RABBI EZEKIEL LANDAU (1763)
In the Torah the sport of hunting is imputed only to fierce characters like
Nimrod and Esau, never to any of the patriarchs and their descendants...I cannot
comprehend how a Jew could even dream of killing animals for the pleasure of
hunting...it is downright cruelty.
GARY KOWALSKI, UNITARIAN MINISTER (1991)
We are kin to, and must be kind to, all creation. Overcoming specieism—the
illusion of human superiority—will be the next step in our moral and spiritual
evolution.
POPE JOHN PAUL II (1982)
St Francis [of Assisi] is before us also as an example of unalterable meekness
and sincere love with regard to irrational beings...In [him] we glimpse an
anticipation of that peace proposed by Scripture, when “the wolf shall dwell
with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the
lion shall graze together and a child shall lead them.
THEOPHILUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH (A.D.150)
When man diverted from the path [of goodness] the animals followed him...If man
now would rise to his original nature and would not do evil any longer, then the
animals, too, would return to their original gentle nature.
THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE ( ROMANS 8:19-22)
For the whole creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly
for God’s sons to be made known—waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their
son-ship. For (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and
corruption...We know that the whole creation (of irrational creatures) has been
moaning together in the pains of childbirth, until now.
REVD. ANDREW LINZEY (1987)
All living creatures should be seen as participating in spiritual becoming,
spiritual communion and [as] awaiting spiritual consummation. #
Go on to: The Next Article
View the Publisher's Statement
Return to: July - August 1997 Issue
Return to: Humane Religion Magazine