Weekly Newsletter from Christian Vegetarian Association CVA - April 5, 2019
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

  1. Activist Feedback
  2. Original Sin, part 70: Conclusion
  3. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

1. Activist Feedback

Lexington Winter Jam
February 2, 2019

Two Vegan Outreach staff members, Ben and Vic, covered the event. Ben’s writes:

“We distributed all 1,800 leaflets at the Lexington Winter Jam. There were some other elements there, such as somewhat extremist Christians with megaphone. The crowd wasn't too bad, though, in terms of take rate and conversations. Security stopped us once at the very beginning, but we found some nice guards, and the original man turned out to be amiable enough once he cleared our presence with the higher-ups. The attendees were very courteous; for example, they often returned leaflets to us to reuse rather than throw them away, and I didn't get any unpleasant comments or anything from the crowd.

2. Original Sin, part 70: Conclusion

I have argued that the Original Sin described in Genesis 1 is scapegoating, and humanity has not overcome its temptations. We continue to blame other individuals for our own sins, resulting in violence and injustice that harms countless individuals and threatens human civilization. A problem with scapegoating is that, for it to be effective in maintaining order in society, the truth that the victim is less guilty than charged must be hidden. If people recognized this truth, they would not be able to blame scapegoats for their own sins nor justify the mistreatment of others socially, economically, and politically.

The challenge, then, is to make visible what has been hidden. There are several clues that scapegoating might be going on: 1) there is communal conviction that proper punishment of one or more individuals would restore order; 2) the individual or group is widely held in contempt and is regarded as “degenerate” or “disgusting”; 3) the individual or group are despised for failing to “respect tradition” or to “act naturally”; 4) there is a sense of satisfaction when an individual or members of a group suffer; and 5) the community benefits socially, economically, or politically from their “righteous punishment” of an individual or group.

I think animal exploitation and abuse is far and away the greatest contemporary manifestation of, and sustainer of, the scapegoating process. Massive numbers of nonhumans experience extreme abuse for relatively trivial human preferences, a profound tragedy that requires utilizing the scapegoating process. Our society must hold nonhumans in contempt and regard them as “deserving” of their plight. However, just about everyone knows, deep down, that this is a lie. And, if people decide to act as if this obvious lie were true, it is easy to accept other, more subtle lies that hide behind the veil of the scapegoating process.

If we are to save ourselves, we must stop eating and otherwise harmfully exploiting animals now. If we don’t choose to stop, we will stop eventually, because all societies grounded on the scapegoating process eventually collapse due to loss of resources, internal conflict, and the eventual chaos of all-against-all violence. I’m not optimistic that humanity can avoid this scenario, but in future essays I offer some reasons for hope.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.

3. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

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