Unitarian Universalist's Animal Ministries

Unitarian Universalists have two animal rights ministries! Not all of the UU churches worldwide have these animal ministries but many do. It is a part of their huge social justice activism which includes human rights as well.

The two animal rights ministries are:

Unitarian Universalist Animal Ministry
www.uuam.org



From their website:

"UUAM is a group of concerned Unitarian Universalists and UU friends who desire to grow and express their faith as compassion towards all beings. We do this not just for nonhumans, but for ourselves and all of life. For as we live a life of awareness based on our interdependence (UU 7th Principle) and the inherent worth and dignity of all beings (UU 1st Principle) we live fully, deeply, and authentically. As we come to love our neighbors as ourselves, we liberate not just others, but ourselves as well.

We serve as a central source of nonhuman animal awareness and education for UUs by relating the religious and spiritual aspects of our tradition to justice and ethical issues.

We provide a community to support one another. Whether we are undertaking personal changes in our everyday choices, or engaging in advocacy for nonhuman animals, we cannot do this work alone. We need one another.

We promote and support justice making efforts for nonhuman animals within congregations and within UU Association as a whole.

The seventh principle of Unitarian Univeraslism calls us to respect the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part. We of UUAM understand that human beings are only a strand in the intricate web of life.

While our Unitarian Universalist principles affirm the "inherent worth and dignity of every person and call us to seek justice and compassion in human relations, we extend these principles to include other species who also possess an intrinsic value.

Recognizing the beauty and interconnectedness of all species that call us to wholeness and toward justice for all beings, we dedicate ourselves to:

Growing our Unitarian Universalist faith in the interdependence of all life that reveals itself in the inherent worth and dignity of all beings.

Informing ourselves about nonhuman suffering

Seeking and promoting ecological justice

Inspiring respect and reverence for the earth all its creatures

Living in harmony with the natural world, which includes a deep respect and commitment to human as well as nonhuman animals"

Ethical Eating
www.uua.org/environment/eating



From their website:

"Ethical eating recognizes the moral dimensions of our food choices. The ways our societies raise, buy, and consume our food has direct effects on the earth, plants and animals, and humans who work to make our food available.

Delegates at the General Assembly in Charlotte, NC, approved Ethical Eating: Food and Environmental Justice as a 2011 Statement of Conscience.

You can download the UUA Ethical Eating Study Guide and Ethical Eating Worship Resource Supplement (PDF, 33 pages)."


Some of the material mention minimalist activism...but the fact that the UU church is doing this as a religious organization for the animals and obviously is aware of the synergistic link in religion and animal rights is wonderful! But I would highly recommend you do further research into animal rights to go beyond the minimal knowledge of animal activism to help animals even more.

"If you're the smartest one in the room, you're in the wrong room."

The title and photo quote of my blog has been around for awhile.

Surrounding ourselves with people smarter than we are, meaning, people who are better at something than we are, has several advantages:

1. The people are always interesting.

2. We can always learn something from them.

3. We avoid an inflated ego.

4. When we hang out with people who are already where we want to be, we are inspired, encouraged and motivated toward our own goals.

This message really resonated with me today, especially in regards to Animal Rights. When I visit animal rights sites or when I'm hanging out with animal rights people, I find myself being the "teacher", the motivator; it wouldn't be so bad if they felt inspired by me, but I don't think they do. Most of the animal rights people I've met are too complacent, too apathetic to really, truly care about the plight of animals, and it shows in their minimalist actions. Actually, I find such people bringing me down!

I love the part of the intro of an animal rights podcast that says "You know that you can do better than that."

Minimalist animal rights people seem to know this but simply don't care to do better.

We all can do better for the animals and I want to be around people smart enough to not only realize that but do check themselves from time-to-time to make sure they are doing better--I do all the time. I want to be motivated to do more for animals as I motivate others as well.

I don't want to be the smartest person in the room, but I don't care to be the dumbest person in the room either, where no one learns from me. Ideally, I would like to be in a room where there's a partnership of we educate each other, we comfort each other and motivate and inspire each other. A room where we both contribute something to the vegan table.

I will be on the lookout for such "rooms"--online and offline--where we are all on the same page and can learn from each other.

My 2013 New Year's Resolutions Revisited

I have not talked about my 2013 New Year's Resolutions, mainly because I closed down my Body, Mind and Spirit blog and this blog is more about animal rights/veganism. But I have received several emails from readers asking me if I am still active in my Resolutions, so I've decided to bring you up-to-date on it here. But first, for those of you who did not see that post from my previous blog, here it is below. I bring you up-to-date after this original blogpost:

 My 2013 New Year's Resolution

My New Year's Resolution is to be more disciplined in doing these 3 things daily, which are important to me. I'll do them this way: If I'm doing one of these practices below one day, I'll do the others on other days, as long as I'm at least doing all of these on a regular, daily basis:

WALKING MEDITATION

TAI CHI

YOGA

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now to the Present

I had a rough start with much going on in my life that I stopped the Tai Chi and Yoga about a month into my daily New Year Resolution activities. The walking meditation is by far the easiest and most convenient to do so I have been faithfully doing that from the start. 

But this week--I'm very happy to say--I've started back doing my Yoga and Tai Chi! 

I have changed things a bit though. Now, I do both Yoga and Tai Chi on the same day, back-to-back with Yoga first. Plus, there were some Yoga poses that really didn't uplift me emotionally that I was doing on the DVD that I hated but had felt I was "supposed" to do. I didn't get any joy from those poses at all so now, I only do poses I really love. My Tai Chi poses are awesome! So no changes there--I do the whole Tai Chi DVD. 

Now, I do only two of the posing exercises from the Yoga DVD; one exercise is about 65 minutes long and the other is about 40 minutes long. I alternate the two programs--doing one, 1 day, and the other, the next day. After that, I do the entire Tai Chi program which is about 45 minutes. 

(*Note: There are MANY other Yoga exercises on my DVD specifically designed for problem body areas--like back issues, leg issues, etc. but I'll only go to those if I have a specific issue. I'm just talking about the exercises for the entire body.)

My walking meditation is the same--doing that when it's nice outside and when I have time to go out as well as when running errands.

I really love how I have organized things now! Above, is a photo I took today, showing all my materials I use for both Tai Chi and Yoga. With Tai Chi, I just use the DVD.

Why all the purple? The first thing I bought was the purple pillow (originally used for meditation but I no longer do "still meditation"; I do only active/walking meditation, except in Tai Chi, but I do it standing). After not finding a nice inexpensive round meditation pillow online, I went to Ross Dress for Less to find such pillow. Ross only had the one round pillow--purple; I wasn't looking for purple but shape, so I got it. I love the color purple anyway. 

Then I bought the purple bag that's under the pillow (in the photo) to place my pillow in when storing. The bag is actually a baby laundry bag I got from Amazon. I got the purple one to match my pillow. Then later, when I got into Yoga, I decided to try and keep the same color purple so everything matches, so at Amazon, I was able to find matching purple Yoga mat, Yoga blocks, and Yoga strap!

People Who Can't Handle Opposing Views

 


As I continue with my animal ministry, I expect to see my share of people closing off when I give my opposing views regarding veganism/animal rights to non-vegans. But what I didn't expect at the start of my ministry (but later, saw examples of) were some people in my own community--animal rights people--closing off to me as well. Everyone will not always agree with others in any group--fine, understandable and even healthy--but to close off opposing views for no apparent good reason is not a wise way of relating to others.

Examples of what I mean by closing off is by blocking someone online (I got blocked yesterday on Twitter as I politely chatted with a person called, The Vegan List), censoring comments online, or by just walking away from someone, ignoring them. If you want to end a conversation, it should be done in a respectful manner, especially when the other person is being polite toward you.

Mind you, it doesn't bother me personally, but psychology is a huge interest of mine, so I find it very interesting as to why some people react in such childish behavior, which is especially sad in the vegan community because we need to listen to other views in order to effectively help animals. I wanted to write out my theories, but found the link below, by author Faceless39 (Kate) that perfectly describes what I am seeing how some people react towards me as well, even with what Faceless39 stated in the beginning of her article echoes my own experience almost perfectly when I commented on other people's blogs recently.

I totally agree with this article 100%. Please read:

Why Can't Some People Handle Opposing Viewpoints?

"And this movement is idiotic with its preaching-to-the-choir mentality."

 


Animal rights activist and vegan, Gary Yourofsky said the following in an interview last year, titled: In Conversation with Gary Yourofsky: “Educate Educate Educate!” 


"Besides my recent trip to Israel, I no longer do open-to-the-public lectures because I am faced with the problem of attracting an audience. The only people who show up for a vegan presentation are animal rights people. And this movement is idiotic with its preaching-to-the-choir mentality. Telling animal rights folks about veganism is pointless. Education IS the most effective form of activism and I will continue educating NON vegans about veganism."



Gary is absolutely right. Those are the same people who show up at Vegfests; it's great for meeting up with old vegan friends and making new ones, but for helping to educate people about veganism, it's a wasteful joke.

I really wish vegan activists would do as Gary and educate people about veganism in schools, and also in churches--to which I do, but for now just in my own local church. Start with your own school or church. To any vegan who reads my blog, THESE are the places to do tabling, handing out pamphlets, and talking to others about vegansim, not at some veg conference (what the heck is this annual Animal Rights Conference? Just a waste of time, money and resources.), vegfests or other animal rights/veg meet. Plus, I don't understand why many vegans only follow fellow vegans on their Twitter or other social network. Why do you want just fellow vegans hearing your vegan message??

There's A LOT of self-indulgence and strutting around in self-satisfaction, trying to impress other vegans in the vegan community that just wastes time and energy, but most importantly, it hurts the animals in the need of getting the vegan message out quicker to non-vegans. Veganism is NOT a social club, so vegans should stop treating it like it is. The vegan community should stop preaching to choirs of vegans at group meets and start preaching to the choir that's in the churches.

Vegans, you should not strive to be well known in the vegan community. You should strive to be well known in the non-vegan community.

Oh Please! ENOUGH Complaining about PETA!

I'd like to discuss one of my pet peeves within the vegan/animal rights community.

I have been a vegetarian-then-turned-vegan since 1982. At that time, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals--aka PETA--was about 2 years old. I can't remember when they started to add sex to their animal rights advertising or other controversial methods as their way of getting the message out about animal cruelty but for as long as I can remember, the animal rights community has always been complaining about them.

Of course we all know that any group, business, person, etc. that is number one in popularity in any field tends to get sticks and stones thrown at them most, just by being placed at the #1 spot because of jealousy, but more than that, the animals rights community has been bitching and moaning about PETA for decades as PETA has pretty much ignored them all and still do what PETA has always done.

Other animal rights groups

If you can't stand PETA's actions, wish they would change or wish they weren't so well-known or frankly would just wither away completely, pissing and moaning about them, insulting them, sticking pins in PETA voodoo dolls won't make them stop their actions or make them go away (well, OK maybe using the voodoo dolls will work, but you have to be very, very careful when using poppets--what the dolls are really originally called--as it is a very serious thing..but I digress). PETA will continue to go on being PETA with their ways so get used to it and live with it!

I find it interesting that some of these people who put down PETA that are "leaders" in the animal rights movement (you know who you are, and animal rights people know who they are) are virtually unknown in mainstream society. I know because I have asked people--even animal rights people of many years--if they have heard of these animal rights leaders--NOPE. The ONLY animal rights movement that is a well known name in mainstream society is PETA (I don't think the Humane Society and ASPCA consider themselves an "animal rights" group). And I would say probably almost every animal rights person knows something about PETA.

Instead of using so much time and energy bad-mouthing PETA (as if suffering animals in the world have time for the bickering!), these vegans/animal rights people who write articles, blog, do podcasts and other things should concentrate on becoming more vocal and present in the mainstream world by doing animal rights work in the way they feel is right, thereby educating more people about animal cruelty.

There's a saying in the psychology field that goes:

You can't change another person but you can change yourself.

In this case, you can't change PETA or make them do--or don't do--anything, but you can change your behavior and be more mature about this by being aggressively pro-active and doing high profile things, similar to what PETA does but without the sexual provocativeness. PETA doesn't have to be the only large, well known animal rights group in the world. There are other animal rights activists who are affluent that have the means to get another large, ethical vegan group going.

Don't sit around insulting PETA, pleading them to stop their tactics. Concentrate on your own group and be the best you can be. Form an absolutely phenomenal ethical, animal rights vegan group that will rival PETA because it's done in a way that doesn't offend any sex, and that's done in a serious, mature way if you feel PETA isn't doing this. It's not like PETA can stop people from being as good--or better--in public than they are. Find ways of charming people in an honest way, getting people to see how great your animal rights organization is and the rest will follow.

As Gandhi said:

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

Instead of wanting PETA to change, be that change.

Historical Spiritual Beliefs in Relation to Animals

 

Today's animal rights movements are often political, meant to affect change in legislature. But the roots of the belief in animal welfare and opposition to animal cruelty has more spiritual contexts, affiliated with cultural groups having a loving affinity for the earth and its beings.

Native American religion is closely linked to the land. There is a common thread of connection with the earth and the supernatural. A strong emphasis is placed on developing a personal spirituality, as well as the intertwining of the natural and spiritual worlds. Land and its creatures blend well with Native Americans’ spiritual awakening and daily ritual, though typically this belief is not considered a religion; it’s a lifestyle and the basis of an entire culture. Spirituality is a mindset and a relationship with natural beings, not a doctrine.

Native American religion is also accompanied by sacred mythological narrative, relying a lot on animals to tell the story. These stories are deeply based in nature and symbolism using the seasons and weather, plants, animals, earth, and the elements, culminating in the embrace of a great Spirit, a connection to the Earth. These stories were handed down verbally and used in traditional tribal gatherings where the peoples worshipped using song and dance.

Vegetarianism, the earth and religion are also interconnected in the ancient practices of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Vegetarianism is mandatory if you are a strict follower of Jainism, based on the principle of nonviolence, ahimsa. Formed from Hinduism because of distaste for animal sacrifice, Jains are either lacto-vegetarians or vegans. They believe it's important to contribute the least amount of violence as possible--to all of nature--thus influencing positive karma and necessitating liberation during reincarnation. Some followers of Hinduism also practice ahimsa and non-violence to animals, holding vegetarianism as an ideal. Linked to this is offering only vegetarian food to a god in order to receive it back as prasad, a mental condition for generosity. The belief is that non-vegetarian food is harmful in developing the mind and spirituality. Hindus have a scriptural basis for these practices, the Mahabharata states: “Nonviolence is the highest duty and the highest teaching.” Exists the more practical belief that meat consumption is not beneficial to physical health. There's also Hindu dietary law, linking the basis of man’s good and evil to food, which provides some context for why some Hindus prefer not to eat meat; treatment of food is directly tied to karma and blessings in this life and the next, and this includes forming a relationship with the earth and what it produces.

In Buddhism, animals are understood to be sentient beings and they are highly regarded, as is man’s relationship with the natural world and humanitarianism. Buddha theorized that sentient beings have been our mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, children, and friends in past lives. This is similar to some Native American ideology. This notion makes clear the difficulty of distinguishing between moral rules for animals and humans as we are all interconnected. Animals are believed to be separated from humans by state of mind, or a different realm of existence (Tiryagyoni). All the earth’s creatures must work together to protect one another, and individuals who harm others will in their turn experience the same thing. The first of the five Buddhist precepts bans the taking of life, sometimes applied to all sentient beings, including not just mammals, but insects and invertebrates as well. Early Buddhism contains regulations to prevent the harming of sentient beings in the animals realm, because it directly impacts all other realms.

Mainstream modern religions like Christianity often disassociate, at least in majority doctrine, from obligations to the environment and animals, placing options on the individual, and playing down the need for interconnectedness and community. But if one chooses to look there is plenty of encouragement in ancient spiritual traditions for finding our roots and a deep spiritual balance between humans, other animals and our Mother Earth.

Animal Rites

Andrew Linzey is an Anglican priest, theologian, author, and prominent figure in the Christian vegetarian movement. He has authored and co-wrote many books on the subject of animal reverence.

Linzey has often been quoted as saying "Animals are God's creatures, not human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor commodities, but precious beings in God's sight. ... Christians whose eyes are fixed on the awfulness of crucifixion are in a special position to understand the awfulness of innocent suffering. The Cross of Christ is God's absolute identification with the weak, the powerless, and the vulnerable, but most of all with unprotected, undefended, innocent suffering.

In 1990, he was awarded the Peaceable Kingdom Medal for outstanding work in the field of theology and animals. In June, 2001, he was awarded a DD (Doctor of Divinity) degree by George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, in recognition of his “unique and massive pioneering work in the area of the theology of creation with particular reference to the rights and welfare of God’s sentient creatures”. This is the highest award that the Archbishop can bestow on a theologian and the first time it has been awarded for work involving animals. In 2006, in recognition of his role in the creation of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, Linzey was named the Henry Bergh Professor of Animal Ethics at the Graduate Theological Foundation in the U.S., the first such professorship of its kind in the world.

Some of Andrew Linzey's works:

Animal Rights: A Christian Perspective (London: SCM Press, 1976)

Christianity and the Rights of Animals (London: SPCK and New York: Crossroad, 1987 and 1989)

Animal Theology (London: SCM Press and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994 and 1996)

Animal Gospel: The Christian Defense of Animals (Hodder & Stoughton Religious, 1998)

Animal Gospel: Christian Faith as If Animals Mattered (London: Hodder and Stougton, and Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1999 and 2000)

Animal Rites: Liturgies of Animal Care (London: SCM Press and Cleveland: Ohio: The Pilgrim Press, 1999 and 2001)

Creatures of the Same God: Explorations in Animal Theology (New York: Lantern Books, 2009).

Why Animal Suffering Matters: Philosophy, Theology, and Practical Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2009).