Are Animals
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Not every topic you face in life has a Scripture verse that directly applies, and animal rights falls into this category. In these situations, we give God thanks for the gift of reason. Lutherans make a distinction of ministerial and magisterial uses of reason: the first uses reason led by Scripture, while the second uses reason to rule over Scripture. The first is good. The second is not. Building on scriptural truth, Scott Yenor demonstrates that ministerial use to help you think through so-called animal rights. We invite you to read it with a snack of your choice. -Editor)
People Too? By Dr. Scott Yenor
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e can eat a cow but should not hurt one. Does the right to kill and consume animals include the seemingly lesser rights to kick, skin, beat, or inflict pain? How we think about animal rights tells us much about the moral universe we inhabit. One approach to animal rights emphasizes a moral principle: Neither a beater nor an eater be. The reasoning behind this principle seems solid. Animals are God’s creatures, and it is wrong to beat them just for kicks. Animals do not exist simply for our amusement. Since we have other options when it comes to the table (breads, vegetables, and
