Christians are called to be caretakers of creation, yet meat, eggs and dairy foods waste valuable resources and contribute to deadly climate change. One of the single most effective things that Christians can do to steward God's creation well is to go vegan.
There are four reasons that overlap with the reasons anyone else might give: concern for the environment, concern for animals, concern for human welfare, and the desire to adopt a more healthy diet. In addition, Christians might be inspired by long religious traditions of fasting from meat and other animal products.
Many biblical scholars believe that Jesus was a vegetarian. Jesus' message is one of love and compassion, and there is nothing loving or compassionate about factory farms and slaughterhouses, where billions of animals live miserable lives and die violent, bloody deaths.
Mark 7 – Jesus declares all foods clean
Most Christians maintain that Jesus's teaching in Mark 7 demonstrates that Christians can eat whatever they want, that dietary choices are a matter of "Christian liberty", and that therefore vegetarianism or veganism could never be obligatory for Christians.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. ' And it was so. In these verses, God institutes a plant-based diet for both humans and non-human animals alike.
There is no direct statement on the subject by Jesus in the New Testament. The story of Jesus feeding fish to people would support the view that Jesus may have been a pescatarian. Paul seems to have been more open to meat eating, but even Paul was open to vegetarianism.
Plant-based eating is deeply rooted in three of the prominent religions practiced in India – Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. All these religions believe in the concept of Ahimsa, which means kindness and non-violence towards all living things.
Jainism. Jainism is a nontheistic religion based in India that embodies the ahimsa principles of non-violence, so some strict Jains follow a vegetarian or vegan diet.
Most Christians in the Western Hemisphere eat meat. Though a small vegetarian/vegan minority exists, for the most part Christianity in North and South America is a meat-eating religion.
The year prior, an online poll of 1,700 people interested in vegetarianism found that 49 percent of the Christians who responded were vegetarian or vegan compared to 61 percent of the atheists and 60 percent of the Buddhists.
Ethical veganism is a "philosophical belief" and so is protected in law, a tribunal has ruled for the first time.
This summer also saw the publication of Kosher Modern, a cookbook designed to make the stringent dietary rules of observant Jews – no pork, no shellfish, no mixing of milk and meat – an opportunity rather than a constraint.
Is the Pope vegan? The Pope himself is not a vegetarian, but favours a very simple diet, according to a much-quoted article in USA Today. The article from 2013 reports that one of his favourite meals is the raw vegetable dish 'bagna cauda', which is made from garlic and anchovies.
One of the earliest followers of what we now consider a vegan diet was Arab philosopher and poet Al-Maʿarri who abstained from animal products for his health and beliefs on the transmigration of souls and animal welfare.
The only dietary restrictions specified for Christians in the New Testament are to "abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals" (Acts 15:29), teachings that the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, preached for believers to follow.
They ate from the trees in the garden and didn't need to labor for food. While they had dominion over the animals, they didn't need for animals for clothing, labor or food and did not yet have a desire to eat meat, though it seems meat eating was permissible.
Prohibited foods that may not be consumed in any form include all animals—and the products of animals—that do not chew the cud and do not have cloven hoofs (e.g., pigs and horses); fish without fins and scales; the blood of any animal; shellfish (e.g., clams, oysters, shrimp, crabs) and all other living creatures that ...
The previous pope later admitted that using condoms was justified in some cases, but insisted they were not a "moral solution." The Church discourages Catholic believers from using artificial birth control methods. Instead, the Vatican recommends abstinence as a way to stop AIDS. Have something to say?
Among these is the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which highlights that right next to the Bible's text on dominion is a passage saying that God created plants, seeds and fruits to be human food, and therefore human diets should be entirely plant-based (Genesis 1:29).
On Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays of Lent: Everyone of age 14 and up must abstain from consuming meat.
“The Christian has freedom to eat meat without it being a question of conscience. In fact, not only can they do it, they are blessed when they do it and the source of the meat is not really an issue in the New Testament,” Jamison says. “We are allowed to eat meat from any type of animals.
Chocolate's central role in a number of mystical and ritualistic practices made it a symbolic threat to the Catholic Church, which opposed the types of paranormal understandings of the world supported by these rituals.
Generally there are no dietary restrictions. Individuals may choose to forgo alcohol and may choose whether or not to eat meat. During Lent Christians may stop eating certain foods. Muslims eat halal (lawful) foods, which include fruit, vegetables and eggs.
Vegans are deficient in many important nutrients. Humans are omnivores. We function best eating both animals and plants. There are some nutrients that can only be gotten from plants (like Vitamin C) and others that can only be gotten from animals.
Veganism is a moral position that opposes exploiting and otherwise harming nonhuman animals. This includes what we do directly, such as hunting or fishing. It also includes what we support as consumers, which affects many more animals.