Last week Christie and I watched with fascination an excellent program on TV hosted by Jamie Oliver. I’d heard about this controversial show and some of the feedback that had occurred when it was aired in the UK. On this program Jamie demonstrated how badly battery hens and chicks are treated in British egg farms. During one scene he showed how cute fluffy male chicks are deprived of oxygen and literally suffocated to death. As the camera panned around the audience many were in tears at the senseless horror they witnessed with their own eyes.
During the program the stark truth dawned on many in the studio audience – and I’m sure on many of us watching in our homes: this mistreatment of hens is going on all the time to provide us with meat and eggs and we weren’t even aware of it! But now, thanks to Jamie Oliver, we are aware and we can do something about it! Things are already changing in the UK and I would imagine some hard questions will be asked in Australia too – and rightly so. Matthew 6:26 reveals that God cares for his creation including the animal kingdom. Proverbs 12:10 says “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal …”
As I continued to watch Jamie’s presentation I started wondering about what other horrors are allowed to go ahead unhindered even in our “civilized” society simply because people are unaware of what’s going on. We are aghast at the treatment of hens, but what about the treatment of innocent babies in the womb who are terminated in their thousands right here in Australia? What if society were similarly exposed to a program that demonstrated how cruel an abortion really is? Of course it will never happen – it would simply be too horrific to watch. But if we speak out for chickens shouldn’t we also speak out for vulnerable babies rather than pass laws that seal their doom? After all Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
