Christianity and Vegetarianism: Pursuing the Nonviolence of JesusA Jesuit priest’s booklet promoting vegetarian diet
has been published by PETA It is called Christianity and Vegetarianism: Pursuing the Nonviolence of Jesus
and is written by Fr. John Dear, SJ

To obtain information receiving copies, write PETA 501
Front St
Norfolk Va 23510 USA
757 622 7382
http://www.peta.org

The 18 page booklet is available on cassette:
http://www.audible.c…=BK_PETA_000002

Father Dear is executive director of perhaps the oldest
interfaith organization in the US, the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
He lives in NYC. http://www.forusa.org/

Father John Dear, SJ, Vatican priest Don Mario Mazzoleni,
Father Ron Pickarsky, Father Ron Lengwin, Baptist Vanderbilt professor Richard Alan Young, some of the Christian priests and preachers promoting vegetarian
diet.

Books on Christian Nonviolent Diet or Thou Shalt Not Kill
Animals Books
Some other books on Christian vegetarianism are
1 Good News for All Creation: Vegetarianism as Christian Stewardship by Stephen Kaufman, Nathan Braun, and Steven Kaufman
2 Animal Theology
by Rev. Andrew Linzey,
3 God’s Covenant With Animals by
Rev.. J R Hyland,
4 The Last Religion of Jesus by Keith Akers,
5 Of God
and Dogs by Stephen Webb,
6 The Kingdom of God Is Within You
by vegetarian Leo Tolstoy,
7 Is God A Vegetarian: Christianity, Vegetarianism and Animal Rights by Richard Alan
Young, Baptist vegetarian professor at Vanderbilt
Chicago : Open Court, c1999.
8 Was The Master Vegetarian
is a booklet published by the Edenite Society of Imlaystown, NJ, US.
9. They Shall Not Hurt Nor Destroy by Vasu Murti
http://www.abolition…m/_06murti.html
10. . Dominion by Matthew Scully, former Bush speechwriter who left
the regime for several reasons.
11. Animal Gospel, Animal Theology, Christianity And The Rights Of Animals and Not A Sparrow Falls
are 4books by Andrew Linzey, first professor of animal rights
at Oxford University (which is still crucifying primates and
other beings)
– Andrew Linzey SCM Press ltd., 26-30 Tottenham Road, London N1 4BZ, UK
“Christianity and the Rights of animals” – Andrew Linzey SPCK, Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone Road, London NWI 4DU, UK
12
“Reason, Religion and the Animals” – Rev. Basil Wrighton Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare, 39 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London E18 1ND, UK
13
“The Slaughter of Terrified Beasts” – J.R. Hyland Viatoris ministries, Sarasota, Florida 34277, U.S.A.
14
“On Behalf of the Creatures”- J. Todd Ferrier The Order of the Cross, 10 De Vere Gardens, Kensington, London W8 5AE, UK
15
“These we have not loved” – Rev. V.A. Holmes-Gore The Order of the Cross.
16
“Cast out of the Ark” – Rev. James Thompson Christians Against All Animal Abuse, ‘Peace Haven’, Fron Park Road, Holywell, Clwyd CH8 7UY, UK
17 A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics Paul Waldau
Kimberley Patton (haven’t read this book.. don’t know its
stance on vivisection)

Adam’s Apple: The Heart of the First Butchered Animal?
Father Ron Lengwin, priest with a talk show on the oldest US
radio station, KDKA of Pittsburgh, is a vegetarian. He has
said that perhaps the apple Adam ate was actually the first
heart of a butchered animal. Jesus was a member of the Essenes,
vegetarians of Galilee. Though he materialized fish for others He
did not eat it, say many biblical scholars. Paul also indicates that he took the Nazarite vow, a vegetarian one, while John the Baptist ate not locusts but locust beans. Constantine
helped to quash the early Christian vegetarian practices in 325 AD.
While it continued in the monasteries, its last survival
in the church at large was meatless Fridays. Lentils are
named for the Lent substitution of noncadaver foods.

You Can Bring These Links To Life Their Order Is Random
1 http://www.egroups.c…es/christianveg
over 10,000 posts
2 http://www.christianvegetarian.co.uk
3. http://www.all-creatures.org
4 http://www.hacres.com Hallelujah Acres vegan healing
5 http://thenazareneway.com/
6 http://www.christianveg.com
7 http://episcoveg.webblogger.com lists vegan
international relief organizations
8 http://compassionatespirit.com Keith Akers
9 http://www.jesusveg.com
10 http://www.francisca…lican.com/enaw/ Episc Net For Anim Wlf
11 http://www.aswa.org.uk/ Anglican Society For Animal Welfare
12 http://members.aol.c…/feloflife.html Christian .Vegetarianism
13 http://all-creation….n-anglican.com/
Episcopalian priest’s reflections on animals
14 http://www.matthewscully.com former Bush speechwriter who left the regime (animal rights but not necessarily
vegetarian)
15 http://www.ivu.org/h…es/friends.html Quakers
16 http://www.adventist.org Seventh Day Adventists promote vegan diet and do only vegan international relief
17 http://www.ivu.org/religion/ many links
18 http://groups.msn.com/catholicveg
19 http://www.egroups.c…ges/catholicveg
20 http://engforum.prav…ead.php?t=96761
Christian Quotes on Nonviolence in All Areas of Life
21 http://www.egroups.c…es/vegchristian
22 http://spot.acorn.net/fruitarian The Genesis 1:29 Diet
23 http://www.eco-cuisine.com by Father Ron Pickarski
24 http://groups.yahoo….rveg/message/31
Cincinnati archbishop speaks against cruelty to animals
25 http://www.serv-online.org/ interfaith coalition of
vegetarians
26 online Christian vegetarian church of Burlington Vermont
http://www.all-creat…t-burl-1uu.html
Links re vegetarian and vegan diet:
http://arconference.org/
http://www.pcrm.org 1000 vegan MD’s
http://www.notmilk.c…w.madcowboy.com http://www.ivu.org http//spot.acorn.net/fruitarian
http://www.meatout.com http://www.wfad.org http://www.animalsagenda.org
tp://www.peta.net http://www.hsus.org
http://groups.msn.com/stopmowing
http://groups.msn.com/christianveg
http://www.petaliterature.com
http://spot.acorn.net/fruitarian The Genesis 1:29 Diet
http://www.acfnewsou….egetarian.html
http://stopmowing.blogspot.com Break Not The Bruised Reed

Animal Rights 2008 National Conference
Guest speakers include Heather Mills

* [http://a4.nu/christian/index.htm Christian Religion and Vegetarian
Resources]
* [http://www.jesusveg.com An extensive website about vegetarianism
from the Christian perspective, run by People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals]
* [http://www.christian…/006/13.14.html
ChristianityToday.com Books and Culture] “Revenge of the Ebionites”
book review by [[Stephen H. Webb]]
* [http://www.animalsuf…m/religion.html Animal Rights and its
role in religion]
* [http://www.vegetaria…/issue10.html#3 Review by Urrutia
of ”Good News for all Creation: Vegetarianism as Christian
Stewardship” by Stephen R. Kaufman and Nathan Braun]
* [http://www.vnv.org.au/Christianity.htm Christianity and
Vegetarianism: Some Thoughts, compiled by David Ogilvie]
* [http://www.godandani…its/linzey.html Christianity
and Animals by Andrew Linzey]
* [http://www.satyamag….b96/linzey.html Christianity and Animals:
An Interview with Andrew Linzey (1996)]
* [http://www.all-creat…/gcm/candv.html Christianity and
Vegetarianism PowerPoint presentation, by God’s Creatures Ministry]
* [http://www.petaliterature.com/VEG612.pdf”Christianity

SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES TO NONVIOLENT OR VEGETARIAN DIET

Genesis 1: 29 Behold I have given you herbyielding seed.
To you it shall be for meat. (The fruitarian Garden of Eden)
Methusaleh.. the oldest man in the Bible, achieved 969
orbits of the sun.
Exodus: 26: 34 Thou Shalt Not Kill (not asterisked with
exceptions)
Jesus: Ye are whited sepulchres (Greek sarcophagi sarx flesh ..phagi eater)
Jesus threw the butchers out of the temple.
Daniel was vegetarian
in the lions’ den and therefore was
not harmed. Daniel was in jail 10 days and his
condition as a vegetarian was better than those who
were not.
Paul: If your flesheating offends your brother, forego it.
Jesus: Feed the hungry (450 times as many people per acre
can be fed tree products in comparison to slaughterhouse
products)

Jesus materialized fish for others. He knew that in that
millenium they were not ready for his Essene diet. Early
Christians followed His vegetarian ways until Constantine in 325.

Genesis l:29 Behold I have given you herbyielding seed. To you it shall be for food.

Matthew 21: 12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the
money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves

“I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” (Hosea 6:6)

Isaiah: They shall study war no more

Isaiah: He that slayeth an ox is as he that killeth a human. (for 40 or 50 quotes from the Bible go to the Spirit file no. 8)

Isaiah: I delight not in your blood sacrifice.
http://www.jewishveg.com

Isaiah 65:3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens

Isaiah: 65:4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable [things is in] their vessels;

Isaiah 65:21
And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
http://www.egroups.c…ges/fruitarians

Isaiah 65:
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and earth shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
http://www.vegweb.com/food

Jesus: Ye are whited sepulchres (Jesus’ word for sepulchre
or coffin was translated from Aramaic into Greek as sarcophagi which
means literally flesheater (sarx flesh phagi eater)

Jesus: Feed the hungry
(each acre of ground can yield 450000 lbs of food
from centenarian fruit and nut trees, with grape and
other vines in between, or 100 to 1000 lbs of flesh
from murdered animals.

Methusaleh: 969 years old.. longest lived person in Bible
…a vegetarian

Micah 4:3- They shall turn their swords
into plowshares. They shall study
war no more.

http://mindprod.com/kjv/

“The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. ..
And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.

Isaiah 18: 8, 10.”
The text of Luke 21:34 reads “Now take care in your souls that you never make your hearts heavy by eating flesh and by drinking wine…..
http://curezone.com/….asp?i=943839#i

the Genesis 1 29 Diet
http://engforum.prav…ead.php?t=85277

473 books at Amazon.com mention Christian vegetarians.
Stephen Kaufman, MD is the author of 1 of them

The Fr Dear pamphlets are available in bulk for church and private
distribution at PETA.

CHRISTIANITY AND VEGETARIANISM: PURSUING THE NONVIOLENCE OF JESUSby Fr. John Dear, S.J.

(These beautifully printed pamphlets done with purple print and pictures are available in bulk from PETA for distribution at churches and elsewhere. 501 Front St. Norfolk VA 23510 USA
757 622 7382 http://www.peta.org) Please request
they be printed on recycled paper, if they are not already.
http://www.christianveg.com

My name is John Dear and I’m a Catholic priest, a peace activist, a writer, and a vegetarian. I’ve traveled the world promoting peace and nonviolence and served as the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest and oldest interfaith peace organization in the United States. I’d like to reflect with you about Christianity and vegetarianism.

When I look at the world today, I see a culture addicted to violence. As I write, there are more than 30 wars being waged. There are more than 1 billion people suffering from malnourishment and its effects. There are more than 2 billion people without access to clean water, barely surviving in dire poverty.
According to the United Nations, about 60,000 people, mostly women and children, die every single day from starvation and starvation related diseases. Right here in the U.S., we see executions, rampant homelessness, and injustices of all kinds, including racism and sexism. And in the U.S. alone, we kill more than 9 billion land animals each year by slitting their throats, sometimes while they’re still conscious. We also kill more than 15 billion sea animals, generally by suffocation, bodily decompression, or crushing, every single year.

I agree with Mahtma Gandhi, Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker movement, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that the only way out of the culture of violence is through the ancient wisdom of nonviolence. I remember what Dr. King said the night before he was assassinated. “The choice before us is no longer violence or nonviolence; it’s violence or nonexistence.” That’s where we stand today, on the brink of a new culture of nonviolence or the
brink of nonexistence.

Nonviolence begins with the insights that all life is sacred, that all human beings are children of the God of Peace, and that as God’s children, we are
under certain obligations. Of course, we should never hurt nor kill another
human being, wage war, build nuclear weapons, or sit idly by while millions
of human beings starve to death each year. Nonviolence invites us, also,
to reevaluate the way we treat animals in our society. While we resist
violence, injustice and war and while we practice nonviolence, seek peace,
and struggle for justice for the poor, we are also invited to break down the species barrier, extending our belief in Christian compassion to the animal
kingdom by, among other things, adopting a vegetarian diet.

As I look at the world and reflect on the urgent question of violence and
nonviolence, I turn, as a Christian, to Jesus. Gandhi said that Jesus was
the greatest practitioner of nonviolence known in history. If we know
anything about Jesus, it is that he rejected and resisted violence and practiced nonviolence. As the soldiers were taking him away to torture and
execute him, another victim of the death penalty, his last words to his
community of friends were, “Put away the sword”. After his execution, God
raised him from the dead, and he returned to his friends with the greeting
of peace, inviting them to follow him into God’s reign of peace and justice.
He invites us to follow him as well.

Since 1982, I have been attempting to take seriously Jesus’ call of nonviolence. I have organized demonstrations, been arrested for acts of
civil disobedience, and taken every opportunity to speak out, in books and
articles and retreats, from college auditoriums and inner city streets to pulpits
across the country, about Christian nonviolence. I’ve also traveled into the
war zones of the Middle East, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Northern Ireland, and Iraq to learn about and speak out against the injustices
that we inflict on so many people.

When I began my journey of Christian peacemaking 20 years ago, I read several books about Mahatma Gandhi, that great teacher of peace and leader of revolutionary nonviolence. Gandhi was seeking personal and spiritual
wholeness. He had lived and worked for justice in South Africa, struggled nonviolently for India’s independence, and spent two hours of every day in
meditation and prayer. He vowed to live simply, to speak the truth, and to practice nonviolence. And he refused to eat meat or fish, declaring that
‘the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.’

I was inspired by Gandhi to profess a vow of nonviolence, as he did, so that I could take this spiritual commitment seriously for the rest of my life. And
in 1982 I became a vegetarian. I feel that Gandhi and his example have
helped me to be a better follower of Jesus, to walk the way of nonviolence,
and to move toward greater wholeness as a human being.

Vegetarianism As A Way To Help End World Hunger.

At about the time I was studying Gandhi, I read a powerful book by Frances
Moore Lappe called Diet For A Small Planet. Lappe argued that we
could help end world hunger by redistributing our wealth and resources to the
poorer people of the world, cutting back on our militarism, and becoming
vegetarians. She pointed out that more and more basic grains around the
world, instead of going to local communities of malnourished people, are grown
and given to animals who are used for their milk or eggs and later slaughtered
or who are raised only to be slaughtered for meat. In both instances, the
animal products are consumed by the people of the developed “First” World
and their few rich emissaries in the developing world, rather than by the
starving masses.

Ten years ago, China was a net grain exporter, and it seemed certain that it
would continue to export grain. But instead, as a direct result of increasing
consumption of animal products, primarily pigs, China is now one of the
world’s top grain importers. The practical effect on people is only beginning
to be felt in China. According to groups like the Worldwatch Institute, all
developing countries that rely on animal agriculture will experience similar
consequences and the resulting increase in starvation and misery as well.

It is profoundly disheartening to remember that during the famine in Ethiopia
in the mid-1980’s and during the famine in Somalia in the early 1990’s, those
countries continued to export grains to Europe to feed its cows, pigs, and
chickens so that First World people could eat meat. Likewise, while people
suffer and die in Central and South America, the countries there ship their
grains to the U.S. to feed our cows, pigs, and chickens so that we can satisfy
our desire for animal flesh, milk, and eggs.

Frances Moore Lappe argues rightly that we should all work to eliminate
hunger and protect the environment and that one important step we can each take is to become a vegetarian. To me, working to abolish hunger, war,
and violence is a basic moral and ethical duty for everyone. Furthermore, for me as a Christian, it is a basic religious and spiritual obligation — a commandment, required by God. Frances Moore Lappe helped me to make the
connection between justice, solidarity, and the life of nonviolence, and I
quickly became a vegetarian. I hope that others will, too, and that we can all
take another step toward a more nonviolent, more just world.

The Biblical Vision of Compassion and Nonviolence

There are other good reasons for becoming a vegetarian, and I’d like to review
a few of them, including the witness of the scriptures, a basic reverence and
compassion toward God’s creatures, responsible stewardship of the Earth,
and respect for ones own health.

In God’s initial and ideal world, represented in the book of Genesis by the
Garden of Eden, there was no suffering, no exploitation, and no violence at all. People and animals were vegetarians, as we read in the first chapter of
Genesis. “God said, ‘See I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the Earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you
shall have them for food.’ ” (Gen 1:29) Immediately after creating this
beautiful, nonviolent, non-exploitative world, God describes it as “very good”.
This is the only time in the narrative that God calls creation “very good”
instead of merely “good” — and this immediately follows God’s command with
regard to vegetarianism.

But after the Fall, people waged war, held one another as slaves, ate meat, and committed every atrocity imaginable. After the flood, when the world’s
vegetarian was destroyed, we are told, God allowed humans to eat meat.
Scholars argue that within the context of the story, this was only a
temporary permission, based on human violence and sinfulness. God gives us
free will and allows us the freedom to reject God and God’s way of nonviolence, but God tried to help us to become less violent by commanding
people to observe God’s laws. In the Mosaic legal system, there are more than
150 laws regarding meat-eating, but the vision of Eden is still the ideal and
the goal. Indeed, Leviticus strictly prohibits the eating of anything with fat
or blood, and many argue that the law of Moses actually forbids the eating of
flesh entirely, because it’s impossible to get blood totally out of meat.

The best example of a vegetarian in the Bible is Daniel, the nonviolent resister
who refuses to defile himself by eating the king’s meat. He and three friends
actually become much healthier than everyone else through their vegetarian
diet. They also become 10 times smarter, and “God rewards them with
knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.” Throughout the marvelous stories that follow, we hear of someone who remains faithful to God, refuses to worship the emperor’s false gods and unjust ways, and practices a steadfast nonviolence. And this marvelous story begins with divine approval
of vegetarianism.

The book of the prophet Isaiah proclaims the vision of the peaceable kingdom,
that new realm of God where everyone will beat their swords into plowshares,
refuse to study war, enjoy their own vine and fig tree, and never fear again.
Several passages condemn meat-eating and foresee a day when people and animals will adopt a vegetarian diet, when “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid… They do no violence, no harm,
on all my holy mountain.” (Is 11: 6-9). Of course, God’s covenant is always with “all flesh”, animal and human, and in the conclusion to Isaiah, God speaks
of those who kill animals in the same way as those who murder people and heralds the dawn of a new day of peace.

According to the prophet Hosea, God says, “I will make a covenant on behalf
of Israel with the wild beasts, the birds of the air, and the creatures that creep on the earth, and I will break every bow and sword and weapon of war
and sweep them off the Earth, so that all living creatures may lie down without living in fear.”

All these beautiful visions of the prophets reach their fulfillment, according to
Christianity, in the life of Jesus. Jesus is “the new Adam,” who returns us to
the totally nonviolent Garden of Eden. He is “The Prince of Peace” who ushers
in God’s vision of nonviolence, mercy, and justice. Jesus spent his life healing
the broken, liberating the oppressed, calling for justice, practicing nonviolence, and confronting the structures of oppression by turning over the
tables of injustice. By the time he was 33, the ruling authorities had had
enough and they executed him.

As I consider what it means to be a Christian today, reflecting on the radical,
nonviolent life of Jesus, I believe that today Jesus sides with the starving,
the homeless, the refugees, and the children of the world, who continue to be crushed by First World greed and warmaking. If Jesus lived in our culture
of nonviolence, he would do everything he could to confront the structures
of death and call for a new culture of peace and life. He would want us to change every aspect of our lives, to seek complete physical, spiritual,
emotional and ethical wholeness, to become people of nonviolence, children of the God of Peace. Anglican priest, theologian, and Oxford professor the
Rev. Dr. Andrew Linzey suggests that following Christ means casting our lost with the most oppressed. In his book Animal Theology he says that today, no beings are more oppressed than the animals who are treated so badly by
the meat industry. I conclude that, as Christians, we must side with the poor
and oppressed peoples of the world and with animals.

In fact, the Gospels are full of favorable references to animals and reveal that
Jesus had a great reverence for animals and nature. As Lewis Regenstein
points out in his book Replenish The Earth: A History of Organized Religions’
Treatment of Animals and Nature, Jesus calls his followers ‘sheep’. He compares his concern for Jerusalem with a hen’s caring for her brood. He likens himself to animals, such as a lamb and a dove, because of their innocence and meekness. “Behold the birds of the air” Jesus says, “They do
not sow, they do not reap, nor do they gather into barns, yet your heavenly
Father feeds them.” (Mt. 6:26). “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?”
Jesus later asks. “And yet not one of them is forgotten by God.” (Lk 12:6)

Indeed, in John’s Gospel, Jesus describes himself as a “Good Shepherd” and notes that a good shepherd lays down his life for his flock of sheep. Dare we
conclude that Jesus supports the ultimate act of compassion and love, to die
nonviolently, even to protect animals?

Jesus embodied nonviolence and compassion. The rest of us are called to follow in his gentle footsteps. Yet few have approached him. I think of St.
Francis of Assisi, who walked among the poor, preached peace, and in particular, loved and celebrated all of creation, including animals. “Not to hurt
our humble brethren, the animals”, he 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 said, “you will
have people who will deal likewise with other people.”

Rev. Dr. Linzey suggests, like St Francis, that human beings should act not as the master species, but as the servant species. Chrsit came as a humble
servant and called us to love and serve one another and not to harm anyone.
Linzey suggests that the Gospel call to service includes selfless service and
justice not only to the poor and oppressed, but to all creation, including
animals. In this, we become more Christlike.

Many early Christians advocated vegetarianism, including Tertullian, the great
advocate of nonviolence, St John Chrysostom, the patriarch of Constantinople, and St. Jerome, a doctor of the church and an early translator of the Bible. The theologian Clement of Alexandria urged Christians
to become vegetarians, saying “It is far better to be happy than to have your
bodies as graveyards for animals.”

It is clear that for the first three centuries after Christ, a Christian could not
kill or participate in war. Christians were nonviolent. Some scholars argue that most early Christians were also vegetarians and that meat-eating was
not officially allowed until the fourth century, when the church embraced
Constantine and the Roman Empire. Then, just as Christians rejected Jesus’
nonviolence and devised the heresy of the so-called “just war theory”, they
deliberately approved meat-eating.

Regardless of this past practice, though, the question we Christians have to
ask ourselves is how can we become more Christlike and more faithful to the
nonviolent Jesus. Where in our lives could we be more merciful, more
compassionate? In our own times, Christians around the world are waking up to the Gospel imperative to pursue peace and justice for all people, to reject
war, and to practice the active nonviolence of Jesus. They are also rethinking our mistreatment of animals and the rest of creation. Many are
becoming vegetarians. In 1966, the Vatican newspaper wrote for the first
time “To ill-treat animals and make them suffer without reason is an act of
deplorable cruelty to be condemned from a Christian point of view.” Other
bishops began to include cruelty toward animals under the basic sin of
violence. In December of 2000, the Vatican newspaper pointed out that the
Catholic Catechism says it is “contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly.” The article went on to question the way animals
are raised and killed for food today.

Theologian Thomas Berry sums up the growing trend among Christians: “Vegetarianism is a way of life that we should all move toward for
economic survival, physical well-being, and spiritual integrity.” In other words,
one more way that we Christians can welcome Christ’s reign of nonviolence is
by becoming vegetarians.

So, when we sit down to eat, when we say our grace and invoke the
blessing of Jesus, we should also choose to adhere to his life of compassion and nonviolence by maintaining a vegetarian diet. And we know that as we
practice mercy to one another and to all God’s creation, we too shall receive
mercy and blessings, as Jesus promised in the Beatitudes.

Yet the reality today for God’s creatures is neither compassionate nor merciful. Our treatment of God’s animals is cruel and gruesome. Each year,
the United States raises and kills about 9 billion land animals and slaughters another 15 billion sea animals. Laying hens, who are raised for their eggs,
spend their entire lives crammed into wire-mesh cages not much larger than
file drawers and stacked in warehouses with tens of thousands of other birds.
Conditions are so horrendous that their feet often grow through and around
the wires. One-third of the birds suffer broken legs on the packed and painful
ride to the slaughterhouse, which often entails days without food or water
through all weather extremes. One egg represents 34 hours of suffering for a
hen, not to mention the ride to the slaughterhouse and slaughter itself. Two
hundred and fifty million male birds are suffocated or ground to death. They
are useless for the egg industry and are a different strain of bird from those
used for meat.

Meanwhile, chickens, pigs, turkeys, dairy cows, and beef cows are genetically
bred and fed drugs to make them grow faster, separated from their families
at birth, and mutilated without any painkillers. Chickens have their beaks
chopped off with a hot blade. Cows and pigs are castrated. Cows have their
horns cut off. Pigs have their teeth pulled out with pliers and their tails
chopped off. They all suffer the mental and physical anguish of living in
tiny spaces with no relief, no opportunity to act on any of their natural desires and needs, and no hope for escape.

They are transported without food or water to a hellish death. Dairy cows and other animals who can no longer walk are dragged from the trucks, breaking more bones in the process. They are killed by being hung upside down and bled to death from a slit throat, often skinned and hacked to bits
while still conscious. “If slaughterhouses had glass walls,” as Paul McCartney
says, “everyone would go vegetarian.”

If these farmers, slaughterhouse workers, and truck drivers treated dogs and cats in this manner, they would undoubtedly be prosecuted for animal abuse.

It is important to remember also that most animals raised for food are like
“Frankenstein” animals. They have been genetically bred to grow so quickly that their hearts, lungs, and limbs cannot keep up. Chickens, for example, now
grow more than twice as quickly as they did just 30 years ago and are slaughtered before they are even 2 months old. On average, cows give about
4 times as much milk as they would naturally, and many give 10 or 13 times
as much milk, their udders literally dragging on the ground. Turkeys have
been genetically bred so that they can’t even mate naturally anymore.

In fact, a few years ago, the Washington Post published a Thanksgiving
story about turkeys entitled, “Techno-Turkeys: Serving Up Science For
dinner.” We are playing Dr. Frankenstein with God’s creatures. We are pursuing our demonic addiction to violence with our unimaginable cruelty not
only to one another but to God’s creatures as well. Gandhi said that you can
judge a society by the way it treats its animals. And yet, every single day,
we inflict pain, suffering, and death on millions of God’s animals.

Tolstoy insisted that “vegetarianism is the taproot of humanitarianism.” Vegetarianism proves that we’re serious about our belief in compassion and
justice, that we’re mindful of our commitment, day in and day out, every time
we eat. We are reminded of our belief in mercy, and we remind others. We
begin to live the nonviolent vision right here and now.

Over the centuries, the human race has grown slowly in its awareness of and respect for human rights, including the right to life itself. It is now generally
understood that oppression and exploitation of human beings because of their
race, gender, religion, age, and physical ability are unacceptable. As we
continue to grow in our moral consciousness, we will learn to abolish war,
nuclear weapons, and violence itself. We will also learn to protect the Earth and break down the species barrier while embracing our responsibility toward
all creation.

Albert Einstein called human bigotry against other species an “optical
illusion of consciousness”. Our task, he said, is “to free ourselves from this
prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures.”

The great humanitarian and theologian Dr Albert Schweitzer, in his Nobel
Peace Prize acceptance speech, stated, “Compassion, in which all ethics must
take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all
living creatures and does not limit itself to humankind.”

Many Christians who agree that harming a dog or cat is wrong think nothing
of harming cows, pigs, chickens, fish, and other creatures. We need to understand that if we’re eating meat, we are paying people to be cruel to
animals. For the simple reasons that all animals are creatures beloved by God
and that God created them with a capacity for pain and suffering, we should
adopt a vegetarian diet.

Vegetarianism As A Way To Protect The Earth

Another reason for becoming vegetarian is to help protect the environment. Mainstream environmental groups such as the Sierra
Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the World Watch Institute, and the National Audubon Society are drawing attention
to the environmental havoc generated by raising animals for food and commercial fishing. In fact, one cannot be a meat-eating
environmentalist; it’s a contradiction in terms.

The harsh reality is that raising animals for food is steadily polluting and depleting our land, water, and air. In the U.S., 20 times as much energy is required to produce a calorie of animal
flesh as the amount needed to produce a calorie of vegetable
food. We wastefully cycle 70 percent of all that we grow, such as soy, corn, wheat, and other grains, through animals, rather than eating these foods directly. Likewise, more than half of all the water used in the U.S. is used to raise animals for food, which is why meat-eaters require at least 14 times as much water for their
diets as do vegetarians. Also, the intensive production of animals
for meat requires about 25 times as much land as the production of the same amount of food from vegetable sources.

And that’s not all. It’s not just inefficient to eat animals. The 9 billion land animals that we raise for food in the U.S. excrete 130 times as much waste as the entire human population of the United States–130 times! And there are no waste treatment systems for animals.That stuff is swimming with bacteria, hormones, antibiotics, and insecticides. Quite simply, it’s toxic waste, and it is the number one source of water pollution in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the fishing industry is steadily ruining the world’s delicate marine ecosystems. The fishing industry drags driftnets
that are miles long along the bottom of the ocean, destroying everything in their path. Factory trawlers are vacuuming the oceans of sea life at an alarming pace. Thirteen of the 17 major global fisheries are either depleted or in serious decline. The other four are “overexploited” or “fully exploited”. These same trawlers dump unprofitable, often dead, animals back into the oceans, along with massive amounts of debris and spent fuel.

A former cattle rancher named Howard Lyman, now executive
director of EarthSave International, urges people to become vegetarians, arguing that among other things, meat-eating is destroying valuable and irreplaceable topsoil. He’s the person who was sued, along with Oprah Winfrey, by Texas cattle ranchers after he discussed the possibility of Mad Cow Disease in the U.S. — and the jury ruled in his favor. Lyman points out that our soil used to be teeming with life, but now it is lifeless brown dirt. In fact, 85% of topsoil erosion in this country is a result of raising
animals for food.

So, if you’re reusing bags, using a shower saver, turning off lights when you leave the room, and trying to walk and bicycle rather than driving, that’s great! But to become even better stewards of the Earth and God’s creation, we also need to take the next step and become vegetarian.

Recently I asked a young Christian friend why he became a vegetarian. He said that the change took place when he learned of the environmental destruction caused by the corporate meat
industry. He could not in good conscience and good faith continue eating meat knowing that he was supporting the destruction of the planet. It went against everything he wanted his life to be about. He said “We are destroying the ecosystem by creating massive chicken, cow and hog factories, poisoning the water, and tearing down the rain forests — all to produce meat. We’re destroying the entire ecosystems of most poor countries. This whole corporate meat business is destructive. If millions of us become vegetarian, we will reduce the demand and help save the planet.”

Vegetarianism As A Path To Health And Wholeness

Another basic reason to become a vegetarian is to promote good
health. God has given us our bodies as gifts, and we need to treat them well, so that we can serve others and be instruments
of God’s peace. Up until about 15 years ago, it was assumed by
most physicians that human beings had to eat meat to survive.
Nowadays, not only is everyone in agreement that our bodies
thrive on a vegetarian diet, medical groups like the American
Dietetic Association (ADA) and the American Medical Association
(AMA) have also concluded that vegetarians are actually healthier.
Vegetarians tend to weigh less and suffer at a fraction of the rate
of meat-eaters from heart disease, cancer, and stroke–America’s three biggest killers. Meat is entirely devoid of carbohydrates and
fiber, the nutrients that we need to keep our bodies in good working order. But meat does have heavy doses of artery-clogging
saturated fat and cholesterol.

In particular, the only two researchers who have ever been documented to have successfully reversed heart disease, by far
America’s biggest killer, include an exclusively vegetarian diet as
part of their health programs. On the Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn programs, patients become “Heart attack proof”
to quote Dr Esselstyn, by getting their cholesterol levels lower than 150, the level below which no one has ever been documented
as having had a heart attack. The average vegan cholesterol level is 128. It’s also worth noting that vegetarians, on average, weigh 10 to 30% less than meat-eaters, and people on Dr. Ornish’s program lose an average of 20 pounds in the first year,
and they keep it off.

People who consume animal products are 40 percent more
susceptible to cancer and are more likely to suffer from stroke.,
appendicitis, arthritis, diabetes, and food poisoning. Additionally,
meat contains insecticides and other chemicals up to 14 times more concentrated than those in plant foods. If we want to live a
healthy, wholesome, full life, we are wise to become vegetarians.

The Rev. George Malkmus, a Baptist preacher in North Carolina,
argues that Christians should set an example of good health. What
does it say about our faith when we Christians are dropping over
dead from diet-related, preventable diseases at the same rat as
everyone else in this country, he wonders. He thinks that
vegetarianism, because it makes us healthier, makes a good
evangelical tool, and I agree. God wants us to be healthy, to life life to its fullest. Likewise, Rev, Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral and star of the Hour of Power, recommends what he calls the “Garden of Eden diet”. It’s the diet that God called us to in the Garden, he says, the diet intended for us, to help us lead long and productive lives. He cites vegetarian fitness
superstar Jack LaLanne as one example of what a diet based on
grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables can do for our vitality.

Vegetarianism As A Way To Support Human Rights

Another reason for becoming vegetarian is simply to support basic
human rights. A vegetarian diet is the only diet for people who care about the suffering of other people. Domestically, slaughter-
houses are dens of death not just for animals, but for the unfortunate people who work in them. Slaughterhouses have the
highest rate of injury, the highest turnover rate, the highest repeat-injury rate, and the highest rate of accidental death of any industry in the country. In fact, slaughterhouse workers have nine times the injury rate of coal mines in Appalachia.

A few years ago, the Center For Public Integrity, a congressional watchdog group, released a report called “Safety Last: The Politics of E Coli and Other Food Borne Killers.” This report points out that slaughterhouses are continually searching for replacement workers and have to bus people up from Mexico and Central America to slaughterhouses in Iowa, Minnesota, and
elsewhere. “Just as easily as the meat-packing companies court and transport immigrant labor to their Midwestern plants, ” the report says, “they betray them, turning them and their families over to the immigration authorities. And in the ultimate act of cruelty and corruption, the companies then seek out the lucky ones that escaped the immigration raids to hire them back to stand on the killing floor.” The same point was made in a more
recent book called Fast Food Nation by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser.

Should Christians support this unjust treatment of workers? Of course not. Jesus put it simply: “Whatever you do to the least of
these, you do to me.” He insists that we side with the poor and oppressed–and that includes the undocumented, the immigrant,
the refugee, and the factory worker — in their struggle for justice.
We can and should withdraw our financial support for this violent and unjust industry by becoming vegetarians.

Conclusion
As we look back on very recent history, we see an astonishing
array of positive social change. Many good and thoughtful people of the 19th Century did not recognize the basic human rights of women, children, Native Americans, or African-Americans. Human slavery flourished until the end of the 1800’s in the United States. Women were given the right to vote less than 100 years ago. The very first child abuse case was prosecuted in this country, also, less than 100 years ago. In each case, the Bible was used to bless and defend injustice. But, thank God, we have taken steps toward justice. Yet, unfortunately, we continue to use the scriptures to defend violence and justify war, executions, animal
abuse, and nuclear weapons as if God wanted us to be violent and
kill. I am convinced that God is a God of peace and nonviolence and that Jesus wants us to be people of peace and nonviolence.

We have come a long way in the last century, but we still have a
long way to go. We need to abolish hunger, poverty, war, nuclear
weapons, animal abuse, the death penalty, racism, sexism and
every other form of violence. I think that centuries from now
people of faith and conscience will look back at our times in shock and amazement that we ate meat, permitted people to starve, treated one another so unjustly, waged war, built huge nuclear
arsenals, and remained hell-bent on destroying the planet.
If we are to survive, as Dr. King said, we need to become people
of nonviolence. One simple first step is to adopt a vegetarian
diet.

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase {our} chances for
survival,” Albert Einstein concluded, “as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

Despite all the problems of our times, I remain hopeful. More and more people are seeing the wisdom of nonviolence, including the
wisdom of vegetarianism. In the U.S. alone, more than 1 million
people adopt a vegetarian diet every year. As these trends gain
momentum, they will have dramatic and positive consequences
for our health, our environment, animal welfare, human rights, and,
indeed, our disposition toward compassion and nonviolence.

“The time will come,” Leonardo da Vinci said, “when {people] ..
will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men and women.” I am convinced that society will look
back on human arrogance and cruelty toward other animals with the same horror and disbelief that we presently reserve for atrocities committed against human beings. And as we stop eating meat and become vegetarians, we take another step into God’s way of nonviolence. We will be blessed.

Let me conclude wit a quote from author Lewis Regenstein: “There are compelling moral, spiritual and scriptural reasons to abstain from meat. The raising transporting and
slaughtering of food animals entails enormous mistreatment and suffering to literally billions of creatures each year, in addition to the massive damage to the environment. Indeed, raising livestock is more destructive in depleting topsoil, groundwater and energy resources than all other human activities combined, as well as causing enormous environmental damage such as clearing of forests, destruction of wildlife habitat, and pollution of rivers and
lakes. And the consumption of meat and dairy products… is linked to high rates of cancer, heart disease, strokes, and other potentially fatal health disorders. Therefore refraining from eating meat helps prevent cruelty to animals and promotes protection of the environment and the health of ones body, the “Temple of the Lord”. For all these reasons, a vegetarian diet is one good way of maintaining a lifestyle consistent with the humane and ecological spirit of the Scriptures.”

A Few Last Questions

Having said all that, I’m sure there are a few questions hanging in the air such as, “But, John, didn’t Jesus eat meat?” Some biblical
scholars conclude that Jesus didn’t eat meat. All agree that Jesus wants us to practice perfect compassion throughout our lives. As we’ve seen, the world we live in today is a world of poverty,
starvation, violence, and environmental destruction, and eating meat only entrenches these problems.

So the real question is, what would the nonviolent Jesus want us to do today, in such a world of rampant violence? I believe that he
would want us to do everything we can to help end violence and
turn this into a world of nonviolence and compassion. This would
include becoming a vegetarian.

Others ask, “But doesn’t God condone animal sacrifice?” The Hebrew scriptures are filled with stipulations about when and how to slaughter animals, but I do not think that this justifies eating animals. The Mosaic law was trying to reduce violence. The Bible is
filled with laws permitting war, polygamy, slaveholding and other forms of violence, but these laws mitigated evil practices that
were already occurring. Laws about them were, at the time, intended to limit human sinfulness, to reduce our violence, and to
hasten the advent of a new world without violence. When Jesus
entered the picture, he insisted on radical nonviolence and compassion. He let us know that he prefers the sacrifice of our own hearts and lives for the sake of justice and peace. He is far more radical than any of us can imagine.

As Gandhi said, Jesus practices the revolution of nonviolence par excellence. He reveals that God is a God of nonviolence and wants
us to enter that life of nonviolence. The Christian Gospels quote the prophets, call for peace, and uphold God’s original vision of the
Garden of Eden. They insist that Jesus called us to live here and now in the reign of God, a reign of peace and nonviolence that includes compassion toward one another, all creatures, and the
Earth itself. The point, Jesus said, was not sacrifice, but compassion, not violence, but nonviolence.

In a world of massive violence and suffering, why not take whatever steps we can to become more compassionate, more nonviolent, more faithful to the peacemaking Christ? Why not become a vegetarian, for the love of God and all God’s creatures?
Your health will benefit. The environment will be better off.
Animals will suffer less. And your spirituality will deepen and mature. The only reasons to keep eating meat are selfishness and gluttony, which are not exactly Christian ideals. We can all do
better than that.

The time has come to take another step with Jesus on the road
of nonviolence. The time has come to be a vegetarian.

Thank you for your attention and for reflecting with me on these
questions. May the God of Peace bless us all and help us to become, like Jesus, people of compassion and nonviolence.

John Dean, SJ taught theology at Fordham University. He is
the author of more than a dozen books on Christian discipleship.
He resides in NYC. To join the Christian Vegetarian Assoc. please visit http://www.christianveg.com. For information on vegetarianism
in general http://www.goveg.com http://www.meatout.org http://www.ivu.org
http://www.spot.acorn.net/fruitarian For free vegetarian starter
kits call 1 888 VEG FOOD

(These beautifully printed pamphlets done with purple print and pictures are available in bulk from PETA for distribution at churches and elsewhere. 501 Front St. Norfolk VA 23510 USA 757 622 7382 http://www.peta.org) Please request they be printed on recycled paper, if they are not already. http://www.christianveg.com) Father Ron Lengwin, Catholic priest on KDKA Radio: Perhaps Adam’s apple was the heart of the first murdered animal. Father Mario Mazzoleni, a priest with Vatican Radio, wrote of his vegetarian diet.)

CATHOLIC VEGETARIANS

abbajesus@yahoo.com

What you have done to these the least of My brethren you have done unto Me.

Catholic Vegetarian Saints

St Francis of Assisi, St Clare, stigmatist St Therese Neumann, St. Martin de Porres, St John Chrysostom, St Anthony of Padua who preached to fishes when humans would not listen.. St Nicholas of Tolentino* believed they were following the example of Jesus in not eating His animals. Trappists, Cistercians, Benedictines, Franciscans all have had a tradition of vegetarian diet, to which many still adhere. The pretzel was says George Cornell former AP religion writer a Lenten bread, symbolizing arms folded in prayer.. Lentils were named as such because they were a Lenten vegetarian alternative to animal flesh. Meatless Fridays were the last vestige of early Christian abstinence from meat in following
Christ’s example. A papal bull once excommunicated anyone who attended a bullfight because the barbaric cruelty in them. This was later amended to excommunicate only priests who blessed bullfighting.
BIBLICAL ORIGINS
Genesis 1: 29, Isaiah 65, Daniel 1 Exodus 26: 34 are some of the thousands of quotes in the Bible on vegetarian diet. The command to feed the hungry, given by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, implies vegetarianism since the flesh of animals yields 100 to 1000 lbs an acre, dairy products around 10,000 lbs. an acre, some vegetables, 81,000 lbs. an acre, and fruits from centenarian fruit trees 450,000 or more lbs. an acre. Therefore Genesis fruit trees yield 450 times what slaughterhouses yield. Daniel O’Steen, of National Right To Life, felt he must be consistent in his prolife stance and so many years ago became a vegetarian. Clare Barrett,
early editor with Paul Obis of Vegetarian Times, mother of 6 boys, created a successful media campaign when Mike Royko refused to allow her vegetarian gluten ribs in his cooking contest. Fr. Ron Lengwin of KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh believes that the apple Adam ate was the first heart of a butchered animal. Rep Dennis Kucinich (Democrat Cleveland) is a vegan who has worked for the rights of blue collar laborers, for the
environment, and for peace. Vegetarian monasteries in Massachusetts, New York, Kentucky, Ohio serve only meatless meals.. Ron Pickarsky, former Catholic brother, now married,
has worked with commercial establishments helping them to transition http://www.eco-cuisine.com
JB exec of an Ohio corporation, rings a bell for the Knights of Columbus in public places, and has in the past inquired where he could get vegan no feather sleeping bags to be consistent in his vegetarian diet. D. Marshall, New York homeless shelter worker, is a vegetarian who does not proselytize the poor who come in to his welcoming inn. Catholic colleges such as Georgetown have responded to the growing number of their vegan students by providing options. Thomas Merton, author of Seven Story Mountain and Trappist monk, was a vegetarian, and activist for interfaith cooperation. For this he may have been murdered. EL, New York environmentalist, poet, and mystic, originally became vegetarian for economic reasons, while one of his teachers, Fr. Daniel Berrigan, eats no meat. CW, Catholic nurse, was nursing her child one day when a mosquito landed on her arm. She decided to nurse him too. One Catholic seminarian experimented with pot once.. and his perceptions slowed down. The chicken leg he was gnawing on became the leg of a chicken. That day he stopped eating meat and stopped smoking pot. A Catholic secretary for Cleveland Amory’s Fund For Animals became vegan. K Fromer Blanc, Brooklyn nun, is a vegetarian as are millions of other Catholics. Father Mario Mazzoleni, now deceased, wrote on his decision to become vegetarian. His book is translated
by a Notre Dame professor.The temptation to eat meat is chemical in nature, as the uric acid in meat is more addictive than caffein since it is trioxypurine or 3 oxypurines while caffein is dioxypurine or 2. Exodus 26: 34 is a command not to kill. Governor Jesse Ventura in reference to the death penalty (for animals too) has said that that command is not asterisked with exceptions. St Thomas in the Thomasine Gospel
has many references to the fruiteating of Christ. Thomas, the skeptical apostle, went to Madras India where even today are millions of Catholic descendants of his preaching.
Cesar Chavez, the saintly activist for the rights of farm workers, continued the tradition of nonviolence in his labor organizing as well as his diet. He and Gandhi looked to Leo Tolstoy, Russian Catholic, who wrote The Kingdom of God is Within You.
Albert of Michigan, a Catholic paraplegic, has spent much time researching Catholic vegetarianism in history. He says that the word ‘opsarian’ means ‘pickled fish’ and is the Greek word for the fish Jesus created, meaning that Jesus did not materialize freshly suffocated fish but materialized processed fish. http://www.nofishing.net
Francisco Martin, Madrid Spain secretary of the IVU http://www.ivu.org is a Catholic vegan activist. Colman McCarthy, former Trappist and syndicated columnist, lectures around the world on peace studies and has long been mostly fruitarian. Bruce Friedrich, Catholic of PETA, ran their Jesus Was Vegetarian campaign.
(http://www.jesusveg.com) St Blaize’s throat protection is not necessary if one stops
eating innocent fishes, suffocated and smothered, with their eyes and throats ripped out by vicious hooks. http://www.nofishing.net The countries with the most
fish consumption have the most stomach cancer. Many members of the Catholic Worker community as their founder Dorothy Day follow vegetarian diet
in Matthew 25 and many other homes. http://www.catholicworker.org
http://www.paxchristiusa.org Dr. Virginia Bourquardez, who once
hitchhiked for the first time at the age of 77 when her ride dematerialized,
worked her entire life for animals, and became a vegetarian in her 70’s.
Malcolm Muggeridge the British intellectual abstained from meat in later years..
Helen Jones of the National Catholic Soc. For Animal Welfare worked with her
sister Ruth out of their Clark Summit Pennsylvania home. Leonardo Da Vinci,
a Catholic, was also a fruitarian. Danny DeVito protects insect life as well
as mammals.

Many Catholics are praying that the Holy Father who takes such a strong stand
in preventing the violence of war and execution, will withdraw his
endorsement of the cruelty of lab research. Many Catholic churches have blessing of the animals ceremonies.

Abba in the name of Jesus thank You that You are now ending all violence to people, animals, and all beings on Your planet now and forever.

GREATER THINGS SHALL YOU DO THAN I HAVE DONE
SAID JESUS CHRIST TO HIS FOLLOWERS:
Perhaps one thing He meant was that we have the opportunity to
reach many people with His message of nonviolence to all creatures.

Vatican Priest On His Decision to Become Vegetarian
(the addictive chemicals in meat are stronger than caffein)(after 3 years as a strict vegetarian, Father (Don) Mario Mazzoleni speaks of a desire for meat.*)

I would be a hypocrite if I led the reader to believe that I was strong enough to be perfectly faithful to my Lenten resolution. ..I
hadn’t yet completely resolved my desire for meat – and so the repressed desire
was floating to the surface. It is a fact that the minute I would sit down to meditate, the most succulent meals would pass in front of my mind, full of fragrant roasted chickens and various sausages. What to do? If I was going to ruin all my meditations for a
roast chicken, it would be better to eliminate the problem by facing it head on. And so after 3 years of strict vegetarianism, I decided to get rid of the desire once and for all by satiating myself with a meat dinner. After all, I told myself to quiet my sense of guilt, “It isn’t a crime to eat meat, and I can’t say that because I’m vegetarian I’m better than many people who are carnivorous.” It was almost a traumatic experience. I remembered an analogous experience of Gandhi’s that he recounted in his autobiography. Convinced by a friend that India could be liberated only by the grit
of someone who ate meat, he hid himself on a river bank to consume some barbecued baby goat meat, and the next night he could feel bleating in his chest. Instead of enjoying the coveted snack in peace, the minute this little faithbreaker set his teeth into the cruel repast* (* a reference to Dante’s Inferno.. in which
meat is described as a cruel repast in XXXIII.1) he was himself bitten by remorse and anxiety. I kept seeing the animal alive in front of me, and this inhibited the desire that was so enticing when it was simply mental. I immediately noticed some other effects, physical as well as psychic. My intestines held that food much longer than they kept vegetables,and my sense of smell, made sensitive by several years of vegetarianism,
was able to detect the odor of the cooked animal on my skin. It was a disagreeable sensation. As for my psyche, I noticed that my mind, which during my 3 year “Lent” was no longer seriously agitated by unwanted thoughts, suffered a set back from that carne-vale (meat festival); polluting throughts started to enter again in triumph. It
was a lesson. As always it is experience more than words that has the
greater power of persuasion. The decision to adopt a vegetarian diet
was motivated also by a religious actor. I knew that I was going to a sacred place.

* such desires for meat are related to the stronger than
caffein substance, uric acid, in animal flesh. Caffein
is dioxypurine while uric acid is trioxypurine, 3 oxypurines.
Father Mazzoleni left for God a few years ago

* the article is an excerpt from his book

********************

The early Christians until the time of Constantine several
hundred years after Jesus’ death were vegetarian. Meatless Fridays
are the last vestige of this in some churches. Trappist monks,
Wesleyites, Adventists, followers of the diet of the Salvation
Army founders… continue the vegetarian tradition.

While Jesus guided the apostles as to where to fish
on at least one occasion, there is dispute among scholars
as to whether or not Jesus ate fish. The word ‘opsarion’, Greek,
means pickled fish. It is likely that the fish Jesus multiplied
was materialized”

Interfaith Vegetarian Links.. Please add to itHINDU
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.sathyasai.org
http://gita.wikidot.com
Hindus have the highest percentage of vegetarians.. of any group.. but
even that is not currently 50%. If 450 million Hindus
are vegetarian, 700 million eat no cow flesh. There are too many links
to list.

CHRISTIAN

* []http://groups.yahoo.com/group/methodistveg/messages/1558]
vegetarian John Wesley and Methodist Veg.

* [http://a4.nu/christian/index.htm Christian Religion and Vegetarian
Resources]
* [http://www.compassio…_vegetarian.htm Was
Jesus a vegetarian?] – article by [[Keith Akers]]
*
[http://www.thenazare…lesh_Eating.htm
Biblical Opposition to Flesh Eating]

* [http://www.christian…/006/13.14.html
ChristianityToday.com Books and Culture] “Revenge of the Ebionites”
book review by [[Stephen H. Webb]]
* [http://www.animalsuf…m/religion.html Animal Rights and its
role in religion]
* [http://www.vegetaria…/issue10.html#3 Review by Urrutia
of ”Good News for all Creation: Vegetarianism as Christian
Stewardship” by Stephen R. Kaufman and Nathan Braun]
* [http://www.vnv.org.au/Christianity.htm Christianity and
Vegetarianism: Some Thoughts, compiled by David Ogilvie]
* [http://www.godandani…its/linzey.html Christianity
and Animals by Andrew Linzey]
* [http://www.satyamag….b96/linzey.html Christianity and Animals:
An Interview with Andrew Linzey (1996)]
* [http://www.all-creat…/gcm/candv.html Christianity and
Vegetarianism PowerPoint presentation, by God’s Creatures Ministry]
* [http://www.petaliterature.com/VEG612.pdf”Christianity and
Vegetarianism – Pursuing the non-violence of Jesus”, Fr. John Dear S.J]
*

MUSLIM
Quran: There is no beast on earth nor bird which flieth..but the same is a people like unto you. All God’s creatures are God’s family.
“The Holy Prophet Muhammad (S) was asked by his copmpanions if kindness to animals was rewarded in the life hereafter. He replied: ‘Yes, there is a meritorious reward for kindness to every living creature’.” (Bukhari)

from www.ivu.org

http://www.bmf.org Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
http://www.ivu.org/n…-96/muslim.html
http://sss.vn.ua/sb_mm.htm
http://ipaki.com/con…ml/28/1203.html Muslim
vegetarians
http://www.afic.com….l%20Cruelty.pdf
Australian Federation of Islamic Councils condemns animal cruelty
http://groups.yahoo….up/veganturkey/
http://www.eat-halal.com
http://www.egroups.c…lim-vegetarians
http://www.ivu.org/n…-96/muslim.html
http://www.islamveg.com
http://www.postpoems…ers/animalpoems
(lists “Killing the Lamb” by Persian F M Esfandiary)
http://www.crescentl…ian_muslims.htm
http://groups.yahoo….im-Vegetarians/http://www.allaahuak…n/religious.htm
http://www.islamicconcern.com
http://members.aol.c…vegetarian.html
http://www.veda.hare…ga/islamveg.htm
http://www.veg.ca/ne…am_recipes.html
http://www.islamicco….com/fatwas.asp
http://www.petatv.co…r=wm&speed=_med
http://www.answers.com/topic/druze The Druze are Muslim
vegetarians of Lebanon. One wellknown vegan Druze is Casey
Kasem.
http://www.saibaba.org/ The Saint of Shirdi who left his
body in 1918 is revered by Muslims and nonMuslims
http://www.saibaba.org/saisatc.html is an online book
about the Saint of Shirdi
http://www.saibaba.w…cmyths/sbqm.htm
http://www.irfi.org/…l_and_islam.htm
http://saibaba.ws/te…sm/sbsufism.htm
———

JEWISH

http://www.jewishveg.com/schwartz
http://www.vrg.org
http://www.micahbooks.com
http://www.vrg.org
http://www.chai-online.org
http://ourworld.comp…ood/JewVeg.html many links
There are many more
There are many more

A Sliver of Many Books

“Replenish the Earth” – Lewis G. Regenstein SCM Press ltd.

“Food for the Spirit – Vegetarianism and the World Religions” Steven Rosen Bala Books Inc., 74 Old Westbury Road, Old Westbury, N.Y. 11568, U.S.A.

BUDDHIST
http://buddhistlinks.org/ Buddha was a vegetaran.
http://www.plumvillage.org
There are many more

Jesus materialized fish for others. He knew that in that
millenium they were not ready for his Essene diet. Early
Christians followed His vegetarian ways until Constantine in 325.

http://www.ivu.org/religion/ many links

**************

Christian Vegetarianismhttp://www.azvegan.com

The following is taken from an interview with Bruce Friedrich, PETA’s Vegan Outreach Director.

Bruce Friedrich is a Catholic from the Midwest who was recently rated No. 5 on Details magazine’s 2003 list of “The 50 Most Influential People Under 38” — ahead of Tiger Woods, Leonardo di Caprio and Justin Timberlake. What has Friedrich done to deserve his high standing? Surprise answer: He’s an animal rights activist on the governing board of the Catholic Vegetarian Society and the advisory board of the Christian Vegetarian Society. He is also a founding member of the Society of Religious and Ethical Vegetarians, and he’s director of vegan campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). I interviewed him via telephone as he was flying from PETA headquarters in Virginia to an assignment in India.

Hi, Bruce. Your opinion is that Catholics — and all other Christians — should be vegetarians?
Jesus’ message is about love and compassion, but there is nothing loving or compassionate at factory farms and slaughterhouses, where billions of animals endure miserable lives and die violent deaths. Jesus mandates kindness and mercy for all God’s creatures. He’d be appalled by the suffering that we inflict on animals today to indulge our acquired taste for their flesh.

Catholics, and all Christians, have a choice. When we sit down to eat, we can add to the violence, misery and death in the world, or we can respect God’s creatures with a vegetarian diet. I believe we’re obligated to make choices that are as merciful as possible, and we can all do that at the dinner table with a vegetarian diet. There won’t be any factory farms and slaughterhouses in heaven.

So, you think the God of Christians never wanted people to eat meat?
The Garden of Eden, God’s perfect world, was vegetarian (Gen. 1:29-30), and God called this nonexploitative relationship “good” (Gen. 1:31). After Eden there were many, many years of fallen humanity, when people held slaves, waged war, ate animals and committed various other violent acts. But the Old Testament prophets tell us that the final, peaceful Kingdom of God will be nonviolent and vegetarian; even “the lion will lie down with the lamb,” according to the prophet Isaiah. That is, even the carnivorous animals will go back to the vegetarian state. I find it empowering that we can begin to live that vision now.

That’s all very Old Testament. Is there any more recent church doctrine that supports vegetarianism? Do you think eating meat is a sin?

The catechism says explicitly what we all know to be true in our hearts: Causing animals to suffer needlessly is a sin. Since no one has to eat meat, and in fact we’d all be better off without it, then it is a sin to eat meat. The church has a way to go before it recognizes this fact explicitly, but there it is, an official part of church doctrine.

The church will have to support a vegan diet eventually, but it may not move to that position quickly. We in the Christian and Catholic Vegetarian Associations are pushing, though! There was a marvelous piece in the Vatican’s paper a few years ago, a strong condemnation of factory farming. It pointed out that God designed animals to raise their families, to breathe fresh air, to feel the sun on their backs. Modern farms don’t allow animals to do any of these things — they’re playing God, basically, acting like they know better than God. And the mutilations and drugs — the processes — are so cruel, merciless and ungodly that I’m convinced that all faiths will come to denounce eating meat as surely as they came to denounce slavery; it’s just a matter of time.

What about hunting? Working in a slaughterhouse? Should those activities be considered sinful?
I believe we’re all challenged to live as mercifully and compassionately as possible. If you choose to support cruelty and violence when you could support kindness and compassion, that’s something you should change. Hunters should hunt with a camera.

Have you ever thought about becoming a Buddhist or a Hindu? They seem more concerned with animal rights.
My faith is not a function of my mercy and compassion for animals. The reverse is true: My concern for compassion is a product of my faith. That said, I agree with Gandhi — and the pope — that what’s important is not your professed faith but how you live your life.

Tell me how you got involved in the animal rights movement.
I became a vegan in college after reading Francis Moore Lappé’s “Diet for a Small Planet,” because it helped me realize how a meat-based diet contributes to environmental devastation and global poverty, as well as animal suffering.

After college, I spent six years working in a homeless shelter and soup kitchen in Washington, D.C. While I was there, a friend of mine sent me a book written by Dr. Andrew Linzey, a theologian at Oxford University, who argues that animals were designed with certain needs, desires and species-specific behaviors and that animals have the same capacity for pain and suffering as human beings. Any introductory physiology course will teach you that birds, mammals and fish have basically the same capacity to suffer as human beings.

Linzey’s perspective is that denying animals the life they were designed to have and inflicting pain on them for our convenience is categorically unethical. Linzey believes that causing pain to an animal is the moral equivalent of causing pain to a human being. The logic of Linzey’s argument spoke to me on a deep level. And, of course, if animals have the same right to be free of pain as humans do, then we certainly can’t eat them, or experiment on them, or rip their skins off to wear them as clothes, or beat them into doing senseless acts in circuses and rodeos. It was really Linzey’s argument that caused me to become a animal rights activist and work for PETA.

Animal pain is as important as human pain? God’s design for animals is as important — as valuable — as God’s design for humans?

God created every animal with needs, wants and a design for its life. God designed pigs to root around in the soil and play with each other. God designed chickens to make nests, lay eggs and raise their children. Jesus compared his love for humanity to a hen’s love — not instinct, love — for her brood. God designed all animals with a desire for sunlight, fresh air, fresh water and so on, and he designed all animals to grow at a certain rate that won’t tax their limbs and organs.

But all of these things are denied to animals who are turned into food by the meat industries. Scientists are playing God by manipulating animals to grow so quickly that their hearts, lungs and limbs can’t keep up. The upper bodies of chickens grow six to seven times faster than they did 50 years ago, and turkeys can’t even mate naturally anymore. Everything natural is denied as they’re packed into excrement-laden sheds. Basically, God’s will is denied completely by the industries that have decided that they know better than God how God’s creatures should be treated.

On today’s factory farms, animals are dehorned, debeaked and castrated without anesthesia; they’re crowded together into tiny spaces and they’re genetically bred so that many suffer lameness, crippling leg deformities and bone breaks because their legs can’t keep up with their scientifically enhanced bodies; and, finally, they’re trucked without food or water to a hellish death at a slaughterhouse.

Does it seem odd to you that many devoted pet owners continue to eat the meat of creatures that are as smart as their dogs and cats?

Everyone agrees that dogs and cats should be protected legally from the worst abuses, but other animals that are raised for food have no legal protection at all from mutilations without pain relief, drugging and breeding that crippled them and so on. The disconnect must be pointed out: If castrating a dog without painkillers is not OK, if drugging a cat so that she grows up so fast she can’t walk is not OK, if chopping off the toes of a dog or cat is not OK, if slitting a dog or cat’s throat open and hacking off their limbs while they’re still conscious is not OK, then it is equally repugnant to do these things to any animal.

When Cameron Diaz found out that pigs do as well on cognition tests as 3-year-old human kids, she gave up eating pork. In fact, pigs play video games more effectively than some primates, and they interact with one another in ways that have previously been observed only in primates. Chickens also learn from one another, and they form complex social groups and they are interesting individuals, just like any cat or dog we might know.

You also think eating meat is unhealthy?
Last year, there were 50 million incidences of meat making people sick in the USA, 50 million cases of meat-based pathogens, salmonella and E. coli and campylobacter [a bacteria that causes food poisoning]. And, now, of course, there’s also mad cow disease.

Other than Francis Moore Lappé and Dr. Albert Linzey, are there any other writers that have had a profound influence on you?

Alice Walker wrote the introduction to a book entitled “The Dreaded Comparison,” by Marjorie Spiegel. In this book, Spiegel compares the treatment of animals today to that of human slaves in the 16th through 19th centuries. Alice Walker agrees, saying, “The animals of the world … were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women were created for men.” That’s quite a statement, and it’s true; the animal rights movement is a movement for justice, just like abolition, suffrage, civil rights and women’s rights.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer stated that “compassion…can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.” Nobel laureate Dr. Isaac Bashevis Singer called species bias the “purest form of racism” and animal rights the purest form of justice advocacy, because animals are the most vulnerable of all the downtrodden. The animal rights perspective has been historically embraced by a wide range of brilliant thinkers and humanitarians, like Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Harriet Beecher Stowe, C.S. Lewis, Susan B. Anthony, Leo Tolstoy, Dick Gregory and Mahatma Gandhi.
Kosher Meat Info- Did you know? Kosher meat comes from the same abusive factory farms as other meats. There are no standards to ensure that kosher slaughter is any less cruel than conventional slaughter. In some instances, it’s been shown to be much worse. Click the link for more information.

Sister Catherine Walsh is a tireless nun working with the
Catholic Worker movement, a 75 year old movement begun
by Peter Maurin of France and Dorothy Day of NYC.The Catholic Worker operates homes for the homeless, soup
kitchens, and has been involved at times in civil disobedience
regarding the illegal wars of the US regime.

A growing number of vegetarians want the soup kitchens
of the world not to harm animals by serving their drawn
and quartered pieces to people. Animal and fish flesh are toxic
to people, prevent Jesus’ message of feeding the hungry by
enabling the lowest acreage yield (100 to 1000 lbs per acre
in comparison to 450,000 lbs for centenarian orchards and nut groves).

http://www.catholicworker.org

SPIRITUAL DIET

-Brother James-

It has been my habit since 1994 to practice a vegetarian diet. It is not necessary for me to take life to sustain my own. I believe that all life is sacred from the house fly to the human. God is the Creator of all Life. In the beginning God created all life vegetarian, both human and animal. It was not until after the flood that living beings began to eat meat. I do not preach that it is sin to eat flesh but I will say in this day and age it is unwise. God’s original design was a vegetarian diet until sin entered the world and death by sin. I choose to honor God’s original design with my diet. I do not have the ability to eat animals. I cannot do this in good conscience. I have offered my diet to God as a perpetual fast. I have chosen to honor His original diet and to reverence the life He created. In order to eat an animal she must first be dead. It is not wise to devour death.

THEY SHALL NOT HURT OR DESTROY – ANIMAL RIGHTS AND VEGETARIANISM IN THE WESTERN RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS
Author Vasu Murti interviewed by Claudette Vaughan
http://www.abolition…m/_06murti.htmlOne of the best kept secrets of Judaism and Christianity is that both religions have rich traditions favoring vegetarianism/veganism says author Vasu Murti. His book, They Shall Not Hurt or Destroy explores the many Judeo-Christian writers and leaders who have argued that God cares about all Creation, and so should we. The core values and teachings of these faiths encourage plant-based eating.

[click here to read the review of ‘They Shall Not Hurt or Destroy”]

Abolitionist: In your book ‘They Shall Not Hurt Or Destroy’ you said that a few years ago Norm Phelps came to the conclusion, as I myself have, that the animal rights movement will never succeed until it converts the churches, mosques and synagogues to the cause for God’s other creation, the non-human animals. Is this also your point of view?

Vusu Murti: Yes. I would like to see organised religion take up the struggle for animal rights. Religion has been wrong before. It has often been said that on issues such as women’s rights and human slavery, religion has impeded social and moral progress. It was a Spanish Catholic priest, Bartolome de las Casas, who first proposed enslaving black Africans in place of the Native Americans who were dying off in great numbers. The church of the past never considered human slavery to be a moral evil. The Protestant churches of Virginia, South Carolina, and other southern states here in the U.S. actually passed resolutions in favor of the human slave traffic.

Human slavery was called “by Divine Appointment,” “a Divine institution,” “a moral relation,” “God’s institution,” “not immoral,” but “founded in right.” The slave trade was called “legal,” “licit,” “in accordance with humane principles” and “the laws of revealed religion.”

New Testament verses calling for obedience and subservience on the part of slaves (Titus 2:9-10; Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22-25; I Peter 2:18-25) and respect for the master (I Timothy 6:1-2; Ephesians 6:5-9) were often cited in order to justify human slavery. Many of Jesus’ parables refer to human slaves. Paul’s epistle to Philemon concerns a runaway slave returned to his master.

The Quakers were one of the earliest religious denominations to condemn human slavery. “Paul’s outright endorsement of slavery should be an undying embarrassment to Christianity as long as they hold the entire New Testament to be the word of God,” says contemporary Quaker physician Dr. Charles P. Vaclavik. “Without a doubt, the American slaveholders quoted Paul again and again to substantiate their right to hold slaves.

“The moralist movement to abolish slavery had to go to non-Biblical sources to demonstrate the immoral nature of slavery. The abolitionists could not turn to Christian sources to condemn slavery, for Christianity had become the bastion of the evil practice through its endorsement by the Apostle Paul. Only the Old Testament gave the abolitionist any Biblical support in his efforts to free the slaves. ‘You shall not surrender to his master a slave who has taken refuge with you.’ (Deuteronomy 23:15) What a pittance of material opposing slavery from a book supposedly representing the word of God.”

In 1852, Josiah Priest wrote Bible Defense of Slavery. Others claimed blacks were subhuman. Buckner H. Payne, calling himself “Ariel,” wrote in 1867: “the tempter in the Garden of Eden…was a beast, a talking beast…the negro.” Ariel argued that since the negro was not part of Noah’s family, he must have been a beast. Eight souls were saved on the ark, therefore, the negro must be a beast, and “consequently, he has no soul to be saved.”

The status of animals in contemporary human society is not unlike that of human slaves in centuries past. Quoting Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4:18 or any other biblical passages in favor of liberty, equality and an end to human slavery in the 18th or 19th century would have been met with the same kind of response animal rights activists receive today if they quote Bible verses in favor of ethical vegetarianism and compassion towards animals.

Some of the worst crimes in history have also been committed in the name of religion. (There’s a great song along these lines from the early 1990s by an American punk rock band, Rage Against the Machine, entitled “Killing in the Name Of”.) Someone once pointed out that while Hitler may have claimed to be a Christian, he imprisoned Christian clergy who opposed the Nazi regime, and even Christian churches were subject to the terror of the Nazis.

Thinking along these lines, I realise that while I would like to see organised religion support animal liberation (e.g., as was the case with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American civil rights movement) rather than simply remain an obstacle to social and moral progress (e.g., 19th century southern churches in the U.S. upheld human slavery on biblical grounds), this support must come freely and voluntarily (e.g., “The Liberation of All Life” resolution issued by the World Council of Churches in 1988).

Religious institutions can’t be coerced into rewriting their holy books or teaching a convoluted doctrine to suit the whims or the secular political ideology of a particular demagogue. American liberals argue that principle of the separation of church and state (upon which the United States was founded) gives us freedom FROM religious tyranny and theocracy. Conservatives argue (the other side of the coin!) that one of the reasons America’s founding fathers established the separation of church and state was to prevent government intrusion into religious affairs.

I agree with Reverend Marc Wessels, Executive Director of the International Network for Religion and Animals (INRA), who said on Earth Day 1990:

“It is a fact that no significant social reform has yet taken place in this country (the United States) without the voice of the religious community being heard. The endeavours of the abolition of slavery; the women’s suffrage movement; the emergence of the pacifist tradition during World War I; the struggles to support civil rights, labor unions, and migrant farm workers; and the anti-nuclear and peace movements have all succeeded in part because of the power and support of organised religion. Such authority and energy is required by individual Christians and the institutional church today if the liberation of animals is to become a reality.”

Abolitionist: What does the term ‘ahimsa’ mean to you?

VM: The word ‘ahimsa’ literally means “nonviolence,” and that’s how I read it. According to Nine Beliefs of Hinduism, a tract published by the Himalayan Academy of San Francisco: “Hindus believe that all life is sacred, to be loved and revered,and therefore practice ahimsa, or nonviolence.”

Brother Wayne Teasdale, a Benedictine monk who passed away a few years ago, similarly wrote in 1995: “…it is necessary to elevate nonviolence to a noble place in our civilisation of loving compassion because nonviolence as ahimsa in the Hindu tradition, a tradition that seems to possess the most advanced understanding of nonviolence, IS love! Love is the goal and ultimate nature of nonviolence as an inner disposition and commitment of the heart. It is the fulfillment of love and compassion in the social sphere, that is, in the normal course of relations among people in the matrix of society.”

Abolitionist: How does one take the meaning of ahimsa and the notion of non-violence to get them to work actively for our brother and sisters, the animals?

VM: Contemporary Hindu spiritual masters have taught that if one wishes to eat cow’s flesh (or the flesh of any other animal), one should wait until the animal dies of natural causes, rather than take the life of a fellow creature. This indicates that we are vegan and vegetarian out of nonviolence towards animals, i.e., compassion for animals, rather than because we follow “dietary laws.”

As Brother Wayne Teasdale said, “nonviolence…IS love!” A popular vegetarian bumper sticker here in the United States reads: “Vegetarianism is love in action.” The number of animals killed for food here in the United States is 70 times larger than the number of animals killed in laboratories, 30 times larger than the number killed by hunters and trappers, and 500 times larger than the number of animals killed in animal pounds. So vegetarianism and veganism would be a good place to start!

Roberta Kalechofsky of Jews for Animal Rights similarly says:

“Merely by ceasing to eat meat
Merely by practicing restraint
We have the power to end a painful industry

“We do not have to bear arms to end this evil,
We do not have to contribute money,
We do not have to sit in jail or go to
meetings or demonstrations or
engage in acts of civil disobedience

“Most often, the act of repairing the world,
of healing mortal wounds,
is left to heroes and tzaddikim (holy people)
Saints and people of unusual discipline

“But here is an action every mortal can
perform–surely it is not too difficult!”

During the height of Beatlemania, John Lennon was asked by a reporter, “Does your hair require any special attention?” To this, Lennon replied, “Inattention is the main thing.” Similarly, with vegetarianism, we’re not asking people to engage in activity–we’re asking them to REFRAIN from engaging in an activity. By refraining from eating animals, they are, in effect, refraining from killing them. By refraining from eating animals, refraining from using products tested on animals, refraining from patronizing forms of “entertainment” that use animals, refraining from wearing the furs or skins of animals, etc., we are, in effect, refraining from harming and killing other animals altogether…just as pro-life Christians who refuse vaccines containing aborted fetal cells are refraining from taking another human life.

General Bramwell Booth, son of founder of Salvation Army,
on vegetarian diet practiced by him and his parentsEditor’s note: General Booth treated alcoholism with vegetarian diet.. and found that this treatment severed the meat-alcohol chemical marriage. His success spread the SA
around the world. )

It is time for the Salvation Army to return to its
original vegetarian offerings.

These passages are taken from a pamphlet written by General Bramwell Booth, former director General of the Salvation Army, and a son of founder General William Booth.

“Here are some of my reasons for doing so (becoming vegetarian):
1. Because I have myself tried a vegetarian diet with the greatest benefit having been for more than 10 years at l time a strict vegetarian.
2. Because according to the Bible God originally intended the food for humans to be vegetarian. (here he quotes Genesis 1:29 “Behold I have given
you herb yielding seed. To you it shall be for food.”)
3. Because a vegetarian diet is favourable to purity, to chastity,and to
perfect control of the appetites and passions which are often a source of great temptation, especially to the young. (http://www.notmilk.com)
4. Because a vegetarian diet is favourable to robust health and strength. With very few exceptions, and these only confirmed invalids, I believe the people would be stronger….
http://www.pcrm.org
5. Because tens of thousands of our poor people (could save money)…http://www.ivu.org
6. Because a vegetarian diet of wheat, oatmeal and other grains, lentils, peas, beans, nuts and similr food is more than ten times as economical as a flesh diet. Meat contains half its weight in water which has to be paid for as though it were meat. A vegetarian diet, even if we allow cheese, butter and milk will only cost about a quarter as much as a mixed diet of flesh and vegetables.
7. Because a vegetarian diet would stop the enormous waste of all kinds of animal food.
http://www.acorn.net/fruitarian
8. Because a vegetarian diet is a great protection against our drinking
(this belief of General Booth has been upheld by modern biochemistry research about the relationship of meat and alcohol)….
9. Because a vegetarian diet is favorable to industry and hard work…
10. Because it is proved that life, health, and happiness are all favoroued by a vegetarian diet.**
11. I favour a vegetarian diet because the digestive organs of humans are not well adapted to the use of flesh….
12. Because it is very difficult.. especially in hot weather and warm
climates to keep flesh food sweet long enough to cool and eat it and
a great deal of meat is eaten after it has begun to decay…
13. Because a great deal of the flesh meat which is supplied for human food is already diseased, and because it is nearly impossible to be sure than any flesh is quite free from the germs of disease. Much
common meat, which is often that of old animals, is well known to be sold to the butchers because the animals are sick, or unhealthy. http://www.egroups.c…ages/kyvegans/9
And the best meat is nearly always the flesh meat of young animals who are fattened and killed before the germs of many diseases have had time to develop so as to show themselves. So that many animals re killed, which though believed to be healthy, are really diseased.
This is especially the case with calves for veal, young bullocks for beef and with lambs and young pigs.
14. Because I believe that the great increase in consumption and cancer during the last hundred years has been caused by the great increase in the use of animal food, and that a strict vegetarian
diet would greatly help to ward off these most terrible and ‘incurable’ diseases.
15. Because I believe that a flesh diet brings on many very painful diseases, which though not perhaps immediately dangerous to life cause much suffering and loss. I mean such complaints as eczema, constipation, piles, worms, dysentery, severe heaches and the like. A vegetarian would do much to relieve if not cure them.
16 Because of the awful cruelty and terror to which tens of thousands (now billions)of animals killed for human food are subjected in
traveling long distance by ship and rail and road to the slaughterhouses of the world. God disapproves of all cruelty whether to man or beast.
17.Because of the terrible cruelties practised for killing animals in many slaughter houses. The whole busines of killing is cruel.. even when it is done with care, and we know that in the case of millions of creatures it is done with very little care. Ten thousand pigs are
killed for food every hour in Europe alone. (Now Oscar Mayer kills 1100 pigs an hour at their Madison Wisconsin plant.)
18. Because the occupation of slaughtering animals is brutalising to those who are required to do the work. “The highest sentiments of humane
men” says a certain writer, and I agree with him, “revolt at the cruelty, the degrading sights, the distressing cries, the perpetual
bloodshed, and all the attendant horrors which must surround the transit and slaughter of suffering creatures.” *
19. Because a flesh diet is not necessary to hard work. A great part of the work of the world is done by animals which subsist on vegetable food..
namely, horses, mules, camels, oxen, etc.
I believe this matter is well worthy the serious consideration of Christian leaders. It has an important bearing not only on their own
health and happiness but upon their influence among the people, as men and women who are free from the bondage of that selfish gratification which so often afflicts the professed servants of Christ. Let us remember the Apostle’s direction: ‘Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.’ ”
(published by the LVS 53 Marloes Rd. Kensington London UK W8)
(We copied from an old pamphlet.. to have the full text write or webvisit the London Vegetarian Society)

**
John Wesley’s vegetarian dietDiet and Health: John Wesley
founder of the Methodists.
http://www.all-creatures.org

(in v 6 of his collected writings, Wesley
is recorded as saying that on the
advice of his physician Dr Cheyne he had
become vegetarian)

The Church, collectively, has been strangely silent on the connection between our diet and health, and our physical and spiritual well being. The only major exceptions to this silence, that we are aware of, have been the Seventh Day Adventist Church and the non-affiliated ministry of George H. Malkmus who founded Hallelujah Acres .

Very early in John Wesley’s ministry, he realized that there was a connection between physical and spiritual health. If the body was sick, then the person’s focus would likely be diverted from God. When he came to America in the mid 1700’s, he continued this teaching and was criticized for it by local clergy and the Anglican Bishop of London. Following is an excerpt from John Wesley’s response to the bishop:

By ‘extraordinary strictnesses and severities,’ I presume your Lordship means the abstaining from wine and animal food; which, it is sure, Christianity does not require. But if you do, I fear your Lordship is not thoroughly informed of the matter of fact. I began to do this about twelve years ago, when I had no thought of ‘annoying parochial ministers,’ or of ‘captivating’ any ‘people’ thereby, unless it were the Chicasaw or Choctaw Indians. But I resumed the use of them both, about two years after, for the sake of some who thought I made it a point of conscience; telling them, ‘I will eat flesh while the world standeth’ rather than ‘make my brother to offend.’ Dr. Cheyne advised me to leave them off again, assuring me, ‘Till you do, you will never be free from fevers.’ And since I have taken his advice, I have been free (blessed be God) from all bodily disorders.1

Both John Wesley and his physician knew that the eating of animals and their by-products (eggs and dairy) was injurious to health. Wesley had first hand knowledge of this, as do we, today, yet most people don’t want to hear about it. Why? Because most people don’t want to change their lifestyle, so they resort to trying to silence the prophets of truth, and for a little while they were successful in doing so with John Wesley. However, when his illnesses returned, he resumed being a strict vegetarian and he regained his health. Unfortunately, Wesley was not forceful enough with passing along these truths about diet and health and, as a result, most of these vegetarian dietary truths have been lost in the teachings of the Methodist and other churches among whom he had influence. It is time we reverse this mistake.

We have an obligation to learn about the connections between animal foods and chronic illnesses, and about a proper vegetarian diet. Likewise, we have an obligation to speak forth to our congregations about these things, for to do otherwise promotes violence to their health, to their spiritual well-being, and to their personal finances. Personally, we never found out about these thing in the church. Our education about diet and health came from our own experience and from people and organizations outside the church.

Poor health can be a tremendous drain on personal finances, and when people worry about these things it has an injurious effect on their physical well-being, so that their health is further deteriorated. Thus, our silence on the advantages of a vegetarian (vegan) diet really does violence to people’s health, finances, and well-being.

Jesus is often referred to as the “Great Physician”. It is interesting to note that God’s original intent was for us and our fellow creatures to eat only plant foods (Genesis 1:29-30). The diet of good health and healing was set in motion from the very beginning for all who would receive it.

We have an obligation to learn and speak out.

1. Letter to the Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London, LONDON, June 11, 1747, in The Letters of John Wesley Edited by John Telford — London: Epworth Press, 1931. Available online: http://wesley.nnu.edu/Letters/1747.htm as part of http://wesley.nnu.edu/Letters/

The intent of this series is to wake up and encourage the Church to greater works of love and compassion (John 14:12). It is not to condemn the Church, in general, or any individual, any more than Jesus condemned the woman caught in adultery. Jesus said to her, “…go your way. From now on sin no more.” (John 8:11) And this is our message to the Church: Recognize our sins of the past and go forth seeking to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), correcting the sins of the past, for that is the only way we can truly show the world that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, might, and mind, including the whole of creation, which includes our neighbors whom we are to love as ourselves.

Your questions and comments are welcome flh@all-creatures.org

Ellen G. White 1827-1915
Founder of the Seventh Day Adventists
http://www.adventist.org
http://members.tripo…hite_Quotes.htm
(Prophet Ellen White whose Adventist church is involved in worldwide vegan food and other relief, prophesied that in the 20th
Century dairy products would be so full of poison that they like
meat and fish should be avoided)

God gave our first parents the food He designed that the race should eat. It was contrary to His plan to have the life of any creature taken. There was to be no death in Eden. The fruit of the trees in the garden was the food man’s wants required. (1864)

The diet of animals is vegetables and grains. Must the vegetables be animalized, must they be incorporated into the system of animals, before we get them? Must we obtain our vegetable diet by eating the flesh of dead creatures? God provided fruit in its natural state for our first parents. He gave to Adam charge over the garden, to dress it, and to care for it, saying, “To you it shall be for meat.” One animal was not to destroy another animal for food. – (1896)

Let our ministers and canvassers step under the banners of strict temperance. Never be ashamed to say, “No thank you; I do not eat meat. I have conscientious scruples against eating the flesh of dead animals. – 1901

Flesh was never the best food; but its use is now doubly objectionable, since disease in animals is so rapidly increasing. – 1902

Animals are becoming more diseased and it will not be long until animal food will be discarded by many besides Seventh-day Adventists. Foods that are healthful and life sustaining are to be prepared, so that men and women will not need to eat meat. – 1902

Vegetables, fruits, and grains should compose our diet. Not an ounce of flesh meat should enter our stomachs. The eating of flesh is unnatural. We are to return to God’s original purpose in the creation of man. – 1903

The moral evils of a flesh diet are not less marked than are the physical ills. Flesh food is injurious to health, and whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and the soul. Think of the cruelty to animals meat-eating involves, and its effect on those who inflict and those who behold it. How it destroys the tenderness with which we should regard those creatures of God! – 1905

Animals are often transported long distances and subjected to great suffering in reaching a market. Taken from the green pastures and traveling for weary miles over the hot, dusty roads, or crowded into filthy cars, feverish and exhausted, often for many hours deprived of food and water, the poor creatures are driven to their death, that human beings may feast on the carcasses. – 1905

It is a mistake to suppose that muscular strength depends on the use of animal food. The needs of the system can be better supplied, and more vigorous health can be enjoyed, without its use. The grains, with fruits, nuts, and vegetables, contain all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood. These elements are not so well or so fully supplied by a flesh diet. Had the use of flesh been essential to health and strength, animal food would have been included in the diet appointed man in the beginning. – 1905

Those who eat flesh are but eating grains and vegetables at second hand; for the animal receives from these things the nutrition that produces growth. The life that was in the grains and the vegetables passes into the eater. We receive it by eating the flesh of the animal. How much better to get it direct by eating the food that God provided for our use! – 1905

The majority of the diseases which the human family have been and still are suffering under, they have created by ignorance of their own organic health, and work perseveringly to tear themselves to pieces, and when broken down and debilitated in body and mind, send for the doctor and drug themselves to
death. – 1866

[quote]
100,000 vegan recipes
Vegan burger recipes
http://www.veganoutr…h=vegan+burgers
http://www.justhungr…gan-miniburgers
http://www.veganvill…cipes/mains.htm
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vegan chili
http://www.ivu.org/r…li/vegan-j.html

100,000 VEGAN RECIPES

General vegan recipes
http://www.ivu.org/recipes
http://www.veganfusion.com/recipes.php
http://www.vegweb.com
http://www.worldanimalnet.org
http://www.vrg.org/recipes
http://www.vegsource.com/recipe
http://www.goveg.com
http://www.mercyforanimals.org
http://www.meatout.org
http://www.vegparadise.com

VEGAN RECIPES IN NONVEGAN SITES
Allrecipes.com: Vegan Recipes Collection from allrecipes.com.
http://allrecipes.co…rectory/590.asp

http://www.foodievie…cipes/vegan.jsp

. Vegan Recipes. Main dishes, desserts, and snack foods.
http://www.veganmeat.com/recipie.html

7. Veggie Universe Vegetarian and vegan recipes, tips, articles, and
news, with new recipes by the author added weekly
http://www.veggieuniverse.com

8. Life at Long House Looking for Mickey & Lupi? New… better…now at.
skincats .com. WELCOME!!! Right now, we’re brainstorming to compile
ideas for our personal home… http://paulandpaula….mindspring.com/

9. Vegan Foods and Recipes Recipes from popular vegan cookbooks and
authors, along with descriptions of common vegan foods. From Vegan
Outreach, an organization working to end animal exploitation through
promotion of a vegan lifestyle.
http://www.veganoutr…pack/foods.html

10. AllCreatures.org: Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes
http://www.all-creat…rg/recipes.html

11. Vegan Recipes An online community where vegans, vegetarians, and
everyone who is interested in scrumptious dining get a delicioius new
vegan recipe every week by email. http://www.veganrecipes.com/

12. American Presidential Campaigns and Elections .. taking the first
… American Presidential Campaigns and Elections .. taking the first
little steps to the BIG WIN ..state by state .. primary by primary ..
financing and…
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13. Vegetarian Nutrition Resource List for Consumers USDA site with
contact information for cookbooks, magazines and web sites.
http://www.nal.usda…./vegetarian.htm

14. Cat-Tea Corner Vegan Recipes categories include tasty morsels and
dips, main dishes, pasta, soups, and tea-time treats.
http://www.catteacor…com/recipes.htm

15. Kate’s (Vegan) Cookery Site Vegan recipes by Kate L Pugh
http://www.ox.compso…/~kake/cookery/

16. Mango Mama’s Vegan Recipes for Kids A collection of vegan recipes
such as mac and soy, nut balls, protein shake, nut wiches, snacks, party
foods and vegan French toast, to name a few.
http://www.geocities…24/recipes.html

17. Susan’s Favorite Vegan Recipes for main dishes, soups, desserts,
sauces, and more. http://sbvdesigns.co…es/recipes.html

18. The Top 50 Vegetarian and Vegan Sites Links to related sites,
vegetarian and vegan recipes, discussion boards, nutritionists,
articles, and newsletters. http://www.in-
site.co.uk/the_top_50_vegetarian_sites

19. Duplicate of above http://www.all-creatures.org site

20. Indian Recipes From FatFree.com Fat-free vegetarian recipes from
India. Many vegan recipes included.
http://www.fatfree.com/recipes/indian/

21. Porridge People: Vegan Recipes for Everyday includes many dessert
recipes. http://www.geocities…ngs/Sauna/7015/

22. Vegan Recipes A small collection of simple recipes and a
descriptive list of common vegan ingredients.
http://www.ticktockc…urri/page5.html

23. Vitalita Culinary Group: Vegan Recipes Free cookbooks with
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http://www.vitalita.com/cookbooks.html

24. Veganism in a Nutshell – Vegetarian Resource Group A general
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links to books on veganism (sold by the VRG) and a list of alternatives
to eggs and dairy. http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/vegan.htm

25. Vegetarian Travel Articles and Information — The Vegetarian
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publishers of Vegetarian Journal. The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is
a non-profit… http://www.vrg.org/travel/index.htm

26. Only links to sites with recipes http://www.endearing.com/

27. Pseudo-Mexican Gringo Bachelor Vegan Recipes selection of Chris’
personal favorites. http://www.frc.ri.cm…ipes.html#chili

28. VRG Recipes — The Vegetarian Resource Group Vegetarian nutrition
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Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is a non-profit organization dedicated
to educating the public on vegetarianism and the…
http://www.vrg.org/recipes/

29. Low Fat Vegetarian Archive of Stuffing Recipes Mostly vegan
recipes. http://www.fatfree.c…cipes/stuffing/

30. Rice Vegetarian Club Vegan Recipes
http://www.ruf.rice….es/recipes.html

31. The Vegan Chef – Vegan Recipes – Vegan Message Board The home page
for chef Beverly Lynn Bennett, featuring her deliciously healthy and
innovative vegan recipes, as well as a vegan message board. As a vegan,
Chef Bennett doesn’t use any animal products in any of her…
http://www.veganchef.com/

32. Not recipes… but guides http://www.rso.cornell.edu/ccad/

33. PCRM–Health–Recipes Recipe archive updated weekly, plus healthy
holiday menus and rerecipes. From Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine. http://www.pcrm.org/health/Recipes/

34. Vegetarianism in a Nutshell Also includes information on veganism –
dairy substitutes and egg replacers.
http://www.vrg.org/n…ll/nutshell.htm

35. Aubergine (Eggplant) Recipes Vegan recipes by Kate L Pugh.
http://www.ox.compso…/aubergine.html

36. RI Holistic Directory: Vegan Recipes includes eggless salad,
colcannon, pumpkin cheesecake, and savory yeast gravy.
http://users.ids.net…an-recipes.html

37. The Underground Vegan Information Page The Sloth Underground’s.
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http://www.geocities…5094/Vegan.html

38. Hot Carob Drinks Vegan recipes for plain and carob-banana
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39. Jellyfish’s Vegan Recipes just like mom never made.
http://www.geocities…404/recipe.html40. http://www.veganfusion.com/recipes.php

41.
http://www.veggieboards.com/boards the recipe folder

Inspect the factory:
http://www.vegparadise.com/news56.html

http://www.living-fo…utscansave.html
coconut liquid safer than blood plasma in many instances

http://www.egroups.c…s/vegan_recipes

——
concentrated protein

Falafel
Hummus
Tofu
Tempeh
Soyburgers
coconut milk
almond milk
bean paste
bean flour
vegan bocaburgers (although a pricegouging cost)

some concentrated protein
sandwiches or dishes

(please post any inactive link)
lentil soup
http://www.meatout.o…ys/04-12-06.htm
http://allrecipes.co…oup/Detail.aspx

squash soup
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=9986
(fruitarians would remove
the onion etc.)

Potato Lentil and Cauliflower
http://www.savvyvege…flower-soup.php

http://www.veganfami…o.uk/soups.html
http://www.vegan-foo…/category/soup/ http://www.theveggie…ipes/soups.html
http://www.savvyvege…oup-recipes.php
http://www.all-creat…cipes/soup.html

lentil soup
http://www.meatout.o…ys/04-12-06.htm
http://allrecipes.co…oup/Detail.aspx

squash soup
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=9986
(fruitarians would remove
the onion etc.)

Potato Lentil and Cauliflower
http://www.savvyvege…flower-soup.php

http://www.veganfami…o.uk/soups.html
http://www.vegan-foo…/category/soup/ http://www.theveggie…ipes/soups.html
http://www.savvyvege…oup-recipes.php
http://www.all-creat…cipes/soup.html

Is a smoothy a cold soup?
MANGO ALMOND-MILK SMOOTHY

2 cups almond milk
1 large mango.. sliced
blend

immediately energy polysaccharides
are flowing through ones veins!

The polysaccharides of fruit
are time released energy capsules..

http://spot.acorn.net/fruitarian [/quote]

***************

These we shall decanonize
We expel them from our minds
we them cannonize

These promoting violence have been classified as saints. If they
are saints, all beings are saints.Augustine wrote: “Christ himself shows that to refrain from the killing of animals and the destroying of plants is the height of superstition, for judging that there are no common rights between us and the beasts and trees, he sent the devils into a herd of swine and with a curse withered the tree on which he found no fruit …. Surely the swine had not sinned, nor had the tree.”

Eustace converted to Christianity and he is now the patron saint of hunters

Thomas Aquinas taught that animals have no souls and thereby polluted the consciousness of many Dominicans, some
of whom have taught dissection of animals in biology classes.
***

Lukewarm links between the cold of hunters and vivisectors
and the hot of vegans
http://www.restoring…bleKingdom/view

Animal eating Christians sometimes cite what they say was Peter’s
vision .. telling them to kill and eat.Peter himself wrote that his vision about the animals
was not in regards to eating flesh
but in regards to not forcing kosher Jewish diet on Gentiles

one of those eating at the local Christian free meals for the poor
centers called it the ‘Bologna House’ underlining the problem
that the poor more than anyone else get not wholesome vegan food
but the trash meats made of the lips, snouts an dintestinal linings
of the innocent animals

Catholics’ opinions of abortion and anti abortion range from those
who want abolition of all abortion to those who want all abortions
legalized .. with most in between.The majority of the Catholic vote in the US no longer puts anti abortion
issues ahead of anti war issues.

Nevertheless 250,000 Catholics and others participated in
a prolife march in a chilly Washington today.

An ad on one prolife site mentions Obama
http://www.catholicvote.org

Most of the general population wants a federal provision that
babies who survive abortion be treated and that third trimester
abortions be banned.

(There are 5 Catholic Republicans on the Supreme
Court. These are the men who have voted for war, torture,
the serial killing of prisoners,
corporate abuse of animals by the billions, destruction
of Mother Earth.. yet they carry a ‘prolife’ label.)

• 
• 

sb11 said:

That’s a pretty good reason to completely ignore it.

I am not in favor of using sexuality and nudity to promote
any cause, nor of euthanasia of animals. Those are the 2 main
points in which I diverge from PETA…
but unlike many groups, they with 2 million members have not grown soft.
Their data is well researched and focused.

Jesus taught that spiritual blocks were the cause of physical illness. Louise Hay’s books and tapes are both healing
and specific about which blocks cause which diseases.
Sai Baba teaches that volcanos, earthquakes and other natural disasters
are caused by human violence.
Annie Besant wrote that when Chicago was the slaughterhouse capital
of America, the aura of violent red stretched for more than an hour
Now that the Republican Alaskan government is
enabling the gunning down of moose and wolves
from helicopters, etc. they are amplifying violence.
from the city.

Email Alerts – RSSCatholic Bruce Friedrich, vice president of PETA
Aug. 29, 2008
By Jeannette Cooperman of National Cath Reporter

Bruce Friedrich PDF versionSend to friendPrinter-friendly versionFive years ago, Details magazine rated Bruce Friedrich one of the “50 Most Influential People Under 38.” Mr. Friedrich, now 39, is vice president of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), known for its often confrontational approach to animal rights. (In 2001, right before President Bush was to arrive for lunch he streaked Buckingham Palace with the words “goveg.com” on his body.) A convert to Catholicism, Mr. Friedrich has served time in prison for antiwar actions — he took a hammer to a jet fighter — and once ran the largest soup kitchen in Washington, D.C. His heroes are Gandhi, Tolstoy and Dorothy Day.

What was the rudest shock of growing up?
Learning about global poverty — that one in five people aren’t taking in enough calories to function. I had a lot of trouble processing that. I still do.

Anything you once believed that you’ve done a 180 on?
For a long time I thought that eating other animals’ corpses was a reasonable way to sustain myself. Now I think it’s the height of immorality.

Why?
Isaac Bashevis Singer called speciesism the highest form of racism because among God’s community of beings, other animals are the least able to defend themselves.

What religious ritual is most meaningful for you?
Communion. And I like the Jesuit practice of ending your day with an evaluation of your day. You rededicate yourself.

Anything about conventional morality strike you as odd?
The idea that the suffering of women and children is worse than the suffering of anybody else is a curious construct.

What do you regret most about yourself?
Vanity.

What’s the best advice anyone ever gave you?
The advice my parents gave me was pretty picture-perfect: “If you’re not going to remember what’s bothering you in a week, it’s not worth getting angst-ridden about it.”

What gives you strength, sustains you through rough times?
My wife, Alka Chandna.

What’s the secret to a good marriage?
Honesty.

And the sign of a bad one?
Feeling like you need to hide something from your partner.

What would you want at your last meal?
Black French roast equal-exchange coffee or a pint of Hop Devil bitter beer. It’s an award-winning microbrew I’ve only found in a liquor store in Highland Park, N.J.

What makes you angry?
Progressives who quote Gandhi and Tolstoy and then pay people to abuse and kill animals. It’s so vastly inefficient to cycle crops through animals — and it’s the No. 1 source of global warming — and Al Gore doesn’t even mention it in his movie. He tells people to change their light bulbs, not the way they eat.

National Catholic Reporter September 5, 2008

• 
• 

Lol….And I always read they along with their Jewish rabbis – promoted child sex abuse :confused: