We’ve heard a lot of buzz recently about the Anthropocene
, the geologic epoch of man and machine. Does it exist? Are we in it right now? Later this summer, the International Stratigraphic Union will convene and attempt to answer these weighty questions.
Today brings sad news for Xbox Fitness users — Microsoft has announced plans to “scale back” the service, and by that it means that it’s going to do away with the workout service entirely. The fitness product will be phased out gradually, giving users time to transition to something else. Starting today, no content can be purchased on Xbox Fitness. … Continue reading
Forget chalkboards and whiteboards in the classroom — Dell thinks tech is the answer. It’s launching a 70-inch touchscreen, the C7017T, that’s designed to replace interactive whiteboards in schools and boardrooms. You probably wouldn’t want this a…
It’s been a long time since Marty Hellman and his collaborator Whitfield Diffie ushered in a new era of private communication with their invention of public key cryptography — but better late than never when it comes to winning the Turing Award, referred to by some as the Pulitzer for technology. I talked with Hellman about tech, global politics, and keeping relationships alive. Read More
For many high school students, the college admission season ended May 1, national college decision day. All those caught up in the anxiety-producing admissions frenzy must believe there’s no alternative.
I know differently, both as a college president and as a student.
For me, the admissions season was the humid, hot summer of 1973. I was admitted to Duke University in August of that year and left only one week later for a campus I had never seen.
It wasn’t my grades that kept me from applying earlier; I graduated third in my class. Nor was it because I was from the wrong high school. Nearly two-dozen of my high school classmates went off to the same school I eventually attended.
Perhaps it was because I was only the second in my family to attend college, and, as a first generation college-goer, did not understand what was happening? Perhaps because I needed financial aid? That I was rejected elsewhere, and didn’t want to attend my ‘safety school’?
I refuse to consider that it might have been the fear and anxiety behind college applications or the procrastination that still features in my survival strategies in the face of difficult choices.
Looking back, I can imagine more reasons now than I could then for why it was August before I was admitted to what is now my alma mater. I know more, for example, about how colleges craft their entering classes and the realities of their decisions. But, still, I do not know why I was admitted to college in August to start i… August.
I do, though, know this: I was an August admit and there are others out there who will be as well, even now, decades later. When they reach the time of their 40th high school reunion, as I did not long ago, I hope that like me, they look back thinking of late admission not as a regret but as an enormous victory.
That August so long ago, I had no idea what doors would open to me because of the phone call inviting me to campus just a week later. They took a chance on me and I am the better for it. I now carry a responsibility to those students out there today, well after the so-called decision date of May 1, when all over the country some high school students were feted for the places they chose while others quietly worried about what they would do this coming fall.
Some will work. Some will head for City Year or similar programs. Some will take a gap year. Some, though, will go to one of the hundreds of colleges that offer – as mine does – “rolling admissions.” There are no deadlines; we accept applications all year long for the next semester. According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s College Openings Update, more than 450 U.S. colleges are still accepting students for Fall 2016.
So, no matter your reasons, it’s not too late, procrastinators. Our doors are still open to you.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
“This aloneness is worth more than a thousand lives.
This freedom is worth more than all the lands on earth.
To be one with the truth for just a moment,
Is worth more than the world and life itself.”
~ Rumi
If you ever worried about what ‘they’ thought, or fretted about whether walking away from all the drama was worthwhile, then you are not alone.
Most of us have moments when we compare, worry, doubt, and wonder why fate has dealt us cards that are so challenging, and most importantly why we seem to still be stuck and unable to move forward in life. Our memories of those events are often traumatic with sensory details as our mind keeps playing those tape loops again and again, having us wondering what we did to deserve it, how we never saw it coming, and what we could have done differently.
The world, as you know it, would love to see you stuck and suffering. But never put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket. This happiness is an innate quality and emerges from inside you. It is the deep-rooted happiness in the soul that stays firm and solid no matter what happens around you. Just as the stage of a theatre has to be strong and firm for actors to be able to act upon it, so too does the stage of our soul from where we are to perform all our deeds.
To be happy regardless of all that is going on around us is true freedom. For such a lasting stage of joy we need to create a powerful state of mind. Rather than measuring our happiness against our previous episodes of happiness, or other people’s happiness, let’s try to keep bringing our focus back to the present moment. Which is the only moment under our control.
The present moment is all there is. When we lack focus on this moment and revert to the past we become melancholy and miserable. When we worry about tomorrow and what may happen, we are at the mercy of our thoughts that have no substance. When we ignore the present moment we suffer. It’s only when what we think, what we say and what we do are in alignment that real happiness is achieved. It is what leads us to true freedom.
If you can step away from that useless position of comparing yourself to others, who from the looks of it may have it all, you will find another joy, a joy that comes out of awareness. A joy born out of an experience, a knowing that there will be days of pure magic and of connections that are unexpected and that may surprise you, along with days riddled with frustrations and doubt. Know that each of those days is part of life and living, a building block in your life story.
Our experiences are signposts on our journey. They mark passages in our lives, events we never anticipated, often unexpected and thrust upon us. They portray the start of new journeys and the completion of others.
They free us and allow us to reinvent ourselves. It is up to us to dive in and explore our lives further. It is up to us to decide that despite the uncertainty and hardships we would never let up. That we will keep thrusting our intention into the distance, always seek and find a way to our vision through any obstacle, until we end up successful… or die trying knowing that we happily exhausted ourselves trying to improve our lives and follow our dreams.
Life is too short to spend on regrets. Love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don’t and send them blessings anyway. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance grab it with both hands. And if it changes your life, let it.
Nobody said life would be easy. They just promised it would be worth it. Go make it a great one. Free yourself from all those bonds that would keep you small.
The power is in your hands. You hold the key!
Be free.
© Rani St. Pucchi, 2016
Rani’s new book:
Your Body, Your Style: Simple Tips on Dressing to Flatter Your Body Type
is now available on Amazon Kindle: http://bit.ly/Rani-YourBody-YourStyle
For more information on Rani please visit www.ranistpucchi.com
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
As a benefit to human and environmental health, sustainable and not linear fisheries must be employed to feed a shrinking world. We must utilize economic stimulus, more regulation in developing world fisheries, and a higher barrier to entry for susceptible categories of farm raised fish to preserve sea protein as a cornerstone of survival. The window to act lies squarely in our laps despite the recourse, potentially catastrophic, being primed for adoption by our kids.
2.9 Billion people around the Globe are reliant on seafood as a main source of nourishment. Now, fished at unmitigated scale – the same practices used in harvesting this crop from once bountiful Oceans are depleting stocks and biodiversity at an alarming rate. The backlash to this will have drastic impact on us in the United States whether you like it or not! This production model of food is not much different than the hunter-and-gather approach employed by our a primal ancestors. Not many give thought as they wolf down their sashimi that fishing the Oceans has seen limited large scale systems innovation, and is based the falsehood that Oceans are an inexhaustible resource. Modern fishing technologies focus on easier and faster methods to take, but not replenish a required ecosystem balance that depleting practices have greatly disrupted.
VIDEO: Sustainable Fisheries: Part 1
Overexploitation is a constant for in global fisheries for how long? In 2012, 80 million tons of sea protein was landed, and but a fraction was replenished through our assistance. The solution is pretty straightforward – despite being a monumental task. We must partake in being part of natural order by giving back to the sea simply so it can continue to sustain our species, and more broadly, to maintain a stable environment. Long horizon economics present a pretty clear value proposition. And, similarly to addressing climate change and sea level rise (directly correlated initiatives to sustainable fisheries), if we do not heed the warnings we’re destined catastrophic backlash of epic proportion. But, there’s opportunity to better connect immediate impact to economic stimulus through focus on a Blue economy streamlined in the developed world. The only future for future fisheries is a more sustainable one, and that must now be instigated by us; it’s mankind’s duty and opportunity.
In 2010, a significant threshold was crossed when more than 50% of total fish consumed was farm raised. With total volumes doubling since the mid-90s – the virtue of this is a bit of a falsehood often used to justify broader unsustainable methods in all sea protein production. A large portion of farm-raised come from pillaging natural fish stocks of young and/or roe without replenishment with diverse ecological footprint. What’s proving worse, the vast majority of feedstuff provided to these farm raised fish, especially those higher on the food chain, come from detrimental fishing practice with no mind of sustainable practice in feeding carnivore, omnivore or herbivore alike. Furthermore, the vast majority of fisheries and hatcheries farm raising sea proteins employ deplorable and unhealthy living conditions for the fish they raise.
VIDEO: Sustainable Fisheries: Part 2
Equivalent to terrestrial animal CAFO (feedlot environments) conditions, fish live in disease infested waters teeming fecal matter and no biomimetic method of cleaning. Instead of evolving the system to make living conditions better and healthier for the animals – fisheries and material providers have instead focused on using antibiotics or genetic engineering to build resistance to current unhealthy farm environments. Similar to the concept of OneHealth discussed in the Resilient Agriculture section, even if the inhumane treatment of fish is not top on your priority list – since we are what we eat – you should care about the integrity of the stock, and equally how that protein is raised as it has immediate impact on your wellbeing.
Embracing our mounting waste-streams and that of the imprint on planetary boundaries through changing shortcut practices putting us in harm’s way in the first place, we must adopt an evolution in fishery practice as a necessity. If not, markets reaching globally will lay witness to the impact of diminishing ecological capacity and environmental instability on polluted or sterilized waters. With this as an inevitable reality to be incurred within the next few decades, and probably expedited if generations to come continue with our business-as-usual approach, it’s nearly impossible to call the current broadly used sea-caught and farm raised models a sound economic play.
Hailing from the Northeast United States, I live in a bellwether of global sustainable fisheries. But even there, where only 10% of seafood consumed in the region comes from local waters, there’s immediate opportunity to decommoditize sea proteins coming from the thriving waters of the North Atlantic. Ripe and ready for new business and technology, focus on a better and future Blue Economy that services the 35mm populous of New England and New York already increasingly engaged in the provenance of the food they consume is a pragmatic model to gain more attention to the importance of sustainable fisheries. Methods of sharing best practices and developing greater mindshare through economic development affords insight in dealing with the inevitability on a shared horizon. Effectively, how we sustain ourselves on a shrinking planet needs numerous perspectives, but creative economic drivers now will have broad impact on future sustainable seafood production continuing to feed half the world’s population.
Photo credits: Melissa DiPalma and Byron Niederhelman
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Being an active member of the community will give you tremendous psychological benefits. Involvement will help you feel a part of something bigger – feeling a part of a real team, and by leaving your mark to help make a better world you will feel like a superhero. We are social beings and all we want is to be happy, so getting involved is a great first step.
Although it may be unusual to think about and a weird thing to actually consider, but seriously: when was the last time you did something valuable for your local community? I’m willing to bet that for the majority, it has been a while. Today we are going to make steps to change that, and learn how we can support our communities for the greater good – and why it makes a difference.
We collected the best ways to change your neighborhood and your community’s life, check it out!
Via CrossfitSouthBay
Most communities have park districts or something similar that provides activities for the youth. One action that you can take is to sponsor a child or donate equipment or supplies to your local park district. This helps children become more confident and develop important life skills such as leadership and teamwork.
Via Westwood Presbyterian Church
Imagine that after your coworkers or friends tell you about their cliché weekend events and they ask what did you do, you can stick your chest out and say: I built a house.
Habitat for Humanity provides awesome opportunities to build or renovate homes for disadvantaged residents. There are many ways to help in building or renovating a home such as painting, donating money, landscaping and minor repairs. Once you get involved you will be helping someone in need receive a safe home who otherwise may not have one.
Via Savings Angel
If you are looking for a better buying experience, try shopping at a locally owned business – opposed to a big box retailer. You’ll get way friendlier service and you can directly invest in your community to help it flourish.
According to American Independent Business Association, a whopping 48% of each purchase made in your local independent businesses stays in your community. You can compare it to a mere 14% from chain stores. Local businesses are often more invested than bigger chain stores. If we support them it means more local jobs, sponsorships for community events and encouraging another dreamer to open a business and serve a need.
A simple way to help in your community is to clean up in front of your home. If you see any trash around, take pride and throw it away or recycle.
An even better solution is to start a community-driven cleanup project, which will be a great way to meet your fellow area residents. Acquiring community support to beautify the neighborhood serves the common interest of everyone.
Via International Business Times
Local elections happen more frequently than national elections and this presents great opportunities. This allows you to get involved in the process of making a difference in many ways. This can be simply voting for whom you feel is the best candidate for the job. If you are not sure on what you should take into consideration, you can learn about evaluating a candidate here.
Another opportunity is to join or organize, a community-driven movement with the common interest of electing a specific candidate. These actions will ensure that the true voice of the people is in office and your community will continue to thrive.
Via iamnm.com
In previous articles, we talked about supporting the farmers market and community gardens. The more we engage in these types of activities the better the community will be. If we attend festivals we can experience new cultures and bond over a shared experience. Donating food, clothing or toys to holiday drives can help a less fortunate family create a special memory.
Reach out to your local representative or just keep your eyes open to find out about things that are happening in your area.
The absolute best thing that you can do for your community is to be welcoming. This could be smiling and offering a kind word to a neighbor, introducing yourself to a newcomer or looking after a friend’s home while they are away, and the list goes on.
Communities are the lifeblood of creating change in our world. Lasting change starts with everyone doing what they can where they can. A lot of us want improvements but often think it has to be a grand gesture.
Making small steps in our communities (such as the actions mentioned above) will lead to more confidence, safety, feelings of belonging and happiness. Don’t wait to make a big step, start doing what you can TODAY!
If you are interested in exciting solutions having a positive effect on people and the planet, visit us at Better World International!
The article was written by our Copywriter, Ray V. Bennett Jr.
Born and raised in Chicago, Ray is a digital marketer who holds degrees in Media Studies and Integrated Marketing Communications. He is an avid sports fan and particularly enjoys the Dallas Cowboys. Ray has a passion for helping others and working to leave his mark on the world. In his free time, Ray enjoys reading, playing video games, and learning new skills. As a member of the Better World International community, Ray believes that changing the world starts with having a compassion and understanding of others.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
If you’re like me, off the beaten path is the only path. But despite the obvious advantages of taking the road less traveled, taking the road less traveled doesn’t always come easy.
I may be a traveler and an adventurer, but I’m also a New Yorker who has no real “skill” skills and is pathologically afraid of bugs. I learned these tips the hard way. Follow them for a far more rewarding (and fun) road show:
1. Unless in your mouth, keep your toothbrush sealed inside a toothbrush cover, preferably inside a plastic Ziploc bag. Turns out giant rats love toothpaste and have no compunction licking (sucking?) it right off your toothbrush. This has happened to me twice. Both times gross. Particularly the time it took me two days before I realized a giant rat had been sucking on my toothbrush at night, and I was still using it.
2. When traveling to “buggy” countries – that is, countries with a lot of bugs (a.k.a. insects) – keep clothes zipped inside packing cubes, and bags zipped closed. There are few things more disgusting and chill provoking than putting on a pair of pants and having a large, black, furry thing go running down your leg and out the bottom of them. Finding dozens of unidentifiable bugs nesting at the bottom of your duffle is no picnic either.
3. Enter outhouses the same way cops enter buildings on every single TV police procedural ever made: kick open door with flashlight drawn, survey space (including behind door), assess threat, and then enter. Outhouses – especially those located in the forests of buggy countries – are riddled critters you do not want to discover for the first time when you are midstream. Far better to know what you are up against first, and deal with appropriately, before taking care of business. And a word to the wise: never leave your only roll of toilet paper in said outhouse unless you’re okay with maggots eating it.
4. When going to the bathroom in the bush, jungle, or woods, be certain you know what’s beneath you before dropping trou. Most people are so focused on not being seen by surrounding mankind, they don’t bother to look down before squatting, putting themselves at risk for perilous encounters with fire ants, thorns, or other ground level menaces.
5. If you feel something, it is something. At home in your house, or in your bed with fancy sheets, if you feel something on your arm, it’s just an itch. If you’re on a cot in a tent in Ethiopia, or a hotel room in Kaesong, North Korea, or a B&B in Kolomyia, Ukraine, and you feel something on your arm, it’s a bug.
6. If you think you saw something, you did. Think you saw a bug run across your pillow? You did. Think you saw the world’s biggest roach scurry in and out of the shower drain? You did. Think you saw a monkey climb through the window and steal all your stuff? Yeah, you saw that too. And just because you no longer see something it doesn’t mean it’s no longer there, or dead. It’s just hiding and will be back.
7. When traveling alone, if you hear a scary noise at night, you’re the one who has to deal with it. Laying there hoping whatever “it” is will go away will not make it so. Here’s what I do (after first laying there hoping it will go away). I try to determine what it is, and where it’s coming from, then I grab my flashlight (which I always keep in bed with me) and remind myself the only thing to fear is fear itself. Then I count to three in my head, and turn on the light, or open the door (whichever the situation calls for), while loudly saying something like, “I see you,” or “don’t make me hurt you.” Invariably it’s a wild animal doing wild animal things, or someone who’s not in the right place. In either case, they aren’t expecting to see me acting brave (crazy), which usually does the trick.
8. When camping in the vicinity of wild elephants, never leave your clothes hanging outside at night, as elephants will eat them. This is bad for two reasons: one, because your clothes will be eaten by elephants, and two, because you don’t want giant, wild elephants (that have endured – and remember – decades of poaching and slaughter) coming into your camp. Elephants in some countries, and Dumbo, are domesticated and nice. Elephants in other countries are not, and will stop at nothing to kill you. Unfortunately these are the same elephants that like to eat laundry hanging outside at night. Similarly, do not leave shoes outside at night when staying near hyenas. Same reason; only substitute hyenas for elephants, and shoes for laundry.
9. When you have but a single bucket of water to clean your laundry, your teeth and your person, do so in the following order: Wash hair first. Your body will kind of get clean while you’re washing your hair, and if you accidentally use up all of your water, at least you won’t end up with shampoo stuck in your hair. Assuming you have not screwed up and have some water left over, use a small amount to brush your teeth. Then clean your body using a small washcloth, so you still have water left in the bucket to wash clothes. Make sure to the wash cleanest clothes first so your water stays clean longer. Reversing this order is not a mistake you make twice.
10. Never leave home without a mini pharmacy. Being sick is bad enough on the road less traveled. Being sick where there are no doctors, or the closest doctor is hours or days away is no fun at all. Pack Cipro plus any medications you’ve ever taken (ever) for any condition you’ve ever had (ever). Then throw in a few others for good measure.
For more conversation, find/follow me on Facebook, or visit wendysimmons.com for more information about my work, and while you’re there, sign up for my newsletter so you won’t miss a thing.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
It is routine to “de-beak” newly hatched chicks raised on factory farms, which means cutting and cauterizing the upper part of the beak. No anesthesia. A chicken’s beak has nerves so the process inflicts pain.
Male chicks hatched at intensive egg-producing operations are surplus and so dispensed with, often in grisly ways (suffocation, electrocution, grinding them alive).
Producing foie gras, a food delicacy, involves force-feeding ducks or geese by putting tubes down their throats and stuffing in abnormal quantities of feed. This causes the liver to swell. It also causes various other injuries, lacerations from the tubes and exploding organs among them.
The tips of turkeys’ toes are frequently cut off to prevent bored and overcrowded birds at factory farms from harming one another. Again, no anaesthesia.
The extent of avian suffering is staggering. Seven to 10 billion (yes, billion) chickens are slaughtered for food each year in the United States alone. Estimates put the number in Canada somewhere north of six hundred million.
Let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky. So goes the first page of the Bible, just 20 verses into that rather longish book. And those birds never leave. Not only do they “fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven” (KJV), they also make at least 300 other appearances, symbolic and otherwise.
Think of Noah’s raven and dove, or those bringing food to Elijah, or the crowing cock announcing Peter’s denial. There are lovely poetic descriptions of the forgetful ostrich and majestic birds of prey in Job, as well as all those regulations in Torah clarifying what birds are suitable for food and sacrifice. For Jeremiah, the absence of birds represents desolation, and other writers liken God’s care to a bird watching over a nest, covering its young with wings. Hosea imagines the end of exile as the return of migratory birds, and peacocks are emblematic of Solomon’s grandeur and wealth. The Spirit of God descends in the form of a dove at Jesus’s baptism, and the strange visions of Ezekiel, Daniel, and John the Seer include mysterious creatures resembling an eagle. The Bible is full of birds.
Avian language is everywhere in the Bible. But what, if anything, does it say about ethics? Quite a lot, I suspect.
“If you come on a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long.” – Deuteronomy 22:6-7
Why let the mother go? Some Torah regulations hint at a practical wisdom. Allowing labour animals to rest on Sabbath (Exodus 23:12) makes sense. A rested animal is a healthier and more productive one for the farmer. But what about that mother bird? What direct benefit is there for the one who comes upon that nest and lets her go? None, actually. The text seems to say ‘You’ve already taken that bird’s eggs, causing her distress, so harm it no further.’
For whatever reason, God does not want humans killing mother birds. Maybe we don’t need to understand why; maybe it’s God’s business and that – for readers who consider Torah an authority – ought to be reason enough. What is clear is that compassion for wild birds is an ethical imperative, and what is more, an ethical imperative with a theological motivation. Let the bird go “that it may go well with you and you may live long.” The benefit is divine favour even if the practical reason behind sparing that mother bird remains a mystery.
In the Priestly creation story of Genesis, God sees the creatures of the sea and “every winged bird of every kind” and declares them “good” (1:21). On the sixth day, God sees all land animals, both domestic and wild, and declares them “good” (1:25). This goodness has nothing to do with human beings who appear only after God celebrates birds and every other living thing (cf. 2:4-20 for the reverse order). Birds and other animals are good simply because God makes them and is pleased with them.
What might this mean for those who consider the Bible a moral authority? Do we question whether our food, fashion, and entertainment choices involve sufficient respect for the non-human life God celebrates? Maybe we should. Is “de-beaking” and cutting off toes without anaesthesia, and force-feeding ducks for a menu delicacy consonant with the high value God places on birds? How about throwing live male chicks into grinders? Should Christians tacitly condone such practices with their consumer habits, or endorse ill treatment of non-human life by refusing to discuss animal wellbeing as a religious obligation? After all, the Bible is for the birds and other creatures, and it censures those that abuse them (Proverbs 12:10).
Genesis 1 reminds us of our “creatureliness.” Humans also appear on the sixth day, the same day as other land animals. Within the theological-poetic language of this text, we share the same origin as non-human species, and though distinctive and unique (1:26-28), our mandate to “have dominion” over birds and all other life is unambiguously a call to peaceful co-existence, not despotism. According to the very next verse, all living things are to eat plants, not one another (1:29-30), which suggests the bloodshed of 9:1-7 is less than ideal (cf. 6:5-7). Another vision of peaceful coexistence between animals and humans occurs in the Bible’s second creation story (2:18-20).
All of this begs the question: Why do most communities of faith that take the Bible seriously ignore the plight of chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys? If the Bible censures animal cruelty and celebrates avian life should not those same faith communities do so as well? A disturbing dissonance results from reading the Bible in the shadow of intensive farming practices, and all other forms of animal cruelty.
We rarely hear the term Christian animal ethics, or faith-motivated animal ethics. This is not altogether surprising. The church’s tendency to fixate on some ethical matters while ignoring others is not unique to this or any other historical moment. But it is encouraging to recall that religious thinking on social justice and moral issues tends to evolve over time. Christianity is less tolerant of slavery and anti-Semitism than centuries past, and in some corners of the church, believers think rather differently about sexual orientation and the status of women, something inconceivable just a few generations back. Still, animal wellbeing remains a moral blind spot in the church despite Scripture’s calls to side with the most vulnerable.
I wonder why this is. Two thoughts. First, while Christians quickly acknowledge biblical calls for compassion, generosity and self-sacrifice, our instinct is to care for those closest to home, in various senses of the word–family, friends, tribe, region, nation, race. No wonder the Bible reminds us to love the unlovable, to defy social conventions and cultural expectations through exuberant and unexpected demonstrations of mercy. Love knows no boundaries so care for non-Israelite sojourners in the land, says Moses. Turn the other cheek when enemies strike, says Jesus. But a duty to care for other species? Can love thy neighbour as thyself really extend that far? Second, we act as though there were not enough kindness to go around. Of course protecting vulnerable and needy people among us is an urgent responsibility but to assume we cannot/ought not simultaneously show concern for our animal neighbours is theologically problematic. It implies that God’s love and the church’s capacity for compassion are in short supply. Neither is the case. This is not an either-or issue.
When Paul writes of the groaning creation and its bondage to decay (Romans 8:18-23), it is in the context of eschatological hope. Animal suffering will end. Justice will come. There will be no factory farms in heaven because it is incongruent with the visions of peace found in the writings of St. Paul, Isaiah (11:6-9), and others. The question is whether we will participate in that work of the Spirit Paul describes, and do our part to end creation’s groaning in the present; will our actions correspond to our repeated prayer, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”?
This post first appeared in the Animal Being issue of Geez (volume 38, 2015, pp. 30-31).
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
