Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
The Only Diet for a Peacemaker Is a Vegetarian Diet
In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last week to speak at the National Convention of Unitarian Universalists, I met my old friend Bruce Friedrich. We spent eight memorable months together in a tiny jail cell, along with Philip Berrigan, for our 1993 Plowshares disarmament action. A former Catholic Worker, Bruce is now one of the leaders of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He gave a brilliant workshop on the importance of becoming a vegetarian, something I urge everyone to consider.
I became a vegetarian with a few other Jesuit novices shortly after I entered the Jesuits in 1982 and later wrote a pamphlet for PETA, "Christianity and Vegetarianism." I based my decision solely on Francis Moore Lappe's classic work, Diet for a Small Planet, a book that I think everyone should read.
In it, Lappe, the great advocate for the hungry, makes an unassailable case that vegetarianism is the best way to eliminate world hunger and to sustain the environment.
At first glance, we wonder how that could be. But it's undisputable. A hundred million tons of grain go yearly for biofuel -- a morally questionable use of foodstuffs. But more than seven times that much -- some 760 million tons according to the United Nations -- go into the bellies of farmed animals, this to fatten them up so that sirloin, hamburgers and pork roast grace the tables of First-World people. It boils down to this. Over 70 percent of U.S. grain and 80 percent of corn is fed to farm animals rather than people.
Conscience dictates that the grain should stay where it is grown, from South America to Africa. And it should be fed to the local malnourished poor, not to the chickens destined for our KFC buckets. The environmental think-tank, the World Watch Institute, sums it up: "Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grain to animals, creating competition for grain between affluent meat eaters and the world's poor."
Meanwhile, eating meat causes almost 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world combined. (The world's 1.3 billion cattle release tons of methane into the atmosphere, and hundreds of millions tons of CO2 are released by burning forests due to dry conditions as in California or due to purposeful burns to create cow pastures in Latin America.)
And global warming isn't the only environmental issue. Almost 40 years ago, Lappe spelled out the environmental consequences of eating meat in stark relief. But more recently, her analysis received some high-power validation. The United Nations recently published "Livestock's Long Shadow." It concludes that eating meat is "one of the most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." And it insists that the meat industry "should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."
Much of our potable water and much of our fossil fuel supply is wasted on rearing chickens, pigs, and other animals for humans to eat. And over 50 percent of forests worldwide have been cleared to raise or feed livestock for meat-eating. (A recent protest in Brazil denounced Kentucky Fried Chicken for clearing thousands of acres of untouched Amazon rain forest for chicken feed.)
As a Christian, I became a vegetarian because of the Gospel mandate of Matthew 25, "Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me" -- because I do not want my appetites to contribute to the ongoing oppression of the world's starving masses. As a Catholic and Jesuit, I want somehow to side with the poor and hungry.
But another issue arises, too, over the decades, I've learned that our appetite for meat leads to cruelty to animals -- chickens pressed wing-to-wing into filthy sheds and de-beaked, for example. And since I've always espoused creative nonviolence as the fundamental Gospel value, my vegetarianism helps me not to participate in the vicious torture and destruction of billions of cows, chickens, and so many other creatures.
The chickens never raise families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything natural. Often they are tormented or tortured before they are slowly killed, as PETA has repeatedly documented in its undercover investigations -- for your chicken dinner or hamburger. (All this is documented on a video narrated by Alec Baldwin, at www.Meat.org.)
Animals have feelings, they suffer; they have needs and desires. They were created by God to raise their families and breath fresh air; and if chickens to peck in the grass, if pigs to root in the soil. Today's farms don't let them do anything God designed them to do. Animal scientists attest that farm animals have personalities and interests, that chickens and pigs are smarter than dogs and cats.
Animals figure in the Gospels. They brim with lovely, respectful images of animals. Clearly Jesus was familiar with animals, and cared for them, as he urged us to look at the birds of the air or be his sheep. He even identified himself as "a mother hen who longs to gather us under her wings."
And animals figure in the Hebrew Bible. Isaiah 11, a vision of reconciled creation, dreams of a day when "the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together with a little child to guide them. The cow and the beast shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest. The lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra's den and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the God of peace, as water covers the sea." (Isaiah 11:1-9)
A vision of a nonviolent world, all creatures nonviolent, children safely at play with them, and no violence anywhere. That is the peaceful vision of creation that we are called to pursue -- in every aspect of our lives, from the jobs we hold, to our use of gasoline and alternative energies, to what we eat and wear, say and do.
I admire the Bible's greatest vegetarian, Daniel, the nonviolent resister who refused to defile himself by eating the king's meat. He and three friends became healthier than anyone else through their vegetarian diet. And they excelled in wisdom, for "God rewards them with knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom."
In his workshop at the Unitarian Universalists convention, Bruce added another beautiful image, the Garden of Eden. The Bible opens with a vision of paradise where God, animals, and humans recreate in peace together. Clearly, the Bible calls us to return to that paradise.
And Bruce reminded us that from the beginning we are directed to be vegetarians. Genesis 1:29 says, "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food."
Biblical images and justice issues aside, there are medical reasons to stop eating meat. Vegetarian diets help keep our weight down, support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases, including the U.S.'s three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer and strokes.
Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn both have 100 percent success in preventing and reversing heart disease using a vegan diet. Meanwhile, Dr. T. Colin Campbell writes that one of the leading causes of human cancer is animal protein. More, vegetarians are also less prone to developing adult-onset diabetes. And then we have to contend with the spread of Mad Cow disease and Avian influenza. One could almost argue that the human body is not designed for meat-eating.
But for me being vegetarian boils down to peacemaking. If you want to be a peacemaker, Bruce said, reflecting the sentiments of Leo Tolstoy, you will want to eat as peaceful a diet as possible. "Vegetarianism," Tolstoy wrote, "is the taproot of humanitarianism." Other great humanitarians like Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer and Thich Nhat Hanh agree. The only diet for a peacemaker is a vegetarian diet.
"Not to hurt our humble brethren, the animals," St. Francis of Assisi said, "is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission: to be of service to them whenever they require it. If you have people who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity," he continued, "you will have people who will deal likewise with other people."
So it was good to visit with my friend Bruce, and hear once again the wisdom of vegetarianism. It's a key ingredient in the new life of peace, compassion and nonviolence.
107 Comments so far
Show Allsoooo...... i am against peace and for violence???!!!!
jbs --- I presume that you are FOR peace. And the author is encouraging you to consider a vegetarian diet as a way of enacting your peaceful mission. And I might add it does not have to be an all or nothing decision. It would help a lot if you would simply eat LESS meat.
A friend of mine was talking about how they don't let their shower water go down the drain and use it to flush their toilet.
He eats beef, so I told him for every hamburger he has I get to flush my toilet 300+ times. It registered in his brain, sorta.
Face it, unless you are hunting for your meat, you are part of the destruction of the enviroment by consuming meat from the grocery store.
Nutrition is not religion. Absolutes conceal violence and hidden agendas. We got bigger alligators on our plate than Vegan Orthodoxy, Priest. And BTW:
Next time you cowboys start kow-towing to your Ghandi pretenses please include the following:
1. He told his wife to refuse to take penicillin because he was a fundamentalist opposed to all such medicines and if she took the medicine it would "Break his faith". He gave her Ganges river water and she died. Six months later he was down with a fatal illness and HE TOOK THE MEDICINE all the while dissing it to the world.
2. In public statements before his assassination he said Europe should have surrendered to Hitler without firing a shot and the Jews should have willingly thrown themselves and their children onto the bayonets of the Germans and delivered themselves to the gas chambers.
YES. HE DID. Ghandi was never a minority in his own country and NEVER faced annihilation. Deletion is simply another way of lying Priest.
an analysis of anatomy and physiology reveals humans are herbivores (vegetarians)...
http://www.earthsave.ca/articles/health/comparative.html
Actually, an analysis of anatomy and physiology reveals Homo sapiens to be an omnivore. A degree in Zoology helps one to avoid irrational beliefs. BTW, Jesus also said, "What you put in your mouth won't defile you, but what comes out can."
luckylefty: I don't see in the article where John Dear mentions Ghandi. I know of the incidents you mention (since they were just on CD a few days ago, another author), but your comments don't apply here.
Mr. Dear, I have found your writings to be thought-producing. Thank you. I've been cutting back on animal products and your reference to Matthew 25, "Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me" brings the topic close to home. I am a non-Christian who finds tremendous wisdom in the teachings of the man, Jesus.
Sincere question - how do I handle this vis a vis my two cats? They eat animal products. I've tried the vegetarian food with them and fear for their health and lives if that's all I gave to them.
Good article.
If you hunt you are also destroying the environment. Only real natural born carnivores like wolves and tigers(born with the equipment for hunting) are doing it naturally.
humans cannot.
Unless they do it without tools.
In fact, even the tool is more of a hunter than the human.
Because the gun may be resting against a rock and the wind blows it over, and it fires and kills(or a dog may pull the trigger and kill the hunter).
But without the gun or spear humans are absolutely nothing.
Meat eating itself(not just factory farms) cannot be justified in the 21st century..unless you allow that rape, child abuse, homicide, and anything else that we consider wrong is also allowed.
Cant have your cake and eat it too.
http://animalvegfaq.tripod.com
There is going to be a huge outbreak of mad cow disease, it's likely going to be part of a big dieoff. Mad cow disease can take decades to surface in people.
Based on the mentality of the average American it's easy to assume there are holes devoloping in their brain already.
Juliann, cats are one of the few animals that can survive on meat only. They are supposed to be carnivours, it's ok.
Humans ARE omnivores. Our physiology confirms this, our sustained history of meat-eating and agriculture confirms this. We used our brains to yield bigger crops, we used the same brains to kill bigger animals. Nature gave us our brains to overcome our lack of brawn, thus it is natural for us to continue to eat whatever we can get our hands on. Saying you shouldn't eat an animal you can't subdue, kill, and eat with your bare hands is like saying you shouldn't eat plants that you can't grow, harvest, and eat with your bare hands.
The real issue at hand is, as with most human technology, we put fail to put responsible limits on its application. Its likely that we could devise a way to sustain meat-eating at a non or less destructive level - problem is that interferes with unfettered profits.
Vegetarians, yes you're easing the situation. Pat yourself on the back and let me eat my steak in peace, Goddamnit.
You don't have to eat meat to survive, you choose to eat meat and partake in the destruction of the enviroment that consumption causes.
If you want to eat meat, of course it is your choice but at least be honest with yourself about how damaging it is to my enviroment.
And any parents who have their kids eat meat should do them a big favor and let them witness the killing of the animals. At least keep it real for the kids, if you want to eat meat, you have to kill them first.
I love the comparison between killing animals and killing vegetables. Lets go to a farm, I will kill a head of lettuce and you slaughter a pig, we will see how similar it is.
So I need to feed my cat meat, but I should become a vegetarian myself? What should I do with my Oscar?
John Dear apparently shares a religious faith with Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy. If Dear can somehow convince those five guys to go vegetarian permanently, I believe he should be nominated for a peace prize and a justice prize too.
I subscribe to my own far-out theory that some Catholics are very influential on other Catholics, sharing a large body of ideology as they do. Go for it, John. We need your thinking to be poured all over our Supreme Court.
Safiyyah, there is no should about what you do. But realize by eating meat you are destroying the enviroment more than you would if you did not eat meat.
Feed your pets the diet they would eat on their own.
My apologies. He DOES mention Gandhi. In doing the search I misspelled the name.
How about soylent green? Think of all the protein available that is being wasted in burying the carcasses of the men, women and children Republicans and conservative Democrats kill.
Problem feeding meat to your cat? Eat your cat. No problem.
Mr. Dear is correct.
Eating meat is violence.
Look at how meat comes to your plate.
I'll list some films (if you dare watch them):
"EARTHLINGS" (excellent)
"Peaceable Kingdom" (also, excellent)
If you must eat meat, then at least make sure its from a local farm that at least gives the animals a humane life.
Peace. (and Vote Nader)
Of course, we should recall that one of the evilest, most warlike and hateful men who ever lived---Adolf Hitler---was a vegetarian, and a passionate one.
If we will all go vegan, the Earth will be able to carry more people. How wonderful!
I'm glad to see so many recent articles here on vegetarianism. Mostly because I agree with them as I am a vegetarian myself. I became one after much reflection on the inner turmoil caused by passionately opposing the slaughter of war while feasting on the flesh of slaughtered animals. I could easily have alleviated the turmoil by being dishonest and convincing myself that the two are not related, but deep in my heart I knew they were.
But I'm also glad to see these articles because it shows just how much improvement the peace movement needs. I'm talking about all our pro-peace/devout meat-eating posters here who lash out in veritable rage at the suggestion that vegetarianism is an important step on the path to peace. The words in the above article merit a sincere and quiet reflection. And if you're only reaction to it is anger, then there is something within you that needs addressing and correcting if you are truly to be an instrument of peace.
There is no better tool to have in engaging supporters of war than a clear conscience, consistency in thought, word, and deed.
All this anger at vegetarians shows that there is something tearing you apart inside. Seek it out and rid yourself of it.
You guys are ridiculous.
This is the perfect example why nothing positive gets done to move our nation forward. People are so closed minded and want to hold on to their current lifestyle so bad, they can't even see the point trying to be made in the article.
Just firing back and forth on what our bodies were made for and bible versus that support either view.
First. If you still use the bible to argue a point you must have been living under a rock the past 2000 years and missed what religious texts have done to our world.
Second. Eat meat if you choose. But don't pretend that your actions don't impact the rest of the world.
But here is something I would like you all to meditate on.
The point I would like to make is those who can mass slaughter hundreds of thousands of animals not to feed people but as a profit use the ideal that "They are just animals". As to express the inferiority of the species. This is why blacks are looked at as a commodity. We are just animals here to serve a purpose and then can be disposed of. Iraqi's, Hispanic's, Asians, Native Americans, etc, are treated with callous disregard because they are seen as inferior. The superiority complex of many Anglo Saxon's comes from the herding culture. The culture expressed in the mass herding and slaughter of animals.
Native Americans were systematicly removed from the face of the planet. Jews during the Holocaust were treated the same way. Picked up and hauled off to concentration camps then systematically destroyed for no true purpose. The Japanese Americans during the war were treated the same way in internment camps. Blacks the same during the Civil rights period, and those of Middle Eastern decent are treated that way now.
The key to being able to eat meat is realizing that animals are living feeling beings. And as long as you are conscious in the fact that this living entity gave its life to allow you to continue yours then you are more likely to appreciate the lives of other living entities.
You see all life as precious. You see all people as equals. As Humans. Not as Gays or Straights, Whites, Blacks, Reds, or Yellows. Not as elites and the disheveled. But as people banded together for a common cause; which is to ensure the healthy and fruitful survival of all of our nations, its peoples and the planet that we inhabit.
The same reason people continue to eat meat is the same reason they continue to smoke. Pure ignorance and laziness. You know that is bad for your and its bad for everyone around you yet we continue to do it because we are a stupid species who will self destruct.
I am tired of trying to pretty it up with eloquent words and narration. We are stupid. We are going to deliver an uninhabitable world to our children and our childrens children filled with pollution and contamination which will kill most of them. And those who live will be trapped within and Orwellian fascist police/militarized state.
Their food will be even more processed and chemically engineered and radiation filled. The air will not be breathable, and they will have been stripped of all rights. And it will not be a world that any of us would be able to recognize. This is our gift to them for our malfeasance, laziness, and unwillingness to take responsibility for our own actions.
Future.me
The most-repeated argument against biblical vegetarianism I've gotten from Christians is that they think they are no longer under Mosaic Law, because the apostle Paul referred to his background as a former Pharisee and his previous adherence to Mosaic Law (with its dietary laws, commandments calling for the humane treatment of animals, etc.) as "so much garbage." (Philippians 3:4-8)
There is nothing in the synoptic gospels of Jesus, however, to suggest a fundamental break with Judaism. Jesus was called "Rabbi," meaning "Master" or "Teacher," 42 times in the gospels. The ministry of Jesus was a rabbinic one. Jesus related Scripture and God's laws to everyday life, teaching by personal example. He engaged in healing and acts of mercy. He told stories or parables--a rabbinic method of teaching. He went to the synagogue (Matthew 12:9), taught in the synagogues (Matthew 4:23, 13:54; Mark 1:39), expressed concern for Jairus, "one of the rulers of the synagogue" (Mark 5:36) and it "was his custom" to go to the synagogue (Luke 4:16).
Jesus began his ministry by teaching the multitudes not to "give what is sacred to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine." (Matthew 7:6) Dogs, like swine, were considered foul and unclean by the Hebrew people. (Deuteronomy 23:18; I Samuel 24:14; II Kings 8:13; Psalm 22:16,20; Matthew 7:6; Luke 16:21; Revelations 22:15) These words were used by the children of Israel to describe the neighboring heathen populations.
When sending his disciples out to preach, Jesus instructed them not to go to the gentiles, but to "go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 10:5-6) When a Canaanite woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter, he replied, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel...It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." (Matthew 15:22-28)
Jesus regarded the gentiles as "dogs." His gospel was intended for the Jewish people. Even the apostle Paul admits that the gospel was first intended for the Jews, and that the Jews have every advantage over the gentiles in this regard (Romans 1:16, 3:1-2).
When a scribe asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment in the Torah, Jesus began with "Hear O Israel, the Lord, thy God, is One Lord." This is the Shema, which is still heard in every synagogue service to this day. "And you shall love the Lord with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength...And you shall love your neighbor as yourself," Jesus concluded.
When the scribe agreed that God is one and that to love Him completely and also love one's neighbor as oneself is "more important than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices," Jesus replied, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." (Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:29-34; Luke 10:25-28)
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus himself said, "Do not suppose I have come to abolish the Law and the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill...till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tittle pass from the Law till all is fulfilled. Whoever, therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven...unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-20)
Jesus also upheld the Torah in Luke 16:17: "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest portion of the Law to become invalid."
Nor do these words refer merely to the Ten Commandments. Jesus meant the entire Torah: 613 commandments. When a man asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus replied, "You know the commandments." He then quoted not just the Ten Commandments, but a commandment from Leviticus 19:13 as well: "Do not defraud." (Mark 10:17-22)
Jesus' disciples were once accused by the scribes and Pharisees of violating rabbinical tradition (Matthew 15:1-2; Mark 7:5), but not biblical law. At no place in the entire New Testament does Jesus ever proclaim Torah or the Law of Moses to be abolished; this was the theology of Paul, a former Pharisee who never knew Jesus, but who used to persecute Jesus' followers. Paul openly identified himself not as a Jew but as a Roman (Acts 22:25-26) and an apostate from Judaism (Philippians 3:4-8)
Sometimes Christians cite Matthew 7:12, where Jesus says "Do unto others..." and this "covers" the Law and the prophets. But Jesus was merely repeating in the positive what Rabbi Hillel taught a generation earlier. No one took Hillel's words to mean the Law had been abolished--why should we assume this of Jesus?
If Jesus really did come to abolish the Law and the prophets, Simon (Peter) would not have resisted a divine command to kill and eat both "clean" and "unclean" animals (Acts 10), nor would there have been a debate in the early church as to what extent the gentiles were to observe Mosaic Law (Acts 15). When Paul visited the church at Jerusalem, James and the elders told him all its members were "zealous for the Law," and that they were worried because they heard rumors that Paul was preaching against Mosaic Law (Acts 21).
None of these events would have happened had Jesus really come to abolish the Law and the prophets. Jesus not only repeatedly upheld Mosaic Law, he justified his healing on the Sabbath by referring to commandments calling for the humane treatment of animals!
While teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, Jesus healed a woman who had been ill for eighteen years. He justified his healing work on the Sabbath by referring to biblical passages calling for the humane treatment of animals as well as their rest on the Sabbath. "So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham...be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" Jesus asked. (Luke 13:10-16)
On yet another occasion, Jesus again referred to Torah teaching on "tsa'ar ba'alei chayim" or compassion for animals to justify healing on the Sabbath. "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?" (Luke 14:1-5)
Jesus compared saving sinners who had gone astray from God's kingdom to rescuing lost sheep. He recalled a Jewish legend about Moses' compassion as a shepherd for his flock:
"For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? Who among you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it," Jesus continued, "he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home,he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'
"I say to you, likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance...there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Matthew 18:11-13; Luke 15:3-7,10)
Paul, on the other hand, said if anyone has confidence in Mosaic Law, "I am ahead of him" (Philippians 3:4-8). Would that include Jesus, who said he did not come to abolish the Law and the prophets? Would that include Jesus, who said whoever sets aside even the least of the laws demands shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:17-19)? Would that include Jesus, who taught that following the commandments of God is the only way to eternal life (Mark 10:17-22)? Would that include Jesus who said that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest portion of the Law to become invalid (Luke 16:17)?
Paul may have regarded his previous adherence to Mosaic Law as "so much garbage," but it should be obvious by now that JESUS DIDN'T THINK THE LAW WAS "GARBAGE"!
If Christians assign greater value to Paul's teachings over those of Jesus, then "Christianity" really is "Paulianity". Bertrand Russell referred to Paul as the "inventor" of Christianity.
I'm not saying Christians should all be circumcised and following Mosaic Law. The Reverend Andrew Linzey, the foremost theologian in the field of animal-human relations and author of Christianity and the Rights of Animals (1987), rejected such an approach in a 1989 interview with the Animals' Agenda.
I'm merely saying that Christianity for the past 2000 years has been based on a misunderstanding. My friend Rankin Fisher (a former Missionary Baptist minister), quoted a Methodist minister friend of his as having admitted, "We (Christians) aren't really following Jesus. We're following Paul."
Gnosis1,
how is an objective analysis of anatomy an irrational belief? I dont follow your argument, and can you please point out the fallacies of the article I linked? I actually am curious to know if it is bogus or not. It looks legit to me
I dare anyone who eats meat to go to a ranch and kill a cow, chicken or pig themselves. Don't forget to take your children so they can learn how to take life as well. Have them help as you tear the skin off and remove the organs.
Let us know how it goes. If you can't do that then you should not be eating meat.
All I've got is a red guitar, Three chords and The Truth.
All I've got is my bleedin' heart, and a voice cryin' out
of the wilderness to you
I see there is a way out of here,
a way to get some relief...
...I AM very small, I AM so very very small,
So small as to indwell the heart of every atom,
and I AM beyond your comprehension...
Listen to me;
I hear Wisdom calling from the highest point of the city;
*'Wisdom has built her house and She calls to all; "Come, eat my food and drink my wine and you will live abundant life and walk in the ways of understanding." [*Proverbs 9: 4-6]
Wisdom calls; "I have built it; will you come? Do you have eyes to see and ears to hear?
Holy Wisdom, the Feminine Divinity: Hokema,
Who was with The Word from the very beginning,
She is One with Him and He with Her;
Pure Being; One God;
One Creator; One Lover of All the Human Family...
...The God Head is One Pure Being;
as much male as female
as much mommy as daddy.
And we are all children of Her Universe;
And **He is the oldest personality because He is the origin of everything;
and everything is born of Him.
He is the supreme controller of the universe,
the maintainer and instructor of humanity.
He is smaller than the smallest.[**Bhagavad-Gita]
He indwells the heart of every atom and
She is beyond the Universe.
Wisdom is calling,
She is rattling your windows and shaking your walls
With some more good news of the
three witnesses,
and three always beats one
and not just that,
I've got a fourth.
Get out your Good Book sisters and brothers and CHEW on this;
Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:28-29, and Luke 12:10
are simpatico with gnostic Thomas saying 44:
'Jesus said: "Whoever blasphemes against the father will be forgiven, whoever blasphemes against the son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven."
Listen to me, God is within every sister, brother and all Creation,
wake up to your own and all other's divinity and
Get a clue Christian:
His ways are not your ways and Her thoughts are not your thoughts
Dominion never meant to rape and plunder,
but to nurture, care and love
And if you have not love, you have nothing at all
And on that final day we all will stand naked before The Creator
And we have been warned that there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth
by those who were so sure they were in, because they are the ones left out.
WAKE UP Christian!
Hear the wind begin to howl.
excerpted from "KEEP HOPE ALIVE" Chapter 17: All I've Got, by eileen fleming
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
vasumurti July 10th, 2008 3:37 pm
Thanks alot Vasumurti, Usually those who quote the bible are not as informative.
Thanks again,
Future.me
As a vegan, I really hate the bashing of meat-eaters. Let them eat meat. Should I start attacking vegetarians for eating dairy? It is totally unrealistic to suppose that the whole of the human population will give up meat. Instead, let's unite over the issue the issue of sustainability and health. Buy free range organic meat, don't buy anything from factory farms. If you eat meat everyday, try taking a day off now and again. If you are an environmentalist committed to personal responsibility, you might want to consider a change of diet. But let's face it, it is still possible to be an environmentalist and eat meat (or drive a car).
I try to not bash meat eaters but I do want them to fully understand that their package of deli slices came from an animal.
Especially children who are just fed meat in between to pieces of bread with no idea of what happened to the animal that used to be that slab of meat.
If you can't look an animal in the eye and then kill it, you should not eat meat.
I guaranty if you take a 5 year old to slaughter a cow they are going to have very different thoughts running through their head the next time they go to McDonalds, which they should.
The disconnect of the fact that an animal died and that you are eating it's flesh is a problem with the typical american meat diet. Take responsability for that life that is gone just so you can eat something that you think is tasty.
Take a hot dog for example, how many kids would happily chow those down if they have heard the squeal of dieing pig and watched as the life left it's body, it's body is ripped open and torn apart.
I haven't seen an objective analysis of anatomy and physiology here. So here goes. First, Homo sapiens has the dentition (teeth)not of an herbivore, but of an omnivore. Herbivores have teeth specifically evolved for grinding coarse food--usually for an extended period of time. Carnivores have dentition for tearing and ripping. Omnivores such as humans have teeth that are intermediate between herbivores and carnivores. Second, herbivores have long gastrointestinal tracts (often with multi-chambered stomachs)for getting as much nutrition out of difficult to digest and nutritionally poor plants. Carnivores have much shorter GI tracts since their food is nutrient rich. Omnivores such as humans have GI tracts that are intermediate between herbivores and carnivores. Also, from an evolutionary viewpoint, all the paleontological evidence dating back to the Australopithecines and beyond reveals hominids to be opportunistic omnivores. And for you vegans. Humans have been cooking their food for about half a million years. Finally, mammalian carnivores are much more intelligent than mammalian herbivores because hunting requires skills/insight that grazing does not. Having said all that, I think meat is a better ingredient than entree. Bon appetit!
Well of couse the human body can assimilate meat, I don't think that is the point.
Just because I can shoot you in the face doesn't mean I should.
But even Bruce Friedrich cautions about a vegetarian diet, and mentions that eating meat has advantages. Look at his own website:
http://brucefriedrich.org/Top_Five_Nutrients.html
It's a column called Top Five Nutrients Vegetarians Lack. It warns of consequences, short or long-term, of vegetarianism, and is open about facts like B12 existing in no plant source.
There is nothing whatsoever wrong with eating meat. The way meat is raised is as bad as the way plants are raised for the most part, but that does not make the Amish wrong, or hunters wrong, or the 97+% of us who eat meat wrong. And I have noticed that many vegetarians simply don't last. maybe you shouldn't get to call yourself that for at least 3 years.
Well, it's nice to know that those of us that CANNOT exist on a vegetarian/vegan diet get to be second class citizens to you "holy" types??
Mr. Dear, you act as if you possess all the wisdom of the world, while what you have is a complete lack of understanding of ANY physiology other than your own.
If total CRAP like this article and some of the comments here are "the future" of the Progressive/Populist movement, we're dead in the water, and we might as well hand McCain the keys to Air Force One and let him crash it like he did five other planes the Navy gave him to fly.
I despair at the mindset that wants to take time out from all the multitudes of ills that face our world to pick fights over what one eats. YES, less reliance on animal protein would be fiscally and ecologically sound, but THIS extremist bullshit? Is just that, bullshit.
And, if you have questions about my NEED to eat meat, understand that my screen name (minus the numbers) is also my major illness.I have half a stomach, about to lose more, and I MUST have a lot of high quality protein every day. And I'm allergic to eggs.
So, Mr. (excuse me, Father) Smart Guy, what's YOUR solution? And is it sound medical theory as well? If not, get your needle nose out of my dinner bowl.
And that goes for the rest of you as well.
===
Edit to add, I HAVE hunted, I HAVE had to slaughter. As a child, we wouldn't have had sufficient food if we had not done so. I also can fish and catch crab, and have even shrimped. I understand where it comes from, I try to buy locally, not factory farmed meat and poultry.
I GET IT. Why can't some of YOU get it that NOT everybody is YOU?? And not every body's body is the same? And that way too often, being an absolutist just proves that you're an absolute idiot??
When my children were small and people would ask what religion they were, they would answer, "vegetarian". We don't eat this way for any religious reasons. All people would benefit from a vegetarian diet, but only if they make the choice to do so. My children have never consumed animal products. They are peaceful, compassionate, smart, and healthy. They tend to be the more compassionate children in their classes and teachers comment on how they stand out from others with regard to how they care about classmates and others. They have learned this from us and from the choice we made to not feed them animal products. They respect all living things.
Someone (a meat-eater) once commented on how he felt that people get aggression from the blood in meat. It's certainly interesting to think about. We don't push our beliefs on anyone however, we don't feed meat-eaters meat in our house. We feel that by offering good-tasting, interesting food we expose people to vegetarianism and hopefully, allow them to become more open to choices other than meat. When we are invited to eat at friends' houses, they always consider our diet and always have food for us without any problems.
I do feel that eating meat does impact our environment in a negative way and that the world supply of food would be greater if grains weren't used for feeding animals, who are then consumed themselves. However, not being judgmental and by exposing others to a vegetarian diet allows people to make better choices with regard to meat. I resent when people have said that I am doing a bad thing for my children by not eating meat, so how would a meat-eater respond if someone said the same thing to them? I think that explains some of the responses meat-eaters have had in response to this article.
Oh, and yes, our dog is a carnivore. This is what his teeth and digestive system were designed for. Human canines aren't like a dog's or cat's and don't seem as though they are for ripping meat, like certain animals.
Interesting that Mr. Forgiveness has thoughts of shooting me in the face.
I have been vegetarian for 14 years now. I have not been to a doctor once in those 14 years, my body is healthier now than when I was 18.
My cat will take a small animal, even a bird sometimes, kill it, and eat it. All of it. Raw. Could you do that? I'll bet you couldn't even if you were starving. So, are you a carnivore/omnivore? Or, more correctly, a carrion eater?
Here's another couple of thoughts: Which nation is the fattest in the world? And which nation eats the most meat (processed into junk food)?
You can be fat and be a vegetarian, you just have to try a little harder.
All this talk about slaughtering animals, figured the slaughtering of humans was a good analogy. You are just another animal.
Actually, being raised on American culture makes me more of a vegetable.
Forgiveness--
I totally agree that watching how animals are slaughtered will change someone and whether they can continue eating meat forever. Too many people are eating things without thinking about what it once was and more importantly, where it came from. If eating meat, people should opt for the more humane options such as free-range.
Thundermoon-
Anyone eating a vegetarian diet should be educated about combining different food sources to get all the nutrients they need. This helps make up for those things found only in meat. We took our children to a pediatric nutritionist at a world-renowned children's hospital when they started eating what we did to make sure they were getting everything they needed to grow up healthy. I knew how to eat for myself, but wasn't sure that would be appropriate for a child. The analysis showed that without the breastmilk they were still consuming, they were getting 97% of their needs met and that most people don't get that percentage without supplements. Also, why don't vegetarians last? I think living in a place where you can buy the food you need and to have choices is probably the biggest reason why. People need to stop being judgmental with regard to diet choices, whether vegetarian or omnivore. I have been a vegetarian most of my life and I challenge anyone to have my health and energy. Let's not forget how fat America is. It's interesting how much my family stands out many places we go because you just won't see a fat vegetarian.
carcinoid112-
I promise not to judge you for eating meat if you don't judge me for eating a plant-based diet. I don't think anyone is trying to tell the meat-eaters that they are "second-class citizens".
You know, I wonder if people would eat animals if they spoke english (or whatever language). If not isn't that weird.
Their English would probably be better than most Americans. They might also tell us how they'd like to be prepared.
thundermoon-
I checked out http://brucefriedrich.org/Top_Five_Nutrients.html. Your information wasn't as complete as his which states:
As I outlined, there are a number of nutrients
vegetarians can lack of they do not research
and plan. This is not meant to discourage
people from becoming vegetarians, but instead
to encourage them to spend time planning a
health approach to their vegetarian diet
before starting it.
When planned adequately, a vegetarian diet
can not only make up for what it lacks from
animal products, but it can far exceed
the healthfulness of most non-vegetarian diets.
Anyone eating any healthy diet, whether plant or animal based should know some nutrition and learn what to eat for optimum health. As I stated before, most Americans don't do this as evidenced by how fat they are.
PShaw-
I totally agree that you can be fat and vegetarian, but it is very difficult to do.
p
More of the same ignorant tripe in the comments section - the ineffectual dogmatic pacifist vegans claiming that humans are unable to hold two opposing beliefs in mind at once, and that somehow a personal quest for moral purity will somehow stop the killing and destruction of the planet. It's tiring. It's also tiring to see the typical arguments:
we're herbivores
eating meat = enslaving and slaughtering humans
personal moral rectitude is the only way to true salvation (Pat Robertson, is that you?!)
This article would've actually made sense if the author bothered to make the distinction between industrial meat and all meat. The fact that livestock animals can be part of (and are in fact necessary for, in some cases) regeneratively sustainable human ecosystems is ignored here as it typically is by dogmatic veggie-vores.
Of course, there's the standard "If you want to eat meat, go out and kill it yourself, murderer!" I wish, however, that the logic would instead be something more holistic. What if instead of challenging each other to kill animals (or plants), this discussion led to challenges to each other and our communities to raise our own food (animal, vegetable, fungus, etc.) where we live and harvest (and kill) it all ourselves.
Personally, I'll be happy to hunt the young buck who keeps coming and munching in my garden. He's making it harder for me to be vegetarian, and he can't find enough forage because there are too many deer and not enough predators here. And yes, I'll gut, skin, and butcher him myself if he lets me take his life for my own. And yes, you bet your life my children will know how to take life to sustain theirs as well, be it animal or otherwise.
The challenge for our time is not to seek moral purity by the standards of some abstract ideology, but to seek sustainable, regenerative ways of living with the land that supports us.
Tripe? Do I smell menudo? Mui bueno.
You speak for yourself 'open-minded'. As far as I am concerned meat-eaters are not second-class citizens, they are third-rate human beings. Why, would you want to go around killing "god's" (I'm an atheist) critters? I have never met an animal I didn't like and, for the most part, who didn't like me -- even some wild ones. I could certainly not say the same for humans, who are the most pernicious species that ever roamed the earth.
BTW, Samoans are the fattest people on earth.
PShaw-
If you read what I agreed with in my comments, you could have saved yourself this last post. I merely agreed that there indeed can be a fat vegetarian, but it is difficult to do. Obviously I don't believe that people should kill animals, having been a vegetarian for most of my life. Please see which comment of yours I was responding to. I don't think that you can possibly encourage meat-eaters to even try a vegetarian diet with your aggressive stance. I won't agree to any of your comments anymore for the fear that you will take offense.
I feel that the overt aggressiveness by every discussion I have logged onto isn't how you get others to see your point of view and possibly open them up to trying something they may not have in the past--such as eating a plant-based diet. I also take back my statement earlier about vegetarians being less aggressive.
I've been a vegan for ten years, and, religious stuff aside, I agree with most of Mr. Dear's article. Before I was a vegan, I was a fat vegetarian (lots of dairy and eggs) who wore leather, etc., and when I was a kid, I challenge anyone to suck the marrow out of a ham bone faster than I could. Since I've partaken of meat in my "dark" past, it's hard for me to sit in judgment of other meat eaters. I came by my veganism in very small increments over a period of years, so it's possible that others will do the same. I'm not a crusader, but I'm always looking for an opportunity to spread the gospel of vegan, which I mainly do by simply eating vegan food and fielding questions (and I occasionally wear a message T). That's it. Anything more aggressive, and I think people's natural curiosity shuts down and they get defensive--at least, that's what I used to do.