Is Veganism a Religion?
Three years ago, in December 2010, when Sakile Chenzira refused to get a flu shot, she was fired from her job at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital…
The Pope’s Doves of Peace Release
Prophecy buffs are all a-twitter over Pope Francis’s somewhat bungled doves-of-peace release this week. Was it, they wonder, a sign of apocalyptic times?
“I Am Not an Animal!” – the video
It’s surely the most important question in the world today: Why are we humans driving the Earth into a Sixth Great Extinction – an extinction event that will likely include our own species?
Why, despite the fact that there are more animal protection groups and more environmental organizations than ever before, is the situation for our fellow animals and the whole world of nature getting worse by the day?
And why do we humans, a supposedly highly intelligent species, continue hurtling down this catastrophic track?
Abortion and Factory Farming
Can you truly be “pro-life” if you patronize the factory farms? And, the other way round, can you truly call yourself an animal rights supporter…
Animal Sacrifice and the Day of Atonement
Next week, just before the Day of Atonement, many orthodox Jews will be trying to make their peace with the Almighty by swinging chickens around their…
A Conservative Catholic Plea for the Elephants
It’s always special when Matthew Scully writes about animals. He’s done it again with a remarkable article in The Atlantic about the “global industry that’s slaughtering…
The Word Made Flesh
If the new pope is looking for a chief theologian, I’d like to recommend Elizabeth Johnson. She’s not only one of those American Catholic women the…
Benedict and Cats
Speaking of the Pope and nonhuman animals, we came across some cute photos of Pope Benedict and cats. Benedict is known as a serious cat person.
Pope Francis – Day 6
By last weekend, we hadn’t heard much, if anything about the new pope’s relationship to anything except humans. But today, at his official installation, Pope Francis spoke out for protection of the environment, urging his people to shun “the omens of destruction and death.” Perhaps that phrase was a little unclear, but he added this during his homily at the inaugural Mass:
Pope Francis and the Animals–Day 2
We have a new pope, round-the-clock news coverage, reporters and commentators all over the world talking about St. Francis of Assisi, and not a word about whether this might relate to how we live our lives in relation to our fellow animals.
A Pope for the Animals?
The new pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has taken the name Francis, after the patron saint of animals.
Are Religions Bad for Animals?
While religion itself is not in itself bad for animals, religions that seek to separate humans from the natural world are indeed a problem.
(And, incidentally, there’s very little difference between a fundamentalist religious believer and an atheist transhumanist worshipper of technology.)
Why the Churches Are Failing
How are churches trying to adapt to the fact that fewer and fewer Americans are identified with a particular religion? And what does this have to…
From the Bantu Creation Myth
It is said that more than a thousand times ten years went by In which there was peace on this virgin Earth.Peace in the sky,Peace on…
Pope Greets Circus Animals
Here’s Pope Benedict welcoming the circus to town and petting the lion cubs. Does he really not know how terribly wrong it is for circuses to…
Poland Bans Kosher and Halal Slaughter
Poland’s top court has ruled that ritual slaughter of animals according to religious requirements is illegal. Specifically this means that the kosher and halal method of slaughter, by which a conscious animal is held upside down while her throat is slit, cannot be continued.
How Your Wishes May Come True
We are not humans as something separate from other species, says India’s former Environment Minister Maneka Gandhi. You can only love yourself if you love all the other kinds of animals. “I love them because all of them are me and it is the ultimate self-love to see myself in every blade of grass and therefore to be respectful of it.”
World Animal Day and a Cathedral Cat
Carmina was a stray, struggling to care for her newborn kittens in a deserted parking lot in Washington, D.C. But on Sunday, October 3, 2010, she began her new life as the official Cathedral cat of the National Cathedral.
How the Faith-Based Community Can Help the Animals
Thoughts for St. Francis Day. On Capitol Hill in 2007, Christopher Shays – who was then co-Chair of the Congressional Friends of Animals Caucus – spoke of the need for the faith-based community to play its part in the work of animal protection. These are his remarks.
Blessings Galore at St. John the Divine
Inside Manhattan’s Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, the pews fill quickly, and the air thickens with anticipation. As people await the Blessing of the Animals service, the hush is broken by music, whispered conversations and the occasional bark. Here and there, someone leans over to murmur a few words to the dog by his side, or to the cat or rabbit in a carrier at her feet. Soon, the clergy begin to offer communion to the faithful. Songs and prayers follow. Finally, the cathedral’s massive front doors swing open.