“Kill two birds with one stone” is an animal-hostile, speciesist proverb. (The Chinese counterpart is “kill two eagles with one arrow”.) A more animal-friendly and politically correct way of putting it is “feed two birds with one scone”. Jesus often stresses that God cares about animals, e.g., birds and sheep, as evidenced by the following verses:-
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? (Matthew 6:26 NIV)
Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God... Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6-7 NKJV)
He [Jesus] said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!" (Matthew 12:11-12 NIV)
Prof. David Clough (2012:75) opines that these verses show that Jesus teaches that human life is more valuable than that of animals, though he, Clough, disapproves of John Calvin’s (1989) anthropocentric view of the purpose of creation.
Here, IMO, Jesus is not affirming a hierarchy of God’s creatures, but subverting the hierarchical human value system (cf. Alexis-Baker 2012: 45). Jesus is in effect suggesting something like this:-
You humans think that animals’ lives are cheap, that you are infinitely more valuable than animals, e.g., birds, sparrows, sheep. But God values each and every one of them!
Similarly, Richard Bauckham (1998:42) argues that God estimates animals more than human beings do. While human people would barely become aware of the decease of a 0.5 penny sparrow, God takes part in the decease of each one. Even after humans evaluate an animal's usefulness, like 2 coins for five sparrows, there is still "surplus value" not yet accounted for: theocentric value, i.e., Yahuah's value (Linzey 1998: xv). Human beings do not ascertain the value of animals. God does, and God's appraisal is not anthropocentric; God does not ascertain an animal's worth in accordance with its utility to humans. "This means animals do not exist exclusively for human use. An animal's life, and death, has ontological significance beyond human purposes," to borrow Ramirez's (2005) words.
Therefore, love animals and respect them, even as God loves and values them. Or, at the very least, leave them alone. Avoid all speciesist language, like 'kill two birds with one stone,' and reject all animal-hostile ways of living. Go vegan, now!
Article link: https://www.vegantheology.net/post/feed-two-birds-with-one-scone-go-vegan-by-dr-chapman-chen
References
Alexis-Baker, Andy (2012). "Doesn't the Bible Say that Humans Are More Important than Animals?" In A Faith Embracing All Creatures. Eds. Tripp York and Andy Alexis-Baker. 39-52.
Bauckham, Richard (1998). "Jesus and Animals II: What did he Practice?". In Animals on the Agenda. Ed. A. Linzey et al. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Calvin, John (1989). Institutes of the Christian Religion. Trans. Henry Beveridge. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Clough, David (2012). On Animals: Volume I: Systematic Theology. London: T&T Clark.
Linzey, Andrew (1998). "Introduction." Animals on the Agenda. Ed. A. Linzey et al. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Ramirez, Jesse. "Animal, Factory Farms, and Catholic Social Teaching." Faith Seeking Food, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, May 25. https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/bioethics/resources/faith-seeking-food/#:~:text=Aquinas%20denied%20that%20animals%20are,(2)%20Animals%20cannot%20reason.
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