Animal Christian Concern (ACC) on Vegetarianism – Part One

Written as part of the reply sent in answer to questions from a secular animal welfarist

MARGARET: Isaiah’s vision of a non-predatory world is NOT SUPPORTED by the orthodox Christian Church as an Institution. Why not? Nor is the story of Daniel and his men who lived on a diet of pulse and water for 10 days and looked healthier than the King’s men who ate flesh and drank wine. Why does the Church not teach this in support of a vegetarian/vegan diet? Why no flesh foods at Harvest Festivals? It all seems so illogical to me, a contradiction in terms when the Church teaches meat eating, and why teach people to be predators, when clearly our bowels, teeth and jaws are those of non-carnivorous ape? This is not part of the ‘Truth’ which the Church is supposed to stand for.

MAY: You are quite right of course; the Church never has made much of that part of Isaiah’s prophecy which relates to a non-predatory world. But then nor have the other religions of Judaism and Islam, which also take the Old Testament as their base. The trouble is that the Christian churches, as well as all other religions, are made up of people of the Fall. Naturally they are inclined to hold on to their fallen trait of flesh eating. I admit, however, that I have known some Christians who are so keen to defend their right to eat meat that they seem almost to promote meat eating as a virtue, and as a necessary qualification for membership of Christianity! This, of course, is nonsense and I am pleased to say that I also know Christians who, as a matter of conscience, have opted out of meat eating, and this number is steadily growing, especially as the result of intensive farming.

Let us be quite clear that the Old Testament account of Creation describes a non-predatory world. This concept is supported by the prophet Isaiah in his Messianic prophecies, and by the book of Revelation. We must then keep this concept as the base of our thinking. So, what went wrong? There is a long history of what went wrong after the Fall, but one important factor is that humankind resorted to violence, both against Creation and against his own kind. The caring stewardship of His creatures ordained by God, they made into a tyranny, and man also killed fellow man. God became so grieved that He considered totally destroying His Creation (Genesis 6). But He found Noah, who was free from corruption, and so spared him the cleansing Flood, together with a remnant of Creation.

The story continues with Noah and his animal companions eventually stepping out safely from the ark onto dry land. Noah promptly killed some of the creatures for sacrifice! God (perhaps with a sigh) acknowledged of man, “every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood”, and God goes on to acknowledge that the result of mankind’s influence upon creation will be that “the fear and dread of you”, will fall upon all living creatures, & says, “Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.” This is a disturbing passage (Genesis 9) and one which is clearly open to interpretation but, looking at the passage in the light of God’s original desire for a non-predatory, non-violent world, my own interpretation would be that God, out of love, accepted the predatory nature of His supreme Creation in the same sorrowful way that an earthly father would accept the waywardness of his own child.

When we think about the distress endured by food animals, especially today, it is only natural that we should turn to the life of Jesus in an attempt to prove that meat eating should stop. Sadly, we cannot do this, because flesh eating is an aspect of our fallenness which we ourselves must choose to reject, as we must choose to reject all aspects of fallenness. God did, regretfully, accept that mankind would eat meat, but nonetheless a choice for the Kingdom of God still must be a choice of love and not of slaughter. The Kingdom of God allows no room for the attitude of destruction, which is inherent in slaughter. We all know that – it is written deep in the heart and conscience of every one of us. The Kingdom of God upon this earth would reflect the non-predatory harmony of the original Creation.

There is no certainty about what Jesus ate. Biblical references to ‘meat’ are references to food generally, but there was in fact very little red meat eaten by the average person in Biblical times, and that which was eaten was limited by sacrificial laws. Old Testament principles existent at the time of Jesus held that domestic animals were to be reared in natural conditions, afforded the same Sabbath rest deemed essential for humans and, when slaughtered, to be done so individually, speedily and skillfully. Only an ‘unrighteous’ man would fail to give proper, individual care to his animals. These caring principles would be taken for granted by all devout Jews, including Jesus. It would have been possible for Jesus to avoid the eating of meat. There were strict Jews, the Essenes, amongst them who were deeply opposed to the sacrificial system, and they avoided meat, even the Passover Lamb, though they did eat fish. The great visionary, Daniel, refused to eat the meat offered by his foreign master, primarily because it had been sacrificed to idols, though doubtless compassion was a factor in his objection.

Fish have a significant role to play in the ministry of Jesus, so much so that the original symbol of the first Christians was not a Cross, but a fish, the Greek letters, ‘ICTHUS’, spelling out the initials of, ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour’. According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus ate fish, but this in no way sanctifies the practice generally. For the poor communities amongst whom Jesus ministered, fish was a staple and necessary food. It would have been difficult, if not impossible, for the bulk of the population to exist without it. The well-known story of Jesus miraculously feeding a great crowd of His followers on five loaves and two fishes may indicate that Jesus ate fish, but this is not necessarily so. More importantly, we have the story of the Risen Jesus, appearing to His disciples who, following the Crucifixion, had returned to their trade as fishermen. Jesus identified Himself to them by helping them to land a great catch of fish. And on another occasion, to show them that He was resurrected as flesh and blood, He asked them for food to eat and ate in their presence a piece of broiled fish which they gave him.

From the time that Jesus called the first disciples away from their trade of fishing, in order to become fishers of men, it seems that the Gospel stories which relate to fish all have some symbolic relevance to evangelism: To the sharing and the authentication of the Word.

Stay tuned for part two, where May Tripp’s letter continues and concludes.  If you are interested in more thoughts about Jesus eating fish or feeding people fish, please also visit this link:  Creation Care Church, Friday Night Live #19 – Jesus and fish in the New Testament