The Fellowship of Life
a Christian-based vegetarian group founded in 1973

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Letters

Carnivorous beasts

Sir, The created order is clearly "red in tooth and claw" and can appear to affirm and deny the Deity, at the same time.

Indeed, the conditions of life and for that matter, salvation, often serve to raise empty questions about divine complicity in cruelty. Christian theology usually embraces 'mystery' as the most palatable and finite human understanding of the presence of evil.

In the case of animal predation, it is important to emphasise the distinction between Creator and creation. Fallen conditions are certainly imperfect but reflect man's original sin rather than God's infinite love. Throughout early Genesis, God's peaceable creation is repeatedly referred to as "very good" - words never attributed to later conditions which included killing.

There is an obvious peril in extrapolating the 'law of the jungle' as a moral reference source for human conduct. For that reason, the average vegetarian Christian is inclined to perceive slaughterhouse activity in much the same terms as a mugging, or worse.

Surely, a major aim of any religion is to approximate divine grace, mercy and love, amidst the standard and conduct of the world?

Catholic Herald
(18/4/03)

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