Like many I enjoy a good walk. It has been an evening habit for our family, especially in the nicer weather, to leash our dog and walk through our neighborhood. Our community has a lot of foot traffic, and it is always nice to visit with neighbors along the way.
I do, however, have a bit of a rock in my shoe from our years of walking. As is so often the case, it is a cultural observation that leads to a theological conclusion. People seem to care more about animals than they do children.
Let me give some examples. It is common for people to stop us on a walk and comment on how beautiful our dog is. Now to be fair, our dog, a three-year-old boxer is a nice looking dog, but she is not jaw-dropping by any agreed upon dog-standards. She is an average, healthy, fawn boxer. In other words, she is a normal dog. But people trip over themselves to comment, almost drooling over my drooling pooch. They want to pet her, talk in baby talk to her, examine her, and talk about her. It’s fascinating. On the other hand, we have six children. And let me tell you about them. They range from 5 to 21 and are, by any common human standard, beautiful people. They are a great mix of cute kids to maturing young adults. Now compare the amount of times we’ve heard anything about our kids vs. something about our dog. It is not even close (think 75:1 ratio).
This is crazy to me. When people are falling all over themselves talking to my dog, I want to say (and have even said), “Hey I have humans, six actually. And, we made them ourselves. Check ‘em out!”
We would have a similar conversation on our walk as we pass by a couple of neighborhood parks. The first is fitted with swings, slides, and various other toys for kids. This park is almost always empty. Then as we walk further we come to a large dog park. This park is almost alway in use. And again, this neighborhood does have a lot of children.
I don’t think it is wrong to like dogs, we love ours. But I do want to press upon a commonly held and infrequently questioned elevation of our pets. This elevation is often at the expense of more valuable things, like people.
From conversations with others I don’t believe this is limited to my neighborhood (in fact it is probably far more pronounced in places other than Omaha). People often seem to be far more concerned with pets than people. Is this innocent, or is it reflective of a more deeply personal and theological issue?
From the perspective of a biblical worldview we know that animals have value. They are part of God’s creation and therefore worthy of appropriate respect, love, and care. However, we should never confuse the dignity and worth of an animal with a human. The fawning over my dog and the silence over my children is not a loud repudiation of the Creator’s design, but it still reflects the bigger problem. There is a pervasive devaluation of the exclusive dignity of human life while at the same time a corresponding overestimation of the worthy of animals.
While he was certainly not drawing the same theological conclusions as me, The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof observed a similar tension. In an article entitled, “Do You Care More About a Dog Than a Refugee?” Kristof noted the varied response from two stories that he had shared. The first related to the fact that his beloved family dog died after 12 years in their home. The author received a torrent of condolences from readers. While he appreciated the kind sentiment over his dog he was troubled by the callousness toward the article he wrote calling for greater international efforts to end the suffering in war-torn Syria. The news of his dog’s passing was sentimental while the article on the suffering by humans was met with harsh indifference. This led Kristof to write,
I wonder what would happen if Aleppo were full of golden retrievers, if we could see barrel bombs maiming helpless, innocent puppies. Would we still harden our hearts and “otherize” the victims? Would we still say “it’s an Arab problem; let the Arabs solve it”?
Yes, solutions in Syria are hard and uncertain. But I think even Katie in her gentle wisdom would have agreed that not only do all human lives have value, but also that a human’s life is worth every bit as much as a golden retriever’s.
As a Christian I appreciate his questions. He has a similar rock in his shoe. However, I don’t think he goes far enough. Instead of simply having equal value with animals, the Bible teaches us that humans are actually more valuable (Lk. 12:7). Animals have their place, but it is not equal to people. There is a unique dignity reserved for humans because we were created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28). Therefore, a mark of biblical thinking will be an appropriate love, care, and respect for animals that is in proportion to their place. This will be attended by a love, care, and respect for people reflecting our uniqueness and privilege as image-bearers. Like so many other things we seem to have this perspective reversed or at least distorted.
This is something to think about and consider on your next walk.
