Letter to the Editor of the Bryan Times. Published 2003. I thought posting this letter here might help readers understand how much my religious and political views had changed by the early 2000s. This particular letter was written after the county prosecutor declined to prosecute a cat killer.
Dear Editor,
A cat killer is loose in Williams County. He is known by our local authorities. He even boasts of his cat killing and the enjoyment it gives him. Why should this be a concern to anyone? After all, he is just killing cats, right?
The Humane Society spoke of prosecuting the man because cats are considered property, and by his actions he violated the property rights of the cat owner (s). Do they have any moral standing apart from their relation to their owner?
All animals are a part of God’s created order. They were endowed by their creator with life, and with that life given certain rights. Animals have a right to be respected as created beings within the context of the order of Creation. While it is debated whether or not animals should be eaten for food, there should be no debate concerning the care of, love for, and responsibility to animals. Factory farms, factory slaughter houses, trophy hunting, and abandoned, mistreated animals are all abhorrent testimonies to the depravity of man. The wicked man cares not for the life of his beast (Proverbs 12:10).
The man who killed these cats should be prosecuted. Prosecutors who hide behind their prosecutorial discretion should be reminded of voter discretion at the next election. We need government leaders who recognize that cruelty to animals is just as abhorrent as a crime against a human. If we do not prosecute when it involves the “least” of us, who is to say we will not turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to other immoral behaviors deemed more serious by the powers that be?
If this man can not be prosecuted, how about a sign in front of his house that says “Beware, cat killer lives here!”
Rev. Bruce Gerencser
Alvordton, Ohio
Hey Bruce. Happy holidays to you and Ms. Polly.
I am glad you brought up this issue. One of the people I most dislike on the American politico-religious stage is Dr. Paige Patterson, one of the two men generally given credit for leading the so-called Southern Baptist Convention Revolution in 1979, the revolution that turned a Christian denomination that was headed toward being a fairly reasonable mainline church into a dark Gothic outpost of Christian fundamentalism. Sigh… I guess we all feel the way we feel—who can explain feelings—and I have no desire to hurt or demean—but simply to say how I personally and honestly feel deep inside about Patterson. I feel the man is at best a living jar of piss, and I would say that straight into the face of Jesus if He were standing here next to me—and I can even see Jesus giving me a “high five.”
One of the things that really pisses me off most about Patterson is that just a few years ago He had large “Great White Bwana” photographs posted on his personal but fairly official feeling SBC seminary website. He was dressed in the kind of khaki safari clothing worn by the “always bad guy Englishmen hunters” in the old 1930s Tarzan movies. He was holding this high-powered hunting rifle with a scope, and the beautiful dead beasts he had just shot and killed on the plains of Africa were lying dead beside him as he sat there and beamed a smile into the camera. Frankly, if I could have done so, I would have taken away his rifle and vehicle, stripped this piss jar down to a loin cloth, handed him a spear with a flaked stone point, and said, “Time to fight fair asshole. There’s the Savanna. Start running.”
Just a few years later, I saw a huge church billboard in Lenoir City, Tennessee, advertising that the local baptist megachurch was holding a huge “gamefeast” at the church, and this shindig was being thrown in honor of Dr. Piss Jar, who was showing up to receive great white hunter accolades from the local SBC rednecks and be the keynote speaker at this so-called Christian event, which seemed to me to be little more than a planned celebration of the classic American macho male, which I assume these morons thought was prime ancestor Adam’s “manly manful man—all manly and full of manfulness in all his manly Southern Culture ways” (apologies to John Belushi and Saturday Night Live). It was very depressing, and I just wanted to go green and nauseated when I saw that billboard.
Thanks very much for the quote Bruce. It works for me:
“While it is debated whether or not animals should be eaten for food, there should be no debate concerning the care of, love for, and responsibility to animals. Factory farms, factory slaughter houses, trophy hunting, and abandoned, mistreated animals are all abhorrent testimonies to the depravity of man. The wicked man cares not for the life of his beast (Proverbs 12:10).”
I agree. In my opinion, the old piss jar was already a wicked man—and this quote cinches the sack for me on this old buzzard.
Beautifully stated, Charles. Just perfect.