Hallelujah! The Baylor Alumni Network has announced that it will no longer be holding its annual summer party at SeaWorld in San Antonio. Baylor joins Southwest Airlines, Taco Bell, and STA Travel, all of which recently cut ties with the abusement park.
After seeing the award-winning documentary Blackfish, Baylor’s assistant director of sustainability and special projects, Smith Getterman, realized that supporting SeaWorld didn’t align with the Christian university’s commitment to “social responsibility, health care, economic growth, human rights, poverty, diversity, and sustainability.”
Animals—including those held in pitifully small tanks at SeaWorld—want to be free, but this desire, along with other basic instincts, is thwarted in captivity, where orcas spend their days gnawing at iron bars and concrete from stress, anxiety, and boredom, sometimes breaking their teeth.
Getterman believed that ending Baylor’s support of SeaWorld was a necessary step in appreciating all of God’s creation. So what did he do? He took a copy of Blackfish and The Cove to the director of future alumni, which led to Baylor’s becoming the first Christian university to take such a stance.
God made wild animals to be free and to live in the natural habitats He made especially for them. We hope other Christian universities will take the same step in protecting marine animals by turning their back on marine parks like SeaWorld that abuse the animals we are called to protect.
