OMNI
VEGETARIAN ACTION NEWSLETTER #19, June 10, 2015.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology.
(#4 Feb. 12, 2014; #5 March 12, 2014; #6
April 9, 2014; #7 May 14, 2014; #8, June 11, 2014; #9 July 9, 2014; #10, August
11, 2014; #11 September 10, 2014; #12 October 8, 2014; #13, November 12, 2014;
#14, December 10, 2014; #15, January 14, 2015; #16, Feb. 11, 2015; #17, March
11, 2015; #18, April 8, 2015.). Thank
you Marc.
Veggie Potluck
Wed June 10 - 6:00 pm @ OMNI
Food-friendly faces with delicious dishes who
want to meet you. You don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy this
potluck. Just willing to try something new. Hope to see you!
.
What’s at stake: We
must REDUCE MEAT CONSUMPTION not only individually but collectively in order to
change the politics of meat, to heal
our earth as well as our own bodies physically and ethically, stopping the
slaughter of animals and reducing climate change. Let’s try to understand the help to the world of vegetarianism and
the harms to the world by eating meat, and try to do something as the result of
your understanding.
OMNI’S
Blog
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/
OMNI
Newsletters
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/
Index:
http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/
See:
Animal Cruelty, Animal Friendship, Animal Rights, Critical Thinking,
Education, Empathy/Compassion, Ecology,
Ethics, Gandhi, Global Warming/Causes, Health, St. Francis, Torture,
Vegetarianism, Violence, Wars, for starters.
OMNI
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT
October
World Vegetarian MONTH. Oct. 16, UN
World Food DAY.
Contents #18 at end
Contents Vegetarian Action #19
Dan Dean
Remembering Donna and
Kelly’s DON’T FENCE ME IN
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
Health, Nutrition
The Trouble with Chicken, PBS, Frontline Film
Living Downstream Film
Rights
and Protection of Animals
Three
Books for Christians
Global
Warming, Climate Change
Food
Not Lawns, Food Not Lawns
Natural
Grocers
A Glimpse
at Vegetarian Potluck 2010 and Before, from Dan Dean, our coordinator at the
time. Dan suffered a broken back, went to a
Denver rehab hospital, and has recently returned to his home in Winslow.
We have watched "Forks Over Knives," "The
Meatrix," "The Simpsons: Lisa Becomes Vegetarian," and
"Eating" and have discussed Diet
for a Small Planet, The Ethical Food Manifesto, Worship Your Food, The Ethics
of What We Eat, and had presentations from Jacqueline Froelich, Summer of
Solutions, Wellness Secrets, Fayetteville Time Bank, Wenqi Clark and Chinese
cooking, and music from Chris Mikkelson, Candy Lee, and Donna Stjerna Mulhollan.
Remembering Donna and Kelly Mulhollan’s Earth
Day 29015 Program in case you missed it:
OPPOSITION TO INDUSTRIAL MEAT PRODUCTION AND OMNI FUNDRAISER BY
DONNA AND KELLY MULHOLLAN, APRIL 22, 2015
DON’T FENCE ME IN
INTRODUCTION
HOG LAMENT SINGERS-Flash Mob
Ginny Masullo-Ozark River Stewards
GINNY MASULLO –Talk about CAFO
JOEL EMERSON- No Hogs on the Buffalo
BROAD DAYLIGHT- Green
DICK BENNETT: Becoming a Vegetarian
VEGGIE WRAPPERS
PROGRESSION of OBSESSION-Silas & CeeCee
Still on the Hill- EMILY the COW
RUNWAY FASHION SHOW
DENISE LANUTI-Don’t Fence Me In
CINDY SHEEHAN’S SOAPBOX
 |
Go Vegan Radio - 31 May 2015
Guest PAUL RODNEY TURNER of Food For Life
Global, the world’s largest food relief program that serves 2 million vegan
meals daily + commentary with Professors GARY FRANCIONE and ANNA CHARLTON +
salads that are worse than a Big Mac?
Health,
Nutrition
|
The Trouble with Chicken
FRONTLINE investigates the spread of
dangerous pathogens in our meat—particularly poultry—and why the food-safety
system isn’t stopping the threat.
(0:31) FRONTLINE investigates the spread of dangerous
pathogens in our poultry.
FRONTLINE investigates
the spread of dangerous pathogens in our meat -- particularly poultry -- and
why the food-safety system isn't stopping the threat. Focusing on an outbreak
of Salmonella Heidelberg at one of the nation's largest
poultry processors, the documentary reveals how contaminants are evading
regulators and causing more severe illnesses at a time when Americans are
consuming more chicken than ever.
THE
LATEST
More than 20 years
ago, four children were killed in an outbreak of E. coli O157 — a dangerous
strain of bacteria that was linked back to undercooked hamburgers from Jack
in the Box fast food restaurants.
Meat
and poultry sold to consumers comes with a USDA seal that reads “inspected
and passed,” but a new report says holes in the process are leaving millions
at risk of a foodborne illness.
|
FILM ON PESTICIDES
“Living Downstream,” Chanda Chevannes, director, 2010. . www.livingdownstream.com Documentary about Sandra Steingraber’s
campaign against certain pesticides. She
questions why environmental causes of cancer are so often dismissed.
Rights
and Protection of Animals
www .
compassionatespirit . com
Home Articles About Keith Akers Books, etc.
Links
Traditional
Christianity and Vegetarianism — Three Book Reviews by Keith Akers
Good News for all Creation: Vegetarianism as
Christian Stewardship, by Stephen Kaufman and
Nathan Braun. Cleveland: Vegetarian Advocates Press, 2002 (revised 2004).
Is God a Vegetarian? Christianity,
Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights, by
Richard Young. Chicago: Open Court, 1999.
God’s Covenant With Animals: A Biblical Basis
for the Humane Treatment of All Creatures, by J.
R. Hyland. New York: Lantern Books, 2000.
Isn’t
traditional Christianity against vegetarianism? Didn’t Peter Singer say that as
far as the animals are concerned, the Christian religion is a very great
problem, because of concepts such as "dominion" of humans over
animals, humans as "special" because they are created in the image of
God, and the lack of souls for animals? Don’t traditional Christians think of
Jesus as a meat-eater who killed a herd of swine by sending demons into them?
It
certainly seems that traditional Christianity sees nothing ethically wrong with
eating meat as such. In the books which I am reviewing, Richard Young, as well
as Kaufman and Braun, make this explicit. Yet there are some traditional
Christians who are also vegetarians, and even defend vegetarianism as a
Christian virtue, even while rejecting the idea of ethical vegetarianism. It is
a sign of the maturity of a movement that it produces intelligent books on the
subject. We now have at least three books which
can claim to represent the views of traditional Christians and which also
promote vegetarianism.
All
of these are fine books. It is a sign of the dedication and sincerity of these
people that they were written at all. They are testimony to the values of
original Christianity — regardless of what happened to the tradition along the
way — that they seek to reconcile and make peace between both the vegetarian
tradition and the traditional Christian viewpoint. All of these books seek to
work in traditional vegetarian arguments for vegetarianism and put them in a
Christian context. But how can we do this in a way that is effective in
persuading traditional Christians?
The
striking thing about Good News for All
Creation is both what it says and what it does not say. It is quite short,
almost like an extended pamphlet rather than a book. The main body of the text
ends after page 59, although appendices more than double this to 123 pages. It
presents the standard arguments for vegetarianism (health, the environment,
world hunger, and ethics) with appropriate references to the Bible, "God’s
handbook for our lives." It also presents some characteristically
Christian themes, such as God’s concern for victims, the rejection of animal
sacrifice and Jesus’ statement "I require mercy, not sacrifice."
For
anyone concerned about the Bible, Richard Young’s book Is God a Vegetarian? is a much more thorough presentation. Young,
like the authors of Good News, takes "Biblical Christianity" as his
starting point. But Is God a Vegetarian? goes much deeper and further than the
former book, exploring areas of scripture that Kaufman and Braun do not even
mention. He agrees with Kaufman and Braun that Jesus was not himself a
vegetarian. However, he also systematically examines such topics as the souls
of animals, Noah’s Ark as a "food factory," eating lamb as part of
the Passover, and so forth.
Young
acknowledges that the Bible has contradictory traditions — some sanctioning,
some questioning meat-eating. He adroitly summarizes the problem: "when
there are conflicting voices in Scripture on what the church deems peripheral
issues we tend to let our own social location rule our selection of texts, and
either ignore, or explain away, or harmonize the contrary texts." That is
not only the story of vegetarianism in Christianity, it is the story of
Christianity itself — it has, for centuries, adapted itself conveniently to
whatever social customs seem to prevail at the time, for example sanctioning
slavery, the oppression of women, and so forth. The corrective for this, for
Young, is to listen to what the Bible actually says.
Regina
Hyland’s book, God’s Covenant With
Animals, takes Young’s approach one step further. Like Good News, her style is brief and to the point — at 107 pages, it
is actually the shortest book of the three. Like Is God a Vegetarian?, she turns toward the scriptures and
identifies different traditions in the Bible. But she sees these conflicting
voices as coming from a different place together. She synthesizes these voices
in the idea of "progressive
revelation": that God reveals to us whatever we are capable of
learning.
Yes,
there are animal sacrifices in the Bible; yes, there is meat consumption; yes,
there is exploitation and "dominion" — but this is not God’s real
message. God, through the prophets such as Isaiah and through Jesus Christ
himself, condemns animal sacrifice and the whole sacrificial religion which
sanctions meat-eating and exploitation of animals. In short, like Young, she
identifies differing traditions in the Christian message, but she identifies true Christianity with the
compassionate tradition and rejects the "domination" tradition of
animal sacrifice.
These
three books offer us three very different pictures of traditional Christianity
and of vegetarianism’s role in Christianity. Which of these is the best book for traditional Christians? If you
want to say the fewest number of things which might offend a traditional
Christian, then Good News is probably
your choice. This puts the basic vegetarian arguments (health, ecology, and
ethics) front and center in the book, with appropriate Bible quotations in
support. The strength of the book, however, is also its weakness; it avoids
controversy simply by not taking any positions which might push the wrong
buttons with traditional Christians. Most especially, it is concerned not to
contradict the idea that Jesus ate meat: "Jesus’ diet 2000 years ago in a
Mediterranean fishing community does not mandate what Christians should eat
today."
If,
on the other hand, you want a thoughtful and thorough analysis of the different
Biblical traditions surrounding animals, which fully acknowledges the
divergence of the Biblical traditions, then Young’s book Is God a Vegetarian? is the book to offer. Young’s book is the
longest and most informative of the three, and curiously, it is the only book
with recipes — not a bad idea, considering its audience. Most traditional
Christians, I am sorry to say, are not that familiar with the Bible, and are
going to be surprised that Young knows the Bible so thoroughly. For traditional
Christians who actually want to study the Bible, Is God a Vegetarian? is the
book which will give them the best information consonant with their values.
Finally,
we have Regina Hyland’s book God’s
Covenant with Animals. At first glance, this seems to combine the defects
of both the previous books with none of the advantages. It is the shortest
book, yet it also is clearly the most combative of the three, the one book
which unambiguously comes down on the side of compassion for animals.
"The
eating of flesh is a perversion of God’s law . . . And to thank God for
providing food is the modern equivalent of sacrificial religion; it represents
a continuing determination to claim God’s blessing on the slaughter, and
consumption, of his creatures." These are strong words, and stirring words
— who can answer this challenge to Christianity? The fact is that Jesus’
message was controversial in its day — remember how he got crucified? He was
crucified after an incident in the temple, in which he disrupted the animal
sacrifice business there. Jesus, that is, came squarely down against animal
sacrifice and on the side of compassion, even giving his own life for this
principle.
Hyland
is really pressing against the very edges of Christianity — she talks as if
ethical vegetarianism is part of Christianity. Does this mean that ethical
vegetarianism could possibly be part of "traditional Christianity"
after all? Or does it mean that Hyland is now outside of "traditional
Christianity"?
Ellen
White and Charles and Myrtle Fillmore did the same thing in the early 20th
century, by declaring the eating of flesh as food to be morally wrong. But the
movements which they pushed forward (the Seventh-day Adventists and Unity
School of Christianity) chose to disregard their founders’ advice. Hyland
endorses the idea of "progressive revelation," and is evidently ready
to jettison most of the features which vegetarians find problematic about
Christianity: the "dominion" concept, the lack of souls for animals,
and so forth. But whether Jesus was an ethical vegetarian, or condemned killing
animals for food, she does not clarify.
Some
people feel that this isn’t what Jesus is about at all — that Jesus wasn’t
interested in vegetarianism, ethical or otherwise; that Jesus was somewhat
concerned about animals but that this was not his primary concern. Someone has
to speak to, and for, such traditional Christians, putting the "gospel of
vegetarianism" into their own language. This is where books such as
Kaufman and Braun’s, and especially Young’s with its detailed Biblical
exploration, are very useful.
But
somehow I cannot forget that incident in
the temple in which Jesus disrupts the animal sacrifice business. How can we ignore this side of Jesus,
or casually put it aside, as if it didn’t matter? And why should we, as
vegetarians, shortchange the message of
Jesus about compassion so as not to offend some "traditional
Christians" who might be offended by the message? Surely, diplomacy and
scholarship have a role to play in advancing vegetarianism within Christianity;
but someone has to actually preach the message of Jesus, and that is what
Regina Hyland’s discussion of God’s Covenant with Animals does the best.
-- Keith Akers
May 10, 2005
Three
more views of Young’s book from
Google Search
runup67.360-help.net/.../is-god-a-vegetarian-christianity-vegetarianism-a...
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/richard+young/carol+j-+adams/is+
... Christianity, Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights Richard Alan Young.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_vegetarianism Wikipedia
Immediately after the
Flood, God allegedly permitted the eating of meat, but forbade ..... ISBN
0-945146-01-9; Richard A. Young (1998) Is God a Vegetarian?
www.all-creatures.org/murti/art-is-god-vegetarian.html
"A God who is
understood only as 'the god of humankind' is no longer the God of the
Bible." --Reverend Claus Westermann "Dr. Richard Alan Young refuses
to ...
Global
Warming, Climate Change
FOOD
NOT LAWNS
Some of you have heard me
describe the development of the idea of OMNI’s Garden Tour for Peace, Justice,
and Ecology. It began on the model of the Garden Clubs with flowers and
beauty. But immediately peace-justice-ecology began to pull at it when a
family wanted to show their vegetable garden, and since then the variety kept
on expanding, now considering warming
and climate change. Recently I ran across mention of Food Not Lawns
in Rivera Sun's book The Dandelion
Insurrection. (She presented several workshops for OMNI last month.)
--Dick
www.foodnotlawns.com/
dates, details and photos from the 2015 Food Not Lawns Edible
Nation tour with author/founder Heather Jo Flores.
www.amazon.com ›
... › By Technique › Urban
Amazon.com, Inc.
Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your
Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community [H. C. Flores] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping
on qualifying ...
www.chelseagreen.com ›
... › Food Not Lawns
Chelsea Green Publishing
"Food Not Lawns is
a wonderful book expanding on the idea that we can do more than just protest
but that we have the power to create the world we want. Food ...
· Now climate change is
pulling us in additional directions.
· The Arbor Society is a way to trees.
· Interesting developments ahead for our Peace Gardens Tour
thanks to you all!
CONNECTING WITH LOCAL BUSINESS
NATURAL GROCERS
In their “Health Hotline” Natural Grocers across from the Mall discusses
nutrition health and beauty. But in one
number very briefly they discussed desertification. Warming and climate change however were not
mentioned.
On April 22, 2015, the Natural Grocers store sponsored an Earth Day & 60th Anniversary
Celebration: “To celebrate our
commitment to the planet and our founding principles, the first 50 customers at
each store will receive a plant-at-home Earth Day Seed Packet, the first 60
customers who spend $60 will receive a free copy of COWS SAVE THE PLANET, and
EVERY customer will receive a free reusable Natural Grocers bag. Thanks for celebrating Earth Day and 60 Years
of Empowering Health with us!.”
These two examples are not much, but maybe OMNI can work with them in
more and larger ways. Dick 5-20-15
Contents of Vegetarian
Action Newsletter #18, April 8, 2015
Nutrition, Health
PBS, Frontline,
“The Trouble with Chicken”
VegNews, the Vegan
Magazine
Fighting
for the Future of Food
Animal Rights and Protection
Stein and LaVeck. Film Peaceable
Kingdom.
Vegetarian
Voice.
Namit Arora.
Ethical Arguments Against Eating Animals
Mercy for Animals Film
Climate Change
Cowspiracy
END OMNI VEGETARIAN ACTION #19, June 10, 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment