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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND A VEGETARIAN - VEGAN LIFESTYLE

Question 2:
What can we as believing Christian vegetarians and vegans do to change the view that Christianity supports flesh eating?
Submitted by:  Maynard S. Clark 31 May 1998

I believe that showing believing Christians happily and faithfully practicing vegetarianism is the most effective way to respond to the questions that believing Christians have about the healthfulness of it. 

The BIGGEST question, I think, is whether Christians will EVER believe that moral responsibility demands vegetarianism. That is the question, not whether or not some people who are vegetarians are also Christians.  We've shown that already.

However, Christian vegetarians and Christian theology will not persuade non-Christians.

Also, non-Christians who are searching intellectually have a whole host of questions about Christian faith itself, and those issues, we have been told, should not clutter this Veg-Christian Discussion List, since it challenges the beliefs that some Christians have about what their faith is, and how it should be held.

In any case, vegetarian advocates often question the "friendliness" to Christendom of some vegetarians, since they do not have hope in the "inner reform of Christianity," to cite the phrase of Dr. Karl Anders Skriver, German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and vegan.

However, the question here from Frank is not: Does Christianity TOLERATE meat-eating, but does
Christianity ENDORSE, PRACTICE, and SUPPORT meat-eating.

I think that, if the subtle difference is seen, and practicing Christians can decide to abstain from meat-eating and supporting meat-eating WITHOUT condemning it, blowing up slaughterhouses, and actively working against the end of "organized slaughter" as we know it today, that would be an incredible "purification."

However, in some analyses, a faith is exactly what its people are doing.

Christianity has a "dialectic" that distinguishes the purity of the faith from the practices of the believers, but not absolutely, since the faith is also known in practice and belief.

That issue will give us lots of room to sort out a wide range of issues DIRECTLY involved with our predicament, and some which are (or seem to be) tangential, also.

         -         Maynard

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