The bumper sticker I saw this morning read "My German Shepherd Is Smarter Than Your Honor Student." Cute? Not hardly; especially given that so many in Western society do indeed treasure animals over people. The animal rights extremists, for example, have gone way beyond the boundaries of Christian stewardship and its historic regard for God's creation and conservation of natural resources. They have genuinely attempted to elevate the spurious "rights" of animals beyond those they concede to...well, say...preborn boys and girls.Others, perhaps not so foolish or dangerous as the vandals of PETA or Greenpeace, have nevertheless been duped enough by the Disney cartoons, the emotions naturally felt for pets, the irrational (but very frequent) anthropomorphic treatment of animals in popular culture, and by the ever-present doctrines of evolution in education and arts to let what should be a paramount regard for human rights fall into a lazy, hazy preference for cute, innocent and less problematic animals.
We need to be a bit more wary of being taken in by these (relatively) new promotions of animal importance and a lot more diligent to interpret the matter in light of the Bible's teachings about taking very good care of His creation but always emphasizing the eternal priority of human life.
And, by the way, I should tell you just where I saw this bumper sticker and why it prompted the comments of this post. You see, the sticker was on the expensive vehicle driven into the 46th Street abortion clinic by the nurse practitioner who works there.
