PETA’s LAMBS program is a resource for Christians who want to learn more about how our faith should influence our relationship with animals. Whether you are a longtime animal advocate or just learning about how animals are abused for food, clothing, experiments, and other greed-driven human endeavors, there’s something for you here.
Our Core Messages
- Animals are not ours. They’re God’s, and we are their protectors. The overarching message of the Scripture is that creation is good, that it is God’s, and that we humans are to be caretakers. Being made in the image of God is a call to compassion and mercy, not dominance and violence.
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.
Psalm 24:1
- Today, animals are among the least of “the least of these.” Christians are called to be radically inclusive in their love for the least and most marginalized of society, as demonstrated by the life and death of Christ. In the past, the church has struggled to bring about the abolition of slavery, suffrage and basic rights for women and children, and more. Acknowledging and working to relieve the plight of animals is a logical extension of that prophetic witness.
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.
Luke 10:36-37
- A vegan diet is a Kingdom diet. Everything about eating animals flies in the face of what it means to be a good steward of God’s creation. The Kingdom of God—the vision of life fully reconciled to God—is marked, in part, by peace between species, nonviolence, and life over death. Using animals for food, clothing, experiments, and entertainment necessitates violence and death. One easy way to live a more compassionate life is to adopt a vegan diet.
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. … They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11:6-9
That’s just a taste of what the Bible has to say about compassion for all of God’s creation.