I
find it quite pathetic that out of ignorance, sometimes people say that
Christianity and vegetarianism don’t get along well. It’s rubbish.
Vegetarianism is an important part of Christianity. The life of an animal is as
precious as that of a human being. We are all children of God. How can one
child be more “precious” than the other?
Let’s
see what great and famous Christians have to say about vegetarianism and animal
rights.
Animals
are my brothers and sisters. –St.
Francis of Assisi.
As
long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.- Leo Tolstoy.
Since
the time I gave up flesh and wine, I have been delivered from all physical
ills. –John Wesley
It
is far better to be happy than to have your body act as a graveyard for
animals. –Clement of Alexandria
Until
he extends the circle of his compassion to all living creatures, man will
himself not find peace. -Rev. Albert
Schweitzer
This
list can go on and on. Majority of Christian scholars and reformers were and
are animal lovers and vegetarians. Eating meat is a great sin because we are
killing an innocent animal just for our appetite. By choosing not to eat meat,
just imagine how many innocent lives we can save.
Let
us all follow the Word of God, and show compassion to all our fellow creatures,
and live in harmony with them.
You're quoting St. Francis of Assisi. May I thus suppose you're a Catholic, or that you at least consider the veneration of saints not against the First Commandment? (Some Evangelical Protestants do.) In that case, I suppose that at least the highest Catholic clergy should be firmly vegetarian, right?
ReplyDeleteName five vegetarian popes.
Benedict XVI? Definitely not. Comes from Bavaria and loves his schweinshaxe with sauerkraut like many from his area.
The late John Paul II? Nope. Loved his Polish sausages either.
Have the leaders of the Catholic church in the last fourty years always sinned against God in your opinion?
I am approving this comment of yours, Taleweaver, but I won't do so in future, if they are nonsensical weak arguments.
DeleteFirst of all, your logic is flawed. As we all know this world is full of hypocrisy and corruption. And I don’t think that in order to become a Pope, one necessarily needs to be full of righteousness. But, to become a famous saint like Francis of Assisi or Saint Basil, you have to be.
Also, about meat-eating being a sin, it is not just MY opinion. Saint Basil himself said that anyone who eats meat can’t have virtue. So, need I say more? Instead of judging others about whom you can’t do anything, try removing meat from your own plate if you want the world to become a better place.
Christianity has had a lot of scholars and reformers in the past who were vegetarians and advocated a vegetarian diet. And, majority of them included the teaching of vegetarianism in their Church.
The Church and its Popes are well known for their tyranny as well. Don’t you know how the Church punished innocent people like Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilee? It brings sadness into our hearts when we think about how the Church punished people just because they pushed their scientific theory about the universe. Today, everyone knows that they were correct and the Church was wrong.
Plus, I don’t think eating a sausage is as bad a crime as the ones the Church was guilty of before. So, a lot has improved, after all.
Instead of wasting your time doing research on self-righteous people who don’t deserve the titles they have, and about whom the world will forget as soon as they die, try doing some research on people like Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, Socrates, Pythagoras, etc.
Taleweaver, I won’t approve your comment this time since it violates the second and the third rule but I will give you a reply as you are being too annoyingly persistent. You should be grateful that I didn’t approve it. If I did, others would have seen what kind of nonsense you are capable of spewing.
ReplyDeleteYou don’t seem to know much about great people like Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was against orthodox Christianity (so am I) but he held Jesus as a great teacher. Mahatma Gandhi used to read not only the Bhagavad Gita and the Koran, but also the Bible. Gandhi was a better follower of Jesus. In fact, a hundred times better than those hypocrites who go to Church to pray, and later, they watch porn, commit extramarital sexual acts, eat flesh, and tell lies and what not?
Gandhi did not officially become a Christian, but he is a far better Christian than many of the Church leaders are. If you compare the teachings of Jesus with Gandhi’s life, you won’t see any difference between them. So, if you think twice before making a claim, it would be appreciated.
And Socrates and Pythagoras lived long before Jesus was born or the Bible was written. So, what if they were heathens? Heathens can’t be good people? A Christian can’t respect a heathen for his righteousness?
If you are specifically looking for Christian Church fathers who supported vegetarianism, then look at people like Tertullian or St. Jerome.
Judging from your comment, you are probably a very narrow-minded person who thinks that a Christian is not supposed to quote or respect a non-Christian. I can’t blame you, because you were probably brainwashed by false teachers and fake doctrines.
Your argument that I am using Christianity to defend an agenda is very weak. My agenda has an absolute ground in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, so what makes you think I would come to Christianity out of all?
Also, your claim that Catholics are supposed to worship the Popes as infallible beings is just one of your delusions. It is also laughable that you think Protestants are not allowed to quote Saints. Read some books and do some research before making such foolish claims.
Even if I was not a Christian, since there is nothing loving and compassionate about killing an innocent animal, I don’t see anything wrong with preaching vegetarianism through Christianity. After all, Christianity is about love and compassion, and the teachings of Jesus are very contrary to the brutal killing of innocent animals to satisfy your appetite.