Many people debate the morality of a vegan diet according to Scripture and stewardship. However, regardless of if you personally deem the vegan lifestyle to be more compassionate or holy or not, there are many reasons why all of the events at every church in the world should be vegan.
1. Vegan events create an environment that is the most inclusive. Many ethical vegans would feel troubled by the presence of animal products at events. Also, if people are trying to be healthy, they will probably be avoiding animal products, and the presence of animal products may cause temptation for them.
2. In most cases, animal products are the result of unnecessary suffering and death of innocent creatures. Since this is of questionable morality in the Church today, we would be wisest to err on the side of innocence.
3. Animal products are known to cause disease (nutritionfacts.org), and we don't want events that promote such chronic illness. We want events that promote healing to the holistic person, body + mind + spirit.
4. Many vegans have left the Church today because they felt a lack of compassion towards animals. If we offer vegan events, even if the leaders and participants are not vegan themselves, we can show empathy towards those who have left the church and offer them a "welcome back home."
5. Particularly among young adults, there is a growing population of vegans and vegetarians, so having vegan events would be most welcoming and inclusive for them. If you want a group that grows and that no one will feel excluded, vegan events are the best option. Especially if you want to be open to seekers from other traditional backgrounds, such as Jewish, Hindu, or Muslim - vegan food is the common denominator. Many Hindus feel particularly uncomfortable around dead animals (because of beliefs regarding reincarnation). Most Jews only eat animal products that are kosher. Muslims only eat meat that has been sacrificed in a halal manner. But everyone eats plants :)
6. All of your events can essentially be the same as they would have been - minus the animal suffering! There are vegan versions of every food. If someone just HAS to flip something on a grill, there are vegan hotdogs and hamburgers, etc. So, you can still have all of the events you would have had, as far as the food is concerned. However, if you want events that are open to vegan-minded people, be aware that they probably won't want to go hunting, fishing, or to zoos, rodeos, circuses, etc.
7. Church events can create an environment that is reminiscent of Eden, bringing life, not death, and reminding people of what life was like before sin.
8. Everyone can feel reassured in a vegan environment, vegans and nonvegans alike, because they can know that they have made an environment that welcomes the stranger.
9. Just how drinking alcohol is not a "sin" but it is arguably unwise as an attribute of church events, so too eating animal products - though currently permissible under canon law (though, I would argue, only if necessary) - is not beneficial for offering the most inclusive environment. However, events without animal products (or alcohol) are the most inclusive.
Some references to keep in mind:
CCC 2418 “It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly."
1 Cor. 8:12-13:
By sinning against your brothers in this way and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.
I agree far too many church events exclude vegans and vegetarians
ReplyDeleteI too find church events awkward as a vegan. The same goes for autism get togethers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your thoughts on this. I think we can accomplish this in the church over time as we begin to help Catholics realize what The Church actually teaches regarding animal welfare. (CCC 2415-2418) and the scripture you have quoted. Also helping Catholics realize the connection between holiness and the daily choices we make, especially in what we put into our bodies.
ReplyDeleteThe only problems I see is asking the church to give up the cultural norms of crab feeds, and fish fries, which I choose not to attend, but countless do. Perhaps limiting them and offering a plant based equivalent, along with a compassionate reason as to why is the answer.
I do believe we should abandon the term vegan/veganism in our discussions with The Church and her members. Words like plant based, cruelty free, Gen 1:29, will prove to be way more productive in getting this message out there.
Unfortunately when Christians here the term vegan they immediately go on the defense and associate our message with liberal veganism. And the notion that it is always immoral to use animals when that's not true, nor does the church teach that.
I seen this for myself in my over two year vegan journey. I've done it both ways. These days If I use the term vegan it's with the word Catholic in front indicating my views as outlined in the Catechism. I also seen the difference in how Christians respond when the focus is on their health, and or environment using terms like plant based etc..
like someone said to me once in the Catholic vegan group, "if preservation and improvement of human life isn't enough to get Christian's to adopt this way of life (a Catholic
vegan diet/lifestyle), then nothing will!"
God bless you!
Personally i am praying about how i approach.the Priests and Bishops in NZ as I want to be strong and articulate and have all the facts on hand ...
ReplyDeleteWe have been having vegan options for awhile now at our church. And, our fellowship is learning more bit by bit. Our minister recently spoke on veganism and I hope she can say she's vegan soon. I prefer not to go where there are animal parts on a table. Thank you for the article.
ReplyDeleteCurious....
ReplyDeleteI've been following Jesus for 42+ years now and in all our feasts, and festivals, I've never once seen anyone ever torture, kill, or otherwise injure an animal.
We've all purchased our meat from sources such as grocery stores, and perhaps butchers, who purchased previously killed animals.
So, this talk about having compassion for animals strikes me as bizarre, and completely based on the lack of knowledge of the marketplace.
And as far as the spirituality of eating vegetables, I encourage you to read Romans 14, and the first few verses of 15.
Furthermore, please read 1 Timothy 4.
As strange as it may seem to you, we get that you are bothered by meat. We understand that you feel like you're promoting a godlier perspective by this belief I'm reading. But according to Romans 14, it's a weaker attitude that you are justifying.
According to 1 Timothy 4, it's a doctrine of demons that says that God doesn't want us eating meat.
According to the 1 Corinthians 6, 8, and 10, the problem there was that cultural practice was that meat was first offered to idols. Paul tells us that if someone were to see you eat meat offered to an idol, their weak conscience would be emboldened to engage in idolatry, and as a result, sin against Jesus, so to ensure that we don't sin against such a person, we shouldn't engage where we would be observed.
Ironically, in Romans 14, and in Titus, we read that to the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are not pure, nothing is, and to those who believe something is sinful, to him it is sin if he does not eat in faith.
So, by all means, please read the bible and understand what Paul is saying to us.
Grace and peace be with you, in Christ.
Titus 2:11-15.
Do you know where your food comes from? dominionmovement.com
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DeleteSteveB, you're being about as "helpful" as those Christians in the antebellum South who tried to use the Bible to justify slavery.
DeleteThere is no evidence that Paul was writing to/about ethical vegans in any of the passages you quote. He was writing to people who abstained from meat because they were preoccupied with ceremonial purity -- either because of the idolatry issue that you talk about, or because they thought they still needed to observe the old Jewish food laws. The "doctrine of demons" that Paul refers to is, I would guess, the attempt to push the legalistic observance of the Kosher diet on others, or to command pointless asceticism (notice the association with forbidding marriage, which is not something that ever entered the minds of us vegans).
But ethical vegans are neither legalistic, nor fearful of powerless idols, nor fearful of breaking outdated ceremonial rules. We are motivated by love, which is the central message of the Bible. Far from being weak in our faith, we are living it out to the fullest: pursuing God's ideal, instead of just trying to do the bare minimum to avoid sinning. (Maybe eating meat is not a sin, but does it maximize love? Surely not!)
As for the "we only serve previously killed animals at church" bit … what point do you think you're making with that? You paid somebody for their dead bodies, right? Hiring someone to kill an animal for you is no better than killing the animal yourself. If you think that meat packers would kill animals even if nobody bought their corpses, then it's *you* who lack knowledge of the marketplace.