Weekly Newsletter from Christian Vegetarian Association CVA - October 10, 2026
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

  1. Fear - Part 2
  2. Survey Regarding the Golden Rule
  3. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

1. Fear - Part 2

All of us have been wounded by life, and our vulnerability to further injury tends to engender fear. Because fear is an unpleasant feeling, we often go to great lengths to reduce our sense of it. In doing so, however, we can become less kind, less compassionate, and less committed to justice. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often spoke about fear as one of the major impediments to building the Beloved Community.

For many people, fear is rooted in childhood experiences, a time when the brain is still developing. The behaviors and attitudes that are adaptive during these formative years can have profound and lasting effects on how we think, feel, and behave throughout the rest of our lives.

Children experience feelings with an intensity that is often less constrained by social expectations or rationalization. Their joy, excitement, sadness, anger, and fear can all be remarkably powerful. The unrestrained laughter of children is a delight to adults, particularly parents, but children also experience equally intense negative emotions. The world is full of unforeseen dangers, and sudden, unexpected experiences. For example, the pain of a fall or a parent's seemingly incomprehensible change in mood can be terrifying. Children gradually learn that the world can be a dangerous place, and they try to balance their innate curiosity and desire for fun with the world's many unseen risks.

Although nobody emerges from childhood entirely unscathed, children are exposed to vastly different levels of trauma. Among the more psychologically unsettling experiences are the death of a parent or sibling, domestic violence, serious injury, parental divorce, and frequent moves. All of us experience physical pain, the loss of loved ones, humiliation, shame, and rejection. Moreover, as children become aware of the possibility of death and the inevitability of their own mortality, they may experience profound fear and dread.

For many people, the intense effort to escape the unpleasant feeling of fear can blind them to the harm they may be causing others. Trying to repress fear does not make the feeling disappear; rather, it can manifest in ways that are harmful to both the individual and those around them. As Christians, we are called to participate in building the Beloved Community, but doing so can be difficult when fear governs our responses to the world and to one another. To build that community, we need to learn how to confront and overcome fear - which I will explore next.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.

2. Survey Regarding the Golden Rule

Nearly every religion and secular belief system has some version of the Golden Rule, which generally is like, "Do to others as you would like others to do to you."

A new web site aims to modify the Golden Rule, in part to make it more clearly encompass nonhuman beings. Please check out Home - GoldenRuleism, and we would appreciate a reply to this newsletter with responses to the following two questions:

1) Do you prefer the Golden Ruleism version to the version above? (Optional - why or why not?)

2) Does the Golden Ruleism version more clearly include nonhumans, less clearly include nonhumans, or neither of these?

Thank you.

3. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

Check out Our Sibling Ministry: www.All.Creatures.Org

Please support the CVA! At www.christianveg.org/materials.htm, you can find literature, T-shirts, bumper stickers and more, and donations are always welcomed!

2026 Newsletters Archive