Some Canadians may benefit from a refresher on the Judeo-Christian principles they are so fond of touting. Perhaps they are unaware that it was precisely care of animals, including goat-herding, that served as the training ground for the greatest leaders of Judeo-Christian antiquity. Take for example Noah, Moses, Joseph and King David. The early lives of each of them were intricately connected to the care of animals.
Both Moses and King David spent long periods of their lives as shepherds – herders of sheep and goats – before they became leaders of people. And in the case of Moses, his job as a shepherd came after his life as a privileged, indulged member of Pharaoh’s court. It was a demotion, and seemingly a necessary one. The humility, tenderness and attentiveness of the good shepherd were prerequisites for the just exercise of power on a greater stage.
Judeo-Christian culture clearly articulates the difference between good and bad shepherds, distinctions as applicable to politics as they are to inter-species relations. Ezekiel’s “wicked shepherds” kill and gorge and enrich themselves at the expense of the flock. Their interest is in extracting for themselves the products, labour and flesh of the sheep. The wicked shepherd has no regard for the weak, the sick, the lost or the afflicted, only for power, self-aggrandizement and satisfaction of their own appetites.
However much it has been ignored and misconstrued, the standard at the core of the Judeo-Christian ethic is embodied by “the good shepherd.” The good shepherd does not kill, but lays down his life for his sheep. Due to a constant threat of predation, good shepherds had to defend and assure provision for their flocks, even at the risk of their own lives, with special concern and attention reserved for the vulnerable – the young, the weak, the sick, the injured and the marginalized. Good shepherds either naturally possess, or develop over time the sensitivity of soul and softness of heart that renders a person naturally attentive to the condition of the individual members of the flock.
Are these the Judeo-Christian principles some Canadian politicians like to extol and embody amid the frantic and noisy clamour for power? If not, perhaps a decade-long stint caring for the four-legged residents of an animal sanctuary would equip them with the requisite gentleness, sensitivity, humility and genuine devotion to the flock that leadership demands. In the words of that other great leader of Judeo-Christian antiquity, King Solomon, “that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.”
Lisa Warden, Victoria, B.C.
