This article makes me very happy because American Christians are beginning to consider vegetarianism as a spiritual practice. And even happier because it is published in a Texas newspaper, right in cattle country. I think this shows that animal rights is a movement that will eventually reach critical mass in America, sooner than some would have guessed.
Devout vegetarians ponder: What would Jesus eat?
Christians and other people of faith abstain from holiday meat that was once God's creation
by Eileen E. Flynn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, November 29, 2004
Bill Greenway doesn't want to spoil anyone's Christmas dinner.
But if the associate professor at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary could issue a challenge to Christian carnivores, he might put it this way: "God knew that turkey when it was born and knew its life and knew its death. . . . You look at the table and you see a turkey and a piece of ham and you don't think more about it. But as God looks at this table, God sees the entire life. And God loves these animals. Where are you in that picture?"
Keep in mind, Greenway is quick to disclose, this is coming from a man who wears leather shoes. But like many Christians who feel led by faith to promote animal welfare, Greenway, who is vegetarian, is making a conscious effort to alleviate and draw attention to animal suffering.
Vegetarianism among Hindus and Buddhists is more common. But Christians have also discovered their own religious validation to protect the animals that the Bible tells them God took joy in creating. With greater awareness of some of the cruel circumstances in which animals are raised for slaughter, some are finding the food they enjoy doesn't jibe with the compassion Jesus taught.
As the ubiquitous phrase "What Would Jesus Do?" -- often reduced to WWJD on bumper stickers and bracelets -- challenges believers to emulate their lord, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals played with the slogan for its own purposes. Several years ago, the animal rights group launched a "What Wouldn't Jesus Do?" campaign.
According to PETA, Jesus wouldn't condone the conditions in factory farms and slaughterhouses, and he would likely opt for a vegetarian diet if he lived in today's world.
Greenway teaches a course on nature and theology funded by a $1.2 million gift from San Antonio businesswoman Laura McAllister Johnson.
Johnson said God called her as a little girl to raise awareness of animal suffering.
"I think we treat them with appalling shame that God must surely be aggrieved," she said. "If the poor animals had a voice . . . but they have no voice. And somebody has to give them one."
Johnson gave up meat and dairy but eats fish because the Bible says her savior did and because a vegan diet is difficult to maintain. An advocate for animal rights at home and abroad, Johnson said her concern also extends to the people who work in the slaughterhouses.
"What we have to understand is when we do things like eat meat," she said, "we require other human beings to do what we ourselves could not do."
The suffering of animals also weighed on the conscience of Rachel Clampffer, who attends First United Methodist Church in Austin. So she turned to Scripture.
"It was a secular question with a faith-based response," she said of her decision to go vegetarian four years ago. "I questioned, 'Is this right, should I be doing this?' so I started reading the Bible and talking to some ministers. And lo and behold, it came to me that it was the right thing to do."
Clampffer, Johnson and Greenway steer clear of self-righteousness when sharing their stories.
"I try to take real care in approaching this," Greenway said. "I think the ideal would be if we could all live without ever killing anything else. But that's not the world we live in."
Before the fall, in the Garden of Eden, religious scholars note, God offered his human and animal creations a specifically vegetarian diet. In Genesis 1:29, "God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."
But later in the Book of Genesis, after humans have succumbed to sin, God forms a covenant with Noah that gives people animals as food.
Jews who keep kosher must adhere to dietary restrictions that include eating only the meat of certain animals that have been slaughtered in a specific way designed to minimize suffering. Many Muslims follow similar guidelines.
In that sense, said Neil Blumofe, cantor at Congregation Agudas Achim, believers "ensure the act of eating is sanctified."
Blumofe said there are some Jews, including those who observe an "eco-kosher" lifestyle, who abstain from meat altogether. "If you're going to live by the rules of the Garden of Eden," he said, "then absolutely vegetarianism is the ideal way of life. But living in the Garden of Eden is untenable, obviously, as we were expelled from there."
Trying to argue the vegetarian position from a Biblical standpoint can be tricky, said Sue Grisham, a member of the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals who lives in Round Lake, Ill.
"When it comes to using the Bible, people can use it to argue any point they want," she said. Instead, Grisham tries to sway people with the Christian ideals of compassion and mercy. "No matter how people interpret the Bible, they can understand those concepts." Buddhists also recognize the difficulty in attaining the ideals set out in their faith precepts, said George Hasty, director of Austin Shambhala Meditation Center. But Buddhism does ask people to consider the suffering caused by their actions.
"If you do eat meat," Hasty said, "then the idea is that you would do that without ignoring the implications, not just do it mindlessly."
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