“Thou shalt not kill.
— Exodus 20:13
“But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”
— Genesis 9:4
“God blessed them and said to them, “… Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground”. Then God said, “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. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.”
— Genesis 1:28-30
“For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.”
— Ecclesiastes 3:19-20
“It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
— Hebrews 10:4
“Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
— Proverbs 15:17
“Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh.
— Proverbs 23:20
“6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
— Isiah 11:6-9
“He that kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrifices a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.”
— Isiah 66:3
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats…And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil.”
— Isaiah 1:11, 15-16
“A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast.”
— Proverbs 12:10
“Even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is Vanity.”
— Ecclesiastes 3:19
“Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them.”
1 Corinthians 6:13
“It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.”
— St. Paul in his letter to the Romans 14:21
“Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission: to be of service to them whenever they require it… If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”
— Saint Francis of Assisi (mystic and preacher)
“He who kills, kills himself, and whoso eats the flesh of slain beasts, eats of the body of death and their death will become his death.”
— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Essene Gospel of Peace’ from ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls’
“And some of the people said, ‘This man cares for all creatures. Are they his brothers and sisters that he should love them?’ And He said to them, ‘these are your fellow creatures of the great household of God. Yea, they are your brothers and sisters, having the same breath of life in the eternal. And whosoever cares for one of the least of these, and gives it to eat and drink in its need, does the same to me. And who so willingly suffers one of these to be in want, and defends it not when evilly entreated, does the evil to me. For as you have done in this life, so shall it be done to you in the life to come.
— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XXXIV, 9-10
“And again that one asked, ‘If anyone comes to us who eats flesh and drinks strong drink, how shall we receive them?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Let such a person abide in the outer court until they cleanse themselves from these grosser evils; for till they perceive, and repent of these, they are not fit to receive the higher mysteries.’
— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XCI, 8
“You shall not take away the life of any creature for your pleasure, nor for your profit, nor yet torment it.”
— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XLVI, 10
“You shall not eat the flesh , nor drink the blood of any slaughtered creature, not yet anything which brings disorder to your health or senses.”
— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XLVI, 12
“You shall cherish and protect the weak, and those who are oppressed, and all creatures that suffer wrong.”
— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XLVI, 18
“6 He said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see. And when they knew, they said, ‘Six loaves and seven clusters of grapes.’ And He commanded them to make all sit down by companies of fifty upon the grass. And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. 7 And when He had taken the six loaves and the seven clusters of grapes, he looked up to Heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and the grapes also, and gave them to his disciples to set before them, and they divided them among them all. 8 And they did all eat and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that were left. And they that did eat of the loaves and of the fruit were about 5,000 men, women and children, and He taught them many things.”
— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XXIX, 6-8
Animal Rights Advocacy by Clergy
Compiled by John M. Gilheany Christian Vegetarian Association UK
Originally published on All-Creatures.org
“Their life appears just as precious to them as is ours to us … the gift of life carries with it the gift of the right of life, in the sense at least of an equal right to life with all other creatures of the divine power and grace.”
— Rev Francis Wood ‘The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review’
“We must act, and act quickly, to see that the rights of animals to a happy life is recognized… A religion, in fact, which fails to recognize these rights cannot be thought of as true religion.”
— Rev RCR Adkins, MA ‘Religion and the Rights of Animals’
“Animals have very positive rights because they are God’s creatures. If we have to speak with absolute accuracy we must say that God has the right to have all his creatures treated with proper respect.”
— Cardinal Heenan in ‘God’s Animals’ by Ambrose Agius
“We speak of human rights. I think we should also speak of animal rights and natural rights, but there must be some radical re-orientation in current attitudes and thinking before these rights are recognized and respected.”
— Launcelot Fleming, Bishop of Norwich ‘Crusade Against All Cruelty to Animals’
“The time has come when we must act responsibly towards the rights of animals and cease to accept the view that man has authority for exercising an absolute dominion.”
— Canon Eric Turnbull, Worcester Evening News
“This is something more than a moral precept; it breathes the spirit of chivalry. It reads like the product of a far later age than that in which it was framed. For, that animals have rights, is a modern idea – an idea which even in our own day is recognized only partially and imperfectly … why should we invoke, as a justification of our behavior to animals, a principle on which we should be ashamed to act in relation to human beings?”
— Rev Prebendary Moss, Head Master of Shrewsbury School ‘The Gospel of Humanity’
“The day is coming when the dogma which binds the churches in fetters will be dispensed with, and the spirit of true brotherhood will take its place. As the world realizes more fully the Divine sonship of the race, that all life is one, and that God is the Father of all, there will come also the realization of its responsibility. With the realization of kinship with all creatures, including those in the lower order of creation, there will come a sense of duty to them, and that we must show our nobility by exercising our right of merciful justice, and not by our power to oppress the poor merciful beasts.”
— Rev O A Broadley ‘A Vegetarian Church’
“Are we to eat just what we like, what we choose, without regard to the pain and suffering, to the rights of the creatures in our power, to the naturalness or unnaturalness of the food they supply, or, again, to the possible physical, mental, and moral injury their flesh may do to those who eat of it? … The animal has its rights, and can claim from us these two – Justice and Mercy.”
— Rev AM Mitchell, MA, Vicar of Burton Wood, Lancashire ‘The Church and Food Reform’
“Our opponents … suggest that, in our zeal for the rights of animals we are disposed to forget the rights of men, and are prepared to pursue a policy which would eventuate in the overrunning of the earth by the former to the detriment of the latter. Neither of these charges is true. We recognize that the rights of animals, as those of men, are conditioned by the rights of their fellow-beings; that, in this world, all living things should accept such limitations, in respect of their lives and liberties, as are requisite in the interest of all other living things. All that we claim on behalf of the animals is, that they shall be dealt with on the same principles of justice which we apply in the case of men, and shall not be subject to greater limitations than strict justice requires.”
— Rev Francis Wood ‘Vegetarianism in Relation to the Treatment of Animals’
“There is a strange power about the very name of blood, and the sight of it is always affecting. A kind heart cannot bear to see a sparrow bleed, and unless familiarized by use, turns away with horror at the slaughter of a beast. As to the blood of men, it is a consecrated thing: it is murder to shed it in wrath, it is a dreadful crime to squander it in war. Is this solemnity occasioned by the fact that the blood is the life, and the pouring of it forth the token of death? We think so.”
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s Sermon on Hebrews 9:19-20
“Our minds are in compartments and to preserve our comfort we see to it that the contents of different compartments do not get mixed. May I remind you that ‘holiness’ carries the meaning of ‘wholeness’, so that he who aspires must needs see about breaking down these compartments. I hold that because of our kinship we have a clear ethical duty to protect animals from cruelty and sudden death, and not to eat them … anyone who accepts the idea of the One Life must accord to the animals the rights of younger brothers.”
— Rev CV Pink, MRCS, LRCP, Liberal Catholic Church ‘A Christian Ethic’
“It is indeed within the consciousness of a solemn trust, held under the sovereignty of the Most High God the Creator, that man is required to look around at other orders of creation, all of which exist, by divine decree, along side of him. These orders have their rights, difficult though it may be to define precisely what they are. It is, of course, because of this difficulty that it is easier to talk in general terms; to recognize an over-all responsibility; to see our stewardship as a trust held under God – it is easier to do this rather than to see in practice what this means.”
— Archdeacon Edward Carpenter, Ph.D., later Dean of Westminster Abbey ‘Man’s relationship with the animal creation’
“The rights of animals are protected. The animals must have their day of rest as men must have it (Exodus 20:10; 23:12). If a nest is harried, the mother bird must never be killed, but must always be let go (Deuteronomy 22:6, 7). When the ox is drawing the heavy sled that threshes the grain, he must never be muzzled. He must, as it were, be allowed to have a share in the fruit of his labors (Deuteronomy 25:4).”
— The Revd Professor William Barclay ‘Man and the Beasts’
“I believe in my heart that faith in Jesus Christ can and will lead us beyond an exclusive concern for the well-being of other human beings to the broader concern for the well-being of the birds in our backyards, the fish in our rivers, and every living creature on the face of the earth.”
John Wesley, the eighteenth-century founder of Methodism
“Animals obviously do not have human rights, for their life has a different purpose and function. They would have no use for our social and political rights. But what of those other “rights” (there is no other word for it) which their Creator must have given them (not against himself but against us) when he placed them on this earth – rights which follow from the physical nature they share with us humans, from the needs and appetites we have in common and our common capacity for pleasure and pain?”
— Rev Basil Wrighton – The Ark, No 136
“ ‘Human rights’ is a complex idea and one may agree that animal and human ‘rights’ are not precisely on a par. If, however, humans have ‘an obligation to see that animals do not suffer unnecessary or excessive pain’, then it is an animal’s ‘right’ that we should honor that obligation.”
— The Rt Revd Dr. John Austin Baker – The Church of England Newspaper
Commentary and Discussion by Bible Passage
Originally published on All-Creatures.org
- Genesis 3:15
- Genesis 8:20-22 – God’s Curious Remark
- Genesis 9:1-4 – A Commentary on God’s Concession
- Commentary on Genesis 9:2-4
- Who is Nimrod? (Genesis 10:8-9)
- Forgiven of Sins Without Sacrifice – Part 1 – Genesis 15:6 (15:1-21)
- How God Views Esau (Genesis 25:27-34)
- Genesis 43:16-17 Following Worldly Ways Instead of God’s Heavenly Will
- Numbers 16:41-50 – Incense and Atonement – Comment and Discussion
- Deuteronomy 6:5 – God’s Greatest Commandment
- Deuteronomy 22:1-4 – Being Kind to Humans and Animals
- Job
- Psalm 38:3 – Why We Get Sick
- Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God
- Proverbs 3:7-8 – Healing Our Bodies
- Proverbs 12:10 – Compassion and Justice for Animals
- Ecclesiastes 3:19-21
- Isaiah 6:1-8 – An Inspirational Discussion
- Isaiah 43:16-21 – Commentary
- The Daniel Diet
- Hosea 2:18: God’s New Covenant between Man and Animal
- Matthew 8:22 (18-23) – Allow the dead to bury their own dead
- Forgiven of Sins Without Sacrifice – Part 2 – Matthew 9:2 (9:1-8)
- Matthew 12:5-7 Discussion and Commentary
- Matthew 22:41-46 Discussion and Commentary
- Forgiven of Sins Without Sacrifice – Part 2 – Mark 2:5, 9 (2:1-12)
- Mark 5:1-20 Jesus, Demons, and Pigs
- Forgiven of Sins Without Sacrifice – Part 2 – Luke 5:20, 23 (5:17-26)
- Forgiven of Sins Without Sacrifice – Part 3 – Luke 7:48 (7:36-50)
- Luke 9:60 (57-62) – Allow the dead to bury their own dead
- Luke 12:29-31
- Luke 13:22-30 – An Interpretation
- Was a Lamb Eaten at the Last Supper? (Luke 22:7-16)
- Luke 24:41-43
- John 15:4-8 – Abide in Me
- Be Fishers of Men – Not of Fish (John 21:1-17)
- Acts 10:1-11:18: The True Meaning of the Vision of the Animals in the Sheet
- Acts 13:22 A Man After My Heart
- Reflections on Romans 14
- Reflections on 1 Corinthians 8
- Reflections on 1 Corinthians 9 and 10
- Colossians 2 – A Commentary on the Second Chapter of Colossians
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17 – Pray Without Ceasing
- A Commentary on 1 Timothy 4:1-5
- A Commentary on Hebrews 8:1 – 10:9
- Hebrews 10:1-18 – God and the Church’s Position on Animal Sacrifice
- Animals in Heaven – A look at Revelation 4:6-9
Christian Veg Association Video: ‘Honoring God’s Creation’
Honoring God’s Creation 1
– Christian Veg Association
Honoring God’s Creation 2
– Christian Veg Association
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