By now you may have heard that a judge in Manhattan has ordered a hearing that will determine whether chimpanzees can be considered “legal persons” in the eyes of the law.

If you hadn’t heard this by now, no, I am not making this up.

The case is trying to determine whether the two chimps are being “unlawfully detained” because they are in cages at Stony Brook University. There are groups that support the idea that some animals, such as chimps, are “legal persons” with the right to “bodily liberty.” 

Critics of such positions contend that nonhuman animals do not have legal rights any more than they have legal responsibilities. 

This is not the first case of its kind.

A Spanish parliamentary committee adopted resolutions that would give great apes, such as chimpanzees and gorillas, the right to life, freedom from arbitrary captivity and protection from torture. In other words, the same legal rights as humans. 

The reasoning was based almost entirely on what it means to be human which, according to the naturalistic philosophy in place in our world, is entirely genetic. “Chimps...share 98.5% of human DNA, making them as genetically close to humans as horses are to zebras,” noted an article in USA Today

A court case from Austria went further, wanting to actually declare a chimp a person so the animal could have a legal guardian and funds for upkeep.

So why not treat man’s closest genetic relative with the legal and cultural rights they so genetically deserve? What else, to a naturalistic mind, would there be to consider?

I have often told my graduate students in theology that the most pressing doctrine of our day may very well be the doctrine of humanity. It is the area of Christian thought that is most challenged by the world in which we live – and the one where we have the least to draw from historically.


Or declaring chimps to be “persons.” 


But we’d better get to it.

Because right now, our thinking seems to be little more than just a bunch of,

(sorry, can’t resist)

…monkey business.

James Emery White


“Judge Orders Stony Brook University to Defend Its Custody of 2 Chimps,” Jesse McKinley, The New York Times, April 21, 2015, read online.

“Chimpanzees Take a Huge Step Toward (Some) Human Rights,” Brandon Keim, Wired, April 21, 2015, read online.

Editor’s Note


Originally published May 21, 2015.