10 minutes with … Laura Hobgood-Oster

(RNS) The full force of Christian compassion and hospitality should be applied to all creatures — including animals, university professor Laura Hobgood-Oster argues in a recent book. Taking her cues from Christian scripture, history and tradition, Hobgood-Oster strives to alert Christians to the modern plight of animals. Her book, “The Friends We Keep,” is a […]

(RNS2-DEC01) Laura Hobgood-Oster, seen here with Tiny at an animal shelter, is the author of “The Friends We Keep.” For use with RNS-10-MINUTES, transmitted Dec. 1, 2010. RNS photo courtesy Baylor University Press.

(RNS) The full force of Christian compassion and hospitality should be applied to all creatures — including animals, university professor Laura Hobgood-Oster argues in a recent book.

Taking her cues from Christian scripture, history and tradition, Hobgood-Oster strives to alert Christians to the modern plight of animals. Her book, “The Friends We Keep,” is a comprehensive study of the historical, social, personal and theological issues related to animals, arguing that people of all faiths — and no faith — are compelled to offer “radical hospitality” to animals.


Hobgood-Oster, who teaches religion and environmental studies at Southwestern University in Texas, portrays animals as companions to beloved saints and worthy beings created by God. She also explores how they have been abused and mistreated since the days of the Roman Empire.

Some answers have been edited for space and clarity.

Q: Why should Christians be concerned with the current issues related to animals?

A: There is a general call in the history of Christianity for extending compassion beyond just the human sphere. There are a number of stories that focus on animals in the Bible and in tradition. Quite a few stories are in the Hebrew Bible in the Old Testament.

And then there all these stories about the saints. One is St. Jerome, who is traditionally understood to have translated the Bible into Latin, and the lion. The lion comes into the monastery grounds and all the other monks run away, but St. Jerome stays. The lion has a thorn in his foot and St. Jerome removes the thorn. And the lion stays as Jerome’s companion until he dies.

There’s also the story of St. Giles and a little deer. St. Giles lives in a cave and there are some royal hunters who are out hunting for sport. St. Giles protects the deer from the hunters with his body and takes an arrow for the deer.

Q: What are the most acute issues related to animals that we face today?

A: In the United States, it’s the way we process animals in our food system. The mass numbers — particularly of cows, pigs and chickens — that we produce for food not only live in conditions that are unsanitary but also miserable for those animals. The waste products from those animals are horrible for our environment and the antibiotics injected into the animals are dangerous to our health.

Q: Why did you write this book?

A: I had written a book that was looking in a very academic way at animals in Christianity. In conversations, there seemed to be a real need for a book that addressed animals and Christianity in a more general way.


Q: How has your academic research and work informed your concerns about animals?

A: I knew, growing up Christian, that animals were involved in Christian history and tradition. But in doing this research in how animals should be treated, I was blown away by how many references there are.

As we became more urban and industrial, we lost our everyday contact with animals, and the religious tradition lost that at the same time. I think that’s why I wanted to speak to the contemporary issues. Our primary encounters with animals, in the U.S. at least, are with pets. The idea of animals as pets is a fairly new thing. As our general relationship has changed, the religion has to shift to respond to the current situations.

Q: If the average pet owner wants to influence for the better how animals are treated, what should he or she do?

A: One way is to think carefully about what we eat. Even if you don’t eat meat just one day a week, that makes a big difference. That’s one-seventh of the time. In Christian history, Lent was a time to abstain from meat and many Christians did not eat meat on Fridays for generations.

Churches are usually well positioned in the community to have adoption events for cats and dogs. So hook up with a local humane organization and let them use that church parking lot for an adoption event.

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