Heartbreak"Joy" in the Church
Heartbreak: Ramblings From a Compassionate Heart - A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

A series of commentaries by Mary T. Hoffman about: humans and animals and the cruelty inflicted upon them; prayer and grace, and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives; and the problems that plague our lives in this corrupted world.


"Joy" in the Church
By Mary T. Hoffman

Frank and I went to an 11:00 AM home church service yesterday.  It lasted 3 hours, but seemed shorter because it was so good.  I just wish they, and other Christians, would become as sensitive to the cries and groans of the animal holocaust going on right under our noses, as well as all over the world, as they are to many human issues.

As Christians we are taught to be full of joy because we have hope through Jesus.  As a long-time born-again believer in the Lord Jesus, I still find this joyful state to be most difficult.  I understand what the Bible means about being full of "unspeakable joy" while going through tribulations in this fallen world and about "overcoming".  But the animal situation haunts me night and day.  We humans are supposed to be their "stewards".  They do not ask to be born nor do they have any say in what happens to them.  We humans have become their very worst enemies.  This is definitely the opposite of God’s intent as He tells us in His Word.

In the relentless drive for more and more profit, the agricultural industry has stripped animals of even the smallest creature comforts.  While tormented with obscene cruelty by humans, they are not allowed the slightest natural God-given comfort that a mother can give her child.  We humans, for the most part, (most Christians included, unfortunately) have become the minions of Satan.  Most humans promote a hell on earth in our everyday lives: the food we eat (we say a blessing at home and at church meals over the remains of raped and tortured creatures of God), the clothes we wear, our "entertainment" (circuses, dog fights, horse races, hunting, fishing).

And what is perhaps even worse, if anything can be, is that most of us do not even acknowledge this horrific sadism that goes on night and day.  We pretend that it doesn’t exist and try to cling to the lies of "old McDonald’s farm" or any of the lies of the meat and dairy industry’s propaganda machines.  To paraphrase Mark Twain: "A lie goes clear around the world in the time it takes for the truth to put on its boots."

We grow up inundated with these self-serving lies until we accept them and are even grateful for them, so we don’t have to "become upset" by the truth.  Then, if anyone dares to utter the truth, we can immediately shut him or her up.  After all, if we are offended by the message, we can all join together in attacking the messenger.

In the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to "…deliver us from evil", as we wear leather coats and jackets, fur, etc.  And if any sensitive soul dares to say anything, they often become a target for venom that only humans, reacting to the truth, are capable of spewing forth.

Why do we Christians weep (rightly) for the unborn aborted, yet so many of us have stone cold hearts when it comes to the billions of innocent animals who have emotions and feel physical pain as intensely or in many cases, more intensely, than any human?

These were some of the thoughts that went through my mind at the church service yesterday.

Go on to: June
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Watercolor Painting by Mary T. Hoffman