Weekly Newsletter from Christian Vegetarian Association CVA - February 11, 2023
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

  1. Activist Feedback
  2. Looking for a Moral Compass: Stories
  3. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

1. Activist Feedback

Rick Hershey writes:

I handed out 1700 CVA booklets at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville for Winter Jam. Most of the booklets went to kids. A couple people remembered me from last year. Windchill was 20 degrees, and some people wouldn’t take their hands of their pockets to accept a booklet.

2. Looking for a Moral Compass: Stories

Humans tend to retain information better and to be more emotionally affected by stories than by statistics or abstract ideas. Whether or not the stories are historically accurate, throughout human history stories have provided frameworks that help people discern what goals they should pursue and how they should interact with others. For Christians, stories about Jesus’ interactions with friends and detractors can provide guidance for how we should live.

Jesus encouraged love, compassion, and mercy, and the Bible never depicts Jesus harming a human. Jesus’ interactions with nonhumans are somewhat more ambiguous. While there is certainly evidence for compassion and concern for nonhumans, there are also passages in which animals appears to be harmed, such as Jesus’ assisting his disciples in capturing fish. While there are different ways to understand such stories, the general thrust of Jesus’ ministry strongly favors kindness toward nonhumans.

The Hebrew Scriptures have many passages than forbid cruelty to nonhumans, but today people seeking to justify harming nonhumans often focus Genesis 1:26, in which God gave Adam “dominion” over the creatures. While Genesis 1:29 prescribed a vegan diet for Adam, demonstrating that “dominion” should not be equated with tyranny, many Christians have held that Genesis 1:26 gives humanity license to treat nonhumans as humans please, including horrific cruelty. For example, when there is a fear that avian flu might be present among a flock of chickens imprisoned in large shed, farmers routinely chose to simply shut off the fans and let the animals die slowly and painfully from the heat and toxic fumes rather than by more humane, but more expensive, options.

Are there stories that might inspire humanity to pursue peace rather than violence, which has been routinely perpetrated against nonhumans and, not uncommonly, against fellow humans? I will continue to explore this question.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.

3. From All-Creatures.Org Ministry

All-Creatures.org Newsletter, February 1, 2023

Can you believe it is the first week in February! Where does time go? For us humans time can pass quickly, but for all tormented creatures it is a lifelong experience of suffering and hell made by humanity. So let us make sure to make each day count by helping bring God’s heavenly will to earth.

This week’s newsletter is filled with many things you can participate in and things you can share with others. It contains up-to-the-minute good news for animals, action alerts, vegan/animal rights stories, poetry, and prose, thought provoking articles, vegan religion and spirituality, recipes, events, and much more!

Enjoy!

All-Creatures.org Newsletter, February 8, 2023

Did you hear about the Utah juror who spoke up against the new anti-rescue bill? Read this and so much more in this week’s newsletter. It contains up-to-the-minute good news for animals, action alerts, vegan/animal rights stories, poetry, and prose, thought provoking articles, vegan religion and spirituality, recipes, events, and much more!

Enjoy!

Do you have things that you would like to see included? Then send it to us at veda@all-creatures.org. 

In the Love of the Lord,
Frank L Hoffman
All-Creatures.org

and

Kindness,
Tams Nicholson
Executive Directress
All-Creatures.org 

2023 Newsletters Archive