Author Information
Adam's Apple.. An Animal's Heart?
Folder:
!! Short Father Lengwin said
that the apple of Adam
may have been the heart
ripped from the first
murdered animal.
*****
Christianity and Vegetarianism: Pursuing the Nonviolence of Jesus
A Jesuit priest's booklet promoting vegetarian diet
has been published by PETA It is called Christianity and Vegetarianism: Pursuing the Nonviolence of Jesus
and is written by Fr. John Dear, SJ
To obtain information receiving copies, write PETA 501
Front St
Norfolk Va 23510 USA
757 622 7382
http://www.peta.org
The 18 page booklet is available on cassette:
http://www.audible.com/adbl/store/CJProduct.jsp?productID=BK_PETA_000002
Father Dear is executive director of perhaps the oldest
interfaith organization in the US, the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
He lives in NYC. http://www.forusa.org/
Books
Books
Some other books on Christian vegetarianism are
1 Good News for All Creation: Vegetarianism as Christian Stewardship by Stephen Kaufman, Nathan Braun, and Steven Kaufman
2 Animal Theology
by Rev. Andrew Linzey,
3 God's Covenant With Animals by
Rev.. J R Hyland,
4 The Last Religion of Jesus by Keith Akers,
5 Of God
and Dogs by Stephen Webb,
6 The Kingdom of God Is Within You
by vegetarian Leo Tolstoy,
7 Is God A Vegetarian: Christianity, Vegetarianism and Animal Rights by Richard Alan
Young, Baptist vegetarian professor at Vanderbilt
Chicago : Open Court, c1999.
8 Was The Master Vegetarian
is a booklet published by the Edenite Society of Imlaystown, NJ, US.
9 They Shall Not Hurt Nor Destroy by Vasu Murti
http://www.abolitionist-online.com/_06murti.html
Adam's apple was an animal heart?
Father Ron Lengwin, priest with a talk show on the oldest US
radio station, KDKA of Pittsburgh, is a vegetarian. He has
said that perhaps the apple Adam ate was actually the first
heart of a butchered animal.
Links
http://groups.msn.com/catholicveg
http://www.egroups.com/messages/catholicveg
http://www.christianveg.com
http://www.hacres.com
http://www.all-creatures.org
http://episcoveg.webblogger.com
http://compassionatespirit.com
http://www.jesusveg.com
http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php?t=96761
http://groups.msn.com/christianveg
http://www.egroups.com/messages/christianveg
over 10,000 posts
http://www.christianveg.com
http://www.hacres.com Vegan Hallelujah Acres
http://groups.msn.com/christianveg/s...narmytext.msnw
(Original Salvation Army on vegetarian diet)
http://www.acfnewsource.org/religion...egetarian.html
Christian vegetarian links
* [http://www.christianvegetarian.co.uk Christian Vegetarian
Association UK]
* [http://catholicveg.blogspot.com Catholic Vegetarians]
* [http://episcoveg.webblogger.com Episcopalian Vegetarian]
* []http://groups.yahoo.com/group/methodistveg/messages/1558]
vegetarian John Wesley and Methodist Veg.
* [http://www.adventist.org/ Adventists give vegan international
relief]
* [http://www.hacres.com Hallelujan Acres]
* [http://a4.nu/christian/index.htm Christian Religion and Vegetarian
Resources]
* [http://www.compassionatespirit.com/w...vegetarian.htm Was
Jesus a vegetarian?] - article by [[Keith Akers]]
*
[http://www.thenazareneway.com/Biblic...esh_Eating.htm
Biblical Opposition to Flesh Eating]
* [http://www.jesusveg.com An extensive website about vegetarianism
from the Christian perspective, run by People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals]
* [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/006/13.14.html
ChristianityToday.com Books and Culture] "Revenge of the Ebionites"
book review by [[Stephen H. Webb]]
* [http://www.animalsuffering.com/religion.html Animal Rights and its
role in religion]
* [http://www.vegetarianfriends.net/issue10.html#3 Review by Urrutia
of ''Good News for all Creation: Vegetarianism as Christian
Stewardship'' by Stephen R. Kaufman and Nathan Braun]
* [http://www.vnv.org.au/Christianity.htm Christianity and
Vegetarianism: Some Thoughts, compiled by David Ogilvie]
* [http://www.godandanimals.com/PAGES/edits/linzey.html Christianity
and Animals by Andrew Linzey]
* [http://www.satyamag.com/feb96/linzey.html Christianity and Animals:
An Interview with Andrew Linzey (1996)]
* [http://www.all-creatures.org/gcm/candv.html Christianity and
Vegetarianism PowerPoint presentation, by God's Creatures Ministry]
* [http://www.petaliterature.com/VEG612.pdf''Christianity and
Vegetarianism - Pursuing the non-violence of Jesus'', Fr. John Dear S.J]
* [http://groups.msn.com/christianveg Salvation Army's founders
vegetarian]
Jesus materialized fish for others. He knew that in that
millenium they were not ready for his Essene diet. Early
Christians followed His vegetarian ways until Constantine in 325.
http://www.ivu.org/religion/ many links
Genesis l:29 Behold I have given you herbyielding seed. To you it shall be for food. http://www.all-creatures.org
Matthew 21: 12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the
money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves
http://www.christianveg.com
Isaiah: They shall study war no more
Isaiah: He that slayeth an ox is as he that killeth a human. (for 40 or 50 quotes from the Bible go to the Spirit file no. 8)
http://www.christianveg.com http://www.jesusveg.com
Isaiah: I delight not in your blood sacrifice.
http://www.jewishveg.com
Isaiah 65:3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens
Isaiah: 65:4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable [things is in] their vessels;
Isaiah 65:21
And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
http://www.egroups.com/messages/fruitarians
Isaiah 65:
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and earth shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
http://www.vegweb.com/food
Jesus: Ye are whited sepulchres (Jesus' word for sepulchre
or coffin was translated from Aramaic into Greek as sarcophagi which
means literally flesheater (sarx flesh phagi eater)
Jesus: Feed the hungry
http://www.all-creatures.org
(each acre of ground can yield 450000 lbs of food
from centenarian fruit and nut trees, with grape and
other vines in between, or 100 to 1000 lbs of flesh
from murdered animals.
Methusaleh: 969 years old.. longest lived person in Bible
...a vegetarian
http://www.pcrm.org
Micah 4:3- They shall turn their swords
into plowshares. They shall study
war no more.
http://mindprod.com/kjv/
"The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. ..
And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.
Isaiah 18: 8, 10."
The text of Luke 21:34 reads “Now take care in your souls that you never make your hearts heavy by eating flesh and by drinking wine.....
http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=943839#i
Effects of not following the Genesis 1 29 Diet
http://spot.acorn.net/fruitarian
http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php?t=85277
473 books at Amazon.com mention Christian vegetarians.
Stephen Kaufman, MD is the author of 1 of them
The Fr Dear pamphlets are available in bulk for church and private
distribution at PETA.
CATHOLIC VEGETARIANS
abbajesus@yahoo.com
What you have done to these the least of My brethren you have done unto Me.
Catholic Vegetarian Saints
St Francis of Assisi, St Clare, stigmatist St Therese Neumann, St. Martin de Porres, St John Chrysostom, St Anthony of Padua who preached to fishes when humans would not listen.. St Nicholas of Tolentino* believed they were following the example of Jesus in not eating His animals. Trappists, Cistercians, Benedictines, Franciscans all have had a tradition of vegetarian diet, to which many still adhere. The pretzel was says George Cornell former AP religion writer a Lenten bread, symbolizing arms folded in prayer.. Lentils were named as such because they were a Lenten vegetarian alternative to animal flesh. Meatless Fridays were the last vestige of early Christian abstinence from meat in following
Christ's example. A papal bull once excommunicated anyone who attended a bullfight because the barbaric cruelty in them. This was later amended to excommunicate only priests who blessed bullfighting.
BIBLICAL ORIGINS
Genesis 1: 29, Isaiah 65, Daniel 1 Exodus 26: 34 are some of the thousands of quotes in the Bible on vegetarian diet. The command to feed the hungry, given by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, implies vegetarianism since the flesh of animals yields 100 to 1000 lbs an acre, dairy products around 10,000 lbs. an acre, some vegetables, 81,000 lbs. an acre, and fruits from centenarian fruit trees 450,000 or more lbs. an acre. Therefore Genesis fruit trees yield 450 times what slaughterhouses yield. Daniel O'Steen, of National Right To Life, felt he must be consistent in his prolife stance and so many years ago became a vegetarian. Clare Barrett,
early editor with Catholic founder of Vegetarian Times Paul Obis,, mother of 6 boys, created a successful media campaign when Mike Royko refused to allow her vegetarian gluten ribs in his cooking contest. Fr. Ron Lengwin of KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh believes that the apple Adam ate was the first heart of a butchered animal. Rep Dennis Kucinich (Democrat Cleveland) is a vegan who has worked for the rights of blue collar laborers, for the
environment, and for peace. Vegetarian monasteries in Massachusetts, New York, Kentucky, Ohio serve only meatless meals.. Ron Pickarsky, former Catholic brother, now married,
has worked with commercial establishments helping them to transition http://www.eco-cuisine.com
JB exec of an Ohio corporation, rings a bell for the Knights of Columbus in public places, and has in the past inquired where he could get vegan no feather sleeping bags to be consistent in his vegetarian diet. D. Marshall, New York homeless shelter worker, is a vegetarian who does not proselytize the poor who come in to his welcoming inn. Catholic colleges such as Georgetown have responded to the growing number of their vegan students by providing options. Thomas Merton, author of Seven Story Mountain and Trappist monk, was a vegetarian, and activist for interfaith cooperation. For this he may have been murdered. EL, New York environmentalist, poet, and mystic, originally became vegetarian for economic reasons, while one of his teachers, Fr. Daniel Berrigan, eats no meat. CW, Catholic nurse, was nursing her child one day when a mosquito landed on her arm. She decided to nurse him too. One Catholic seminarian experimented with pot once.. and his perceptions slowed down. The chicken leg he was gnawing on became the leg of a chicken. That day he stopped eating meat and stopped smoking pot. A Catholic secretary for Cleveland Amory's Fund For Animals became vegan. K Fromer Blanc, Brooklyn nun, is a vegetarian as are millions of other Catholics. Father Mario Mazzoleni, now deceased, wrote on his decision to become vegetarian. His book is translated
by a Notre Dame professor.The temptation to eat meat is chemical in nature, as the uric acid in meat is more addictive than caffein since it is trioxypurine or 3 oxypurines while caffein is dioxypurine or 2. Exodus 26: 34 is a command not to kill. Governor Jesse Ventura in reference to the death penalty (for animals too) has said that that command is not asterisked with exceptions. St Thomas in the Thomasine Gospel
has many references to the fruiteating of Christ. Thomas, the skeptical apostle, went to Madras India where even today are millions of Catholic descendants of his preaching.
Cesar Chavez, the saintly activist for the rights of farm workers, continued the tradition of nonviolence in his labor organizing as well as his diet. He and Gandhi looked to Leo Tolstoy, Russian Catholic, who wrote The Kingdom of God is Within You.
Albert of Michigan, a Catholic paraplegic, has spent much time researching Catholic vegetarianism in history. He says that the word 'opsarian' means 'pickled fish' and is the Greek word for the fish Jesus created, meaning that Jesus did not materialize freshly suffocated fish but materialized processed fish. http://www.nofishing.net
Francisco Martin, Madrid Spain secretary of the IVU http://www.ivu.org is a Catholic vegan activist. Colman McCarthy, former Trappist and syndicated columnist, lectures around the world on peace studies and has long been mostly fruitarian. Bruce Friedrich, Catholic of PETA, ran their Jesus Was Vegetarian campaign.
(http://www.jesusveg.com) St Blaize's throat protection is not necessary if one stops
eating innocent fishes, suffocated and smothered, with their eyes and throats ripped out by vicious hooks. http://www.nofishing.net The countries with the most
fish consumption have the most stomach cancer. Many members of the Catholic Worker community as their founder Dorothy Day follow vegetarian diet
in Matthew 25 and many other homes. http://www.catholicworker.org
http://www.paxchristiusa.org Dr. Virginia Bourquardez, who once
hitchhiked for the first time at the age of 77 when her ride dematerialized,
worked her entire life for animals, and became a vegetarian in her 70's.
Malcolm Muggeridge the British intellectual abstained from meat in later years..
Helen Jones of the National Catholic Soc. For Animal Welfare worked with her
sister Ruth out of their Clark Summit Pennsylvania home. Leonardo Da Vinci,
a Catholic, was also a fruitarian. Danny DeVito protects insect life as well
as mammals.
Note from Belgium
I'm an old-catholic vegetarian pastor and toghetter with the folks of BiteBack (an animal rights group in Belgium) we did a prayer vigil in front of one of the big slaughter houses in Sint Truiden - Belgium. We chose the christmass-new year holiday because their are a lot more animals killed.
Greetings Rev' Johan
http://www.catholicworker.tk
Christian vegetarian sites
http://www.egroups.com/messages/catholicveg http://www.jesusveg.com
http://www.compassionatespirit.com http://www.all-creatures.org
http://www.hacres.com http://www.egroups.com/messages/salvarmy/2
Others
http://www.pcrm.org http://www.notmilk.comhttp://www.madcowboy.com http://www.ivu.org http//www.acorn.net/fruitarian
http://www.meatout.com http://www.wfad.org http://www.animalsagenda.org
tp://www.peta.net http://www.hsus.org
http://groups.msn.com/bioterror
http://www.egroups.com/messages/catholicveg/118
http://groups.msn.com/stopmowing
Many Catholics are praying that the Holy Father who takes such a strong stand
in preventing the violence of war and execution, will withdraw his
endorsement of the cruelty of lab research. Many Catholic churches have blessing of the animals ceremonies.
Abba in the name of Jesus thank You that You are now ending all violence to people, animals, and all beings on Your planet now and forever.
GREATER THINGS SHALL YOU DO THAN I HAVE DONE
SAID JESUS CHRIST TO HIS FOLLOWERS:
Perhaps one thing He meant was that we have the opportunity to
reach many people with His message of nonviolence to all creatures.
Vatican Priest On His Decision to Become Vegetarian
(after 3 years as a strict vegetarian, Father (Don) Mario Mazzoleni speaks of a desire for meat.*)
I would be a hypocrite if I led the reader to believe that I was strong enough to be perfectly faithful to my Lenten resolution. ..I
hadn't yet completely resolved my desire for meat - and so the repressed desire
was floating to the surface. It is a fact that the minute I would sit down to meditate, the most succulent meals would pass in front of my mind, full of fragrant roasted chickens and various sausages. What to do? If I was going to ruin all my meditations for a
roast chicken, it would be better to eliminate the problem by facing it head on. And so after 3 years of strict vegetarianism, I decided to get rid of the desire once and for all by satiating myself with a meat dinner. After all, I told myself to quiet my sense of guilt, "It isn't a crime to eat meat, and I can't say that because I'm vegetarian I'm better than many people who are carnivorous." It was almost a traumatic experience. I remembered an analogous experience of Gandhi's that he recounted in his autobiography. Convinced by a friend that India could be liberated only by the grit
of someone who ate meat, he hid himself on a river bank to consume some barbecued baby goat meat, and the next night he could feel bleating in his chest. Instead of enjoying the coveted snack in peace, the minute this little faithbreaker set his teeth into the cruel repast* (* a reference to Dante's Inferno.. in which
meat is described as a cruel repast in XXXIII.1) he was himself bitten by remorse and anxiety. I kept seeing the animal alive in front of me, and this inhibited the desire that was so enticing when it was simply mental. I immediately noticed some other effects, physical as well as psychic. My intestines held that food much longer than they kept vegetables,and my sense of smell, made sensitive by several years of vegetarianism,
was able to detect the odor of the cooked animal on my skin. It was a disagreeable sensation. As for my psyche, I noticed that my mind, which during my 3 year "Lent" was no longer seriously agitated by unwanted thoughts, suffered a set back from that carne-vale (meat festival); polluting throughts started to enter again in triumph. It
was a lesson. As always it is experience more than words that has the
greater power of persuasion. The decision to adopt a vegetarian diet
was motivated also by a religious actor. I knew that I was going to a sacred place.
* such desires for meat are related to the stronger than
caffein substance, uric acid, in animal flesh. Caffein
is dioxypurine while uric acid is trioxypurine, 3 oxypurines.
Father Mazzoleni left for God a few years ago
* the article is an excerpt from his book
********************
"http://catholicveg.blogspot.com
The early Christians until the time of Constantine several
hundred years after Jesus' death were vegetarian. Meatless Fridays
are the last vestige of this in some churches. Trappist monks,
Wesleyites, Adventists, followers of the diet of the Salvation
Army founders... continue the vegetarian tradition.
While Jesus guided the apostles as to where to fish
on at least one occasion, there is dispute among scholars
as to whether or not Jesus ate fish. The word 'opsarion', Greek,
means pickled fish. It is likely that the fish Jesus multiplied
was materialized"
SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES TO NONVIOLENT OR VEGETARIAN DIET
Genesis 1: 29 Behold I have given you herbyielding seed.
To you it shall be for meat. (The fruitarian Garden of Eden)
Methusaleh.. the oldest man in the Bible, achieved 969
orbits of the sun.
Exodus: 26: 34 Thou Shalt Not Kill (not asterisked with
exceptions)
Jesus: Ye are whited sepulchres (Greek sarcophagi sarx flesh ..phagi eater)
Jesus threw the butchers out of the temple.
Daniel was vegetarian
in the lions' den and therefore was
not harmed. Daniel was in jail 10 days and his
condition as a vegetarian was better than those who
were not.
Paul: If your flesheating offends your brother, forego it.
Jesus: Feed the hungry (450 times as many people per acre
can be fed tree products in comparison to slaughterhouse
products)
MAKING SOUP KITCHENS NONVIOLENT
Sister Catherine Walsh is a nun working with the
Catholic Worker movement, a 75 year old movement begun
by Peter Maurin of France and Dorothy Day of NYC.
The Catholic Worker operates homes for the homeless, soup
kitchens, and has been involved at times in civil disobedience
regarding the illegal wars of the US regime.
A growing number of vegetarians want the soup kitchens
of the world not to harm animals by serving their drawn
and quartered pieces to people.
http://www.catholicworker.org
SPIRITUAL DIET
-Brother James-
It has been my habit since 1994 to practice a vegetarian diet. It is not necessary for me to take life to sustain my own. I believe that all life is sacred from the house fly to the human. God is the Creator of all Life. In the beginning God created all life vegetarian, both human and animal. It was not until after the flood that living beings began to eat meat. I do not preach that it is sin to eat flesh but I will say in this day and age it is unwise. God's original design was a vegetarian diet until sin entered the world and death by sin. I choose to honor God's original design with my diet. I do not have the ability to eat animals. I cannot do this in good conscience. I have offered my diet to God as a perpetual fast. I have chosen to honor His original diet and to reverence the life He created. In order to eat an animal she must first be dead. It is not wise to devour death.
***
General Bramwell Booth, son of founder of Salvation Army,
on vegetarian diet practiced by him and his parents
Editor's note: General Booth treated alcoholism with vegetarian diet.. and found that this treatment severed the meat-alcohol chemical marriage. His success spread the SA
around the world. )
These passages are taken from a pamphlet written by General Bramwell Booth, former director General of the Salvation Army, and a son of founder General William Booth.
"Here are some of my reasons for doing so (becoming vegetarian):
1. Because I have myself tried a vegetarian diet with the greatest benefit having been for more than 10 years at l time a strict vegetarian.
2. Because according to the Bible God originally intended the food for humans to be vegetarian. (here he quotes Genesis 1:29 "Behold I have given
you herb yielding seed. To you it shall be for food.")
3. Because a vegetarian diet is favourable to purity, to chastity,and to
perfect control of the appetites and passions which are often a source of great temptation, especially to the young. (http://www.notmilk.com)
4. Because a vegetarian diet is favourable to robust health and strength. With very few exceptions, and these only confirmed invalids, I believe the people would be stronger....
http://www.pcrm.org
5. Because tens of thousands of our poor people (could save money)...http://www.ivu.org
6. Because a vegetarian diet of wheat, oatmeal and other grains, lentils, peas, beans, nuts and similr food is more than ten times as economical as a flesh diet. Meat contains half its weight in water which has to be paid for as though it were meat. A vegetarian diet, even if we allow cheese, butter and milk will only cost about a quarter as much as a mixed diet of flesh and vegetables.
7. Because a vegetarian diet would stop the enormous waste of all kinds of animal food.
http://www.acorn.net/fruitarian
8. Because a vegetarian diet is a great protection against our drinking
(this belief of General Booth has been upheld by modern biochemistry research about the relationship of meat and alcohol)....
9. Because a vegetarian diet is favorable to industry and hard work...
10. Because it is proved that life, health, and happiness are all favoroued by a vegetarian diet.**
11. I favour a vegetarian diet because the digestive organs of humans are not well adapted to the use of flesh....
12. Because it is very difficult.. especially in hot weather and warm
climates to keep flesh food sweet long enough to cool and eat it and
a great deal of meat is eaten after it has begun to decay...
13. Because a great deal of the flesh meat which is supplied for human food is already diseased, and because it is nearly impossible to be sure than any flesh is quite free from the germs of disease. Much
common meat, which is often that of old animals, is well known to be sold to the butchers because the animals are sick, or unhealthy. http://www.egroups.com/messages/kyvegans/9
And the best meat is nearly always the flesh meat of young animals who are fattened and killed before the germs of many diseases have had time to develop so as to show themselves. So that many animals re killed, which though believed to be healthy, are really diseased.
This is especially the case with calves for veal, young bullocks for beef and with lambs and young pigs.
14. Because I believe that the great increase in consumption and cancer during the last hundred years has been caused by the great increase in the use of animal food, and that a strict vegetarian
diet would greatly help to ward off these most terrible and 'incurable' diseases.
15. Because I believe that a flesh diet brings on many very painful diseases, which though not perhaps immediately dangerous to life cause much suffering and loss. I mean such complaints as eczema, constipation, piles, worms, dysentery, severe heaches and the like. A vegetarian would do much to relieve if not cure them.
16 Because of the awful cruelty and terror to which tens of thousands (now billions)of animals killed for human food are subjected in
traveling long distance by ship and rail and road to the slaughterhouses of the world. God disapproves of all cruelty whether to man or beast.
17.Because of the terrible cruelties practised for killing animals in many slaughter houses. The whole busines of killing is cruel.. even when it is done with care, and we know that in the case of millions of creatures it is done with very little care. Ten thousand pigs are
killed for food every hour in Europe alone. (Now Oscar Mayer kills 1100 pigs an hour at their Madison Wisconsin plant.)
18. Because the occupation of slaughtering animals is brutalising to those who are required to do the work. "The highest sentiments of humane
men" says a certain writer, and I agree with him, "revolt at the cruelty, the degrading sights, the distressing cries, the perpetual
bloodshed, and all the attendant horrors which must surround the transit and slaughter of suffering creatures." *
19. Because a flesh diet is not necessary to hard work. A great part of the work of the world is done by animals which subsist on vegetable food..
namely, horses, mules, camels, oxen, etc.
I believe this matter is well worthy the serious consideration of Christian leaders. It has an important bearing not only on their own
health and happiness but upon their influence among the people, as men and women who are free from the bondage of that selfish gratification which so often afflicts the professed servants of Christ. Let us remember the Apostle's direction: 'Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' "
(published by the LVS 53 Marloes Rd. Kensington London UK W8)
(We copied from an old pamphlet.. to have the full text write or webvisit the London Vegetarian Society)
**
John Wesley's vegetarian diet
Diet and Health: John Wesley
founder of the Methodists.
http://www.all-creatures.org
(in v 6 of his collected writings, Wesley
is recorded as saying that on the
advice of his physician Dr Cheyne he had
become vegetarian)
The Church, collectively, has been strangely silent on the connection between our diet and health, and our physical and spiritual well being. The only major exceptions to this silence, that we are aware of, have been the Seventh Day Adventist Church and the non-affiliated ministry of George H. Malkmus who founded Hallelujah Acres .
Very early in John Wesley's ministry, he realized that there was a connection between physical and spiritual health. If the body was sick, then the person's focus would likely be diverted from God. When he came to America in the mid 1700's, he continued this teaching and was criticized for it by local clergy and the Anglican Bishop of London. Following is an excerpt from John Wesley's response to the bishop:
By 'extraordinary strictnesses and severities,' I presume your Lordship means the abstaining from wine and animal food; which, it is sure, Christianity does not require. But if you do, I fear your Lordship is not thoroughly informed of the matter of fact. I began to do this about twelve years ago, when I had no thought of 'annoying parochial ministers,' or of 'captivating' any 'people' thereby, unless it were the Chicasaw or Choctaw Indians. But I resumed the use of them both, about two years after, for the sake of some who thought I made it a point of conscience; telling them, 'I will eat flesh while the world standeth' rather than 'make my brother to offend.' Dr. Cheyne advised me to leave them off again, assuring me, 'Till you do, you will never be free from fevers.' And since I have taken his advice, I have been free (blessed be God) from all bodily disorders.1
Both John Wesley and his physician knew that the eating of animals and their by-products (eggs and dairy) was injurious to health. Wesley had first hand knowledge of this, as do we, today, yet most people don't want to hear about it. Why? Because most people don't want to change their lifestyle, so they resort to trying to silence the prophets of truth, and for a little while they were successful in doing so with John Wesley. However, when his illnesses returned, he resumed being a strict vegetarian and he regained his health. Unfortunately, Wesley was not forceful enough with passing along these truths about diet and health and, as a result, most of these vegetarian dietary truths have been lost in the teachings of the Methodist and other churches among whom he had influence. It is time we reverse this mistake.
We have an obligation to learn about the connections between animal foods and chronic illnesses, and about a proper vegetarian diet. Likewise, we have an obligation to speak forth to our congregations about these things, for to do otherwise promotes violence to their health, to their spiritual well-being, and to their personal finances. Personally, we never found out about these thing in the church. Our education about diet and health came from our own experience and from people and organizations outside the church.
Poor health can be a tremendous drain on personal finances, and when people worry about these things it has an injurious effect on their physical well-being, so that their health is further deteriorated. Thus, our silence on the advantages of a vegetarian (vegan) diet really does violence to people's health, finances, and well-being.
Jesus is often referred to as the "Great Physician". It is interesting to note that God's original intent was for us and our fellow creatures to eat only plant foods (Genesis 1:29-30). The diet of good health and healing was set in motion from the very beginning for all who would receive it.
We have an obligation to learn and speak out.
1. Letter to the Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London, LONDON, June 11, 1747, in The Letters of John Wesley Edited by John Telford -- London: Epworth Press, 1931. Available online: http://wesley.nnu.edu/Letters/1747.htm as part of http://wesley.nnu.edu/Letters/
The intent of this series is to wake up and encourage the Church to greater works of love and compassion (John 14:12). It is not to condemn the Church, in general, or any individual, any more than Jesus condemned the woman caught in adultery. Jesus said to her, "...go your way. From now on sin no more." (John 8:11) And this is our message to the Church: Recognize our sins of the past and go forth seeking to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), correcting the sins of the past, for that is the only way we can truly show the world that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, might, and mind, including the whole of creation, which includes our neighbors whom we are to love as ourselves.
Your questions and comments are welcome flh@all-creatures.org
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Ellen G. White 1827-1915
Founder of the Seventh Day Adventists
http://www.adventist.org
http://members.tripod.com/jbrooks2/Ellen_G_White_Quotes.htm
(Prophet Ellen White whose Adventist church is involved in worldwide vegan food and other relief, prophesied that in the 20th
Century dairy products would be so full of poison that they like
meat and fish should be avoided)
God gave our first parents the food He designed that the race should eat. It was contrary to His plan to have the life of any creature taken. There was to be no death in Eden. The fruit of the trees in the garden was the food man's wants required. (1864)
The diet of animals is vegetables and grains. Must the vegetables be animalized, must they be incorporated into the system of animals, before we get them? Must we obtain our vegetable diet by eating the flesh of dead creatures? God provided fruit in its natural state for our first parents. He gave to Adam charge over the garden, to dress it, and to care for it, saying, "To you it shall be for meat." One animal was not to destroy another animal for food. - (1896)
Let our ministers and canvassers step under the banners of strict temperance. Never be ashamed to say, "No thank you; I do not eat meat. I have conscientious scruples against eating the flesh of dead animals. - 1901
Flesh was never the best food; but its use is now doubly objectionable, since disease in animals is so rapidly increasing. - 1902
Animals are becoming more diseased and it will not be long until animal food will be discarded by many besides Seventh-day Adventists. Foods that are healthful and life sustaining are to be prepared, so that men and women will not need to eat meat. - 1902
Vegetables, fruits, and grains should compose our diet. Not an ounce of flesh meat should enter our stomachs. The eating of flesh is unnatural. We are to return to God's original purpose in the creation of man. - 1903
The moral evils of a flesh diet are not less marked than are the physical ills. Flesh food is injurious to health, and whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and the soul. Think of the cruelty to animals meat-eating involves, and its effect on those who inflict and those who behold it. How it destroys the tenderness with which we should regard those creatures of God! - 1905
Animals are often transported long distances and subjected to great suffering in reaching a market. Taken from the green pastures and traveling for weary miles over the hot, dusty roads, or crowded into filthy cars, feverish and exhausted, often for many hours deprived of food and water, the poor creatures are driven to their death, that human beings may feast on the carcasses. - 1905
It is a mistake to suppose that muscular strength depends on the use of animal food. The needs of the system can be better supplied, and more vigorous health can be enjoyed, without its use. The grains, with fruits, nuts, and vegetables, contain all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood. These elements are not so well or so fully supplied by a flesh diet. Had the use of flesh been essential to health and strength, animal food would have been included in the diet appointed man in the beginning. - 1905
Those who eat flesh are but eating grains and vegetables at second hand; for the animal receives from these things the nutrition that produces growth. The life that was in the grains and the vegetables passes into the eater. We receive it by eating the flesh of the animal. How much better to get it direct by eating the food that God provided for our use! - 1905
The majority of the diseases which the human family have been and still are suffering under, they have created by ignorance of their own organic health, and work perseveringly to tear themselves to pieces, and when broken down and debilitated in body and mind, send for the doctor and drug themselves to
death. - 1866
