angeles Times includes a story about activists who are trying to take the animal protection message into faith based communities. The article, by Stephanie Simon, is headed, "For all of God's creatures; Activists for animals are finding a receptive audience in the faith community, including on the religious right." (Pg A12.)
It opens:
"She spent years as an outspoken antiabortion activist, and that cause remains dear to her. But these days, Karen Swallow Prior has a new passion: animal welfare.
"She wasn't sure, at first, that advocating for God's four-legged creatures would go over well on the campus of Liberty University, a fundamentalist Baptist institution founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
"Among the Liberty faculty -- and conservative evangelicals in general -- the animal-rights movement is often disdained as a secular, liberal cause.
"But activists have been working with increasing intensity to shed that image. They're lecturing in Quaker meetinghouses and Episcopal churches, setting up websites that post Scripture alongside recipes for vegan soup -- and using biblical language to promote political initiatives, such as laws mandating bigger cages for pregnant pigs.
"On Wednesday, clergy from 20 faith traditions -- including Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic -- will sign a statement declaring a moral duty to treat animals with respect. At a ceremony in Washington, they will call on all people of faith to stop wearing fur, reduce meat consumption, and buy only from farms with humane practices. The Best Friends Animal Society, which brought the group together, plans to recruit volunteers to bring that message into at least 2,000 congregations nationwide."
The article mentions the new "animals and religion" program at the Humane Society of the United States, headed by Christine Gutleben. And it quotes PETA's Bruce Friedrich: "God designed other animals with needs, desires and the full range of emotions." The piece continues, "A pig is designed to root in the soil," Friedrich said. "A chicken is designed to build a nest. So keeping those animals -- and others raised as commodities -- in cramped cages, away from sunlight, dirt, grass and, often, companionship, is a 'denial of God's will,' Friedrich argues."
And it tells us, "The religious argument can be so persuasive that even the non-religious have learned to use it on behalf of animal rights" because, as Bernard E. Rollin is quoted as saying, "A lot of this country is religious, and all those religious people eat food. Whatever works."
You'll find the full article on line at: L. A. Times News.
It presents a great opportunity for letters to the editor exploring the way our species treats others. The Los Angeles Times takes letters at letters@latimes.com.
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published.
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn.
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)
