Weekly Newsletter - June 8, 2016
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

  1. CVA Member Feedback
  2. The June Issue of “Peaceable Table” Is Now Online
  3. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman

1. CVA Member Feedback

Several people responded to last week’s essay “Is Factory Farming the Greatest Evil Ever?” One CVA member noted that I omitted the effects of consuming flesh on human health. I replied that this was a harm of eating animals, but perhaps it should not be regarded as “evil” since doing so is a choice. The CVA member then noted that children in particular are harmed by being encouraged to eat animal products.

Eileen M. Harrington, CVA Member and a Ph.D. Scholar at Graduate Theological Union, responded to my essay as follows:

I absolutely agree, which is why my doctorate project focuses on why Christian Ecofeminists must make standing up to factory farming a core part of their theology and practice.

I would add to your list that it's an abuse of those human animals who have no power--it's a social justice and ecojustice issue:

  1. Poor people live in areas where factory farms are situated and have no recourse to stop them from polluting the air, water and land. (Ecojustice)
  2. Slaughterhouse workers have some of the highest rates of alcoholism, drug addiction, and domestic violence, which are believed to be a result of the trauma of killing sentient life day after day after day. Thou Shall Not Kill was also a commandment to protect our Spirits/souls from violence. (Social justice)
  3. As mentioned in the book and movie "Fast Food Nation," slaughterhouse workers and factory farm workers are among the least paid workers. Many are illegal immigrants who have no recourse to changing their work situation. So this is a form of human slavery as well. (Social Justice).
  4. Poor people have subsidized food via the USDA that is full of fat, sugar and salt--mostly fast food that leads to debilitation and death. (Social Justice)

2. The June Issue of “Peaceable Table” Is Now Online

Contents include:

  • The essay “Moral, Immoral, Amoral?” explores the ways animals engage moral behavior and asks whether animals can be immoral? When it comes to humans, who understand what abused humans and nonhumans feel, it is easy to identify immoral behavior. But what about humans who, out of ignorance, don’t realize the evil that they do? Some reflections on these complex issues appear in the Editor's Corner Essay.
  • One of the NewsNotes reports that some animal-ag lobbying groups are seeking to be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. "People loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil."
  • One of the Reviews discusses ethologist Frans de Waal's new book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? The author gives many examples of animal cognition, and discusses the dogmatic refusal of the majority of twentieth-century animal scientists to allow even the expression "animal cognition" among their ranks. He calls this outlook a millstone that science hung around its own neck.
  • Pioneer Annie Wood Besant, 1847-1933, tireless human rights advocate, also used her writing and oratorical gifts to defend animals; she became a vegetarian, stressing its importance to the spiritual path, and later she became a vegan.
  • A delectable and comparatively easy Tofu Scramble is the subject of this month's Recipe. It is one of our family's favorites.

To reach this issue, see http://www.vegetarianfriends.net/issue125.html.

We welcome feedback; to comment on any item, go to http://www.vegetarianfriends.net/forum/.

Toward the Peaceable Kingdom,
Gracia Fay Ellwood, Editor

3. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman

Trust God Always

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