For Love of Animals



Charles Camosy argues that Christian ethics commands us to be consistent in our actions and eating habits. He begins his argument with a definition of "doing justice means being consistent and impartial in giving individuals and groups what they are owed". After assuming that this is what Jesus would do, he goes on to erect one straw man after another to illustrate and bolster his thesis (Those who spend . .on unnecessary luxuries... while innocent children die. Much of history...women and peoples of color were put into the "other" category. Value ...most dear... is consumerism.) He goes on and on with example after example that are either over simplifications, grossly exaggerated or flatly wrong.



The problem of Social Justice is that it is not Equal Justice. Social Justice attempts equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity. If you are to believe that the Bible is God's word revealed to man, then you realize that all men have sinned and fallen short. We are all eternally condemned except for the grace of God. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamt of the day when a person would be judged by the quality of his character rather than the color of his skin. Fifty years later, we have institutionalized the attempt to achieve equality of outcome not by the quality of his character but by the color of his skin. To that we have added gender and sexual orientation. When we abandon Equal Justice (under the law) for Social Justice, we surrender justice to the whim of man and his sinful nature. To paraphrase Milton Friedman, A society that puts equality of outcome ahead of freedom will lose both, and the force used to achieve this will end up in the hands of those who will use it to promote their own interests.



The incident of Michael Vick's dog-fighting is substantially mischaracterized. We have laws against animal cruelty, of which he was convicted. All of the other discussions about motive are merely an attempt to confuse the issue. Of course this is a great segue into the term "nonhuman animal". Again, I must challenge Mr. Camosy's understanding of Christianity and the Bible. Man is made in the image of God and set above the animals. To attempt a moral equivalency between man and animal is an insult to any serious theologian.



He continues in this vain for ten chapters. To summarize, the book is thin scholarship and shallow theology intent on demonizing factory farming.