In 1758, pastor-theologian Jonathan Edwards became president of Princeton; in 2001, Princeton professor Peter Singer endorsed bestiality.1 The university has come a long way since Edwards’ day—downhill.

Singer is not alone in his approval. Sex with animals has become such a problem that in recent years, the legislatures of South Dakota2 and New Jersey3 have considered revisions of their criminal codes to deal with the offense, and Illinois4 has made bestiality a felony. In 2002, the Tony award went to Edward Albee’s play, The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? which made light of bestiality,5 and the 2007 Sundance Film Festival screened Zoo, a sympathetic treatment of a perverted and tragic incident in the state of Washington.6 Meanwhile, bestiality enthusiasts comb the internet for supportive sites.

Modern man entertains the conceit that he has outgrown moralities of the past. No “Puritanical” or “Victorian” hang-ups for him. Modern man is, of course, deluded. By definition and by nature, ethical principles do not change. Rather, they are fixities by which one evaluates cultural changes, technological developments—and men. The Bible supplies the conceptual tools one needs to sort through every latter-day phenomenon, from academic tenure to satellite surveillance and cloning.

That being said, it is important to realize that men are not so modern after all. Humanity suffers from the same moral squalor found among the Canaanites and Sodomites in Bible times. Bestiality, condemned in Leviticus 20:15-16, is still an issue—and will always be an issue.

It is a shame that the Humane Society must lead the way in ridding the land of bestiality. They are pressing lawmakers to prohibit the practice on grounds of its cruelty to animals. As compelling as their case may be, there is a larger matter, the degradation of the citizenry. But culture and the law have decided that anything goes in the sexual realm so long as neither party is injured or offended. Thus in the face of the grossest human wrongs, lawmakers are left with animal rights.

Preachers, however, are free and obliged to announce God’s standards in God’s language, to call sins what they are. It is just as important today as it was in the time of Moses. Some may argue that there are “new things under the sun.” Be that as it may, the “old things under the sun” are still as evil and present as they ever were.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  Laura Vanderkam, “Peter Singer’s ‘Heavy Petting,’” Daily Princetonian, March 8, 2001, http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2001/03/08/opinion/2591.shtml (accessed March 8, 2007).
 
2  “S.D. H.B. 1060: Bestiality is Animal Cruelty,” The Humane Society Website (2004), http://www.hsus.org/ace/16300.
 
3  “NJ A 219 Makes Bestiality Illegal,” Human Society of the United States, http://www.hsus.org/legislation_laws/state_legislation/state-legislation-list.html?state=new_jersey (accessed March 9, 2007). The assembly passed the bill, sponsored by Assemblymen Gregg and Conaway, unanimously in 2006, and now the senate has referred it to the Economic Growth Committee. See New Jersey State Legislature Website, http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp (accessed March 9, 2007).
 
4  “Illinois—Legislation 2001,” Animal Protection Institute Website (2001), http://www.api4animals.org/. In 2003, sex with animals became a felony in Illinois. See new wording in “Public Act 92-0721,” State of Illinois Public Acts 92nd General Assembly, at Illinois General Assembly Website, http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/pubact92/acts/92-0721.html (accessed March 9, 2007).
 
5  Christine Dolen, “Director, Cast Clearly Convey Enigma of ‘The Goat,’” Miami Herald, October 13, 2003, http://www.miami.com/. See also the list of past Tony winners at http://www.tonyawards.com/p/tonys_search, using “Albee” in the search.
 
6  Sam Vicchrilli, “Zoo, Can You Believe They Made a Movie about the Enumclaw Incident,” Seattle Times, January 14, 2007, http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=sundance14&date=20070114 (accessed March 8, 2007).
 
article adopte from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located on Rt. 40 across from the Principio Health Center.