Biblical excuses

BIBLICAL EXCUSES
The Bible supports vegetarianism. But, still, lots of so-called Christians use passages from the Bible to defend meat-eating. Let's see how their weak excuses or arguments can be countered.

Genesis 3: 21: God clothed Adam and Eve in animal skins.

This excuse really makes me laugh. Because nowhere it says that God killed any animal.  So, it can mean either of two things-

1. God used the skins of animals that were already dead.
2. If God can create animals, why can’t he create animal skins without killing animals?

As we all know, there was neither any violence nor any killing in the Garden of Eden. It is also really hard to imagine a Father kill his “lesser intelligent” child to clothe the “more intelligent” one.

Mark 7: 18: What one eats cannot make him unclean.

What Jesus said is perfectly true. All foods are fit to be eaten, and that is exactly the reason they are called “food.” But, those innocent animals, they are not food. For lions and tigers, they may be, but not for us. Animals are our brothers and sisters, as St. Francis said.  And, to eat our brothers and sisters would be cannibalism. So, Jesus meant that all “food” was fit to be eaten. He didn’t say that animals were food. Nor did he say that animals were meant to be killed and eaten by humans. Again, the reason we should promote vegetarianism is not because meat makes us “unclean”. Vegetarianism should be promoted to reduce suffering.

It is really sad how people misinterpret the words of the Bible to suit their selfish needs.

Luke 5: 2 – 11, John: 5- 8, Jesus helping his disciples in fishing.

Now, I won’t call this a pathetic excuse. It really is confusing. If Jesus was a vegetarian, why was he aiding his disciples in fishing? So, here is the true explanation.

In the Gospel of Luke, it shows that even the animals are co-operating with Jesus to prove his divinity, which he wanted to show to the fishermen, to make them his disciples. None of the passages show that the fish were actually killed. Instead of killing and eating the fish, Jesus asked the fishermen to give up their barbaric profession once and for all. The passage also says that they left their nets which make it clear that the fish were released back into the water.

It is also funny to note that Jesus filled their nets with so many fish, that their nets were about to break. (If their nets broke, the fish would be free.) This obviously implied that fishing was wrong and not in line with the message of Jesus.

As for the Gospel of John, a similar event takes place after the Resurrection. Here, the event is not to be taken literally. This passage is actually showing them gather disciples, which are compared to fish. Since Jesus earlier promised that he would make them “fishers of men”, we can be sure that killing fish to satisfy our appetite is not the point of this story.

Even if you want to take this literally, then, remember that what Jesus and his followers, who lived near a fishing community, ate 2000 years ago is no license for you to kill and terrorize God’s creatures today. Eating flesh for survival can sometimes be excused. But eating it for your appetite can’t be.

But this story can’t be taken literally in the first place because none of the other Gospels, even ones not included in the Bible, talk about Jesus helping his disciples in fishing after the Resurrection. So, undoubtedly this passage is talking about fishing disciples, not killing God’s innocent creatures.

Some passages in the Bible can be used to justify flesh-eating (even though they can be easily countered), but no passage in the Bible or any other scripture can be used to justify the cruelty that is going on in the slaughterhouses.

Matthew 8: 4, Mark 1: 44, Luke 5: 14: Jesus asking the leper to offer the sacrifice that Moses ordered.

We all know that the prophets and Jesus opposed animal sacrifice. And opposing animal sacrifice was the very reason Jesus was crucified. But, this is the only passage that brings doubt into our minds. Why did He ask the leper to offer a sacrifice, which we can come to know by looking at the Old Testament, was an animal sacrifice?

First of all, Moses asked people to be faithful to God. He never “ordered” anyone to offer any sacrifice in the first place. That’s exactly what Jeremiah 7: 22 says. And, of course, Jesus knew that. He knew that Moses never commanded any kind of animal sacrifice. So, why and what did Jesus ask the leper to offer? I’ll be coming to that; hold on.

Secondly, the ancient Hebrews saw leprosy as a sign of sin. Of course, this was wrong and Jesus knew that. And, since Jesus cleansed the man Himself, ritual cleansing was unnecessary. So, why offer an unnecessary sacrifice, especially one that was never commanded?

The answer is simple. This story takes place early, much before Jesus was wanted by the authorities. So, it proves that by asking the man to obey the law and offer the sacrifice that Moses commanded, Jesus wanted to avoid offending or angering the religious authorities. So, this passage does not show Him approving animal sacrifice, but it shows how wise and thoughtful Jesus was.

Jesus knew that the man would not offer an animal sacrifice, and it went just as He expected. From the Gospel of Mark, we come to know that the leper didn’t offer any sacrifice. Instead, he started telling people about Jesus.

Romans 14: Didn’t Paul say that vegetarians are “weak” in faith?

This is an interesting question.

Paul said that a person who eats only vegetables is weak in faith. It can be taken as “vegetarians are weak in faith”. But, if it is to be taken that way, it would mean that people like John Wesley, Rev. Albert Schweitzer and so on were “weak.” Majority of the world’s best scholars, writers and philosophers were and are vegetarians, and to say that they are all “weak” wouldn’t be very nice. So, what was Paul trying to say? By checking Corinthians 8, we can get an idea of what Paul was trying to say in this passage.

Many of the early Christians were afraid to take meat that was offered to idols. But Paul believed that those pagan Gods didn’t exist. So, the food wasn’t defiled. So, he meant that the people, who abstained from flesh because it was offered to the idols, were weak. Check Corinthians 8: 7. He didn’t mean to say that people who abstain from flesh because of ethical, health or environmental reasons were weak. The ones who abstained from flesh because it was offered to idols were vegetarians because of the “wrong” reasons. That’s why Paul condemned them.

Later, in 14: 21 Paul himself said that we should abstain from meat if it seems to upset our brother or makes him fall. And, true animal lovers get upset when others kill innocent animals for food. And, because of meat production, millions of our brothers and sisters are starving. So, even if you are not an animal lover, in order to avoid upsetting your animal lover brother, and in order to end world hunger, it is your duty to become a vegetarian.

Christianity is about kindness, love and compassion, yet there is nothing loving and compassionate about factory farms and slaughterhouses.  So, we shouldn’t parody the Bible by using it to defend the disgusting cruelty that is going on in the slaughterhouses. Let’s remember what Tolstoy said, “As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.”