So about those animal sacrifices in the Old Testament

I should have known better than to click on a link that a) led to the webpage of the left wing rag The Huffington Post, b) was written by Bruce Friedrich, a Vice-President of PETA and c) carries this catchy title: An Advent Reflection on God and Animal Cruelty

Because of course the Advent season is all about ending "animal cruelty", i.e. eating animals.

Yeah and it actually was nuttier than I expected. Given that the author is from PETA, that is to be expected. Check this out and pay close attention to the last sentence:

All the questions that are put forth in favor of eating animals (e.g., "Didn't God put animals here for our use?" and "What about animal sacrifice in the Bible?" and "What about the loaves and the fishes?") don't address the fundamental fact that eating God's creatures causes needless suffering. None of the common rationalizations address the points I've discussed above. None of them respond to the fact that today, eating God's creatures is inextricably linked to their abuse. If you are eating meat, you're paying others to deny God's animals their natures, and to abuse them. Even the very few organic and small farms abuse animals in ways that would be illegal if done to dogs or cats.

So the issue here is not "factory farming", it is the consumption of animals for any reason. Even small scale farming is not OK. I like his tactic of throwing out the very legitimate questions people might have, like Jesus eating fish on many occasions, God commanding animals to be slaughtered in the Old Testament and God giving animals to man to use for food (Genesis 9:3). Right after the Fall, God provided animals skins for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21) (and you can be sure that the animals who gave up their skins died first). Then he claims that none of those objections, which clearly show his argument to be false on its face, are legitimate and none of them address his contentions, which they do, while making no attempt to even pretend to address the issues that he himself raised. I imagine that the average reader of the Huffington Post will not notice that he points out the very facts that undermine his argument and refuses to address them.

I expect foolishness from PETA but this is both kooky and incredibly bad theology all wrapped into one. In honor of this silliness I am going to get me a bucket of KFC or something similar tonight for dinner and praise God for His providence in providing yummy animals for our sustenance.