While some Latter-day Saints view environmentalists among their fellow members as "extremists," there is a growing movement — at least in the scholarly community — to rethink what it means for men to have "dominion over the Earth."

That was the general consensus among speakers at the annual Mormon Studies Conference at Utah Valley State College on Wednesday, all of whom addressed the theme, "Mormonism and the Environment."

Care for animals as part of God's creation was a large part of the discussion.

Matthew Gowans, a Utah native now working on his Ph.D. in theology at Loyola University, quoted LDS scholar Hugh Nibley, who believed that "Adam was a great friend to the animals" in the Garden of Eden.

But Latter-day Saints believe once Adam was banished from the garden by God, not only did he "fall" from grace but so did the general state of life on earth, including man's relationship with animals.

"Is it possible that God placed him there to orient him as to a correct view of life?" and the sacredness of nature, Gowans said.

Only after his banishment did Adam kill animals as a sacrifice. LDS teaching says when asked by an angel why he was offering such a sacrifice, Adam replied, "I know not, save the Lord commanded me." He was then told that the sacrifice symbolized Christ, whose blood would be shed as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, Gowans said.

Animal sacrifice was a strict component of the Law of Moses, but Latter-day Saints believe Christ's atonement did away with the need to kill animals as religious offerings.

Today, the realities of daily life for ranchers, butchers and others involved in providing meat for human consumption mean "there's often no time or ability to be concerned with sentimentality toward the animals," Gowans said. In such cases, ethics may not be the major consideration.

"We don't necessarily live in ideal conditions," as existed in Eden, he said. "We live with harsh realities and have to make hard decisions."

Bart Welling, Environmental Center Fellow at the University of North Florida, is working on a book about "eco-porn" that draws analogies between what men have done to objectify and abuse women and how that same philosophy is used to treat animals as "objects" for human sport and consumption rather than as God's creation.

He said interpretations of the LDS Word of Wisdom — which eschews the use of alcohol, tobacco and "hot drinks" — have evolved over time. The mandate includes a sentence about consuming meat "sparingly," yet "if you take a nip of vodka every now and then, you hurt far fewer creatures that you do by eating a hamburger."

He said former church presidents Lorenzo Snow, Joseph F. Smith and later, Joseph Fielding Smith, quietly abstained from eating meat and were concerned with "how to treat and live with animals."