Read the entire "Our Living World" series here.
The meaning of the word "religion" is "relinking." Religion describes the ways human cultures have sought to create, sustain, and renew links with one another, the world around them, and the powers or reality that lies behind it all. In this six part series, we explore how United Methodists seek to sustain and renew our links to our living world.
When we consider what it means to be re-linked with our living world, we remember God’s first charge to humankind, recorded in Genesis 1:28, NRSVUE: “Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” In short, be stewards of all animals in this living world.
This commandment from Genesis mentions fish first, then birds, then living things on the earth. This reflects Israel’s profound and abiding connection to and dependence upon seas, both coastal and inland, as a primary means to provide life and livelihood. But it is just as important that animal life, wherever it is found – sea, air and land – is commended to our care.
United Methodists take seriously the charge to be good stewards of all animal life. Here is our statement on animal life from the Social Principles:
"We support the respectful and humane treatment of animals, who are crucial participants in God’s ongoing creation and of inherent worth. We embrace biblical teachings that envision a time when humans and other creatures shall live in peace and harmony in a restored creation (Isa. 11:6).
This commitment to respectful and humane treatment of animals means, for instance, putting in place protections to ensure that animals employed in agricultural and other forms of labor are free from cruel or abusive types of treatment and provided with ample rest and nourishment. Additionally, we oppose forcing animals to combat each other.
Animals raised for human consumption should be provided with healthy living conditions and sufficient food and water. Animals raised for human consumption must likewise be reared in humane conditions and slaughtered in a manner that minimizes their overall suffering and pain.
With respect to creatures living in the wild, we urge cooperative efforts by international bodies, governments, civic institutions, churches, and concerned individuals and groups to end poaching and protect endangered and vulnerable species and preserve dwindling habitats. We decry the mass extinctions currently underway and call for the adoption of sustainable policies and practices that allow both animal and human life to flourish."
While this is the extent of official United Methodist statements about animal life in any extended way, we find much here to unpack, consider and act upon as we seek to live as those re-linked with all other animals that inhabit our living world with us.
Protecting animal life and health
Just as the commandment in Genesis 1 to care for all animal life begins with the habitat of most significance to ancient Israel, so this section of the Social Principles on animal life begins with a reference to the animals nearest and dearest to many humans, our pets.
Many consider pets to be part of their families. We are invited, then, to contemplate the closeness of our relationships with all other animal life, from primates and other mammals, to birds, reptiles and amphibians, arachnids and insects, fish, cephalopods, mollusks and jellies, to single-celled creatures, such as bacteria and zooplankton.
All of these are our animal neighbors, whose home is no less in this same living world than is our own. All require our diligent protection, whether from our overreach, our neglect or the result of circumstances we do not directly control.
Ensuring healthy ecosystems
The protection we seek to offer for all animal life through legislative and other initiatives is not solely for the sake of the animals themselves. It is for the sake of the good of the whole of our living world, the many ecosystems on our planet that make all of life possible.
We care about balance, and so may advocate to take steps to reduce the proliferation of species in areas where they have few, if any, natural predators.
We care about the diversity of life in all its forms, recognizing that each form of animal life has a place and makes an important contribution to the whole. Especially in a time when climate change is altering living conditions for all kinds of life, we care about helping animals to survive, even if they can no longer easily thrive.
Enacting protective policies
This is why United Methodists support the development and universal enforcement of international governmental and business policies for the sake of the welfare of all animal life, and particularly for those species that are most endangered.
Additional Statements
While the Social Principles are the only official denominational resource giving sustained attention to the welfare of non-human animals and human responsibility to care for them, occasional references to animals appear throughout the 2020/2024 Book of Resolutions as well.
Resolution 1200: Environmental Racism in the US, calls out Euro-centrism, colonialism, and the effects of the genocide of Native Americans in the United States on the quality of life of animals in this nation: "European culture, with its domesticated animals, exploitative resource extraction, mono-cropping, and mass production, was perceived as the only way America could advance. And the rich tradition of Native Americans’ stewardship of their environment was demolished in the quest for land ownership."
Resolution 1213: Caring for Creation: A Call to Stewardship and Justice cites John Wesley's Sermon 64, The New Creation (not part of the doctrinal standards, but still an important witness for United Methodists), to show that our hope in New Creation includes hope for the end of animal suffering in all forms. whether inflicted by necessity of survival, by natural disasters, or by human action or negligence. The response by early Methodists was not, as the resolution shows, wistful thinking about how things will be better for all creation after Christ's return, but rather direct action to begin mitigating some of the harms that cause animal suffering, including better city planning and reducing water and air pollution. The resolution specifically calls for United Methodists today to advocate for better land management to preserve biodiversity among both plants and animals.
Resolution 3290: New Developments in Genetic Science cites the creation of a Genetic Science Task Force which would, among other things, "support a moratorium on animal patenting until the task force has explored the ethical issues involved." This resolution was the report of that task force. The United Methodist Church thus continues to urge a moratorium on animal patenting on ethical grounds.
In all these ways, United Methodists have committed ourselves to care for our living world, starting with our nearest relatives, the animals.
Burton Edwards is Lead for Ask The UMC, the information service of United Methodist Communications.
