Weekly Newsletter from Christian Vegetarian Association CVA - June 1, 2018
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)


  1. Activist Feedback
  2. Original Sin, Part 34, Institutions
  3. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman

1. Activist Feedback

Rick Hershey writes:

Chip and I handed out 2575 CVA booklets and one Vegan Outreach booklet mostly to kids at Sprint Center in Kansas City for Winter Jam today. It was windy and raining. The Vegan Outreach booklet “A Guide to Animal-Free Eating” went to a vegan.

Leafleting and tabling are effective, enjoyable ways to show our brothers and sisters in Christ that a plant-based diet is good for God’s Creation. When you volunteer for the CVA, the CVA now donates $16/hr. for tabling and $25/hr. for up to 3 hours for leafleting to the veg. or animal protection group of your choice. Contact Lorena at [email protected] if you can help. See last week’s e-newsletter for a list of upcoming activist opportunities.


2. Original Sin, Part 34, Institutions

Original Sin, as depicted in the Bible, started with the tendency of individual humans to participate in the scapegoating process in the context of their relationship with each other. As complex beings, it is important to regard the scapegoating process in the larger social context.

As human civilization developed, people became increasingly specialized. This led to the formation of institutions, which helped to delineate social roles and societal norms. Generating institutions was essential for generating order essential for maintaining peace in complex societies. However, one price people have paid for the benefits of institutions has been a decrease in freedom. By establishing rules and regulations, institutions tend to oppose individual expression that seems to threaten the social order. In particular, institutions tend to be most repressive when it comes to views or actions that threaten the status of those people whose power, prestige, or livelihood is tied to those institutions.

Institutions are needed only if there are people who are “outsiders.” If everyone readily and voluntarily abided by the rules and regulations of a given institution, there would be no need for the institution to exist. Therefore, all institutions are grounded, at least in part, in the scapegoating process, which distinguishes “insiders” from “outsiders.” A central role of institutions is to identify “outsiders” and to determine what penalty they should face for their “transgressions.” In reality, all of us have needs, desires, and behaviors that make us both insiders and outsiders with respect to a given institution. Therefore, institutions invariably attribute excess guilt to “outsiders” and insufficient guilt to “insiders.” This is the essence of the scapegoating process.

Next week I will start to explore whether it is possible have a “beloved community” grounded on love and respect in a society that needs institutions to function smoothly.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.


3. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman

Serving God Willingly


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