In September, the Flamingo Road Church in Cooper City, Florida, launched a new "Wild" series of sermons. As part of these sermons, live animals are being used to teach lessons from the Bible.

In the first sermon, a caged lion was on stage as a stand-in for Satan. The lion was pacing and clearly stressed by the situation. While animals play a role in the Bible, they are represented in their natural environment; their lessons are analogies, not literal. Rather than teaching respect for other living things, Flamingo Road Church reduced this lion to being a mere prop.

Using a captive wild animal may have added shock value to the sermon about Satan, but what about teaching compassion?

Ask the Flamingo Road Church to stop using live animals in their sermons and teach respect for the natural world instead.