Weekly Newsletter from Christian Vegetarian Association CVA - March 17, 2022
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

  1. Activist Feedback
  2. Living in Peace - Sources of Goodwill
  3. The March-April “Peaceable Table” Is Now Online
  4. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

1. Activist Feedback

Rick Hershey writes:

I handed out 1600 CVA booklets at the Legacy Arena [Birmingham, AL] for Winter Jam today. The crowd was friendly, and more than half of the booklets went to kids. The temperature was in the 30s, and it was windy which made for challenging leafleting.

2. Living in Peace - Sources of Goodwill

How do people come to care deeply about the well-being of complete strangers? Evolutionary forces would favor a predilection among early human-like ancestors to feel empathy for family and fellow tribal members, which would inspire assistance to kin. However, natural selection would seem to discourage making sacrifices for people who are not members of our family or upon whom we rely for self-defense, obtaining food, and other essential activities. Perhaps empathy was generalized to unrelated individuals. How might that have happened?

A striking feature of the human mind is its ability think abstractly and to empathize with the experiences of other individuals. We can see manifestations of such abstract thinking and empathy in other animals, but humans are remarkably adept. Consequently, when we see or learn about the suffering of others, we often genuinely feel bad. Among other animals, as best I can tell, an animal is concerned when they see family or friends suffering in large part because of the importance of the suffering individual to the animal. I could be wrong, but I doubt that the animal thinks about how they themselves would feel if they were experiencing the same suffering.

From an evolutionary perspective, the human ability to empathize might include a glitch. Dedicating resources or even risking one’s life for a stranger is probably not an effective way to pass one’s genes onto the next generation. But, the ability to empathize is very adaptive in many ways, such as anticipating how other people will react to our actions.

Even if empathy for strangers were an evolutionary glitch, the world is a better place when people empathize with the suffering of others and aim to alleviate their misery and avoid causing suffering. However, egocentric desires remain, and they often conflict with empathetic leanings. Next, I will explore how the Bible offers guidance toward building compassionate, peaceful communities.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.

3. The March-April “Peaceable Table” Is Now Online

Contents include:

  • The Glimpse of the Peaceable Kingdom tells of the healing friendship between Suryia, a grieving and depressed orangutan, and Roscoe, a bluetick hound. The relationship enabled Suryia to emerge from his depression and thrive once more.
  • Karen Davis, in our Editor's Corner Guest Essay for this issue, considers whether guilt can penetrate the wall many people have between their hearts and the truth?
  • The Unset Gem in this issue speaks of the grief of mother cows and their kidnapped calves in the dairy industry.
  • Our Pioneer, Omri Paz, an Israeli who is all of thirty-one years old, is the founder of the organization Vegan Friendly, which has increased the percentage of vegans in Israel 400% in the ten or so years he has been active.
  • Our Recipe in this issue is "Cabbage Rolls," a delectable dish from A Feast of Friendship, a vegetarian cookbook produced by a committee of Pasadena Quakers in 1986.
  • George Gordon, also known as Lord Byron, was not exactly a spiritual giant--the narrator of his Poem "Epitaph to a Dog" confesses to having had only one friend, the dog--almost surely the sentiment of the poet himself. But he expresses eloquently the unjust difference in treatment of humans and animals, living or dead, in Western society.

To see this issue, go to vegetarianfriends.net/issue170.html.

Gracia Fay Ellwood
Editor

4. From All-Creatures.Org Ministry

Here are our recent All-Creatures Newsletter, which we hope you like and share with others to help stop the exploitation and killing of animals.p>

March is our “Newsletter Share-A-Thon” month, and we need your help! Please help us grow by sharing the newsletter or this post to a friend or a group.

All-Creatures.org Newsletter for March 17, 2022!

As always, thank you for your readership and we are delighted to provide you with this week's edition of the All-Creatures.org Newsletter covering up-to-the-moment 2022 topics including GOOD news for animals, thought-provoking AR articles, religious and spiritual vegan information, art & stories, and so much more!

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Frank L Hoffman
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Tams Nicholson
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