Animal Rights Movement Starting to Take on Religious Overtones
With the tel-evangelical activist Wayne Pacelle in charge of the so-called “Humane Society” of the United States, and the radical People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals running a new ad campaign asking people to “be an angel for animals,” it’s no surprise that more and more Americans are recognizing religious undertones in the animal rights movement. Florida agriculture professor Wes Jamison shared his own thoughts on this strategy last week at the Illinois Commodity Conference, and the Peoria Journal Star was there:
Jamison's presentation, including broadcast excerpts from TV evangelists, radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and "Saturday Night Live," focused on tactics employed by the Humane Society of the United States.
"People really like dead animals on their plate. So why should the apex predator care about its prey? Religion is the answer - the key to a winning campaign," he said.
It’s hard to disagree with this assessment. After all, HSUS has its own “director of faith outreach.” And as we document in our “Holy Cows” report, PETA has no problem willfully twisting the scriptures of several religions to further its aims.
And then there’s the climate change convention last month in Washington, which featured the “Supreme Master” Ching Hai along with speakers from both HSUS and the woefully misnamed animal rights group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
Thankfully, not everyone is buying the animal rights movement’s thou-shalt-not-eat-meat façade. Even the federal government seems to understand a false prophet when it sees one.
Take a look at this “Facility Security Profile” questionnaire from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. On page 4, the USDA lists PETA under the section labeled “Terrorist Threat,” listing it alongside the notorious domestic terrorist groups Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front, and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. (The USDA removed the form from its website yesterday after we started spreading the word. But you can find a PDF copy preserved here.)
So is the animal rights movement holier-then-thou? Or does it peddle salvation with one hand and violence with the other? Perhaps it’s a little of both. We’ll let you be the judge.
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I can't believe how the CCF even got on this website as an "expert". These guys are spin masters from Washington DC paid big bucks to distort things. And distort they do; if not, the checks don't roll in. They have no qualms in name-calling (referring to Wayne Pacell as a tel-evangelical activist). Their own Berman must laugh every night when he goes to bed just thinking about the idiots that actually believe his spin.
The woefully misnamed industry spin front Center for Consumer Freedom should be called Center for Consumer Bondage, since that is exactly how Berman leaves his readers mentally, and that's how these mega-corporations what their consumers: ignorant of the truth, compliant, and suspicious of anything that wants to change things. Thankfully, not everyone is buying into this industry-front-posing-as-defender-of-your-American-values facade. Just because PETA calls for goodness in people in their treatment of animals and uses the word "angels" does not mean there are religious undertones... unless you're a spinmaster at the CCF. All religions call for love and kindness, especially towards those under our power. If animal activists state that "dominion" is not the right to do as I please with animals (i.e. make wallets with them), but kind "stewardship", is not a distortion of scripture. It's probably a distortion of what animal exploiters in the form of agribusiness want to hear. And the USDA Terrorist Threat labeling of Peta is absurd. If there's anyone who should be labeled terrorist, it's the fast food companies that are killing America's health and fattening children , mega-agribusiness which CCF help to defend, worst of all invoking American values. What a joke! CCF can't even imagine a world that eats less meat ! They just want things to stay the same and run smoothly. Sounds like corporate interest to me.
Aren’t humans amazing Animals? They kill wildlife - birds , deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice and foxes by the million in order to protect their domestic animals and their feed.
Then they kill domestic animals by the billion and eat them. This in turn kills people by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - - health conditions like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and cancer .
So then humans spend billions of dollars torturing and killing millions of more animals to look for cures for these diseases.
Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.
Meanwhile, few people recognize the absurdity of humans, who kill so easily and violently, and once a year send out cards praying for "Peace on Earth."
~Revised from Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm by C. David Coates~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0exLa6saV9o
Despite this, I can understand that humane treatment of animals is an ideal. But to put it callously, this can mean using XP3 cartridges for hunting instead of FMJs.
True Animals bring us much enjoyment and the rapport between dogs and their masters is often a pleasure to watch. And how humans carry out their responsibility toward animals is important. God's Word says: "The righteous one is caring for the soul of his domestic animal." (Proverbs 12:10) And the watchtower states It is good to remember, though, that the Bible emphasizes the distinction between humans and animals. Humans, not animals, were made 'in the image and likeness of God.' (Genesis 1:26) And whereas animals were created with a limited life span, humans had the prospect of living on earth forever. (Genesis 3:22, 23; Psalm 37:29) Jesus Christ said that to enjoy "everlasting life," we must exercise faith and take in knowledge of God—things that animals are incapable of doing. (John 3:36; 17:3) Moreover, the Bible compares those unworthy of a resurrection to the "unreasoning animals [that are] born naturally to be caught and destroyed."—2 Peter 2:9-12. Keeping things in perspective is important.
CCF represents industries that directly or indirectly kill tens of billions of animals a years after raising many of them in terrible conditions and its PETA and HSUS that are violent? Take the beam out of your own eye.