|
|
| |
He is also a very keen angler, having come back to the sport five years ago following a break of several years. In this regular column he will tell us about his progress as an angler – his thoughts about the sport, what he learns, the fishing trips he makes, the anguish, the humour, in fact everything he experiences as his angling career develops.
Pilgrim’s Progress – read it everyThursday!
PETA – Pilgrim Extends The Attack
In last week’s Pilgrim’s Progress, I shared my thoughts (orat least some of them anyway. To do so fully would require a novel,rather than a weekly column) about the anti’s. I made reference tothe fact I had visited a number of anti-fishing web sites. As can beexpected, they are a combination of inaccuracies, misrepresentationsand downright lies. However, there were a couple of web sites run byPETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) that really dodemand a response.
These sites attempt to occupy the moral high ground by invokingGod, Jesus and the Bible as being on their side. Reading through thesites I was absolutely amazed at their exegesis (the way theyinterpret the Bible). At best their exegesis displays a theologicalnaivety. At worst it is a deliberate ploy to mislead people. I willlet you choose which you think is the right answer.
|
|
| |
One of the cardinal mistakes that is made time and time again isthe failure to differentiate between animal rights and animalwelfare. I could write a whole article on the Biblical perspective onthis, but suffice it to say we should all be for animal welfare. Butanimal rights?
On a pragmatic level for us as fisherman, animal welfare involvesthe proper care of the fish we catch and a desire to applyenvironmentally friendly methods to our angling. For as much as thePETA web sites attack us as anglers for being cruel and notinterested in our environment, the truth is that without anglers thewaterways of our country would be in a lot worse state than they arenow.
The first PETA web site I checked out portrays Jesus as avegetarian. Jesus was actually a Jew, who participated in thePassover. To those who are unaware of what the Passover entailed, itmeant the killing of a lamb, and then the subsequent eating of it.There is nowhere, I repeat nowhere, in the Scriptures that even givesthe slightest hint that Jesus or any of his disciples did not partakeof the Passover. But in fact, the opposite is true. Jesus and hisdisciples not only participated in the killing and eating of animals,they did so with a clear conscience.
Now let me say at this point that I have no problems withvegetarians. If one doesn’t want to eat meat, live and let live, Isay. But don’t try to force others to adopt your way of life. Andplease don’t twist and misquote the Bible to back up your argument.
In last week’s Pilgrim’s Progress I wrote about how society haschanged considerably over the last 30 years or so. One of the changesthat has been evident has been the secularisation of our society.This has spawned the notion that man and animals (and fish) are thesame. This is not supported by the Bible, where there is clear waterbetween mankind and the animal kingdom.
|
|
| |
The second PETA site I visited dealt directly with Jesus and fish.It answers the question ‘Didn’t Jesus eat fish?’ by replying’probably not’. Well, I don’t want to spoil their party but even acasual glance at John, Chapter 21, tells us that Jesus ate fish withhis disciples on the shore. In fact, not only did he eat fish withthem, it was at his instruction that they cast their nets in thefirst place.
Their claim that ‘most Biblical scholars agree that they (thereferences to Jesus eating fish) are very late additions to theGospels’ is news to me. As a full-time ordained Minister, I haveheard some attempts to justify one’s pet theory or point of view inmy time, but this is one of the best yet. It seems that PETA are notonly self appointed guardians of all things that move and breath (butnot including man of course. There is nothing on their sites thatdeal with some of the real problems that exist in our world), but nowthey are experts on the Bible as well.
They even take the only miracle that Jesus performed (The feedingof the 5,000. You know the one, where he took the few loaves of breadand the couple of fish and then proceeded to feed everyone) and whichis recorded in all four Gospels and states ‘there is strong evidencethat this story did not originally include fish’.
Again, news to me. Their attempt to quote scriptureschronologically following the feeding of the 5,000, where Jesus, inreferring to the miracle he just performed, only mentions the bread,again, is a misrepresentation. If someone, as they say, included thefish in the telling of the miracle itself to prove a point, then thesame person would also do the same a few verses on when Jesus usesthe miracle to teach his disciples certain principles.
|
|
| |
But the big question we ask ourselves is, why would someone doctorthe Scriptures 2,000 years ago to endorse their own ‘fish eating’ideas? After all, in those days it wasn’t an issue. It has onlybecome one in the last 30 years or so.
But I reserve the best till last (Just like Jesus himself did whenhe changed the water into wine at Cana in Galilee). As if not reallysure of their previous attempts to prove that God really is on theirside and a fully paid up member of PETA, they write ‘So what didJesus definitely have to say about fishing?’ The argument they thenproceed to make had me shaking my head in disbelief.
In reference to the verses of the Bible where Jesus calls Simon,Andrew, James and John (all fisherman) they write ‘Jesus callsmultiple fishers away from their occupation of killing animals….thisresembles Jesus’ call to others who are engaged in activities thatare not in line with his message of mercy and compassion’.
It doesn’t take a lot of intelligence to read the scriptures thatthey refer to, to see that the story is not about the career theDisciples had, but about the fact that Jesus was calling them intofull-time ministry. Jesus also called Levi, who was a tax collector.Does that mean to say that a tax collector is an evil occupation?(Hmm, Ok. Maybe not a good point. All you Inland Revenue taxinspectors out there – only joking).
But seriously, back to the plot. When God called me into full-timeministry, I worked in the upholstery industry. God didn’t call Simon,Andrew, James or John because they were fishermen. That was purelycoincidence and totally irrelevant to the story.
In fact, what PETA conveniently choose to ignore is that beforePeter was verbally called by Christ, Jesus actually got into the boatwith him. He then told Peter to ‘put out into deep water’. When wellout from the shore, he asked Peter to put out his nets. Peter’s replywas ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.But because you say so, I will let down the nets’. What happens nextis that they catch so many fish the nets begin to break. So actually,Jesus, rather than drawing the Disciples away from fishing, actuallyencourages them.
Next week in Pilgrim’s Progress I want to share More Close Encounters…Of An Animal Kind
The Reverend Stewart R Bloor
Sedgley International Christian Ministries
PO Box 1216, Dudley. DY3 1GW.
Telephone : 01384 – 828033
Web site : www.sicm.org
e-mail : missionscentre@sicm.org
