What Happens to Them Matters to Them
Tom Regan summarizes the secular “animal rights” position. He uses Darwinian language which you may or may not agree with, but the principles of compassion and mercy certainly don’t depend on Darwin and should resonate quite well with Christians … so don’t get hung up on that. The Christian reasoning for vegetarianism won’t look exactly like this of course, but I hope this will at least help dispel the myth that all animal rights advocates are like Peter Singer (utilitarianism). What would the Christian reasoning be? Well, simply that Jesus will redeem all of creation from our sin. The prophets tell us of a time when creation will again be at peace with itself, when they will not hurt nor destroy in all His holy mountain.
One thing I would offer in comment is that in a way, I don’t agree with the language of ‘animal rights’. When it comes right down to it, animals shouldn’t need rights to be protected from humans acting like beasts, neither should children, including the unborn. Laws won’t fix the problem; there aren’t enough human laws in the universe to counteract all the ills of the human heart. There’s only one way to do that, and it’s already been done … so what exactly are we waiting for?
