Religion, History, and the Animal Protection Movement | 481 and a vision of a future world devoid of violence, and that they are to work toward this great peace A number of Christians believe that killing animals to consume their bodies, or keeping them in cramped cages to obtain their eggs and milk, is a failure of Christian love, and cannot bring about the Peaceable Kingdom of all creation, which includes both humans and animals The creation story, the life of Jesus, and primary moral ideals such as the peaceable kingdom and the sanctity of our bodies provide a vegan Biblical imperative See also Veganism Further Reading Allen, Clifton J 1971 Broadman Bible commentary, 12 vols Nashville: Broadman Catechism of the Catholic church 1994 Liguori, MO: Liguori Holy Bible: New revised standard version 1989 New York: American Bible Society Linzey, Andrew, and Cohn-Sherbok, Dan 1997 After Noah: Animals and the liberation of theology London: Mowbray Phelps, Norm 2002 The dominion of love New York: Lantern Phelps, Norm 2003 Love for all creatures: Frequently asked questions about the Bible and animal rights New York: Fund For Animals Lisa Kemmerer RELIGION, HISTORY, AND THE ANIMAL PROTECTION MOVEMENT From ancient times, religion has played the same contradictory roles in shaping human relationships with animals that it has played in other areas of human life On the one hand, religion has been a powerful force for the advancement of hu- manity out of our fearful, benighted past toward an open, generous, enlightened future It was morality codified as religion that introduced concepts like compassion, altruism, and nonviolence into the human dialogue, and religion created the ethical values that enable people to live in relative peace and harmony with one another At the same time, religious institutions have been among the fiercest opponents of human progress, willing, even eager at times, to use violence to defend the status quo and halt the extension of compassion and love to groups considered other All too often, religion has taught people to hate in the name of love and kill in the name of God Sacrifice The origins of religion are lost in the darkness of prehistory What we know is that when religion was first practiced by human beings, it was organized around the cult of sacrifice Most ancient religions were based upon sacrifices to appease angry gods or curry favor with helpful deities Ancient temples were first and foremost slaughterhouses But it was also religious leaders who first called for the abolition of sacrifice The ideas of good and evil that have guided human thinking about ethics for more than two millennia, epitomized in the Hebrew Scriptures as “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), were created almost simultaneously along a band stretching some four thousand miles from China through India, Persia, and Israel to Greece during the most remarkable period of spiritual, intellectual, and social progress in human history During this Axial Age, as it was dubbed by philosopher Karl Jaspers,