Jesus
was wegetarian
"Animals are God's creatures, not
human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor commodities, but precious
beings in God's sight. ... Christians whose eyes are fixed on the awfulness of
crucifixion are in a special position to understand the awfulness of innocent
suffering. The Cross of Christ is God's absolute identification with the weak,
the powerless, and the vulnerable, but most of all with unprotected,
undefended, innocent suffering."
--Rev. Andrew Linzey
Jesus' message is one of love and
compassion, yet there is nothing loving or compassionate about factory farms
and slaughterhouses, where billions of animals live miserable lives and die
violent, bloody deaths. Jesus mandates kindness, mercy, compassion, and love
for all God's creation. He would be appalled by the degree of suffering we
inflict on animals to indulge our acquired taste for their flesh.
Christians have a choice. When we sit down to eat, we can add to the level of
violence, misery, and death in the world, or we can respect His creation with a
vegetarian diet.
The Garden of Eden, God's perfect world,
was vegetarian (Gen. 1:29-30). Immediately, God calls this ideal and
non-exploitative relationship "good" (Gen. 1:31). There follow many
years of fallen humanity, when people held slaves, waged war, ate animals and
committed various other violent acts. But the prophets tell us that the
peaceable kingdom will be nonviolent and vegetarian; even the lion will lie
down with the lamb (e.g., Isaiah 11). Jesus is the Prince of Peace, who ushers
in this new age of nonviolence. When Christians pray, "Your will be done,
on Earth as it is in heaven," the one prayer given to us by Jesus, this
obligates us to change our lives, to make choices that are as merciful and
loving as possible. There will be no factory farms and slaughterhouses in
heaven.
God created every animal with the
capacity for pain and suffering. But on today's factory farms, animals are
dehorned, debeaked, and castrated without anesthesia. To maximize profits, they
are crowded together in the least space possible, and are genetically bred, so
that most suffer lameness, crippling leg deformities, or bone breaks, because
their legs can't keep up with their scientifically enhanced bodies. Finally,
they are trucked without food or water, through all weather extremes, to a
frightening and hellish death.
A vegetarian diet is good for your
health and spares animals unimaginable suffering and violence. Remember: As we
do to the least, so we do to Him.