Article No. 2 - Connectedness: VEGETABLE SOUP FOR THE SOUL (A Vegan Way of Life)
from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Billie Touchstone Signer

"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."
~Hippocrates (? 460 BC -? 377 BC)

I just might have coined the word connectedness since I can’t find it in the dictionary. But let’s say, it’s the act of being connected.  We are family, as the song goes, but even more than being kin.  We are all connected by and to the Infinite Power Source, the Creator.

I strongly feel that mothers and their children are forever connected by that umbilical cord that binds them from conception to birth.  I believe it takes on a somewhat different concept after the cord is cut, but is still there.  The cord is cut, and though invisible, it’s forever connected.  Ask any mother.

So if all life is connected to the Highest Energy Force for our very breath and life, that includes all animals, too, along with every other form of life.  There can’t be more than one Life force (the Creator) holding all living things together.

Now, take a deep breath.  Tell the Creator thank you for that good, deep breath. There are many who cannot breathe without a respirator or oxygen.

Someone recently made a shallow remark: There are no animals in heaven.  What a really dumb thing to say!  If there are no animals in Heaven, I’m not sure I want to go.

The book of Revelation many times places both human and nonhuman creatures around the throne of God, at a time when the Lord “shall wipe away all tears.” (Revelation 4:6-11; 5:6-14; 6:1-7)

It’s not my intention to use this space to attempt to prove that God made his covenant with both human and nonhuman creatures.  Actually, the proof is clearly stated several times in Genesis. (Genesis 9:8-10, 11-13,14, 15, 16, 17) The wise can read, reflect and come to their own conclusion.

So, then why do you suppose most Christians eat meat? Actually, it’s probably one of three reasons:

1) They are not aware of the horrors and pain animals suffer nor what horrendous things happen to our planet by animal agriculture nor the damage to their own health.

There’s so much news coverage on this these days; it’s hard to believe that folks aren’t aware of the millions of tragedies against the helpless every day.  But guess there are lots of people who wear spiritual blinders.

2) They are aware but think it must be okay since the church hasn’t spoken out on it nor prohibited eating sinless creatures; nor does the Bible speak against eating God’s sentient creatures; but in fact told Noah to “eat up” the animals with whom He had made a covenant.

It just doesn’t sound right and I often wonder if somebody didn’t get carried away in their translating.  I’m aware those who wrote God’s words in the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit.  But I wonder if those monks and many other translators of the Bible were also filled with the Holy Spirit.  Example: Know why there are different endings to The Lord’s Prayer?  Since the printing press was not invented until later, the Bible had to be copied by scholars and those few who could write.  An over-zealous monk while copying the Lord’s Prayer was so overtaken with it’s beauty that he inserted in the margin, “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever….” When the next copier came along, he thought it was supposed to go into the text and there he put it. And it went into most translations thereafter.

Try this: Read that chapter when Noah, his family and the animals came off the ark, (Genesis 9:1-5) but leave out the verses 3-4 where permission was given to eat flesh; Sounds right and so beautiful. Now, read it again and put the verses back in. Doesn’t seem to have the right continuity or even the same “ring“ to it, does it? Seems out of place.

Be that as it may, the Bible doesn’t speak out against slavery either, but we know today, IT IS WRONG.

There are other evil things mentioned in the Holy Bible which were not forbidden by God, but guess what? Talk about violence and terrorism! But God gave us the precious gift of free will and understanding.  I expect the Creator wants us to make good choices on those things we know would be displeasing to Him.

3) Then, there are those apathetic folks who don’t want to think about it and therefore, don’t consider it a problem to deal with. They’ve always eaten meat, drank milk and eaten eggs and the whole nine yards and would never consider change. The hard core group.

But should the “hard core” group ever look into the terrified eyes of an animal awaiting it’s turn for the death blow, I daresay they might have a tug of war with their sleeping conscience.  It’s too bad they’ve never heard the frantic, hysterical bellowing of a mother cow pitifully pleading for her baby.  But it will not be returned; it must live it’s short life in a cage with a wooden floor and not enough space to turn around and barely enough to lie down in it’s own excrement.  It will be turned into veal in a few short weeks.

It’s doubtful they’ve ever visited chicken and turkey houses where thousands and thousands of birds are crowded together, after having their beaks cut off with a hot knife so they won’t peck each other.  But America must have its Thanksgiving turkey, and how could they ever think of fast food chains not serving up chicken nuggets by the billions.

In laying houses six hens are housed together in a tiny cage. Some literally starve to death because their poor feet have grown to the wire cage and they can’t reach the food and water.  When I see the egg section in the supermarkets, all I can think about is how much pain and suffering went into each of those eggs, so that egg eaters can have theirs “sunny side up” or omelets.  Once laying hens are no longer productive , they are made into chicken soup.

But, the connectedness is still there between all living creatures.  We can choose to deny it and even try to justify harming others who can’t help themselves.  But the truth remains: IT’S WRONG to harm others, be they human or nonhuman.  One can claim ignorance just so long, but eventually, the truth will be so obvious, no one, not even the hard cores, can deny it. But the truth will set us free.

More and more young people today are switching to vegetarianism. They have discovered and accepted the fact that each time they sit down to eat, they must make a choice: Will they support cruelty and murder of innocent beings?  Or, will they support respect for the earth and all living, and “connected” creatures--creatures who have souls, too?  One definition of the word, soul, is an impelling life force.

The holocausts of the sinless and silent must stop.  Some four thousand babies are murdered in the womb each day.  That’s one and one-half million human lives taken each year.  Almost too horrible for words!  Further, in the year 2001, it’s projected that ten billion animals will be slaughtered for food.  Or more bluntly put, every meat-eating man, woman and child in this country will have subsidized the abuse and slaughter of 37 animals each this year. In a meat eater’s lifetime of seventy-five years, that means over 2,800 animals will have to be terrorized, suffer unspeakable cruelty, and then be killed as others watch and wait their turn shivering with fright. The choice is mine; the choice is yours.

“ ..non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.“
~Thomas A. Edison

Copyrighted as a collection by Billie Touchstone Signer

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Go on to: Article #3 - What’s to Eat if not Meat?
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