The Dirt on Humane Washing

This article was originally published by Farm Forward and is reprinted here with permission.

For decades the American public has been subjected to rampant greenwashing, from ads about "clean coal" to "green" labels on toilet paper made from clear-cut forests. Now Farm Forward is peeling back the labels on meat, dairy, and egg packages to reveal a dangerous new trend that is growing in scope and sophistication within our food supply: humanewashing.

[Farm Forward’s] new campaign video takes on the meat industry's increasingly deceptive claims and warns shoppers that simply finding a "humane" label on a product doesn't make it so. Instead, these labels are often industry-driven humanewashing tools: efforts to market animal products to conscientious consumers through deceptive packaging and labeling, promoting the illusion of animal well-being while concealing the extent of animals' illness and suffering. 

While the most basic of these tactics take from the form of "all-natural" or "free range" labels, even independent welfare certifications have become embroiled in the dirty business of humanewashing. In Farm Forward’s latest report, published on the heels of the organization resigning in protest from the board of the nation's largest independent welfare certification, Global Animal Partnership (GAP), Farm Forward reveals that by putting their stamp of approval on factory-farmed products, certifications, too, are likely deceiving shoppers and betraying the animals whose welfare they are charged with overseeing. 

The Grim Reality

With an ever-expanding array of product labels and marketing confronting shoppers, it's hard to know who and what to trust—but we all know what we want the labels to mean: in 2014, for instance, Consumer Reports found that 79 percent of all shoppers expect humane labels to guarantee outdoor access for animals, and 92 percent expect inspections to verify these welfare claims.(1) In reality, though, the smiling cows and hens on grocery store shelves belie the harsh reality for 99 percent of farmed animals: factory farming.(2) The chart below sums up what leading claims and certifications mean.

Peeling Back the Labels

But what to make of all those certification seals and check marks that you see on products? Certifications fall into three categories: First, there are schemes created by meat industry groups like the National Chicken Council that merely obfuscate standard factory farming practices behind an authoritative-looking seal. Then, there are those certifications run by organizations that appear to be watchdogs but are in fact deeply embedded with the industry: American Humane Certified (AHC), whose standards condone practices like crate confinement of mother pigs and dehorning of cows,(3) and the new One Health Certified (OHC) created by the nation's sixth largest poultry producer, Mountaire Farms, which embodies greenwashing, healthwashing, and humanewashing, all rolled into one.

The final category of certifications are independent certifications like Certified Humane and Global Animal Partnership (GAP). These labels can provide meaningful welfare improvements: both certifications, for instance, require environmental enrichments for chickens, prohibit debeaking birds and routinely tail docking pigs, and require cage-free housing for laying hens.(4,5) However, while describing themselves as "humane," these certifications offer tiers of welfare, meaning that only some animals live on pasture. The vast majority of the products they certify actually come from animals with unhealthy genetics who were raised in total confinement. 

Some of the most basic and least-considered welfare provisions, like those listed in the chart below, are simply incompatible with factory farming and are often left unresolved by even the most stringent certifications.(6) The reality is that the certified "better" meat dominating grocery shelves is still cruel and overwhelmingly derived from genetically modified, unhealthy animals.

Join the Movement for Truth in Labeling

Humanewashing fools us into paying higher prices for factory farmed products. So how can you shop according to your conscience? Fortunately, as our Food Choices page explains, with some effort, we can seek out those rare products that meet a minimum standard most of us expect: animals free to roam on pasture. For many shoppers, centering plants on their plates is easier than decoding the sea of deceptive labels at the grocery store to find the few products that align with their values.

Just as important as eating according to your values, you can help us stop the dirty business of humanewashing where it starts. Supermarkets stock what their customers demand, so let's tell them to do better. Next time you're shopping, ask the meat department manager to start offering more pasture-raised products and ditch the worst humanewashers like American Humane Certified and One Health Certified.

Get the Latest Dirt on Humanewashing

• Farm Forward Campaign and Ad Blitz Denounce ALDI’s Deceptive New Chicken Label (April 22, 2021)

• NowThis: How the Meat Industry Uses 'Humane Washing' Terms (April 6, 2021)

• Coalition Blasts "One Health Certified" Meat Industry Humanewashing Scheme (January 26, 2021)

• Farm Forward Report Exposes the Dirt on Humanewashing (December 30, 2020)

• Why We Resigned from the Board of the Nation's Largest Animal Welfare Certification (October 2, 2020)

Sources 

1. Consumer Reports National Research Center. 2014. Food Labels Survey. http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/ConsumerReportsFoodLabelingSurveyJune2014.pdf.

2. Farm Forward calculation based on U.S. Department of Agriculture 2012 Census of Agriculture, June 2014.

3. American Humane Certified. 2020. “Science-Based Standards.” http://humaneheartland.org/our-standards/.

4. Certified Humane. 2020. “Our Standards.” https://certifiedhumane.org/our-standards/.

5. Global Animal Partnership. 2020. “Our Standards.” https://globalanimalpartnership.org/standards/.

6. One independent certification, A Greener World’s (AGW’s) Animal Welfare Approved (AWA), stands out as anomalous: it is both the smallest and the most rigorous. It is the only certification that avoids the particularly disturbing humanewashing involved in certifying as humane products from animals raised in intensive confinement. However, AWA, too, struggles with the reality that other forms of cruelty, such as the forced separation of calves and mother cows before natural weaning or the use of genetic lines of chickens prone to disease and chronic pain, are so pervasive in modern animal agriculture that even it cannot insist that these cruelties be banned and continue to operate. Further, AWA’s high standards and commitment to protect smaller independent farmers have precluded its ability to scale to the level of other certifications like GAP. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the circumstances under which the meat, poultry, dairy, and egg companies that dominate the industry today would adopt AWA standards at scale with options like AHC, Certified Humane, or GAP available. Thus, while AWA could partially be viewed as an exception to the humanewashing rule, its inability to achieve market scale is another datum illustrating the failure of animal welfare certification.

Vegan – and Christian, Too

by Nathan Porter

“You’re vegan? But I thought you were a Christian!” Comments like this one are familiar to followers of Jesus who have given up the use of animal products. I have been vegetarian for almost half a decade, and recently went vegan. Although I have received criticism from both religious and non-religious people, most of the censuring has come from my fellow Christians. This is at once expected and deeply unsettling: expected, because concern for animals has come to be associated with secular social and political projects; unsettling, because I believe that Christian theology provides a powerful impetus to care for the created order. Indeed, as a bit of historical digging reveals, modern animal welfare movements originated in early evangelicalism. Luminaries such as John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Hannah Moore, Augustus Toplady (author of “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me”), and many others wrote and preached unabashedly against cruelty to animals, while William Wilberforce and several evangelical clerics helped to established the first animal protection organization.

This history has largely been forgotten by today’s Christians, but it raises important questions for the contemporary church. What was it about evangelical Christianity that gave rise to animal welfare, and does it still have value for the church today? As a CreatureKind Fellow, I am setting up conversations between scholars, pastors, and laity to make a start at answering this question. Our discussions will highlight the wealth of resources that can be drawn from many streams of the Christian tradition in the service of the Gospel, clarifying and enriching the church’s vocation to confront sin in an age of factory farming. These resources will be drawn from Scripture, patristic theology, ascetical theology, and other sources, placing them in conversation with contemporary voices in animal justice.

“If dominion is part of what it means to carry the image of God, then it must be defined by the servant king who is the true Image of the Invisible (Colossians 1). ”

I hope that discussions like these will help the church to recognize its freedom to care for animals, not despite, but precisely because of its faithfulness to Jesus and the Gospel. For there are distinctly Christian reasons to be concerned about the wellbeing of other animals. I will consider two of them here. First, and above all, this concern is grounded in Scripture. God created a world that was inhabited first of all by animals, to whom the earth was given for a home before humanity took its first breath. God commissioned Adam to name the animals – a covenant-establishing act between humanity and other creatures that recalls God’s naming of Adam, Abraham, Sarah, and Israel, marking them out as recipients of blessing rather than as objects to be dominated. In the Flood narrative, God does not simply save humans and wipe out the animal world, but saves humans and animals alike. The concern and providential care that God exercises over all creation is a constant theme of the Psalter. The prophets witness to the terrifying effects of human sin upon other the created order (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea), and similarly express God’s tender care for animals in their suffering (esp. Joel 1-2 and Jonah 4). Jesus’ victory over Satan in the wilderness results in a moment of peaceful co-existence with the animals of the desert (Mark 1.13), and Paul claims that the whole creation groans in its longing for the revelation of God’s children (Rom 8). The sacrifice of animals comes to an end with the death of Christ (Hebrews), who dies the death of a lamb – in place of human beings, to be sure, but also in place of the animals who were thought necessary for reconciliation with God. So it is far from clear that “dominion,” whatever it means, gives humans tyrannical autonomy in our treatment of other creatures. (The work of Ellen Davis, Walter Brueggemann, and Richard Bauckham provides detailed exegesis of these and other important passages.) If dominion is part of what it means to carry the image of God, then it must be defined by the servant king who is the true Image of the Invisible (Colossians 1). Our view of animals must be subject to the judgement of the cross of Christ, where the patterns of domination that determine creaturely relationships stand condemned once and for all. The crucified Word of God, the head over all creation, revealed his lordship in self-giving love, refusing to exploit the vulnerability of others for his own ends. God’s reign in the world means liberation, a gift of freedom that extends to the whole created order.

Second, concern for animals is grounded in the resurrection of Jesus. Christians who defend the eating of animals frequently argue that our world is fallen, governed by death and broken relationships between humans and other creatures, so that abuse of other creatures is simply part of the world we live in. Of course, it can hardly be denied that something is terribly wrong with the world as it stands. It does not follow, however, that the church is justified in accepting this brokenness as determinative for its own way of life. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead has inaugurated a new reality, one in which suffering and death do not have the last word in Christian ethics. The risen Lord holds the keys of death and Hades, and the New Testament insists that those who have been baptized into Christ have died and been resurrected with him. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians, “If anyone is in Christ – new creation!” This means that followers of Jesus are not justified in giving the old order of violence, greed, and subjugation a say in Christian ethics. To do so is to deny the transformative power of the risen Lord.

“The resurrection of Jesus from the dead has inaugurated a new reality, one in which suffering and death do not have the last word in Christian ethics. ”

It must not be forgotten, of course, that the promised future of God has yet to arrive in its fullness. Nonetheless, the church exists as a kind of outpost of that future, inhabiting the frontier that divides the old order from the new reality that God will one day usher in. It should come as no surprise that giving up the use of animals is extraordinarily difficult. It demands a genuinely ascetical way of life that embraces voluntary self-denial for the sake of our fellow creatures. This is misunderstood by many Protestants as a kind of “works righteousness,” but it is best understood as part of the process of sanctification. The aim is not asceticism for its own sake. What looks like self-denial now will be ubiquitous as a way of life when Christ returns. Yet such a way of going about in the world, embodying as it does the radical otherness of God’s future in the face of present structures of political and social life, unavoidably entails an ascetical view of the possibilities that are available to those who have been confronted by the demands of the Gospel. Indeed, for many people, veganism is experienced as a rupture, a dramatic break with the sort of life they had previously lived. Many familiar and cherished foods are now off the table (literally); one’s favorite restaurants may become forbidden territory. Tensions may arise between friends, with whom one can no longer share a cheeseburger, and between relatives, with whom one can no longer share a Thanksgiving turkey. It takes a great deal of time and work to find new ways to experience flourishing as an individual and in community (though such ways are increasingly available). Those who give up the use of animals find themselves in the center of the collision of God’s future with the brokenness of reality as we know it, so we should not be surprised that it is difficult and requires self-sacrifice. Although not all struggle is a good thing (especially when it is forced upon one by others), however, struggle is not by nature un-Christian. Forms of life that are built upon the abuse and exploitation of other creatures, the social and political ways of being in the world that press upon us in modernity, stand under the judgement of God, and it is faith in the risen Lord that compels Christians to resist them.

This, at any rate, is why I am a Christian vegan. At the same time, I realize that all theology is done in space and time, and therefore from a specific location. Mine is a situation of economic, social, and racial privilege, which necessarily qualifies the ascetical theology just outlined. For many people throughout the world, eating meat is a privilege that can hardly be taken for granted. What I have just written is directed to those for whom this is not true, and I recognize that the right approach to animal welfare will look very different in different contexts. I also recognize that sins against other human beings are deeply entangled with sins against animals. Not only has industrialized agriculture been built upon and fueled by racism, but racism has even infected the struggle for animal justice. Mainstream environmentalism and animal protection have too often been defined and driven by what Christopher Carter has called the “white racial frame.” No adequate Christian approach to the crisis of modern agriculture can afford to ignore the voices of those who have suffered from it. It is imperative to include the perspectives of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people of color who have suffered from the racism that is endemic to factory farming and who are also among those at the front lines of the fight for animals. This is a matter about which I am learning more on a daily basis, and my own assumptions are increasingly called into question by those who approach the issue from very different starting points. Yet this dialogue is crucial to the development of a truly Christian conception of animal justice, and it is one to which I am committed.

It is tragically unsurprising that the church has ignored the plight of animals when its white constituency has just as willfully ignored or been the perpetrators of racial subjugation. Christians who cannot love their fellow humans will be equally incapable of loving other-than-human creatures. All forms of domination embody the reign of death that loyalty to Jesus compels the church to renounce, for just to the extent that the church remains complicit in the suffering of humans and other animals, it sets itself against the life-giving power that flows from the resurrected Christ. But the situation is not hopeless, as the unexpected blossoming of concern for animals in early evangelicalism reveals. It is my earnest hope that the church will come to recognize the wealth of theological resources that are at its disposal in the struggle on behalf of animals – not only traditional resources, but also those that can be found only in conversation with people whose voices have often been excluded. Then will the church’s pursuit of justice truly reflect “the wisdom of God in all its rich variety” (Ephesians 3.10).

Nathan Porter is a student at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He is pursuing a career in academia (focusing on patristic creation theology) and seeking ordination as an Anglican priest. His passion for animal justice, creation theology, and preaching led him to CreatureKind, and he hopes that this fellowship will launch his life-long work on behalf of all God’s creatures.

Updated Resource List: How Farmed Animal Welfare Connects to Race, Gender, and More

by Aline Silva

Are you interested in how the welfare of farmed animals relates to race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and culture? CreatureKind has compiled a resource list to help explore these intersections. Note: updated June 2020.

You might also be interested in the following resources (all available on our Talks & Publications page):

• Food Ethics in Practice Presentation. This presentation was prepared by Rev. Dr. Christopher Carter for a workshop and identifies some of the major justice issues in our current food production system.

• Our handout that details some of the connections between climate change and animal agriculture.

• Infographic: Faith Based Reasons for Caring about Animals and Ways to Make a Difference. Helps connect Christian values of compassion and justice to food and farming, and includes easy steps for your community to take to take action.

• Climate Change, Economic Justice, and Farmed Animal Welfare: A Resource for Ecumenical Advocacy Days, 2020. Does your church community care about climate change and/or economic justice? Here are some ways to take action together.

Would you like to add to our list or have an additional resource to suggest? Drop us a line!

Resources for Lent 2020

by Sarah Withrow King

The season of Lent was not a strong part of my Christian formation. To me it was, at most, a time to stop eating some food I liked, to be “spiritual.” In high school, following the lead of a cute camp counsellor, I gave up meat for Lent…a commitment I abandoned after approximately two days when I ordered a turkey sandwich because I forgot that I had become a vegetarian.

It wasn’t until I became a parent, and I started looking for ways to help expand my son’s sense of Christian community, that I started paying closer attention to the rhythms of the Church calendar, and to Lent.

Whether you are a Lenten new-comer, like me, or have been marking this period for as long as you can remember, we hope these resources connecting Christian faith with animals will be a welcome addition to your Lent practice.

Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing

“Attention to the amazingness of our arkmates routes us directly to the heart of Lent. The season means to rouse us from our self-absorption. Absorbed instead in the beauty of other creatures, we see how they value their lives, lives woven together across species in beautifully complex webs. The nine-ounce red knot flies from the southern tip of the world to meet the horseshoe crab at precisely the week she crawls from the waters of Delaware Bay to lay her eggs. Once alive to the exquisite web holding all creatures, we also see the holes slashed through it. By us. We’re enraptured by the animals’ beauty, and we’re horrified by the suffering we inflict on that beauty. With Saint Paul we can hear all creation groaning, including ourselves.” Gayle Boss, from the introduction to Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing.

With a reading for each day of Lent, and Easter Sunday, Wild Hope connects our human stories with the stories of individual animals in creation. A simultaneously beautiful, heart breaking, and hope-filled work. Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing. Text Copyright © 2020 Gayle Boss. Illustrations Copyright © 2020 David G. Klein. Available from Paraclete Press.

CreatureKind Small Group Study

 “I was really glad to be able to consider a lot of areas of scripture that I hadn't thought about before. I found learning about the environmental cost and the way animals are treated on these farms to be very persuasive, in combination of a better understanding of how Christians should think about caring for other creatures and the earth,” said one participant. Post-course surveys show that in addition to thinking differently about animals, participants commit to changing their daily dietary choices, as well.

You can lead a church or community discussion using CreatureKind's free course! Our six-week small group study:

• helps Christian communities think about what their faith means for animals, 

• is designed especially for small groups to use over a six-week period (like Lent), 

• provides a gentle introduction to animal welfare and the church,

• and guides communities to explore how to care for animals more faithfully. 

Through videos, short readings, and lots of dialogue, the CreatureKind Course for Churches encourages Christians to consider what we believe about God’s creatures and how we might move toward living out those beliefs as members of the body of Christ. We provide all the course materials, and a guide for leaders. You don't need to have any specialist knowledge, just the motivation to help people think and discuss together. Download the course today! 

Honorable Mention: We Are The Weather

“The chief threat to human life—the overlapping emergencies of ever-stronger superstorms and rising seas, more severe droughts and declining water supplies, increasingly large ocean dead zones, massive noxious-insect outbreaks, and the daily disappearance of forests and species—is, for most people, not a good story. When the planetary crisis matters to us at all, it has the quality of a war being fought over there. We are aware of the existential stakes and the urgency, but even when we know that a war for our survival is raging, we don’t feel immersed in it. That distance between awareness and feeling can make it very difficult for even thoughtful and politically engaged people—people who want to act—to act.” Jonathan Safran Foer. We Are the Weather

Safran Foer applies the art and science of storytelling to help deeply connect readers to the realities of the climate crisis. While the book doesn’t connect Christian faith with animals, Safran Foer explores spiritual themes familiar to Christians. This may be a good resource to use for a group open to spiritual seekers, as well as Christians. Written in five parts, the book can be studied on your own or in a group. We Are the Weather. Text Copyright © 2019 by Jonathan Safran Foer. Available from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

What Does Christianity Have to Do With Animals (Book Excerpt)

From Genesis to Revelation, and from the early church to the present day, there are vivid examples of God's—and the church's—love of, care for, and delight in animal creatures.

By Sarah Withrow King

From Genesis to Revelation, and from the early church to the present day, there are vivid examples of God's—and the church's—love of, care for, and delight in animal creatures. William Wilberforce and other leaders of the British antislavery and anti–child labor movements were also early founders of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and worked to pass legislation protecting animals from various forms of cruelty.

Many accounts from the lives of saints include moving tales of meaningful friendships between saints and animals, such as the story of St. Macarius, who healed a blind hyena pup: the pup's mother tried to repay Macarius's kindness by bringing him a sheep's skin. As the story goes, Macarius took the skin, but only after insisting that if the hyena was hungry, she was not to kill another creature, but should come to him for food, which she did.

Today, many churches include food for companion animals in their food pantry programs. Others take special care to protect and provide for wildlife who wish to make a home on church grounds. Christian college students take internships at animal welfare organizations and ask their campus dining halls to provide vegan and vegetarian food options. Some pastors publicly support legislation that promotes better animal welfare, preside over pet funerals, or preach on topics that include concern for animals. Church animal welfare groups hold film screenings, book discussions, and small group studies to promote dialogue about Christianity and animal welfare in their congregations. There are many ways to care for animals, and Jesus followers are often moved to do so not in spite of their faith, but because of it. Of course, human beings are a kind of animal creature, different from sibling species by a matter of physiological and genetic degrees. But for our purposes, I refer to human beings as "humans" and nonhuman beings as "animals."

There are many ways to care for animals, and Jesus followers are often moved to do so not in spite of their faith, but because of it.

A reading of the Scripture that is attentive to animals shows that humans and animals are both created by God, worship God, and are provided for by God; humans are made in the image of God and given a particular role in that image; the whole (broken) world is in the process of being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ; and the vision of the promised kingdom is marked by peace between and flourishing of all species.

Humans are made in the image of God.

While the creation narrative in Genesis 2 portrays animals as potential partners to humans, in Genesis 1, God says, "Let us make mankind in our image, in likeness" (Gen 1:26). In English translations, Christ is also referred to as the image of God: "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth" (Col 1:15‑16).  Humans have not always lived up to the image endowed by the Creator in us. Eleazar S. Fernandez posits one possible source of this failure:

We have learned to develop our identities as human beings through disconnection, rather than through connectedness and interdependence. Our way of relating to fellow human beings parallels our way of relating to other beings in the cosmos. We seek to disconnect ourselves because we want to establish our difference from other forms of life. But the difference that we seek through our acts of disconnection is an adjunct to claim our superiority. We establish our difference through disconnection because we believe deep in our hearts that it is only in disconnecting ourselves that we can claim superiority. Rather than seeing our difference and uniqueness as a reminder of our interdependence, we confuse our difference and uniqueness with superiority.

When we downplay the kinship between animals and humans portrayed in Genesis 2 and center ourselves in the story of the creation and redemption of the world (anthropocentrism), there are far-reaching consequences not only for our relationship with animals and the environment, but for our relationships with other humans as well.

When we downplay the kinship between animals and humans portrayed in Genesis 2 and center ourselves in the story of the creation and redemption of the world (anthropocentrism), there are far-reaching consequences not only for our relationship with animals and the environment, but for our relationships with other humans as well. Liberation ethicist and pastor Christopher Carter asks us to consider whether humans are "living up to their potential as beings created in the image of God? Are they capable of re-imagining their divinely appointed role in Creation to care for nonhuman animals in a way that conforms to this image?"

Humans are given a particular role in that image.

Immediately after creating and blessing humans, God tells these beings made in the image of their Creator that they are to "rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the earth" (Gen 1:28). And right away, God points to the lush landscape and says, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food" (Gen 1:29). Our first responsibility was to cultivate the plants of the land so that all God's creatures could eat. Even as the Scriptures describe sin and its consequences, including the reality of food from animal and human death, God placed limits on human use and consumption of animals, outlined in the Law. Working animals were to be given weekly rest (Ex 23:12); fields were to lie fallow, in part to allow wild animals the opportunity to eat (Ex 23:10); and it was a sin to kill an animal without giving appropriate thanks to God (Lev 17:3‑7).

When humans fail to obey God, the whole world suffers (Gen 7–8); when humans fail to keep God at the center of their lives, the whole world suffers (Jer 7:16‑20; 12:4).

This piece appears in Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice, edited by Mae Elise Cannon and Andrea Smith and appears here with permission. Copyright (c) 2019 by Mae Elise Cannon and Andrea Smith. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL.

VIDEO: An Expert Explains...The Ethics of Farming Animals

Check out this video that the University of Chester produced of CreatureKind co-founder David Clough talking through the basic ethical issues of using animals for food!

The Illegal Burning of the Brazilian Amazon (and How You Can Help)

by Aline Sliva

This week, the world has reacted in shock as they became aware of a reality that local Brazilians have been dealing with for weeks: the Amazon rainforest is burning because a few rich farmers want Amazonian land to be used for agribusinesses. 

The Amazon rainforest has been named the lungs of the earth. But the last 18 days have drastically depleted its ability to breathe. According to Brazil’s National Space Institute, the deforestation rate in the rainforest is 88% higher this summer than last summer, and most of us know that the deforestation rate in the Amazon was already astonishingly high. 

In addition to displacing and endangering hundreds of thousands, almost a million, of Brazil’s indigenous peoples, this illegal burning is killing many non-human animals, greenery, and water flows—called invisible rivers—which are responsible for bringing rain to most of South America. 

As followers of Jesus, we are charged with caring for and protecting one another and the world’s vulnerable. We share a call to care for the whole earth, to anticipate the peaceable Kingdom of God, to share the peace of Christ with all of God’s beloved creation, and to love our neighbors well. But this year, we learned that we have just twelve years to reverse the effects of consumerism on our planet. We were told that if we don’t change our ways, the damage will be irreparable after twelve years. The burning rainforest is a shocking reminder that we have much work to do to peacefully co-exist in a world where all can flourish as creatures of God. 

Today, in many cities throughout the world, including Brazil, the people are gathering to demand justice for all.  Here is how you can help: 

• First, remember this is a systemic and political issue. Those in power are not reflecting the interest of the people and of the Amazon. Brazil’s President Bolsonaro has continually said, “it’s simply burning season in the Amazon.” 

• Do not simply pray. Please also take righteous action in solidarity with our siblings in Brazil.

• Protect indigenous communities. Follow @AmazonWatch and become a regular supporter of the Rainforest Alliance’s Community forestry initiatives. 

• Stay informed of developments and keep sharing.

• Be a conscious consumer, taking care to support companies committed to responsible supply chains. Much of the forest is being burned to make way for grazing cattle, or crops to feed grazing cattle. Eating beef contributes to this demand.   

• Use Ecosia, a search engine that uses 80% of their profits to plant trees. They have pledged to plant 1 million trees in Brazil. 

• Vote for leaders who understand the urgency of our climate crisis and are willing to take bold actions, including strong governance and forward-thinking policy.

Virtual Visit with David Clough

If you’d like a chance to meet and discuss Christianity and animal ethics with CreatureKind founder and co-director, Professor David Clough, please plan to join us on October 21 and 22, 2019, for the “David Clough Virtual Visit,” a series of interactive online sessions, hosted by Farm Forward.

You can sign up for this free event by filling out the form here! You can participate as an individual, or as a group. We hope to see you there!

CreatureKind Presents at Eco-Minded Theological Symposium

“To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness, and others to want.” Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace

Those among us who work in animal or environmental advocacy work often feel the effects of that “want,” although not the “want” for physical resources that Berry described. Instead, we suffer from “want” of community. This creation care truth that we see as core to framing our daily activities is often quickly dismissed by food producers and consumers. That’s one big reason why it is such an enormous blessing when the occasion arises to join together with like-minded others for conferences and events that highlight our mutual mission.

Sarah Withrow King with co-presenter, Rev. Sarah Macias (left) and Green Seminary Initiative Director, rev. abby mohaupt (right).

In March, CreatureKind co-director Sarah Withrow King was invited to participate in the Southwest Symposium on Ecologically Informed Theological Education at Brite Divinity School, where Methodist Theological Seminary in Ohio (MTSO), the Green Seminary Initiative (GSI), and the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development hosted two days of insightful conversations and collaborations. Attendees included students, faculty, administration, alums, and staff from around the Southwest.

“The symposium at Brite Divinity School was an encouraging opportunity to gather and learn from educators who are committed to encouraging the next generation of faith leaders to fully integrate creation care into every part of their ministry,” King said. “Professors and administrators who want to equip their students to lead in a time of climate crisis should put this symposium on their ‘must-not-miss list’.”

A recap of topics covered is available in a blog by the Green Seminary Initiative.

Lecture Explores Theological Relationship Between Human and Non-Human Animals

Calvin College recently hosted its 11th Animals and the Kingdom of God lecture series. The ongoing event includes lectures, panel discussions, and a potluck dinner shared by both speakers and attendees. Christopher Carter, PhD, presented this year’s keynote: “Being Human Takes Practice: Toward a Liberative Theological Anthropology.”

In his talk, Carter examines how traditional Christian cultures shaped heavily by oppressive hierarchal relationships between humans and non-human animals are inconsistent with the vision shared in Scripture. He concludes the presentation by describing a process of being human that recasts the God-human encounter in ways leading to the collective flourishing of all Creation. 

Carter is an assistant professor of theology at the University of San Diego, a Faith in Food fellow at Farm Forward, a member of CreatureKind’s North American Advisory Council, and an assistant pastor at Pacific Beach UMC. His work explores the intersectional oppressions experienced by people of color, the environment, and animals.

In a previously-published article, lecture series organizer Matthew C. Halteman, PhD, explained his college’s role in championing these conversations about food ethics.

“What makes Calvin different from many Christian colleges is our deliberate engagement with issues that Christians are often tempted to avoid. The aim [of these lectures] is to invite all comers—omnivores, vegans, and everyone in between—into a conversation about why our attitudes and actions toward creation should matter for Christians.”

Past Animals and the Kingdom of God lecturers include CreatureKind Founder David Clough and Carter’s fellow North American Advisory Council members Carol J. Adams and Bruce Friedrich.