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Our subjects cover: religion (Christian, Jewish and others); diet and lifestyle (vegan and vegetarian); and other miscellaneous subjects.

Loving Nature

To us, a person cannot fully love God unless he or she also loves God's creation:

whether it's expressed in the form of Mary's painting at the top of the page, or in Carol Vito's photo of this winter wonderland,

or through the gentle beauty of this mother and child drinking water,

or the beauty of this spotted touch-me-not,

or through this cat and rat who prove that Isaiah's prophecy of a peaceable kingdom (11:6-9) is a reality,

or through this peaceful encounter with a mouse in a tree.

Comments by Evelyn Elkin Giefer - 12 Jan 2003

Maynard, Rod and all,

I don�t pretend to be the intellectual equal of Maynard and many others on this list (in fact I often have to struggle to understand what is being said!), but I wanted to put in my 2 cents worth on this.

I don�t think Nature is the enemy. I believe that nature is basically good, but that the violence and predation is due to the Fall (original sin, i.e., due to humankind�s weakness, willfulness, sinfulness, etc.) and that only when we learn to live together in love and non-violence (with humans and nature/animals) will there be the Peaceable Kingdom. God will bring it about, indeed is bringing it about even now, because God alone is perfect and God inspires us to live/act in love and peace. But unless/until we all (all of us humans) get it right, nature remains �in bondage to decay�, as Paul expresses it. Our promise from God is that one day we will get it right. Praise God!

We see examples of this at work in stories of lions who won�t eat meat, etc. and right here on the list with Frank and Mary Hoffman�s cats who refuse to kill birds and mice. Those cats live in such a peaceable environment among persons who are totally dedicated to God and the cause of peace for all creatures, that it somehow permeates their being.

I don�t think we have to overcome nature in the sense of mastering or controlling it (but I�m not sure if that�s what Rod is saying). However, in the sense that we protect birds from cats by keeping our cats inside, provide safe shelter for farm animals, or rescue injured animals, etc, we are in fact at least partly controlling nature. By doing so we hope to make an impression for good on the world.

Evelyn

Go on to Comments by Rod Preece - 12 Jan 2003

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