I had a conversation with some friends recently. It was one of those times where everyone at the table was not on the same page but there was a sincere desire to understand each other.
I'll save you the backgrounder but it had all boiled down to one hypothetical situation. It went something like this: You're in a burning building. You have time to save one thing a person or a pet (insert your favourite here). Wouldn't God want you to save the person?
Now you may be a little more curious about the backgrounder but let me break down the potential responses that I see, in the context of faith, that support saving the person. They are subtle in their differences but the origins of each thought are significantly different.
1. Of course the person. Mankind is the pinnacle of creation and the person should be first. We are made in the image of God after all.
2. People have more value for the care of all created things. Chances are the pet can't survive on its own so the person must be more important.
3. This is a dumb question. People need to take care of their own, we've had to do this simply to keep the human race going. If you want to get all spiritual about it, God told us to be fruitful and multiply, or whatever. Save the person...
Now arguments in favour of the animal rescue can quickly digress into extreme views which is something I try to avoid. Arguments in this camp tend to revolve around the inherent evil in mankind, or the weighty obligation on humans to care for animals. There typically seems to be a negative undertone making you sound uncaring if you don't buy in to it. Negativity in a conversation about care is also something I try to avoid.
The other option available is to throw the scenario out the window, make dismissive motions towards saving the person as the "right thing to do" and perhaps, if those around the table are up to it, take one step deeper into the real concern. Here's a new question that may be more to the point.
"Does God value people more than the rest of creation?"
I'll tell you where our discussion went that night. One side of the table couldn't reconcile with the idea that man isn't set-apart and that God's focus ins't primarily on us. In fact, any ideas that would imply this have a certain tone of heresy about them and can be offensive. To suggest that people are no different than everything else green or furry goes against the morals of the "church". Doesn't God call us to love EACH OTHER? Didn't Jesus come to die for our sins and bring eternal life to all mankind, not frogs, cats and petunias? Sarcasm aside, isn't it a more noble cause to care for the homeless rather than care for nature? IMHO this attitude shows how low our view is of created things, but lets not go there just yet.
I'll leave the table talk there because it was at this point that I failed to communicate a counter-attitude. I tried, and there was understanding on both sides but I'm not satisfied with my response.
Now you see real reason for this writing. A need to make my case. For me it revolves around a single point. From a Christian view point (which I strive to achieve), mankind is set apart in creation because we are made in the very image of God (Gen 1:27). He breathed His Spirit into us (Gen 2:7) and so we are the meeting point of God and creation. Both physical and spiritual. This is the reality of our dominion (Gen 1:26) over nature, the reason why our prayers affect change, why Jesus could take human form and pave the way for reconciliation. Here's the summary:
"People are set apart IN creation not FROM creation."
We are created. Same as everything else we are flesh and bone, carbon and water. However, we enjoy the privilege of being that intersection between spiritual and physical. Trying to apply this to our burning building situation doesn't really do us much good. We now find ourselves just as conflicted as when the the question was posed. It doesn't even help with our second question - "Does God value people more than the rest of creation?" because we are not physically distinguishable from "the rest creation."
And this, I would argue, is right where God wants us. A strained situation where our morals cannot help us choose one over the other. God seems to have no problem destroying our ranking systems. The first shall be last (Matt 20:16), whoever would lead must be a servant (Luke 22:26), etc.
Stick with me here, I just made the case that people are not set apart from creation but in creation. If we carry this forward to how we should live our lives (i.e. don't rank or separate people from places) our care for people must also include everything around them. Should we care more for the homeless than the environment? You can't actually have one without the other and that's not a cop out. You cannot offer the down trodden shelter, clothes, food, without the provisions that come from the created. Mistreat the environment and the result is a man on the street, with no money to buy food, who is unable to even find a clean source of water. Package and preserve abused, hormone filled chicken and the sandwich you offer leaves him hungry and ill.
God never separated us from a dependence on nature. It has always been a two-way street. You care for it and it'll care for you. When we withdraw too much from the natural spaces our debt becomes greater than we can repay. It's not hard to argue that whether you're a Christian or not, this is not good business.
In another facet of our connectedness with nature we see our low view of created thing linked directly to a low view of each other. When banana plantations grow massively to sustain the cravings of a distant population that can't grow them the local residents suffer. Poverty comes quickly as land is expropriated and sterilized. Wages are dropped to keep the price below 49 cents a pound. Mistreatment of our natural spaces often wears the excuse of ignorance such as "oh my goodness, is that really where my garbage goes?" all the while being paraded about by convenience and greed (will you actually decline that free straw in your drink?).
Through our connectedness we also see disciples of Jesus having right relationships with all creation. By producing the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) and living a life characterized by God's love (Cor 13:4-8) we care for all things not just people.
How can one be loving while participating something that hurts an animal?
How can we be joyful amidst the pollution in the oceans?
Where is peace as another acre of ancient rain forest is destroyed?
The list goes on.
Let me conclude by restating that we are not separate from, but within creation. All creation has value in the eyes of God and our ranking schemes are useless if we would be a follower of Christ.
