PETA's Big Lie About "Gay Sheep"
A few weeks ago I reported about the anger expressed by some gay activists about animal research reportedly aimed at making gay sheep straight. I blogged the story, not in order to deal with gay/straight issues, but to point out its relevance to the hubristic human enhancement agenda.
I soon received information that the story was badly misconstrued due to PETA machinations, which were also posted in the comments section of the original post. I didn't post directly about these rumblings because, 1) the original story was in the Sunday Times of London, which had not retracted, and 2) because my point had nothing to do with gay/straight issues--which we do not discuss here--but the dangers associated with the new eugenics.
But now, the New York Times has published a story demonstrating that the original report was indeed seriously misconstrued due to PETA fabrications. The point was not to learn how turn gay sheep straight and then apply the technology in humans, but to learn why gay sheep are gay. This involved killing the animals to study their brains, which for PETA, should be absolutely forbidden for any purpose.
This raises an important point: PETA is not a credible organization. Its activists are expert propagandists. If the whole truth will serve its purposes, it will be told. If half truths and half lies serve better, it will take that route. And it is expert at lying by omission, as in a story I covered about PETA's campaign to destroy the Australian wool industry.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 10:27 AM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
I've always enjoyed PETA members. They're yummy with munster on rye.
Sorry, I'm having flash-backs to the bad jokes on the Kevorkian thread.
Anyway, once again, it's all hype and emotional manipulation. Sex drags in the young guys, homosexuality drags in anybody who's got a say in the gay community. I'm wondering how long it'll be before they start having guys get naked to draw in young homosexual males, if they're already doing full female nudity.
This whole thing had ME offended, and it turns out to be some kind of send-up. PETA is rapidly losing credibility.
I received this by e-mail from a UK visitor: "Proverbs, 12,10 states that humane behaviour to animals is "righteous" (i.e. in the O.T. context "after God's heart"), whereas cruelty to animals is "wicked". Pretty strong terms, so how can any Bible believing Christian support experiments, or any practice, which causes animals to suffer?
Far from a danger, animal liberation is a biblical concept, brought about by Christ's death and resurrection: see Isaiah 11, 6-9; Romans 8, 19-22; Colossians 1,20; and Revelation Chs. 4 and 5.
Animal "rights" lie in the fact that they are God created and protected (see the leading British theologian, Andrew Linzey's, concept of "theos rights" for humans and animals).
There are dangers is humanexceptionalism: humans have enough of a tendency to see themselves as gods. Being in the image of God is not a power thing, but a service/sacrificial thing, as Christ demonstrated. That puts a whole new slant on "dominion" - service, not use/exploitation. The whole creation is suffering because of the effects of Man's sin at the Fall, and we should be reversing that, as Christ's sacrifice did, not perpetuating it by cruel experiments. After all, "the whole creation is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed" (in Romans 8,19-22). Do they see a tormenter as a son of God being revealed?
Just some thoughts: hope they help.
"
This was my response to Barry from the UK: "Thanks for writing. Treating animals humanely is of course, a human duty. It flows directly from exceptionalism.
But for Christians, there is no warrant for elevating humans to the moral value of people in the Bible, at least of which I am aware. Somehow Proverbs did not prevent the practice of animal sacrifice at the Temple, and indeed, Christ did not scourge the temple because animal sacrifices were going on, but due to money changing practices. Mary and Joseph sacrificed doves at the Temple to mark Christ's birth. The first animal in the world killed, according to the Genesis story, was by God to provide animal skin
coverings for Adam and Eve. Christ said explicitly that God marks the fall of every sparrow, and THEN says that our lives are worth much more than that of a sparrow. I would also point out that when Christ told his disciples to prepare the meal for the Last Supper, he was telling them to kill a lamb, since as an Orthodox Jew, he was required to eat lamb at the Passover Feast. I could go on and on and on.
If you support animal rights/liberation, it is because you have decided your morality requires it. That too, is part of what makes us an exceptional species. But the Bible does not support your belief.
If you oppose animal experimentation then you propose not taking action to alleviate significant human suffering. That hardly seems in keeping with Christian obligations to each other.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home