Animals Are Not Our Property: A Rebuttal of Wayne Grudem (2016). By Dr Chapman Chen
- Chapman Chen
- Oct 31
- 3 min read
On 30 October, animal rescuer Zoe Rosenberg was convicted of felony conspiracy and three misdemeanours for rescuing four very sick chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in California. She now faces up to five years in prison. Meanwhile, Petaluma Poultry faces no charges whatsoever for leaving sick birds to die or scalding animals alive on its killing line. This is precisely what follows when the law recognised the birds only as human property — not as suffering beings — and when the commandment “Thou shalt not steal” is interpreted in Wayne Grudem’s (2016) sense — protecting property rights, not lives.
1. Dominion=Stewardship=Property Management?
In his 2016 Themelios article “Pastoral Pensées: The Eighth Commandment as the Moral Foundation for Property Rights…”, Wayne Grudem, Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary, anthropocentrically invokes the 8th Commandment, “Thou shalt not steal,” to enshrine property rights of humans. And to support this view, he interprets “dominion” and “subdue” in Genesis 1:26, 28 as stewardship. But by stewardship, he humanocentrically means property management, or a God-given right for humans to use everything on earth for “human beings’ benefit and enjoyment” and for capitalistic gains.
[Actually, “dominion” in Genesis 1:28 means neither lordship nor despotism nor even stewardship, but servanthood devoid of power and authority. ירדו (yirdu), the ancient biblical Hebrew word in consonantal form for "dominion" in the verse concerned, refers to either רָדָה (radah) (to tread down, subjugate, rule) or יָרַד (yarad) (to lower oneself, to descend) (cf. Chaim and Laura 2015). IMO, “dominion” can only mean the latter, because, firstly, it is in the spirit of the Jesus who said that He has come to serve, NOT to be served (Mark 10:45); secondly, the instruction is immediately followed by a vegan diet prescribed by God to humans (Genesis 1:29) (cf. Linzey 1995:34); thirdly, in Genesis 2:15, humans are particularly assigned to tend (עָבַד/abad) and keep (שָׁמַר/shamar) the garden—i.e., to be a caretaker of it (cf. Ritenbaugh 1999).]
2. Ox & Donkey Are No Different from Laptops?
For Grudem, God’s sentient creatures are no different from laptops, mobile phones, or cars—all are categorised as human instrument property to be owned, used for business profits, and disposed of. Grudem explicitly places animals in the category of human-owned property, listing them alongside inanimate objects: “I should not steal your ox or your donkey — or your car, your cell phone, or your wallet — because it belongs to you and not to me.” In this construction, the ox and the donkey — both described in Scripture as nephesh ḥayyah (“living souls”) — are reduced to the moral status of chattel, valuable only insofar as they are possessed by a human owner.
3. Love Our Animal Neighbours or Steal from Them?
Gruden claims that “faithful stewardship of what God entrusts to us” has to be balanced with “love of neighbour” [Jesus commands us to “love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matt. 22:39)]. Yet, by reason of their proximity to us, and their possessing a living soul like us, animals are actually our neighbours, to be loved by us, not to be ab(used) by us. Grudem stresses that we must not steal from our neighbours, but are we entitled to steal eggs, milk, children, habitats, skin, flesh, and freedom from other innocent creatures of God for our own selfish desires, but not genuine needs?
4. Thou Shalt Not Kill!
In connection with the 8th Commandment, Grudem also mentions the 6th Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” but how about animals? According to Reuben Alcalay’s (1981), The Complete Hebrew-English Dictionary, the 6th Commandment "Thou shalt not kill" means "any kind of killing whatsoever." The original Hebrew, he points out, is לֹא תִּרְצָח Lo tirtzakh, which requires us to stop ourselves from killing any sentient beings altogether.
5. God Loves All His Creation!
Ultimately, Grudem’s conclusion about the 8th Commandment is sharply at odds with the scriptural witness to God’s compassion for all creation: God is love (1 John 4:8 NIV); God loves the world (John 3:16), including ALL His creation (Psalm 140, 145:9); Christ is compassion (Matthew 9:13; 12:7).
In a word, if animals are property, love is impossible. To love God is to love God’s creatures, not to own or consume them.
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