I want to make a couple of comments about PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). This is an organization that is increasingly out of control and out of touch. Now going so far as to say that milk has long been a symbol used by — hard to believe — white supremacists. In other words, drinking milk is not only unethical to animals but also racist.

PETA embraces a worldview that elevates animals to equivalency with humans, which at the face of it ought to be ridiculous, or a reminder that we are far removed from a biblical Christian worldview. From their perspective, the truth is this: animals are fellow beings on a level playing field with human beings. Some, such as bioethics professor Peter Singer, have actually gone even further. From his perspective, a disabled newborn has less value than a chimpanzee.

As an animal lover, myself, I embrace the ethical treatment of animals, but hardly the ethics of Singer and the PETA organization. Instead, in the tradition of William Wilberforce — who fought against the tyranny of slavery, a lot of people do not know this, and founded the Royal Society of the Prevention of the Cruelty to Animals — I am deeply committed to the humane treatment of pets and to the sanctified preservation of wildlife. All of that because I hold to a biblical world view, which is there exists a hierarchal structure in God’s creation. Within that construction, animals are to serve human beings, in order that human beings might rightly serve the King of Creation. Therefore, treating animals empathetically is biblically mandated; treating them as equals is blatantly misguided.

Like no other creature, human beings are made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27), and that should make all the difference in the world. A child is to be cherished on a level that surpasses the cherishing of a chimpanzee. PETA’s rush to ascribe to a chimp the personhood reserved for a child is both wrongheaded and, I might even say, ridiculous.

Commitment to the virtuous treatment of animals is an ethical imperative as sacred to Christians as it is to PETA. They do not have any hold on this issue all by themselves. We say we are created in the image of God; as such we are commissioned to treat nonhuman life with the care and consideration afforded them by the Creator Himself. He is our protector, and we are to be their protectors. While we may eat lamb, as the Lord did during Passover celebrations (Luke 2:41–42; Matt. 26:17–19; cf. Exod. 12:1–28; Lev. 23:4–8; Deut. 16:1–8), we must never treat animals in a way that dishonors their Creator.

This all came up in my mind today reading this idea from PETA that, somehow or another, if you drink milk, there is some tie-in perhaps to White supremacism. Just ridiculous at the face of it.

—Hank Hanegraaff

For further related study, please see the following:

Thy (Animal) Kingdom Come, Our Will Be Done (Wes Jamison)

Is “Animal Rights” A Biblical Concern? (Dan Story)

PETA or Just PET? (Hank Hanegraaff)

Was Noah an Environmentalist? (Elliot Miller)

Film and Pre-Apologetics: How Noah raises Questions Only Christianity Can Answer (John McAteer)

Is the Animal Rights Movement Benefitting African Wildlife? (Dan Story).

Hiding Among the Animals (Harold O. J. Brown)

This blog adapted from the April 5, 2017, Bible Answer Man broadcast.