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The Fellowship of Life |
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From The Vegetarian of September/October 1990: When Food Minister John Gummer castigated vegetarians, he was echoing
centuries of Christian teaching of human dominance of animals. Jennifer
Britt talks to two clergymen who believe differently. Was Jesus Christ a vegetarian? 'Maybe' sums up the answer from the man who is described as the
leading theologian dealing with the issues of animal rights. Dr Andrew
Linzey, Chaplain at the University of Essex and the Director of the
Centre for Theological Studies, is taking a long, hard look at a theory
which at one time he dismissed. Ultimately, winning Jesus for the
Vegetarian Society is not essential for Linzey's argument. Christ was
not some kind of 'know-all-superman', whose historical life we have to
copy in every detail, says the theologian. "But I don't give up on the
possibility, in the light of my recent research, that Jesus was a
vegetarian." In fact, Linzey will review the evidence in his latest
book, still at word-processing stage, Jesus and Animals. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John would leave us in no doubt that Jesus
ate fish. However, says Linzey, there is another tradition about Jesus,
found in what are known as the Essene gospels in which he is much more
pro-animal and certainly a vegetarian. Traced back to the third century
after Christ, these gospels possibly contain genuine historical
reminiscence. Linzey also sees significant signs, if not of
vegetarianism, then on a value put on the lives of animals, in the
mainstream biblical account of the life of Christ: for example, the oxen
at the manger, and the donkey which carried Jesus into Jerusalem before
the crucifixion. Weightier evidence is Christ's abstinence from animal sacrifice, says
Linzey; a revolutionary stance at a time when the practice was
prevalent. Then there's the story of Jesus throwing out the people who
buy and sell in the temple. "What do they buy and sell? asks Linzey.
"Well, it's not candy-floss and guidebooks. It's animals for sacrifice.
Could this be the first act of animal liberation?" Biblical texts will
not win the argument either way, says Linzey. But many vegetarians may
feel an unworthy sense of triumph when he affirms that the passage in
Genesis about man having dominion over creatures, which John Gummer
alighted upon to justify why we "quite properly eat animals", is the
single, clearest piece of scripture supporting vegetarianism, as it
records God giving people grain and fruit. The question of what the Bible says on the issue and whether Christ
was a vegetarian are not new. In a previous book, Linzey recounts how
many years ago the Methodist minister, Dr Donald Soper, in reply to just
this poser, said that no, Jesus wasn't vegetarian, but if he were alive
today he probably would be. Three decades later, and now a socialist
life peer, Lord Soper still holds this view. As a child of his time, he
says, Jesus would have eaten flesh. "It's the spirit of Jesus that we
have to look to...In the world that he knew his attitude was one of
non-violence, non-violent care, certainly not the rapacity of a meat
market." A pacifist, Lord Soper who is president of the League against
Cruel Sports, extends his guiding principle of non-violence to the
animal world. He came to vegetarianism through a moral objection to the treatment
of animals in the production of meat. "I didn't begin by thinking of the
relation of Christianity to vegetarianism, but I began by thinking of
the relation of Christianity to politics and economics. I've come to see
now that there is a very close correlation between the way that we treat
animals and the way in which we ought to treat one another, and I think
that one of the gateways into a better treatment of our fellow human
beings is to know how better to treat the animal creation." Now heading
towards his 88th birthday, Lord Soper is still active in leading
worship, continues to mount his open air soapbox at Tower Hill and Hyde
Park Corner, and now and again contributes to House of Lords debates. Andrew Linzey, after 20 or so years as a vegetarian, has become vegan
because he felt increasingly uncomfortable about eating the by-products
of slaughter. He describes himself, though, as a non-fussy vegan...not
of the school that would enquire in a restaurant whether his vegetable
pie had been cooked in a pan previously used for meat. But, he's outspoken about self-righteous vegans and vegetarians. He
wears plastic shoes, but acknowledges that the material would have been
tested for toxicity on animals, and realises that even growing vegetable
food will entail shooting rabbits to clear the land. "Some people almost
want a personal purity, which is very like what some religious people
want as well...it becomes a religion in the worst sense," he says.
Andrew Linzey's four young vegetarian children, although free to eat
meat away from home, are as zealous as they come, with the habit of
commenting loudly and unfavourably during shopping trips on other
people's taste for dead animals. By the age of 19, Andrew Linzey had joined the RSPCA Council as part
of a new breed of supporters in the days when the Society still backed
hunting. Animal rights, although important, were still a secondary concern for
the young Andrew Linzey, in contrast to his conviction today that the
struggle of humans to learn to live at peace with the rest of the world
is the moral issue of our time. "I believe at the heart of the animal
rights movement is an appreciation - not just a reverence for life - of
the worth of other living creatures; that they exist in their own right
for the glory of God. They don't exist for us." On a practical level, he argues that now we know that humans do not
have to kill to live, we have a moral obligation to gradually move away
from animal exploitation and that includes dismantling the whole
apparatus of vivisection: "Although I think we have gained from
experiments on animals, I think it's foolish to pretend otherwise," he
says. Anyone looking for the definitive Christian view on animal rights is
bound for disappointment. Talking to two Christians, you find divergence
on various points. On the keeping of pets, for instance, Lord Soper sees
a place for companion animals, as long as they are allowed to live their
own lives, but Andrew Linzey is sceptical. Both men make a clear
distinction between proper use and exploitation of animals: "I think
there is a place for an animal as a servant, but there is no place for
an animal as a slave and there is certainly no place for an animal
merely to provide pleasure," says Lord Soper. Andrew Linzey sadly
observes that, "Everywhere we seem to change the possibility of use into
abuse." In the Church he sees definite rays of light. In the
animal-valuing tradition of St Francis, people like the Anglican priest
Arthur Broome who founded the RSPCA, and Henry Clubb, a founder member
of the Vegetarian Society who later became a pastor, are making headway. He's been overwhelmed by support in the debate over hunting on church
land. The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the World Council of
Churches have to varying degrees acknowledged the need for a more
caring, respectful relationship with the natural world. Moving to the
Jewish faith, the new Chief Rabbi from 1991, Jonathan Sacks, is
vegetarian. Andrew Linzey, who admires the 'marvellous' Buddhist ideals
of not killing, but regrets that they have not always been put into
practice, says that in Christian tradition the hierarchical view of men
as just below the angels, women lower down and animals lower still has
bedevilled our view of creation. The assumption that animals are without
souls has also left the way wide open for abuse. Says Lord Soper: "You are sometimes asked whether when you die you'll meet your cat again in heaven, and the answer is, if you loved it, I think, yes." Reproduced with the kind permission of the Vegetarian Society:
www.vegsoc.org |
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