Weekly Newsletter from Christian Vegetarian Association CVA - December 4, 2023
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

  1. Become or Remain a Sustaining Member
  2. Existential Anxiety

1. Become or Remain a Sustaining Member

The CVA is an important ministry. We seek to heal our largely broken relationship with God’s earth. Currently, most people think that God’s animals and God-given natural resources exist only to satisfy human desires, including those that are trivial. This attitude is extremely harmful for the nonhuman world, and it is ultimately destructive for humans. Our ministry involves leafleting, tabling, and providing Christian Education materials to help create a more kind, just, and flourishing world. Please go to www.christianveg.org/materials.htm.

There, you can buy CVA merchandise and, at the bottom of the page, you can donate to the CVA.

2. Existential Anxiety

Last week, I started to discuss how embracing animal rights can be a gift. I would like to elaborate further from a perspective that relates to existential anxiety.

We find ourselves inhabiting a particular body at a particular place in a particular point of time. Throughout our lives, we seek to understand the origin of the persistent sense of self that is connected to our bodies. A Buddhist approach is to assert that the sense of self is not real; rather, it is an illusion. However, this claim conflicts sharply with everyday experience. When I stub my toe, it hurts. If anyone stubs their toe, I might feel bad for them, but I don’t feel their pain. We have both a strong experience of the self being real, but we also have uncertainty about what the persistent self really is. We want the self to flourish and exist through time, hoping that it continues to exist in some form after our bodies cease to function. Yet, the sense of self seems tied to the brain and is not clearly “real” outside the material world. Uncertainty about what our sense of self really is leads to existential anxiety.

Feeling connected to the universe soothes existential anxiety, because our sense of self and our understanding of the meaning of our lives are both grounded in relationships. It is difficult feeling connected to inanimate bodies, and consequently we generally find ourselves drawn to other living, feeling beings with whom we can have a relationship. If we lacked relationships with others, many of us would feel unbearably alone and anxious. When we gain a sense of connection to others, our lives feel more real and meaningful. The sages of all the ages taught that the path to individual and communal salvation comes via compassion, kindness, and respect for others. Though they often suffered and many were murdered, the stories about them relate that they embraced nonviolence and that they were at peace with themselves and the world. The Bible relates that Jesus, even as he suffered grievously on the cross, ultimately seemed to be at peace. His last words were, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

To the degree that we feel at peace with the world, we can gain a sense of inner peace. To the degree that we embrace violence to satisfy short-term pleasures and desires, we will tend to feel more disconnected and therefore more anxious. I suggest that mindfulness about the experiences of nonhumans and fellow humans naturally encourages us to make choices that enhance their well-being. Knowing that, to the best of our abilities, we are friends of the nonhumans and humans among us allows us to feel more connected to them and, by extension, to the wider universe. This might not fully resolve all existential anxiety, but it should provide considerable comfort.

Stephen R. Kaufman, MD

2023 Newsletters Archive