Amipotence and Animal Rights
By E.A. Drew Hensley
If God loves all of God’s creation, we must lovingly embrace all nonhuman animals.
The all-powerful God of tradition is a sovereign ruler, looking to punish the disloyal. Amipotence imagines a God who gently persuades creation through the power of love. The earth and its offspring are free because the nature of God is to grant freedom to everything. Oord’s concept of amipotence is a boon for liberation theology. If love is placed at the center of theology, Christians will be morally compelled to embrace people of every race, religion, and orientation. An amipotent God loves every human, butterfly, pig, plant, stone, and galaxy! Oord defines human love as actual work, through the power of relationships, to help others and make the world better. This concept inspires an ethic of justice for all creation.
Bad theology sees humans as ruling creation on behalf of an imperial God. It is this theology that encourages the exploitation of animals and decimation of their habitats. Mining, construction, agriculture and other industries are behind deforestation, soil erosion, climate change and other problems. A universal transition to a vegan diet would go a long way towards resolving our environmental problems. Activist and social critic Keith Akers has written an accessible book on this topic called Embracing Limits.[1] If we truly believe divine love embraces every creature, why do we torment and kill animals? Is it asking too much for Christians to lead the way in our transition from animal products? Is the reader willing to slowly cut meat, eggs, and dairy from their diet? Start by dropping meat. Then start phasing out dairy and eggs. I did it 16 years ago and I am still vegan today.
Objections to veganism and animal rights are weak. People will tell you vegans cannot possibly be healthy—disproven decades ago! If you do not believe me, call the American Medical Association and ask them like I did 16 years ago. A hunter once told me God gave us thumbs for cocking guns so we can shoot animals. I pointed out how useful thumbs are for picking fruits and vegetables and recommended he give it a try! He also made absurd comparisons between human anatomy and that of predatory animals! I could multiply examples of bad carnist arguments but I would rather address a more concerning issue. Some serious thinkers still deny animal consciousness, especially pain-awareness in fish and invertebrates.[2] This is a terrifying repetition of an error made decades ago when medical science thought human babies could not experience pain![3] It was a view that held sway into the 1980s. Procedures were routinely performed on infants with little or no effort to alleviate pain. Skeptical? I got my information from Harvard Medical School’s website! Until 1989, veterinarians were generally taught not to concern themselves about pain relief when treating animals, according to Dr. Bernard Rollin.[4]
This sad attitude lingers in science. The wide-spread acceptance of this idea promotes the mistreatment of billions of animals every year. The conclusion is based not on science but on speciesism: a deeply held prejudice against nonhumans. Moreover, it is bad for the public perception of science when scientists ignore common sense in making judgements. Scientists do not believe in common sense; they believe in scientific methods and deeply skeptical analyses. While their approach has been successful in advancing civilization, it fosters a feeling that they are sometimes incapable of drawing rational inferences from abundant prima facie evidence. This in turn makes some people question well-supported assertions about climate change and other serious threats. We should assume, for moral reasons, that everything with a brain and nerves has pain-awareness. We need to work diligently to ensure the well-being of every animal in line with Oord’s definition of love as positive work in the world. Now let us look at biblical verses that support a case for animal rights.
In Genesis 1:28 we are told to “Be fruitful and multiply” and to “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and every living thing that moves on the earth” (NRSVUE). We are definitely in charge of the earth. But does 1:28 indicate we are free to eat animals? This is a popular Christian claim but just drop down one verse where “dominion” is given a striking qualification: “See I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of the earth and tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food” (1:29). Why was Genesis 1:29 even written? The opening chapters of Genesis appear to be a glimpse into the mind of God! In 1:30 we read “And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” God then acknowledges the totality of creation in its vegan form as “very good” (1:31).
One purpose of the Bible’s creation stories is to teach us about the character of God. What we see is a peace-loving God who wants an orderly but free world. The order of creation is very structured for literary purposes, but the earth plays its own creative role (1:11, 1:20, 1:24). This comports with Oord’s freedom-loving God. But notice the absence of predatory animals. For that matter, there is no physical violence until Cain murders his brother (4:8-9). Later, in 9:1-3, as a concession to violence on the earth, God grants humans permission to eat flesh. The biblical writer had to account for the world’s actual diet. However, this permission is granted with a new requirement that serves as a reminder of life’s value: “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (9: 4). Blood here represents the value of life.
There is also the issue of whether Jesus ate meat. Christians do not need to abide by Jesus’s dietary practices per se; he was a man of his time. We do not imitate everything Jesus did. We live in the age of mass food production — Jesus did not. It is possible that he ate a small number of fish. He was a peasant, and most fish were sold to the affluent, having more value as commodity than as sustenance in his circles.[5] One would be hard pressed to show that Jesus was anything less than almost entirely vegetarian! This consideration should alleviate any notion that the idea of Jesus being 100% vegetarian is at all absurd. Some ancient sources suggest that John the Baptist, Jesus, and members of his inner circle were ethical vegetarians who opposed animal sacrifice![6] This rightly recalls Jesus’s actions in the Jerusalem Temple during Passover. He used a whip not to expel moneychangers and priests but the animals. The biblical grammar suggests he used the whip to herd the animals to safety. This was brought to light recently in the documentary film Christspiracy.[7]
Oord’s amipotence is helpful in enhancing my argument. If “God is Love” and Jesus reflects divine love more than any human who ever lived my case is solid! No matter what one makes of Jesus, he is undoubtedly Christianity’s ethical teacher. Many of us Christian vegans see a theological problem if ancient philosophers and mystics ate more ethically than Jesus did. The Ebionites, an early Jewish Christian sect, were vegetarians who opposed animal sacrifice. According to them, they were following Jesus’s original teachings! Space does not allow deeper exploration here, but several authors have done the work for us. The Lost Religion of Jesus by Keith Akers is the best entry way into the topic of historical Jesus being a vegetarian.[8] Its sequel, Disciples, covers the subject more academically. The UCLA professor of religion Dr. Simon Joseph has written two exceptionally well-researched books that are best read in order — The Nonviolent Messiah[9] and then Jesus and The Temple.[10] The first volume argues convincingly that Jesus was a teacher of radical nonviolence. The second one makes a compelling case that Jesus was a vegetarian. Numerous Christian titles favoring animal rights have been published, approaching the topic from different angles.[11]
Thomas Jay Oord’s theology is based on a God who by her very nature favors love and freedom for the entire creation. This explains why we have a universe that develops by natural processes, and why we have natural disasters and human evil. It also explains why we have predatory animals; they evolved that way. Christianity should take up and expand liberation theology to include not just wildlife and nature but animals as individuals with moral value. Hopefully, the mass slaughter of innocents called animal agriculture will one day come to an end.
Bio: E. A. Drew Hensley was born in Tallahassee, FL in 1968, where he attended Florida State University, graduating with a degree in Political Science in 1992. He has been a grassroots environmental and animal activist since 2009. Mr. Hensley is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association. He is an avid reader and music lover, living in Bradenton, FL.
OORD’S DRABBLE* RESPONSE
Drew Hensley draws on the concept of amipotence to reflect on animal rights. He shares his personal journey of rethinking how his dietary choices impact the planet, particularly animals. By connecting a freedom-loving God with care for nonhuman creatures, he invites us to reconsider our relationship to food. I appreciate how Drew builds upon a theology of love and freedom for all creation, urging us to deepen our connection to land and life. His approach encourages an expanded liberation theology—one that affirms the intrinsic value of all creation and every creature, not just humanity, as worthy of dignity and care.
For more on Oord’s view of animal morality, see this article.
* A drabble is an essay exactly 100 words in length.
[1]. Keith Akers, Embracing Limits: A Radical and Necessary Approach to the Environmental Crisis (Englewood, Colorado: Earth Animal Trust, 2023), 156-157.
[2]. Johnathan Balcombe, What A Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Under Water Cousins (New York: Scientific American/Farrar/Straus and Giroux, 2016), 71-85.
[3]. “The Long Life of Early Pain,” Harvard Medical School Website, April 29, 2011, (https://hms.harvard.edu/long-life-early-pain)
[4]. Bernard E. Rollin, The Unheeded Cry (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 117-118.
[5]. Keith Akers, Disciples: How Jewish Christianity Shaped Jesus and Shattered the Church, (Berkley: Apocryphile Press, 2013), 172.
[6]. Akers, Disciples, 262-266
[7]. Kip Anderson/Kameron Waters, Christspiracy, (2024), https://www.watchnow.com/movie/.christspiracy
[8]. Keith Akers, The Lost Religion of Jesus: Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity (Brooklyn: Lantern Publishing & Media) 2000/2020
[9]. Simon J. Joseph, The Nonviolent Messiah: Jesus, Q and the Enochic Tradition (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014)
[10]. Simon J. Joseph, Jesus and the Temple: The Crucifixion in its Jewish Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016/2018)
[11]. Trip York/Andy Alexis Baker Eds., A Faith Embracing All Creatures, (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2012)