BACKGROUND
I am a vegetarian, practically a vegan.
It hasn’t always been this way. I guess you could say that most of my life I have been one of the most devoted carnivores on the planet. I am of Norwegian extraction and was brought up on a meat and fish-filled fare. In my twenties, I remember loving to eat the fat off a prime rib my boyfriend at the time was eating. I was also a great aficionado of filet mignon, at one point looking forward to a butter-laced serving of it at a famous Miami restaurant.
But I’ve also always been an animal lover. I’m a horsewoman and have owned horses, dogs, birds, fish, cats, chickens, geese, and a goat. So how was it that I came to understand that my love for them did somehow not fit with eating them?
Some 26 years ago (I’m now 74) I became convinced. I was taking a class in medical terminology as part of a program aimed at preparing students to become licensed court reporters in the State of California. The teacher at the time, a nurse, introduced a book to us called Diet for a New America. In the book, the author’s goal was to convince the reader to become a vegetarian for health, humane, and environmental reasons. His arguments made sense to me, and I became a vegetarian from then on. Interestingly, I’ve never had a craving for meat since relinquishing it to become a vegetarian. And fortunately, I have reaped the benefits of a vegetarian life style with lowered cholesterol, steady body weight, and just that light feeling of not carrying around a heavy meal from meat.
Perhaps some of the rest of you Christians reading this article are struggling with the idea of giving up meat to eat. Perhaps even some of you raise animals for food. Here’s what I would say to you from a biblical perspective. Maybe this will give you some motivation to move towards a meatless diet and think differently about killing animals for food.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
In Genesis chapters 1 and 2 , we see that all creatures man and animal were vegetarians. The eating of meat and the circumstance of predation which provide for it didn’t come into the picture until after the fall and specifically after the Flood. This happens in Genesis 9 where God announces that the animals would have fear and dread of man. This is not surprising because we would be eating them.
And I would further argue that predation between animal and animal is different than that between animal and man. Between the animals it’s a dance for survival. Prey are equipped with ingenious paraphernalia to stand their ground against a predator or in some cases run. Both predator and prey understand what the game is and do their best to survive within it. Between man and animal, however, it’s a whole different story. In some cases in the past man’s predation against animals has been a necessity. The problem here is that the animals have often been outgunned, not having the means to survive against human weaponry. This has led to the near extinction of some species. In other cases human predation against other species has become a habit — we’ve always eaten meat; why change —a business, or a cultural imperative– some men believing their manhood is derived from it– and an addiction. As such, the eating of meat has taken on a whole new level of cruelty and barbarism in modern times.
In Leviticus, the eating of meat was associated with animal sacrifice. And the meat was not to be eaten with the blood; indeed, the blood had to be poured on the ground. This is because the life, nephesh, or soul of the creature was in the blood; in other words, the blood is the vessel of the soul. God also tells the early Hebrews which animals they may eat and which they may not. So what we see here is God putting restrictions around the eating of meat early on. My take on this is that he’s not particularly happy with it but has allowed the eating of meat as an accommodation to creatures trying to survive in a cosmos turned upside down by sin.
But that was not always his response. Instead of giving the Hebrews meat to eat in the desert, for example, He gave them manna which literally means “What is it?” (Exodus 16:4). When the Hebrews complained that they didn’t have the meat to eat in the desert that they had in Egypt, He rained so much quail down on them at one point that they could literally stuff themselves sick — a kind of ironic response in which God answers the entreaties of the Hebrews but in a way which teaches them a lesson. Sometimes what we want may not be good for us. “You want meat? Okay, I’ll give you meat. Here’s so much meat, you’ll die eating it.” (Numbers 11). As a good Jew, we presume Jesus ate meat but did so by following the precepts of the Law; that is, meat only from those animals prescribed by the Law and absent the blood which must be poured on the ground. But we know as he said on the cross, it is finished (John 19:30).
TODAY AND WHAT WE MUST DO
My read of the progression of events in the Bible is that they point to God’s intent to abolish predation and return creation to the peaceable kingdom. Isaiah, for example, notes how the lion will lie down with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6-9). Romans 8, furthermore, describes the hope that Messiah will bring through believers who will rescue and restore the creatures to a state of harmony with the human being.
Today meat eating by human beings comes with suffering. The animals have within them the means for a quick kill. The human being, however, slaughters indiscriminately whether in a factory farm, or from a hunter’s ill-aimed rifle or cross-bow. Most Christians aren’t aware of the suffering, however, because meat these days comes conveniently covered in saran wrap like a potato.
As Christians following in Jesus’s footsteps, we are duty bound to alleviate suffering wherever we find it. One of the ways to do this is to look for tasty alternatives to meat and dairy, using spices and fats and heavier fare such as pie crusts and pasta.
CONCLUSION AND CALL TO ACTION
Given what I’ve said, how does the reader envision making changes to his eating habits which will lead to the more peaceable kingdom as recorded in Isaiah and Romans 8. Please record your comments in the area provided.
REFERENCES
Linzey, Andrew, Creatures of the Same God, Lantern Publishing and Media, Brooklyn, New York, June 1, 2009
Linzey, Andrew, Animal Theology – University of Illinois Press, January 1, 1995.
Robbins, John Diet for a New America; How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth, H.J. Kramer New World Library, Novato, California December 11, 2012