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Emotional Support Animals

Truth in Love 155

Is it appropriate for Christians to use emotional support animals?

May 21, 2018

Heath Lambert: The staff of ACBC has informed me that we have received a regular and consistent amount of questions about the issue of emotional support animals and whether Christians should be involved in that practice of emotional support animals. What we’re talking about is people who use animals to minister to them in their anxiety, to minister to them in their sorrow, and we want to talk about that this week on the podcast. Now, this is a very sensitive subject. As I sit recording this podcast, before it will be released, I can see the hate mail from here. I want to be very, very clear about what I’m saying and what I’m not saying.

First of all, we should be very clear that animals—dogs, cats, and all the rest—are a part of the gift of the created order. They are part of the creation that human beings are to enjoy, and I want to say if you have an animal that you love, that is a good gift of God. There’s not a thing in the whole world wrong with having an animal that you love. If you come home from a hard day of work, or if you’re going through a hard time and there is an animal that, because of the connection that you have with that animal and the love that you feel for that animal, it gives you some comfort in a hard time, that is not controversial and that is not wrong at all.

This is not a hit piece about animals, it’s not a hit piece on people who love their animals, and it is not a hit piece on people who have been made to feel better by their animals. In fact, it’s not a hit piece at all. I love animals. I had dogs growing up that I loved and have wonderful memories with. We have a dog named Simeon who lives in our house right now, and he is a cherished part of the Lambert family. He is not a person. He’s a pet. But everybody really appreciates that our dog Simeon is a source of joy in our home. There is no reason to be unhappy about people owning animals and taking joy in animals.

Where I think Christians want to start being careful is when we would view animals as the primary means of emotional support to help us with a hard time. When we start to do that and talk about having an animal as an emotional support animal, I think there are three concerns that we need to have as Christians. The first concern is that it is sort of a subversion of the creation mandate. When Christians talk about the creation mandate, they’re talking about the teaching in Genesis 1:28-29. It says, “God blessed them [the people]; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ Then God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you.'” God is entrusting the created order to human beings.

I get concerned in some discussions about emotional support animals that, instead of fulfilling the creation mandate and having the creation be entrusted to us, we actually start to entrust ourselves to our animals. We are actually here to take care of the animals. The animals are not here to take care of us. That doesn’t mean that it’s wrong for human beings to experience benefit from animals. That’s not the point at all. We need to be careful that we get the priorities straight here. I am concerned that some discussions of emotional support animals begin to undermine the creation mandate.

The second concern that Christians need to have about emotional support animals is the pride of place in our hearts. The Bible is clear again, and again, and again, and again that we are to depend on Jesus Christ in our times of weakness. In fact, one of the teachings of Scripture in places like 2 Corinthians 12 is that the whole point of weakness is to make us weak so that the power of Christ can shine through us. It is a dangerous thing for Christians to depend as their refuge on anything other than Jesus Christ.

If we go to the refuge of money, we’re in danger. Money is a good gift, but it can’t be used to replace Jesus. If we go to the refuge of support of another human being, other human beings are gifts to us and we should be thankful for them, but they do not get pride of place over Jesus. In the context of this conversation, we need to be clear that if in our anxiety and in our sorrow, we run to an animal before we run to Jesus Christ, we have undermined the very place of Jesus in our hearts and we need to be very careful.

Here’s a third concern Christians should have when it comes to the issue of emotional support animals, and it is the issue of the love of God for His people. God knows what His people need in a hard time. God communicates what His people need when they’re in trouble. He does it all through the Bible. He does it in places like the Psalms. He does it in places like the book of Colossians, in the book of Romans, and the gospel of Matthew, and there is not a single time when God says, “When you’re in trouble what you need is an animal.” He says, “When you’re in trouble what you need is Me.” We talked about that. He very often says, “When you’re in trouble you need…” and then He always fills in the blank with what we would call the regular or the normal means of grace. He talks about prayer. He talks about Bible reading. He talks about Christian worship. He talks about Christian fellowship.

You will look in vain in the Bible to find the solution to your anxiety or the solution to your sorrow in an emotional support animal. Here, we have to trust the Lord and believe that He knows what’s good for us, and He says what’s good for us. If God thought the best way for us to resolve our anxiety and our depression was through an emotional support animal, we would have read about that in the Psalms, we would have read about that in the New Testament, we would have read about that in Genesis, and we don’t. Christian’s need to be very careful. We don’t need to be careful about loving an animal and being thankful for the grace of the gift of animals. We can and should be thankful for that. What we do need to be careful about is handing over that place in our hearts that is for Jesus and Jesus alone and trying to solve our problems in ways that are at odds with what God has said for us to do. Whenever we do that, whether it’s with money, relationship, or even an animal, we need to change.