(From Wayne's team) UPDATED: We’ll be hosting a discussion on Sunday, May 26 at 1:30 pm Pacific Time – both in person in San Francisco and on Zoom – at which I’ll be sharing more about the roadmap and seeking your feedback and involvement.
I personally believe that tackling constitutional issues by classifying animals and birds as "people" is not going to work, because doing so flies in the face of reason and common sense. I feel that religions that condone or support carnism are a powerful force standing in the way of compassion for animals. Wouldn't confronting such religions lead to greater success?
A very good question. Thanks. Yes, at the heart of most religions is a call for compassion and justice. Compassion and justice for humans. Confronting religions might include pointing out, without malice, how they help cause wars (seizing "Holy Land", Crusades), inflict suffering (homophobia, Islamophobia), and promote cruelty (Halal meat, Xmas turkey). Stating aloud the elephant in the room.
When asked who they were, people in the Sierra foothills answered with the name Maidu, which, according to one scholar, meant not simply "people" but "beings." ANIMALS,
BIRDS, AND FISH ALSO WERE MAIDU. Thus, when asked their identity, the Maidu would answer "we are beings," expressing their immediate kinship with all of creation. SOURCE: "THE LOST GOSPEL OF THE EARTH - A Call for Renewing Nature, Spirit & Politics" by Tom Hayden (1996)
Why is it an insult for anyone to be compared to an animal? In many cultures [ancient, foreign, others], such a comparison was an honor.
In Native American cultures, for example, individuals adopted the names of admired animals, and had spirit guides--in animal form--who served both as teachers and escorts into the realms of the spirit world. Names such as Sitting Bull, Running Deer, and Hawkeye are familiar to us, expressive of the admiration Native Americans had for the animals with whom they shared both the earth and the afterlife. Native Americans, Ancient Egyptians, some African tribes, and many other ancient and aboriginal cultures the world over have worshipped various animals as gods or messengers to god.
So how is it that we find ourselves in a time when comparison to a non-human animal has ceased to be an honor and is instead hurled as an insult? Blame the humanistic Greek/Judeo-Christian tradition! See: "Paris (CNN)Pope Francis has criticized couples who choose to have pets instead of children as selfish, arguing that their decision to forgo parenthood leads to a loss of "humanity" and is a detriment to civilization."
I truly believe that change can happen for the animals with the ongoing support of many people but in the meantime I realize that there are so many roadblocks trying to prevent this.
If aggrieved native peoples can overcome the roadblock of colonialism (embedded in the Catholic Church's Doctrine of Discovery: "The Doctrine of Discovery is a legal and religious concept that has been used for centuries to justify Christian colonial conquest. It advanced the idea that European peoples, culture and religion were superior to all others")--I hopefully believe if we persist and innovate, adapt and overcome, we'll eventually succeed.
I am more and more persuaded in my own experience and in conversations that people themselves are in need of rescue due to goals and priorities in an attitude toward nature, culture, and human community received from early modern and baroque politics and practices in which our constitutional founders shared. An attitude of the well fed and housed towards the wretched obliged to relocate or face fines and imprisonment, or else to be enlisted into the ranks of an enforcement personnel. Whereas in earlier religious worldviews, the well fed and appointed admitted of the poor access to the feast and celebration of a holiday, and otherwise joined sincerely in rites of penitence, what we're encouraged to do now is forget about it, the way Marlene Dietrich means when she talks to the judge in Judgement at Nuremberg.
(From Wayne's team) UPDATED: We’ll be hosting a discussion on Sunday, May 26 at 1:30 pm Pacific Time – both in person in San Francisco and on Zoom – at which I’ll be sharing more about the roadmap and seeking your feedback and involvement.
RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeU5TEz3uDV-eqDpz2oRi0kYMBrwfy6bdT67OVl7okKB5sx6w/viewform
This is a beautiful way to help the most precious species on earth. The animal kingdom as a whole, both on land in the sea.
Well said!
I'll give the road map a thorough review and send any comments I might have. It sounds possible to me.
Thanks Sarah!
I personally believe that tackling constitutional issues by classifying animals and birds as "people" is not going to work, because doing so flies in the face of reason and common sense. I feel that religions that condone or support carnism are a powerful force standing in the way of compassion for animals. Wouldn't confronting such religions lead to greater success?
Check out my last blog on this subject, if you haven't! The movement for personhood is ALREADY making huge progress! :)
You may be right about religions being part of societal support for carnism.
How would you confront religions?
The emotions at the base of faith are pretty unassailable; reaching the natural empathy and compassion underlying them seems necessary.
A very good question. Thanks. Yes, at the heart of most religions is a call for compassion and justice. Compassion and justice for humans. Confronting religions might include pointing out, without malice, how they help cause wars (seizing "Holy Land", Crusades), inflict suffering (homophobia, Islamophobia), and promote cruelty (Halal meat, Xmas turkey). Stating aloud the elephant in the room.
When asked who they were, people in the Sierra foothills answered with the name Maidu, which, according to one scholar, meant not simply "people" but "beings." ANIMALS,
BIRDS, AND FISH ALSO WERE MAIDU. Thus, when asked their identity, the Maidu would answer "we are beings," expressing their immediate kinship with all of creation. SOURCE: "THE LOST GOSPEL OF THE EARTH - A Call for Renewing Nature, Spirit & Politics" by Tom Hayden (1996)
Why is it an insult for anyone to be compared to an animal? In many cultures [ancient, foreign, others], such a comparison was an honor.
In Native American cultures, for example, individuals adopted the names of admired animals, and had spirit guides--in animal form--who served both as teachers and escorts into the realms of the spirit world. Names such as Sitting Bull, Running Deer, and Hawkeye are familiar to us, expressive of the admiration Native Americans had for the animals with whom they shared both the earth and the afterlife. Native Americans, Ancient Egyptians, some African tribes, and many other ancient and aboriginal cultures the world over have worshipped various animals as gods or messengers to god.
So how is it that we find ourselves in a time when comparison to a non-human animal has ceased to be an honor and is instead hurled as an insult? Blame the humanistic Greek/Judeo-Christian tradition! See: "Paris (CNN)Pope Francis has criticized couples who choose to have pets instead of children as selfish, arguing that their decision to forgo parenthood leads to a loss of "humanity" and is a detriment to civilization."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/05/europe/pope-dogs-cats-kids-intl/index.html
I truly believe that change can happen for the animals with the ongoing support of many people but in the meantime I realize that there are so many roadblocks trying to prevent this.
Roadblocks, we can overcome!
If aggrieved native peoples can overcome the roadblock of colonialism (embedded in the Catholic Church's Doctrine of Discovery: "The Doctrine of Discovery is a legal and religious concept that has been used for centuries to justify Christian colonial conquest. It advanced the idea that European peoples, culture and religion were superior to all others")--I hopefully believe if we persist and innovate, adapt and overcome, we'll eventually succeed.
Religion is weakening in the Western world due to secularism, science and technology, but growing in less sophisticated parts of the world due to a new "style" of colonialism/outreach advanced by the Vatican to increase followers. For instance: "Holy See: ‘Birth control is not the key to sustainable development’" https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-04/holy-see-birth-control-not-key-for-sustainable-development.print.html, and "Pope calls for sustainable human development in West Africa" https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-05/pope-francis-letter-john-paul-ii-foundation-for-sahel.html
I am more and more persuaded in my own experience and in conversations that people themselves are in need of rescue due to goals and priorities in an attitude toward nature, culture, and human community received from early modern and baroque politics and practices in which our constitutional founders shared. An attitude of the well fed and housed towards the wretched obliged to relocate or face fines and imprisonment, or else to be enlisted into the ranks of an enforcement personnel. Whereas in earlier religious worldviews, the well fed and appointed admitted of the poor access to the feast and celebration of a holiday, and otherwise joined sincerely in rites of penitence, what we're encouraged to do now is forget about it, the way Marlene Dietrich means when she talks to the judge in Judgement at Nuremberg.
Thanks for sharing this James.