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 “What a Person Does to Another, He Does
to Himself.” What Does the Animal Feel
in Its Situation? The Animal,
a Basic Commodity
and Consumer Good
Let us take another look at the testimony of the Old Testament. In Leviticus (supposedly the true word of God), where instructions are given also to the church officials of our day about which animals they may eat and which animals they should avoid, it says:
Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. (Lev. 11:3)
And three verses down, there is an appeal to hunters:
And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the swine, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you. (Lev. 11:6-8)
In addition to that last quote, it says in Leviticus 11:26–27:
Every animal which parts the hoof but is not cloven-footed or does not chew the cud is unclean to you; every one who touches them shall be unclean. And all that go on their paws, among the animals that go on all fours, are unclean to you; whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until evening …
Those who are obedient to the Churches should keep the instructions of the Old Testament, because, according to church teaching, it is the word of God. If the believers obeyed, the hares and swine at least would stand a chance of escaping without buckshot or bullets in their bodies.
To justify hunting it is often said that hunting is necessary to “decimate” the numbers of certain animals to prevent over-proliferation. But the Spirit of God has taught us: God has so arranged His creation, nature on the Earth, that it will take care of compensating and maintaining its balance. God has not given this task to the hunters!
To the fishermen and all those who tear from the sea what belongs to the sea, “God’s” instructions through “Moses” were the following:
But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is an abomination to you. (Lev. 11:10)
Anyone who eats creatures of the sea, such as lobster and the like, becomes unclean. Readers may ask themselves whether they have become “unclean” already today.
Where will all those clergymen be after this life on Earth, all those who want to fulfill the Old Testament in the New Testament and who sit at beautifully laid tables, and eat of the carcasses of the hare, of wild pig and the like, or consume shellfish without fins and scales, and who then, in this state of uncleanness, perhaps perform sacred rites? Today they will no longer be stoned for sinning against the “holy” and the Holy One, God; but is the passed-down “word of God” still taken to be the truth, according to the statements of the clergy?
If there really were unclean animals that were an “abomination,” then a justifiable question would be: Why did God create such animals, if He is absolute purity?
Jesus did not speak of any of this. Jesus loved all animals. Not only did He never hurt an animal, on the contrary: He was the great friend of all creatures. He spoke and acted for the animals.
Many people, on the other hand, do not think twice when animals are being treated cruelly or are killed. In This Is My Word on page 421, Christ explained that animals have feelings and sensations, similar to human beings:
As Jesus of Nazareth, I spoke to many people about the law of life as well as about the animals which, like human beings, feel pain, grief and joy. Just as man should not be against, but for his neighbor, so should he also be for the animals and bear responsibility for them, because they serve man.
I taught people again and again that the animals, too, are creatures of God, which man should not disregard, but should love. The one who beats and tortures them will one day experience the same or similar thing in his soul and on his body. For, what a man does to his fellow men and his fellow creatures, the animals, he does to himself.
Many people recognized their callousness and began to actualize My teachings. They repented and accepted the animals as their friends. And so, many a one understood My words and followed Me. (p. 421)
I repeat the words of Jesus, the Christ: “What a man does to his fellow human beings and his fellow creatures, the animals, he does to himself.” Let us follow His words and apply what happens to the innocent animals to ourselves. In our thoughts, let us take their place and share their fate in feelings, images and thoughts.
For example, you could ask yourself in the place of an animal: Would you rather be killed or murdered? Anyone who seriously considers this question or situation with his feelings, where he is asked whether he would rather be killed or murdered, would surely not make a choice, because being killed or being murdered means to give up life, regardless of any difference.
And how would we react, if someone were to catch us, lock us in a cage and decide when we could get out from time to time?
Just imagine you were in the skin of a hamster, which by nature needs a lot of movement. See yourself locked up for some weeks in a tiny room. For movement you have only a wheel that turns quickly under your feet so that you remain in place, running and running and running, without moving forward. How long would you enjoy it? In this way you will quickly comprehend how the hamster must feel who must numbly run day after day in his cramped wheel.
Or feel yourself into the situation of a cow in a feeding pen. There you are, locked in, rubbing against your fellow sufferers, doped up with fattening feed full of chemicals, knowing that any second the butcher may come to slaughter you and cut your body up in pieces as a sacrificial meal, for example, for the corpulent clergy. You hear your brothers and sisters, the other cattle, mooing dully from time to time and you feel that they are moved by the same fear. But your impending fate is inevitable. You are in the hands of butchering man, at the mercy of his egomania, callousness and greed, including greed for profit.
Many people will walk over the dead bodies of people and animals, if they are not affected personally. For this reason, people presume it is permissible to kill people in certain cases, and of course much more so with animals. Who has the right to deliberately take the life of his neighbor, or of the animal? Who has created the human soul, which is immortal? Who gave it breath? And who has given the animals breath and thus life? Not man, but God, the Eternal, the Creator-Spirit of infinity. God does not take the life of man or of animals, for God is the giver. And God does not coerce. He never uses violence. He never influences anyone against their will. He is the freedom and He grants freedom. Only man, who gave life neither to the human soul nor to the animals, kills the house of the soul, the body, and kills the animal. Who gave man permission? Jesus did not speak of this!
Anyone who distinguishes between “killing” and “murder” is in my opinion a paranoiac who does not value the life of others according to the All-law, which is life, and who therefore forfeits his own life. For, what a person does to another, he does to himself.
The same applies when animals are kept in cages. God gave animals nature as their habitat, in which they may move freely according to their kind, just as the spiritual forms of animals do in the eternal Being. He did not create cages for His creatures. Only man presumes to cage animals and to have them pass their days in the most cramped spaces.
Jesus, the Christ, spoke in the following sense: So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them! (Mt. 7:12) We can also understand Jesus’ statement in the following way: Do not do unto others what you do not want them to do unto you. Does this apply only to other humans, or does it apply also to animals, given Jesus’ love for animals?
God gave to people and animals the whole Earth and thus He gave them freedom. But people divide this world into lots. Everyone seeks – legally or illegally – to gain the largest piece. That land then is “his property.” It is what “belongs to him,” with everything that lives on and in the land. But everything that we acquire on Earth is illusion, a deception, for death will take from us what we have taken from the Earth.
For many human beings, animals are only objects that may be bought or sold, used or also consumed – like items from the store. They cram the animals into the world of their conceptions, into cramped pens, where they also waste away their existence.
Anyone who has learned to feel into people senses that animals, too, have feelings and sensations, similar to us human beings. They feel joy, sorrow and pain. An old Native American saying may help us learn to understand the animals. It says: Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins. With regard to animals, we may say: Before you capture animals and abuse them for your purposes and torment them, forcing upon them confining and unnatural living conditions, try it on yourself first. Let yourself be forced into the hamster’s wheel as mentioned above, and you will feel what your little second neighbor must be going through. The one who wants to gain a living insight into the plight of animals could put himself in the role of a fattened calf, or of a chicken on a chicken farm, or of a baby seal that is lying comfortably in the sun when the men come with clubs in their hands, wanting to skin it for its fur. Perhaps you will also imagine what the mother seal must feel when she returns from fishing and finds instead of her baby a raw lump of meat …
to the next chapter
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