Cats and Dogs

In the Scriptures, we can see how God uses His creation to teach us; and that includes the animals.  For instance, in Proverbs 6, we see how the ants can be examples to us of diligence and hard work.  In Matthew 6, our observation of certain animals can communicate to us about worry and anxiety.  We can read:
25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

We can be alert to and learn lessons from the world around us.  In this particular passage, Jesus is teaching about trust in Him, and ultimately, seeking first the Kingdom.  He uses birds, lilies, and grass to produce a sense of dependence on Him.  Our trust is in the Lord, our great provider; we can try to look to other sources to meet our needs, but we can know that He is all-sufficient and we can rely on His resources.

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In creation, God has provided so many rich ways in which He reveals Himself, and we can learn and draw closer to Him through our observation and reflection.  In Job 12, we see these verses:
7 "But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you.
9 Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this,
10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?

Perhaps you, like many Americans, and like my wife and me, are pet owners.  We have two very fine kittens that we just brought into our home the day after Christmas.  And, believe it or not, as Religion News Service has reported, there is a new survey about pets - and faith. The findings were taken from responses in the General Social Survey and published in a new article at the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

The story states:

Among Americans who said they own a pet, nearly three-quarters (74.9%) said they had a dog in 2018. Fewer than half (40.3 %) identified as cat owners. The average American pet-owning household has 1.72 animals (which also included reptiles, fish, pigs, goats, birds, horses and small mammals).

And, among religious groups, evangelicals own the most pets, at 1.95 per household.

I don't really know the significance of these findings, but, according to the article at RNS:

Evangelicals and Catholics are more likely to have dogs than are mainline Christians. Mainliners are more likely than evangelicals and black Protestants to own cats. Jews prefer dogs to cats. Jewish families are also more likely than other traditions to own a small mammal or a bird.

Those who claim no religious identity are most likely to have a cat.

And, apparently the study shows a correlation between pet ownership and church attendance.  According to the RNS article, which was written by one of the researchers, Ryan Burge: "For our study, we put together a regression model that predicted how many pets were owned at each level of church attendance while controlling for a number of factors that could impact pet ownership, such as income, geography, gender, race and education." It says, "While not conclusive, it appears that the more someone goes to church or other religious worship service, the less likely they are to own a pet."

Burge highlights two possible reasons:

One is practical. People who are highly involved in activities at church or other houses of worship may not have the time to take care of a lot of animals in their home.

A second possibility is that people may be using pets as a replacement for social interaction. Therefore, people who are frequently attending church events don’t need to fill that social void with pets.

And Burge and his co-author found evidence that, "...higher church attendance is especially predictive of lower cat ownership."  Why?  The report says:

A wealth of social science has found that cat owners are more likely to express feelings of being socially isolated. It seems possible that the same factors that drive people to be religiously unaffiliated may also make them more likely to own a cat.

So, this yields the general headline: "Atheists prefer cats, Christians love dogs, study shows."

As a cat owner, I can say confidently that these are merely trends and not necessarily indicators of behavior.  So, you're not spiritually deficient if you have a cat - or multiple ones.

One takeaway from this study is the reminder that we love our pets, but we have to make sure we don't love them too much.  That can apply to our animals - or anything else in our lives that is exalted over the place of God.  We have to make sure that our priorities are in line with God's intentions for us.

And, that includes our spiritual participation.  There is certainly no substitute for being with God's people - it doesn't seem that pets necessarily keep people at home, but the study does indicate that if people don't have the propensity to go to church, they may be more likely to have a pet - and a cat at that.  We have to press in to be connected.

Finally, the book of Job directs us to, essentially, learn from the animals. Quite a while ago, I had the opportunity to interview Gerald Robison, the co-author of the book, Cat and Dog Theology.  There is even a website called CatnDogTheology.com.  The premise is simple, according to the site:

"A dog may look at you and think, 'You feed me, you pet me, you shelter me, you love me -- You must be god!" On the other hand a cat can look at you and say, 'You feed me, you pet me, you shelter me, you love me -- I must be god!" -- You see, they both look at the same information, but because of their self-centered or master-centered attitudes, they come to totally different conclusions!

It's been said that ancient Egyptians once worshipped cats as gods, and the cats have never forgotten that!

In a similar way, many Christians look at all that God has done for them - and while they "say" He is 'Master' -- they treat Him like staff". That is, they use their prayer time to tell God what they want, when they want it and how they want it -- and if He doesn't do it accordingly, they complain! They think life is all about them and they use God to make them happy.

So, we can appreciate animals, maybe even let them teach us, but never let them become idols to us.