Halal Meat and Tilly the Whale

These two stories showed up back-to-back on my RSS feed from the Huffington Post's new Religion Section, and they are very interesting when juxtaposed with one another.

First up was a story about France's fear of fast-food prepared from halal meat.

France has a rather dubious history of late in regard to its treatment of Muslims. In this video and story by CNN from when the potential burqa ban was beginning to gain worldwide coverage, one woman says that if France does ban the burqa, people will not be able to say that it is Islam that denies freedom but that the French law denies freedom (an interesting critique of secularism in general). In that same CNN piece, Jean-Francis Cope, French parliamentary majority leader, says that the total head covering is "not compatible with the rules of the Republic." One wonders what that might actually mean. And one more preliminary voice to consider: Sobia Parveen, who lives in Birmingham, England and wears a headscarf "as a symbol of women’s dignity" asks, "Why don’t the French ban pornography instead of the burka?" She adds, "I don’t think women can have freedom...when they are used as sex symbols." Her observation seems reasonable. ...All that to say, the French need to reevaluate how they caricature Islam (as do Americans for that matter).

This time the French are decrying reports that a fast food chain prepares its food from halal meat, which, according to the article, simply means that the animals are killed humanely and that the one who slaughters the animal offers a prayer before the animal is killed. Because "torturing an animal is not allowed in Islam."

To me, the French response seems to be an overreaction. And I think as Christians, we can arrive at common ground with Muslims here, agreeing that animals should not be tortured in the food making process. I think back to Sandra Richter's very fine paper presentation at the SBL Annual Convention in 2008 called, "Environmental Law in Deuteronomy" (Robin Gallaher Branch's notes can be found here). Richter argued that environmental concerns are part of the Bible's story, beginning with Genesis, and she said that modern meat making practices often stand in opposition to the story of God's goodness toward creation. Branch recalls the presentation:

The biblical text allows human beings to slaughter animals—but with care. “This is in contrast to the assembly line approach,” [Richter] said. In an illustration that drew gasps from the audience, Richter recounted how sometimes an animal on a slaughter assembly line is not dead immediately and goes through the process alive. For example, the animal can have its hooves cut off while it still lives, she said.

She summarized the concept throughout the Old Testament that the earth belongs to the Lord. “You may use it but you may not abuse it,” she said. Why? Because Israel’s husbandry of the land and care of the animals and the plants were to reflect in all ways the character of God. Israel’s charge from God was to manage all aspects of his creation with care so that they would be preserved, she said.

I remember that like "gasp" moment like it was yesterday. Her paper cemented in my mind that animals need to be treated with care because God created them with care and then entrusted them to us. It seems to me that we Christians should try to find out about where our meat comes from because the process can be horrifying. Christians must witness that the end (telos) of meat making is not to make money or even to be efficient; but the end of meat making, like everything else, is to glorify God. Tearing living animals apart in a meat processing plant does not glorify God.

It seems to me that perhaps halal practices could be a more helpful approach than assembly line meat making.

With the notion of torturing animals being illegitimate in both Islam and Judaism and Christianity... the second story in my news feed bore the title, "American Family Association: Stone To Death Killer Whale Who Killed Trainer."

The AFA cites Exodus 21:28 and says that Tilly the Killer Whale, who killed a Sea World trainer last week, should be stoned to death. This seems like horrendous proof-texting at best and a call for gratuitous torture of God's good creation at worst.

Perhaps the AFA could learn a thing or two from both Christian, Muslim, and Jewish theologians.