No Beauty in Cruelty -- dogfighting, prayer, sin eater

Last night, my son and I watched The Last Sin Eater based on a Francine Rivers novel. Intriguing. It reminded me of our Savior’s mercy in freeing us from guilt’s heavy load —and how He continues to set us free as we look to Him.

Recent news exposed the depravity of Michael Vick and all those who, like him, brutally torture animals for their twisted, evil pleasure, electrocuting the losing dogs after they’ve lived in pain and agony perhaps for years. What they do to those animals is unthinkable. Monstrous! This sordid tragedy brings to thought many things. One is that this is a cruel world and we, the redeemed, are called to be salt and light in it. How can we be more salty and lighty? First, we can pray.

There is no doubt in my mind that prayer changes things. How, why, to what measure—those are deep theological issues and we may all bring to the table a different doctrinal slant. But prayer does change things. It is a privilege allowing us to collaborate with the divine, with God.

We can pray more for the suffering children of the world – that God delivers them, that He’d send forth laborers to release them from their plight, that He’d raise up Christians to adopt, and others to help financially…We are given the privilege to pray so let’s do it.

We can pray also for suffering animals. Why not? I didn’t say pray for them more than for humans, but we can add that to our prayers. There is no beauty in cruelty. It is not right that creatures suffer, especially from human inflictions and inhumanity. Let’s bring hope into these harsh situations by praying.

Of course, we can pray for souls, for people to come to Christ. That’s a given. What could be more important? We can also pray for nations, for ethnicities for governments, for troops, for those trapped in religion. We can pray for old people whose lives are close the end, for young people, for the wounded and needy, for the poor—and the rich who, according to Jesus, have the greatest difficulty coming to Him (perhaps because they don’t realize they need Him).

But there are other thoughts I have too. I’ve thought about the immeasurable sickness in man’s mind to perform such cruelties as dog fighting. I personally don’t understand it. But I do know this: Jesus died for the sins of all mankind. He can forgive, cleanse and give a new heart to each one who lets Him in. This is quite remarkable. The movie, The Last Sin Eater brings this out, and I recommend seeing it.

Janey L. DeMeo
Copyright©2007 (written July 31st 2007)