Sometimes I wonder if the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer ultimate goal is just to make his organization look foolish by writing pieces like this one claiming that the death of a trainer at Sea World yesterday was the result of a failure to abide by Biblical mandates.
Fischer cites this article noting that the whale in question was considered particularly dangerous and had a history of violent incidents to claim that the death can be chalked up to “animal rights insanity and to the ongoing failure of the West to take counsel on practical matters from the Scripture:
What about the term “killer whale” do SeaWorld officials not understand?
If the counsel of the Judeo-Christian tradition had been followed, Tillikum would have been put out of everyone’s misery back in 1991 and would not have had the opportunity to claim two more human lives.
Says the ancient civil code of Israel, “When an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner shall not be liable.” (Exodus 21:28)
So, your animal kills somebody, your moral responsibility is to put that animal to death. You have no moral culpability in the death, because you didn’t know the animal was going to go postal on somebody.
But, the Scripture soberly warns, if one of your animals kills a second time because you didn’t kill it after it claimed its first human victim, this time you die right along with your animal. To use the example from Exodus, if your ox kills a second time, “the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.” (Exodus 21:29)
If I were the family of Dawn Brancheau, I’d sue the pants off SeaWorld for allowing this killer whale to kill again after they were well aware of its violent history.
If Fischer thinks we ought to be following Scripture here, then why isn’t he calling for Sea World’s owners to be put to death instead of merely sued? After all, he’s the one who cites Exodus 21:29 which mandate a death sentence for the animal’s owners.
