Quote:
Originally Posted by redforever
I can not see how owning a pet, how owning a SUV, how owning a cell phone, how owning an IPod, anything over and above the basic needs of necessity has anything whatsoever to do with reconciling that with a good "Christian" life or good "non Christian" life. And I dont even see this as having anything whatsoever to do with Christianity. I see this as more of a humanity issue.
One does not have to preclude the other. Just like having 2 children compared to having one child. Does having 2 children, frivolous in some parts of the world, make you less moral, less caring as an individual? By the way, do you have children? If you do, why didn't you adopt instead?
I see no relationship whatsoever here with pet ownership and morality. As far as I am concerned, one can enrich the other.
We do what we can, maybe we dont measure up in your world, maybe you think you do more, but we do what we can. You say you go to the far east to hunt down the packs of wild dogs and cats that are a problem to mankind there. I choose to let the large international organizations like the Red Cross etc handle problems overseas.
I choose to concentrate my efforts locally and support organizations making a difference in my back yard. I also am a big supporter of the Grow a Row program for the Food Bank and grow and contribute around 2500 lbs of potatoes and 2000 lbs of carrots yearly. Does that make me inferior to you?
We all set our own standards and instead of grumbling about our standards if they dont meet your guidelines, be happy that we care at all. Like I said before, you have so much anger and that uses up a lot of energy that could be used positively.
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What you originally said and i took issue with in regards to religion is that pets and the sadness you would feel in their passing is equal to that you would feel for your immediate family members.
Are you a vegetarian? (Just curious)
But assuming it is just 'your pets' whose death would make you so sad, it seems you are obsessed with the personalized ownership aspect of pet ownership. That means that the sense of ownership over a living object and the loss of that control is as emotionally tramatizing as losing a loved family member. While this type of thinking seems pretty normal these days it seems to be pretty far removed from any sense of a moral compass. It is a perversion of humanity away from what i can see as Jesus' teaching. Lifestyle products like pets should never ever equal the value to you of living people.
Would Jesus prefer you feel ownership over what essentially amounts to a consumer product over human life? Maybe, but i personally doubt it.
Claeren.