Challenging Church Compassion – 22: Chased Away “JL”
We are constantly hearing from people about their unhappy encounters with hard of heart Christians and churches when it comes to caring about the God-given wellbeing of animals that they should have, instead of being abused by animal exploiters and people’s indifferent attitude.
JL wrote (in part):
Dear compassionate friend that Loves God and Jesus too.
Hardness of heart is the problem.
I know Christians who actually attacked me in horrible ways because I cared about animals and didn’t eat them. One said that I am the work of the devil and I better be careful and repent or I can go to hell.
Another man in my church verbally attacked me who used to butcher lambs on his own farm. He flaunted a diagram on how to butcher a lamb specifically for me to see. He thinks I am not living the right life also.
Later other people got upset with my postings on Facebook and said that I better stop posting about the animals and their suffering. They didn’t care that I love the Lord, the Triune God, and cannot be anything but what I am in regard to this, so we are no longer friends.
I have lost so many Christian friends over this.
I sometimes want to go to Heaven now rather than be here, but I know God has called me to be here now and for this purpose. Once I knew, there was no going back to eating flesh or dairy and eggs.
I just want to share how it is. More people who say they are Christians are attacking me for loving God and His Earth and His animals.
I really never would have attacked someone like they have me, yet they say they are loving people and Christian.
I am here to love them and pray for them and to be here for the animals.
I am heartbroken over these people’s hardness of heart and blindness.
Thank you for being here on the Internet!
God bless you!
The apostle Paul spoke to the Corinthian church about their attitude about eating animals and wrote in 1 Corinthians 8:13…
13. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
NIV
Fortunately, JL never lost faith or fell into sin, but the attitude of so-called “Christians” was in direct opposition to what Paul wrote and Jesus’ teachings.
JL was just hard-heartedly chased away.
The church needs to wake up to the harm they are causing!
Since 
It is such a shame that sometimes people are squeezed out of direct church community and end up on the internet. It can be very tough finding a church where everyone goes along with the issues and isms that are important to each person, eg equality issues, vegetarianism; sometimes it is the circumstantial signs that are showing us whether we are in the right place. I pray that JL is back to church and off the internet again soon.
Hi Emma: We hope so, too, but all too often people who care about animals and don’t eat them are made to feel very uncomfortable in churches that are indifferent to the suffering of animals, and/or promote killing and eating them.
I would like to say that I never left my church, however it is not easy to sit in a service and listen to a sermon where butchering is brought up as an illustration to a sermon message. I have had to leave the sermon part of my church service a few times and sit outside and weep and pray. I am soon moving to a new community/town and will hopefully attend a more compassionate church. I pray I do.
We join you in you prayers for a truly compassionate church. If churches really followed the teachings of Jesus Christ, they would all be compassionate.