Humane Society And The Myriad
My friends in The Myriad sent me over this little video and I’d love to know your thoughts.
Steven, their guitar player mentioned that they did a video specifically addressing the issues of factory farming and that surprisingly its been a little controversial among Christians. I’m curious what the crowd here thinks.
And while we’re here talking about The Myriad boys, they are out on tour right now with another guy you need to check out named Tyrone Wells. Tyrone used to be in band called Sypark, but his solo stuff is ridiculous. Check out their dates and see if they are coming close to you…. and then you must go and tell them hey for me.
So back to the original point of this post. Factory farming and cruelty to animals? Controversial or a no-brainer?
Ready? Go.
Quote from the ad: “How we treat our animals IS a measure of our humanity.” In a word, this is right on point.
Consider when the Lord said (regarding mankind while considering our own creation), “… let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26)
Did God ever once tell us that we could mistreat any of them? No, He did not. It’s gotta stop, in my humble opinion.
I say cool video.
We are stewards of this planet and GOD’s creatures. We’re borrowing it, we should treat it as if it didn’t belong to us.
That’s a no brainer.
This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. I am a huge animal lover and I get extremely upset over animal cruelty. I was hesitant to watch the video for fear of what it may show but I’m glad I did and I love how The Myriad guys are getting involved.
For me its a no brainer we should never, ever be cruel to animals and we should be humane to them all the time.
The bible says in Proverbs 12:10
The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel.
We, as christians should all care for God’s creatures.
My experience with christian religious thinkers is that they cling to their interpretation of the scriptures that says God gave then dominion over the planet and TOLD them to eat the animals. Rarely can they see the hypocrisy. They think they are being righteous when they eat animals but the truth is that it is simply too convenient for them. Christians are being lead by many leaders who rarely have a grasp on the depth or expansive understanding required to lead people to a more evolved consciousness.
The only way forward is a revolution in consciousness that refuses to abide by the cultural, social and profit motivated rules of society and INSIST that we live according to the principles of life that necessitate that ALL animals have the right to live in peace, safety and love……..
Video is well done. Who actually put it together?
About the animals….should I go out on a limb and say that God has given us dominion over the animals, but that does not mean that we should worship them.
I agree with everyone else that we should be kind and respectful to all animals, don’t get me wrong.
So many people treat their pets with more love and respect than they treat their brothers in Christ.
Just something to think about.
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don’t really have much to say about the debate itself, as this is a very personal issue, but i would like to respond to amber15′s remarks.
specifically amber, you said:
“My experience with christian religious thinkers is that they cling to their interpretation of the scriptures that says God gave then dominion over the planet and TOLD them to eat the animals. Rarely can they see the hypocrisy. They think they are being righteous when they eat animals but the truth is that it is simply too convenient for them.”
just want to defend those of us who do eat meat.
eating meat (which obviously requires the killing of animals) does not make a person unrighteous or ungodly in and of itself.
deuteronomy 12.20-21:“When the Lord your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires.”
i mean, i think that’s a pretty clear statement from God.
moving forward to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul admittedly ate meat and had no problem with meat-eating itself.
his remarks on eating meat in 1 Corinthians focused on meat sacrificed to idols, which might stumble other believers if they saw a person eating it. it wasn’t the consumption that bothered some of them, but the fact that the meat was used in a pagan ceremony. even then, Paul said that it was an issue between the individual and God. he gave license to eat meat if a person so desired.
i don’t really see these as ‘convenient interpretations’…these scriptures speak for themselves in plain language.
also, if the act of killing an animal is, of itself, an unrighteous act of sin, then God too is guilty, not only for commanding it in the Old Testament, but for many other specific instances where He not only provided animals for slaughter, but also ate meat while He lived among us.
the Bible nowhere states that the eating of meat is wrong. to condemn those of us who do is simply unbiblical.
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as for the video, i also was afraid to watch it at first because i don’t want to see suffering animals, but glad i toughed it out.
the humane society is great. i’m glad they and all the local SPCA’s out there are working hard to protect animals from torture, abuse and neglect.
thanks for sharing brody.
I think we need to treat animals with decency, but when we elevate animals to a level of equality with man we have simply gone too far.
Many humans like to eat meat. They enjoy eating meat so much that they find it hard to be detached when they consider moral questions about animals. But moral analysis requires at the very least that we leave our obvious biases at the door. Animal agriculture is the most significant source of animal suffering in the world today, and there is absolutely no need for it. Indeed, animal agriculture has devastating environmental effects, and a growing number of health care professionals claim that meat and animal products are detrimental to human health. We could live without killing animals and could feed more of the world’s humans–the beings we always claim to care about when we seek to justify animal exploitation–if we abandoned animal agriculture altogether.
PT1 -Twenty years ago, deaf students at Gallaudet University went on strike, demanding a deaf president. When they won, a student wrote, “When slaves rose up against their masters, whites weren’t ready, but the slaves were; when women demanded the vote, men weren’t ready, but women were; and hearing people may not be ready for us to get a deaf president, but we’re ready”.
Those words illuminate the struggle that precedes bestowing respect upon those once regarded as unworthy of consideration.
A few winters ago, at an international conference on nonviolence, everyone’s account of oppression seemed to end with the words, “We demand respect; we are human beings.”
In the midst of this battle cry, someone stood up and spoke of those who feel pain every bit as acutely, love their young every bit as deeply and long for freedom from shackles and the whip every bit as intensely as any human being, but who are not human.
continued……
PT2 – Dinner was chicken. The mouths of people who spoke of ending violence were full of the bodies of animals whose throats had been slit with a knife. Whose bodies were genetically mutilated to grow faster than then their evolution, so grossly obtuse they could no longer stand. They lived in cages, so tiny they could not turn around nor even sit. Packed like sardines, they were forced to lie in their own excrement until they were tossed in open slaughter trucks, driven hours in the cold winter wind with out food or water only to be yanked by their broken feet and slammed into scalding vats of hot water to soften the feathers so “religious” humans could eat them.
But haven’t we always had to be pushed to open our hearts and minds when the suffering is not our own?
When will we be able to say, not, “Respect them, for they are human beings,” but rather, “Respect them, for they are sentient beings, worthy of the same joy to experience life and freedom to be loved and love”.
The animals cannot rise up to claim consideration. They have no power to bring about a revolution. They can only bleat and squeal when they are attacked or lie in silent agony and suffer. Those of us who want to end their suffering must promote their interest in not being eaten, worn, experimented upon or beaten.
Human beings may not be ready, but the animals are ready. They have been ready ever since the day our race declared war on them and made them our slaves. How long will christians, muslims, protestants and jews hide behind that their tiny books of paper, afraid to open their hearts and see the soul within that is crying for their compassion?
Gene, you remind me of a small child blinded by his parents ideology while trying to play grownup in a make believe world. You can’t even see the hypocrisy posted in your own words.
Your bravely quoting a god you can’t even understand while covering your eyes at the horrors of the industry your using your so called “god” figure to defend.
This what what your so called “christian” practice of eating/using meat and dairy supports every day.
The U.S. egg industry suffocates, gases, or grinds up alive 250 million male chicks each year; they are not profitable because they will never produce eggs and are not bred to grow at an unnatural speed like broiler chickens. While they are alive, their beaks are cutoff with scalding knives without anesthesia. They pack them them in cages so tightly they can’t spread their wings. They’re fed hormones so they keep chucking out eggs against their natural production cycle until their bodies are “spent” and then they’re sent to the slaughter.
The 4.5 million calves in Europe and 1 million calves in the United States annually destined to become veal are forcibly pulled away from their mothers—dairy cows—within hours, or at most 1–2 days, of birth, while she wails in pain at the loss of her inability to nurture and love her new born child. The milk produced naturally by the mother’s body for her calf, who normally suckle’s for 6 to 12 months, is to be taken for sale to humans, so the calf is fed nutritionally deficient formula. The baby is not allowed to ever stand up, kept in a crate so small he cannot move to give his flesh the texture and color desired by human consumers.
Then the backs of these mother cows are used for your nice leather shoes you wear while your dancing and laughing it up at your favorite disco.
When you buy fur you are supporting the torture and skinning alive of animals or anal electrocution so their fur is not damaged and will look good on your winter coat when you wear it for your saturday night date.
Pigs are kept in gestation crates so tiny they can’t turn around and must feed their babies from behind bars. Their tails are cutoff, without anesthesia so they can’t wallow in excrement while they’re getting pumped full of antibiotics so they don’t spread diseases because they’re packed to tightly together on cold, cement floors. When their bodies can no longer produce babies they are marched like traitors to a slaughter house filled with workers who are given seconds to try and slit their throats before the animal gets pushed to the next step of decapitating their bodies. If the worker misses and does not kill them, the animal remains alive and suffers the horrors of the slaughter process.
Yes, quite the lovely christian world your god has given you permission to create.