Be A Doer and Not Just A Dreamer! - Spring 2015
Newsletters From Animal Padre's Christians Against All Animal Abuse

By Rev. James Thompson

This is my motto for 2015 and I intend to live by it. We are all passing through this life at great speed and only those well advanced in years will confirm unanimously that the older one gets then the quicker the years come and go. Indeed, the following verse taken from below an old clock in Chester Cathedral makes this message very clear:

I like the message of the NOW folk! They are a group of folk who live fully in the present whilst most of us live a great deal either in past memories or in future possibilities! Indeed, the former concerns the up and coming generation while the latter very much concerns folk of around my own age.

Approaching 85, it is so easy to regret the so much missed opportunities in the past, and as one thinks along such lines, one thing is sure, depression follows such negative thoughts as night follows day. Indeed, crying over lost opportunities does not do a scrap of good. And, what is more, we never had the insight at the time which we so often acquire later on so as to enter in to destructive morbidity.

There is, undoubtedly, time needed to take spiritual and moral stock of our lives but unless this is kept in its place and very much rejected then we will become victims of utter negativity. Believe me, I know what I’m talking and writing about! Indeed, how one feels in the present moment is exceedingly the result of ones recent thoughts. If these were positive then we'll feel positive. but if they were negative then our emotions that follow will confirm it.

Although I write the above as one well past qualified in previous therapies such as hypnotherapy, psychological analysis and stress management, sidelines I chose to acquire whilst a senior hospital chaplain based at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. However I haven’t always practised what I’ve preached but that does not invalidate what I‘ve taught. Perhaps  I/We have been a little like a past Vicar who was married to a G.P.. He held a doctorate, like most appear to do in the States! Well one day the ruffled house keeper or was she a maid answered the doorbell to be confronted by a stressed parishioner. “I wish to see the doctor and it is most urgent”. To which the reply given was: “Is it the one who preaches whom you wish to see, or the one who practices?” Yes, we all must endeavour to ‘practice what we preach and none more so than myself.

‘Live & Let Live’ In The Animal Rights Cause!

You do not have to agree with me, but I firmly believe that bickering within the ranks of the animal welfare movement has hindered the work more than anything else. How well I remember a dear soul visiting for coffee with us but making sure that what we were using was a Soya substitute to dairy milk and not cows milk. Indeed, she’d also brought her own sandwiches with her because she knew that her cheese substitute was vegan and that what we offered may have only been Vegetarian. Well, one had to admire her, but then when it came to food for her cat, she had no hesitation at all in opening up tins of fish food!

Indeed, the above lady was a marked contrast to two local animal sanctuaries, one of which I’m happy to be the patron! Yes, even though the dear widowed lady puts the animals before herself, when it comes to meal times she is as carnivorous as are the vast assortment of rescued animals which she feeds!

Concerning the eating of fish, well I cannot accept that Jesus refrained from eating them, though, if alive today I somehow don't think He would as there are so many humane alternatives. However, in the New Testament gospel accounts we find Him multiplying fish for the human consumption of those who were by that time so ravenously hungry!

As for the boiling alive of crabs, lobsters and similar sea scavengers for human consumption the very thought truly horrifies me. On the other hand, as the Orrisor Trust, a dedicated New Age group renowned for their Vegan cheeses points out, "put ordinary tap water under a microscope and its literally teaming with sentient life not to be seen  to the naked eye and yet we drink it without a qualm of conscience". Yes, and I sense they have a point there!

Why some forms of sentient life should end up in factory farms, vivisection laboratories and cramped pens and cages quite baffles me. It may well be that they are now reaping the rewards of evil committed or goodness left undone in a previous life! One thing is sure Jesus clearly taught that what one sows one must inevitably reap. Yes and this certainly does no follow in this transient life where frequently the biggest rogues prosper.

However, it is not Christian teaching that any caste system should be justified but rather that in this life we should seek to uplift and care for the under privileged. This regardless of what their lot is in this present earthly existence. “Vengeance is Mine. I will justly repay" says the Lord. “As for you, if your enemies are hungry then go out and feed them. Overcome evil by returning good! Yes such is the basis of clear Christian teaching. Who knows it may well be that a past Dr Eichman. a Mengele, or even an Adolph are now reincarnated as horrid beetles crouched in a corner! However, that does not mean that we should stamp on them, but rather that we put them outside on a piece of paper! Yes, showing them the mercy which they themselves once failed to show to others!

Retribution is clear Christian teaching and only those who are horrified at the vague possibility of themselves reaping such a future fate are the ones who will twist Scripture so as to apply the comforting and consoling words to themselves whilst discarding the contrary. Implying that God is too good to create a future Hell of an existence. Ah yes the majority of none committed Christians I come across believe so they say! in a Heaven but they equally seek to convince themselves that there is no hell as God is too good! Yet, such folk conveniently fail to realise that while their own life here and now is basically good, they are also surrounded by forms of life created or allowed by a good God whose hourly existence as humans or animals is one long drawn out Hell.

We Must Stop Arguing In The Ranks & Fight A Common Enemy

I have lived to see wonderful churches ruined through inside bickering and it grieves me immensely to see a very similar evil occurring within the animal rights and welfare movements. Within the churches much depends upon the temperament as to whether they prefer a sacramental service to a charismatic one. Indeed, some like the solemness and simplicity of a Quaker meeting House. Yet for others such an atmosphere would be most unpalatable because they would be much more ‘at home‘ in a Salvation Army citadel. This is by no means to say one is right and that the other is wrong! It's rather just a matter of temperament.

Yes, and so similarly, one type of Activist delights in a loud and militant protest comparable to a past French Revolution march complete with the timing of a drum! Whilst another type prefers a simple witness for The Cause, via writing Readers Views to several newspapers. Equally some like creating a scene that shocks, whilst another prefers to win over others by a gentle, refined  every day, example. Admittedly, some will delight to cause a stir with the police while others in a quiet way go around doing good without any desire for personal fame. or notoriety. Well, I'll not be the judge!

However It is Hard, Indeed, Not To Judge The Prime Minister!

David Cameron has been proud to affirm his love of blood sports. However there is a Conservative Animal Welfare group and I sense is very worthy of support and encouragement, Creativeness is a true blessing whilst criticism nasty and cheap. Indeed I have far more personal admiration for a bunch of roses that bloom in an uncongenial environment than I have for a whole mass of flowers that have blossomed in a congenial one! I know which deserves  most encouragement!

The EU Supports Bull Fighting and the UK Tax payer must Pay Towards it Yes, and as a consequence l very much support UKIP in fighting for our independence and freedom as a nation. We certainly did not fight two world wars to be dupes of a largely unelected Brussels group!

Sadly, however, UKIP is not opposed to blood sports whereas Labour is not only Euro friendly but also it has made it clear that whether the majority of us agree or not, that they will make the contaminating of our drinking water by fluoride compulsory. In other words the party not only stands for subservience to Brussels's demand for financing bull fighting but also for a compulsory form of mass vaccination! (See the Sun on Sunday of the 14th of December). Yes, as in the Blair years the Granny state decides what you can and cannot have or do.

The choice appears to be one of either opposing  blood sports as does Labour while agreeing to finance bull fighting through voting for a Labour party that supports submission to Brussels. Truly a matter of so called Hobson's choice!  But then there is always the alternative of voting for the present coalition. Sometimes  its better to have the devil you know than one you do not! The simple fact is that each and every party has its compassionate and caring members as well as its vilest of types. Consequently, I sense that as animal welfarists who wish to appeal to folks better natures, one is frequently wisest not to give credence to one specific political party over another. We should all be seeking to build bridges which often take so much time to construct rather than demolish them quickly which any thoughtless fool can so speedily do?

‘Terrier Man’ Sues A Gentle Lady for Hitting  him and Calling his son

If the following is not laughable then I don’t know what is! Dear Judy Hewitt founder of ‘Wales Against Animal Cruelty’ is the gentlest of souls but when it came to a typical type of ‘terrier man’ needing to shoot a terrified fox twice before it was dead she might well have given him a push in order to get to the poor fatally wounded fox! But to think of such a dedicated lady so pushing a soul dead terrier man to such an extent as to have him suing her for assault is surely too laughable for words!

Yes and as for this dear lady justifiably referring to the terrier man's son as a spawn of the devil? It now appears as if such an expression could be more than justifiable Teenagers are hardly children any longer and the language so many of them come out with, particularly when in groups, has to be heard to be believed. Indeed, as a past teacher within a prominent girls school and sixth form College added on, the few four letter words I heard then were as nothing to the language that teenagers come out with today.

[Editor's Note: I feel that this, the last passage written by James was not completed before his death. I knew of his feelings on this subject and I know he had a lot more to say.]

In a generation in which no equivalents of any GCEs are dished out for spiritual and moral factors and progress the present day education system does little more than to place into the hands of "little rascals" the tools and their use by which they can evolve into exceedingly ‘big rascals’ to the detriment and danger of society as a whole.

To use biblical terminology, "access to the figurative tree of knowledge" should only be reserved for those who’ve learned first of all how to successfully feast at the figurative "tree of life!" Until we get our priorities right our heads will become as bloated as footballs whilst our very souls became as shrivelled as peanuts. A most lethal combination!

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