A Vegetarian Diet for Lent 2000 by Anthony Neesham
A Christian Living Article from All-Creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

True Christian living requires us to live according to Kingdom standards which bring Heaven to earth.

Lent 2000 provides Christians with a fitting opportunity to give up meat in recognition of Christ’s 40 day fast in the wilderness, whilst simultaneously experiencing the health benefits of a vegetarian diet. This opportunity is open to all Christians, whether they be regular church-goers or not, who feel moved to offer Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, tangible thanks during the Millennium. What better way to offer thanks to Christ than to emulate His boundless mercy and compassion? It's so easy and yet the effect is so significant. By saying "no" to the slaughterhouse and "yes" to the Lamb of God, we not only spare countless innocent souls immense suffering, we gain greater physical and spiritual well-being, too.

Let’s face the harsh reality. Even the most superficial investigation into the meat industry would expose disturbing evidence of cruelty and suffering. No Christian could possibly condone, not to mention perpetuate, cruelty. It’s all too easy to turn a blind eye to cruelty when it is neither we nor our immediate family who suffer the consequences. Nevertheless, lest we forget, Christ implores us to alleviate suffering, regardless of the sufferer. Where there is suffering there is Christ, too, amid the misery and pain: "I was hungry...thirsty...a stranger...naked". As we do unto the least, we do unto Him.

"A Vegetarian Diet for Lent 2000" hopes to offer all Christians, regardless of denomination and regardless of whether they choose to attend church or not, an opportunity to explore their faith more deeply. What’s more, "A Vegetarian Diet for Lent 2000" hopes to offer respite to the countless innocent souls currently condemned to the slaughterhouse to satiate humanity’s ravenous appetite for their flesh and blood.

Standing firmly against cruelty, vegetarianism provides Christians with the practical means of fulfilling Christ’s call for greater mercy and compassion. Christ, the Lamb of God, brings us a new kind of flesh and a new kind of blood. Christ offers us His flesh and His blood; the flesh and blood of self-sacrifice and Perfect Love. Christians are duty-bound not to corrupt the sacred flesh and blood of Jesus Christ with the flesh and blood of cruelty and violence. We can live healthy lives without perpetuating the horrors of the meat industry. At the dawn of the new Millennium let’s bring Isaiah’s vision of Christ’s peaceable kingdom, where the wolf dwells with the lamb and all creation lives in harmony, a step closer. Let us say no to the slaughterhouse and yes to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

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