Proverbs 12:10 A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, but even the compassion of the wicked is cruel. Perhaps the above proverb has found an application in the animal skinning concept below. Or perhaps not... Genesis 1:26, 28 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. And God blessed them and muiltiplied them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth" and after the flood, behold: Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitiful and muiltply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant." Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not apologizing for wicked folks that take sadistic pleasure in being cruel to animals for the sake of sport and fun, no sir! (i refer you to the above proverb) But what I am getting at is this: animals were made for man, not the other way around. They have been given to us for food and clothing. In case you think something is wrong with the clothing part, I refer you to our ancestors Adam and Eve: Genesis 3:21 And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Where do you think God got those "garments of skin" from? (in the hebrew the word implies 'hide, leather, skin') An animal of course. Isn't it interesting that God apparantly had to kill an animal to "cover their nakedness"... and immediately after that you see the descendents of Adam and Eve offering up animal sacirifces throughout the rest of the Old Testament to "cover their sin"? hmm... interesting indeed... It may look "righteous" in this post-modern western world to get all bent out of shape over causes like "Animal Cruelty" or "Save the New Zealand sea otters" etc. etc. But the reality is God gave man dominion over these creatures. the video on that link shows a gentlemen bashing the head of "a goat"??? (i wasn't sure) and then proceeding to skin it. Now I didn't see any evidence that this man was getting some sort of sadistic enjoyment out of his labors. I'm sure his livelihood and the livelihood of his wife and children at home depend on the work he does. I'm sure it puts food in their stomachs and a roof over their heads (not to mention clothes on their back ) I'm sure entire local economies, thousands, potentially millions, of people around the world depend on these types of labors to feed their loved ones. I'm not going to take away their right to feed themselves, simply because they don't have the means to attend a "University" and get bachelor's degree in Business Administration, or whatever. I think this sort of activism is a great example of something that "has the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but is of no value against fleshly indulgence." Colossians 3:23 What about the slaughter of millions of Iraqis, and Kosovo Serbs, and African children, and on...and on... and on.. What about the "sons of men" running around each staking a claim to their own version of "truth" and "righteousness" and leading the masses astray with their false understandings and wisdom? This is a insanely wicked world no doubt, but I think that a Pakistani butcher is the least of our problems. cheers... wayne Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:00:53 -0800From: njones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: [geocentrism] Fw: dogs being skinned alive!To: geocentrism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx "We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept ofanimals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicatedartifice, man in civilization surveys the creatures through the glassof his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the wholeimage in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, fortheir tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. Andtherein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not bemeasured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they movefinished and complete gifted with extensions of the senses we have lostor never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are notbrethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught withourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendorand travail of the earth". - [The Outermost House] - Henry Beston Message: Please sign the petition brought up by the link to stop the barbaricpractice of skinning animals alive but PLEASE do not watch the videohttp://www.animalsaviors.org/ _________________________________________________________________ See how Windows connects the people, information, and fun that are part of your life. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/msnnkwxp1020093175mrt/direct/01/