Christian Vegetarian Association
Blog
Discussions
Update Newsletters
Take Heart!
Take Heart Contents
| Animal Issues | Articles | Bible | Children | Devotionals | Environment | Food | Health | Opinion | Quotations | Recipes |

Update Newsletters
10 June 2009 Issue

1. Activist Feedback

2. Perspective on the Lectionary

3. This week’s sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman

1. Activist Feedback

Anne writes: The first ever Ottawa Veg Fest was a huge success. We had a steady stream of people passing by our table and stopping to find out more about CVA and the message.

16 people signed up for the CVA newsletter and many more had encouraging words and left their email addresses, wanting to keep in touch. We gave out almost a full box of the CVA leaflets as well as the following leaflets: “Vegetarianism and Major World Religions” (half a box), “The Bible’s teachings” (half a box), quite a few “Even if you like Meat” leaflets, and all of our “Jewish” literature.

A number of people approached me asking which church I attended as they were seeking a vegan-friendly church.

We played the DVD “The Emotional World Of Farm Animals” and handed out vegan chocolate chip muffins. When the muffins ran out we cut up commercial Larabars, which were very popular.

I want to acknowledge the help and support of Robert and my husband Chris.

Upcoming Leafletting Opportunities

Contact Paris at christian_vegetarian@yahoo.com  if you can to help. To find out about all upcoming leafleting and tabling opportunities in your area, join the CVA Calendar Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christian_vegetarian/.
 

2. Perspective on the Lectionary

Mark 4:30-34

June 14, 2009

This passage includes the well-known parable of the mustard seed – the smallest of seeds that grows into the greatest of shrubs. Many Christians apply this metaphor to Christian evangelism, in which individuals spread the Gospel far and wide. I think the metaphor also applies to the Christian Vegetarian Association’s ministry.

We offer a message of compassion, peace, and mercy that has the potential to divert humanity from its current self-destructive course toward the “Peaceable Kingdom” prophesied in Isaiah 11. Though our brothers and sisters in Christ often resist our message, it is steadily gaining acceptance. As more and more people move toward plant-based diets, our witness becomes more mainstream. Just as Christians once widely endorsed human slavery but now find the institution incompatible with Christian faith, I believe that eventually Christians will widely reject the idea that the Prince of Peace could conceivably endorse the cruelties of modern animal agriculture.

We will move toward plant-based diets one of two ways. If ministries such as the CVA flourishes like a mustard tree, people will adopt the “faith of Christ” – a faith that God is loving, compassionate, and sides with victims of violence and injustice, not the perpetrators. Alternative, people will move toward a plant-based diet because unsustainable animal agriculture, with its waste of land, water, and energy, will impoverish the world to the point that only a relatively small fraction of the population can afford the cost of animal flesh. Humanity has been blessed with an opportunity to avoid self-destruction, but this requires that humanity adopt the faith of Christ which, among other things, encourages a plant-based diet. If humanity rejects that opportunity in favor of materialism and self-indulgence, humanity courts disaster.

Given that people are reluctant to abandon the religions of their families and communities, it is fortunate for humanity and the world that other faiths and traditions have teachings that accord with the faith of Christ. However, the faith of Christ comes with a challenge to radically change our lives, to focus on service to God rather than service to our sensory desires. Jesus accepted this challenge to the point of suffering and death. Most Christians, in stark contrast, have resisted the obvious call to simply change their diets and avoid supporting cruel, wasteful modern animal agriculture. We are called to be disciples of Christ, and we must find ways to break through the barriers that keep people who claim to embrace faith in Christ from embracing the faith of Christ.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.

3. This week’s sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman

How Do People Perceive Me?
http://www.all-creatures.org/sermons97/s10jun90.html .

Your question and comments are welcome

| Home Page | Bibliography | Blog | Books, T-shirts, Etc. | Community | Contact Us | CVA Board | CVA Videos | Essays and Coloring Book | Honoring God's Creation | How to Help | Links | Membership | Mission | Podcast | Take Heart | Vegetarianism's Benefits |

This site is hosted and maintained by
The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation.

Since