Call to Compassion: Religious Perspectives on Animal Advocacy
Winner of S&P Award, Best Spiritual Books of 2011
Dr. lisa kemmerer
ISBN: 978-1590561829
Publisher: Lantern, 2011
Overview
Call to Compassion challenges religious people—whether aligning with an indigenous tradition, contemporary Wicca, Indian, Chinese, or Middle Eastern religions—with the task of integrity, the task of realigning belief with practice where animals are concerned. Call to Compassion explores sacred texts and teachings on ethics of kindness and compassion, including the interconnected nature of all that exists and the moral imperative for a vegan diet. This wide-ranging collection of essays highlights the uncompromising beauty of religious ethics worldwide and invites readers to think about how they live in light of their spiritual convictions.
Book Quotes
“Across time and around the world, religions have provided human beings with a moral framework that outlines human responsibilities for other creatures, and which inevitably underscore the virtue of compassion. Simultaneously, religions have battled human tendencies such as greed, indifference, cruelty, and selfishness.”
- Call to Compassion: Reflections on Animal Advocacy in World Religions
“When called to our attention, these sacred teachings, similar across centuries and continents, are likely to amaze even those who claim no religious beliefs. How much more so will they do for those who claim a particular religious tradition! The religions of the world offer a universal call to compassion, if only we would listen, if only we would make a sincere commitment to adhere to the core teaching of our religion, if only we would allow our religious convictions to change our hearts and guide our actions. In these teachings, were we to pay attention to them, we would find reason to reconsider our responsibility for a stray cat or wounded snake alongside the road, our willingness to invest in drugs tested on mice or dogs, and our choices at the supermarket.”
— Call to Compassion: Reflections on Animal Advocacy in World Religions
“In our daily lives, we often act without thinking, behave without conviction, and live without intent. Our spiritual lives too often take a backseat to convention, habit, convenience, and the mindless ritual of day-to-day life. But what is the point of religion if spiritual beliefs don’t touch and improve human lives? What is the relevance of sacred writings if they fail to mold our interactions with other creatures—the vast majority of sentient life on Earth? What is the value of religion if we are no less barbaric for belief?”
— Call to Compassion: Reflections on Animal Advocacy in World Religions
“Dianne Sylvan describes Wicca as “a religion of Earth and stars, wind and rain, of ivy growing in spirals and people dancing in spirals,” a religion that allows for both the feminine and the masculine, a religion that has emerged to satisfy the needs of those who no longer feel comfortable with the religion of their childhood. Sylvan comments on contemporary tendencies—alienation from nature, exploitation of nonhuman animals, male domination, materialism, and the unending quest for profits—all inimical to Wicca.”
— Call to Compassion: Reflections on Animal Advocacy in World Religions