Famous Vegetarians (w/short quotes)
Lots of important Christians--leaders
and saints, past and present--have been
vegetarian. Here are some notable examples.
Historical
Figures
Saint Basil,
called the Great. AD ?329-379.
Greek patriarch; an opponent of Arianism
and one of the founders of monasticism.
A quote from his Petition:
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness
Thereof, Oh, God, enlarge within us the
Sense of fellowship with all living
Things, our brothers the animals...
William
and Catherine Booth. Founders
of the Salvation Army.
"It
is a great delusion to suppose that flesh-meat
of any kind is essential to health. Considerably
more than three parts of the work in the
world is done by men who never taste anything
but vegetable, farinaceous food, and that
of the simplest kind. There are more strength-producing
properties in wholemeal flour, peas, beans,
lentils, oatmeal, roots, and other vegetables
of the same class, than there are beef
or mutton, poultry or fish, or animal
food of any description whatever."
(Orders
and Regulations of the Officers of the
Salvation Army)
Saint
John Chrysostom AD
?345-407
Greek patriarch; archbishop of Constantinople
(398-404).
The saints are exceedingly loving and
gentle to
mankind, and even to
brute beasts ... Surely we
ought to show them [animals] great kindness
and
gentleness for many reasons, but, above all,
because
they are of the same
origin as ourselves. (Homilies)
Tertullian. "It is not consistent
with truth that a man should sacrifice
half of his stomach only to God—that
he should be sober in drinking, but
intemperate in eating. Your belly is your
God, your liver is your temple, your paunch
is your altar, the cook is your priest,
and the fat steam is your Holy Spirit;
the seasonings and the sauces are your
chrisms, and your belchings are your prophesizing...[such]
a grossly-
feeding Christian is akin to lions and
wolves rather than God. Our
Lord Jesus called Himself Truth and not
habit."
Leo
Tolstoy. "The vegetarian movement
ought to fill with gladness the souls
of those who have at heart the realization
of God's kingdom upon earth, not because
vegetarianism itself is such an important
step towards the realization of this kingdom
(all real steps are equally important
or unimportant), but because it serves
as a criterion by which we know that the
pursuit of moral perfection on the part
of man is genuine and sincere.
"[For] [i]f a man aspires
towards a righteous life, his first act
of abstinence is from injury to animals."
Origen.
AD 185-254
"[W]hen
we do abstain [from eating meat], we do
so because ‘we keep under our body
and bring it into subjection’ (I
Corinthians 9:27), and desire ‘to
mortify our members that are upon the
earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence’ (Colossians
3:5); and we use every effort to ‘mortify
the deeds of the flesh.’ (Romans
8:13)"
Clement
of Alexandria, Saint.
AD ?150-?215.
"It
is far better to be happy than to have
your bodies act as graveyards for animals...The
unnatural eating of flesh meats is as
polluting as the heathen worship of devils,
with its sacrifices and its impure feasts,
through participation in it a man becomes
a fellow eater with devils...Those who
use the most frugal fare are the strongest,
the healthiest and the noblest...
"If any
righteous man does not burden his soul
by the eating of flesh, he has the advantage of a rational
motive."
John
Wesley.
(Founder of Methodism and Wesleyanism.)
"Thanks be to God!" he wrote to the bishop
of London in 1747. "Since the time I gave
up the use of flesh-meats and wine, I
have been delivered from all physical
ills." Partly inspired by Isaiah's vision
of the Kingdom of Peace, where "on the
new earth, no creature will kill, or hurt,
or give pain to any other" (Is. 11:6-9),
Wesley further taught that animals "shall
receive ample amends for all their present
sufferings." (Sources: Christian History magazine)
Original
John Wesley letter archive here.
Ellen G. White
and countless other Seventh-Day
Adventists, who are considerably healthier
than the general population, living 10
years longer on average.
"[I]t 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...Not
an ounce of flesh meat should enter our
stomachs....
"[For] [t]he 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! [We should
therefore] [n]ever be ashamed to say,
"No thank you; I do not eat meat. I have
conscientious scruples against eating
the flesh of dead animals."
"How much better to
get it direct by eating the food that
God provided for our use!"
Contemporary
Leaders
Tony
Campolo. Author and
speaker, adviser to President Clinton.
"In this day and age, it
is important for us to consider vegetarianism
- not only for health reasons, but also
for the good of the planet. We all know
the environmental implications of the
increasing dependency of Western civilization
on a meat diet. Furthermore, we are aware
of how depending on beef has diminished
the amount of protein that would otherwise
be available to the general population."
Gary
Busey.
Oscar-nominated
"midlevel Hollywood notable" actor:
"I am not a star; I am a Christian:
stars are...a self-contained mass of gas."
Moby.
"b. Richard Melville Hall,
11 September 1965, New York, USA. A New
York DJ, recording artist, Christian,
vegan and Philosophy graduate. Moby is
so nicknamed because of the fact that
he can trace his ancestry to the author
of the famous whaling tale." Also:
proprietor of TeaNY cafe.
"I'm often asked, 'well, as a vegan, what
do you eat?' which seems like such a strange
question. What do non-vegans eat? Meat,
cheese, milk, eggs? Vegans eat everything
else. Indian food, Chinese food, Mexican
food, Thai food, Japanese food, African
food, and so on, and so on.
"Whether I'm having a pan bagnia sandwich
(olive tapenade, roasted red peppers,
basil and onions, on ciabatta bread) at
Teany, my restaurant, or having marinated
exotic mushrooms with mixed baby greens
and an orange vinaigrette in Paris, or
having fajitas in Los Angeles, or vegan
Chinese food in lower Manhattan, or vegan
Pad Thai in Melbourne, or etc etc - I'm
always a very happy eater.
"Primarily I'm a vegan for ethical reasons,
but if the truth be told it's the culinary
aspect of veganism that has sustained
me for 16 years of animal-product free
living." (World
Vegan Day statement)
Mister
Rogers. Rev. Fred
Rogers, composer, creator, author and
host of "Mister
Rogers' Neighbourhood," is a renowned
children's educator and entertainer, as
well as an ordained Presbyterian minister--and
a vegetarian!
"Children
see television much the same way they
see a refrigerator or a stove -- it's
something that parents provide," he told
Christian Century
magazine in 1994. "In a young child's
mind, parents probably condone what's
on the television, just like they choose
what's in the refrigerator or on
the stove. That's why we who make television
for children must be especially careful."
What's
in Mr. Rogers' refrigerator or on his
stove?
"I
exercise and eat healthy foods. I'll show
you some of them. These are all soy foods.
Soybeans--you need to boil those, cook
them. You can put sauce over them, like
a tomato sauce. There's vegetarian-- vegetarian
burgers. It's all vegetables, no meat
in that at all. Of course, it's a soy
food. These soybeans are already cooked.
There's tofu. I eat a lot of tofu. You'll
like it...It will be all healthy...I like
being here with all these different foods.
I like to keep trying to add new
healthy foods all the time."
Matthew
Scully. Presidential
adviser and speechwriter; author of Dominion:
The Power of Man the Suffering
of Animals, and the Call to Mercy.
"It is a
terrible thing that religious people today
can be so indifferent to the cruelty of
the farms, shrugging it off as so much
secular, animal rights foolishness. They
above all should hear the call to mercy."
(from Dominion)
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