Animals: Tradition - Philosophy - Religion Article used with permission from All-Creatures.org

In this powerful article, Virginia Bell discuses and elaborates on the points made in the documentary Christspiracy, provides insight into how we should approach certain biblical passages, and implores us to follow our conscience to minimize suffering.

Christspiracy: How Religions have Betrayed Animals
From Virginia Bell, Catholic Action for Animals, CatholicActionForAnimals.wordpress.com
2025

Photo from Canva

CHRISTSPIRACY

HOW RELIGIONS HAVE BETRAYED ANIMALS

A film by Kip Anderson (producer of ‘Cowspiracy’) and Kameron Waters. 1 hour 45 minutes.

The film exposes the suppression of animal rights by religions down the ages, aided by the military, governments and of course commerce.

The ‘Golden Rule’ of the major religions is ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, as can be seen in this image (click on a quote to magnify it): https://www.scarboromissions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GR-poster-scaled.jpg

One presumes that they all want animals included, but unfortunately only two of them, Jainism and Unitarianism, specifically include all other creatures, leaving room for self-interest to prevail in the other religions.

How Religions have betrayed animals.

The first precept of Buddhism is “refrain from killing any sentient being”, but the Dalai Lama, the traditional high priest of Tibetan Buddhism, eats meat, as do many Buddhists.

Hindus revere cows, and are not allowed to kill them, but “there are more cows killed here (India) than anywhere else in the world, and no-one knows it” said activist Altab Hossain. And Indian Government Minister Maneka Gandhi said that India is the biggest exporter of beef.

In the Muslim religion also, the spirit of the Scriptures is not followed. Muslim activist Altab says that according to Islam, God made humans guardians of the planet. This agrees with the Christian view that humans are stewards, not masters of the planet.

The Jewish Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Avi Zaski, tells us that in Kosher killing, the cow is encased in a machine with its head out. The machine rotates so that the cow is upside down. The throat is cut and the cow hauled up by a back leg to hang, to drain the blood. For such a heavy animal, to hang by one leg must be excruciatingly painful.

During this process, the cows can see and hear and smell everything. To be encaged into a machine must terrify them almost to the point of madness. The procedure is terrifying, violent, painful and horrific. To realise his, we should imagine it was our child who is being put through this. That would strip away the massive unconscious bias which encourages us to believe that animal lives don’t matter, and animal suffering doesn’t matter.

Chief Rabbi Avi Zaski has now stopped killing animals and has become vegan.

In the film, we see Christian preachers trying hard to deny that animals have rights.

One preacher called those who promote animal rights sick and unholy. Another said that in the Old Testament you had to eat meat to be holy.

Stewards of Creation

The Christian campaigner for animal rights Rev Andrew Linzey, Oxford theologian and Anglican priest, points out in the film that the Hebrew meaning of the word ‘dominion’ is to serve in stewardship for others, as parents do with their children. So we are the servant species, he says, with responsibility to look after other creatures.

This debate on the meaning of dominion is pointless in my opinion, because even taken to mean having control over the lives of others, the ethical imperative is that the dominant one rules responsibly and caringly. Selfish and uncaring dominion would be a dereliction of duty, however one defines the word.

In Genesis, we humans were given the task of being stewards, but that was when creation was perfect, and being stewards was possible in a perfect creation. Is it possible now? How can fallen beings properly look after a fallen planet? We are the one species that the world would be better off without. Our very existence threatens all life on earth.

Nevertheless, we still have a duty to live as responsibly as possible, and to show justice, peace and love in all our actions. Pope Francis calls for an ecological conversion – that is what is needed. With that there is hope.

Campaigning Priests

The Catholic Church has 4 vegan priests that I know of – Terry Martin in the UK, Donatello Iocco in Canada, another in the UK and the fourth in France. Surely there are more?! These priests are all the more precious because they are so few. Frs. Terry and Donatello are also campaigners for animal rights, as is Daniel Mascarenhas in the US, a Jesuit who is training to be a priest.

No such thing as Humane Slaughter

Kip and Kameron visited a certified, grade A, humane slaughterhouse in the USA, run by FPL Foods, and found that they were not welcome and not allowed to see what goes on.

What goes on is the slaughter of 2000 to 3000 cows per day, using prisoners on parole who could not refuse to do the work or they would be sent back to prison. Many slaughterhouse workers are either prisoners on parole or immigrant workers who also have little choice but to do the work for slave labour wages.

Kip and Kameron then visited Polyface Farms, one of the most popular in the States, led by a Christian farmer, and claiming to be high in welfare. The reality? The chickens were in cages, which the farmer called ‘shelters’. Pigs naturally live for 15 years. His pigs are slaughtered at 6 months. Chickens and rabbits are killed on the farm; pigs, cows, goats and sheep go to slaughterhouses, where they are part of the intensive, brutal system of livestock slaughter.

On the farm, chickens are killed by being put upside down into a restraining device, which the farmer describes as ‘giving a hug’, with their heads showing. The throat is then slit and the chicken processed. I don’t know if there was any pause at all to make sure that the chicken was dead before proceeding to be defeathered and cut up. The farmer showed us how rabbits are killed. The rabbit was held upside down with one hand and hit with a metal bar. The farmer described this as stunning the rabbit. Then the rabbit was strung upside down by its’ back legs, still struggling. The slaughterer gave it another whack with the metal bar, as we could all see that it needed a bit more ‘stunning’ (would he have bothered if he wasn’t being filmed? And did the 2 whacks improve the situation for the rabbit, or make it worse?) and told us it felt nothing. Then he cut its throat. The hypocrisy was amazing, with ridiculous attempts to whitewash the suffering of the animals.

The Nazarenes

It is the view of Biblical scholar Dr Robert Eisenman, among others who follow the evidence, that Jesus ‘of Nazareth’ referred to the Nazarenes. There was no chronicle of a place called Nazareth at the time. The Nazarenes were a Jewish Christian movement that followed Jesus. They opposed the Roman supported Temple. They followed the Mosaic Law except they did not sacrifice, kill or eat animals because they believed that the Commandment ”thou shalt not kill” included animals, and they believed Jesus opposed killing and eating animals.

The Nazarenes were labelled as heretics by the Christian Church, and persecuted. Apparently, someone suspected of being a Nazarene would be challenged to kill an animal. If they refused, they were found guilty of being a Nazarene and executed.

Fish

The Miracle of the loaves and fishes is described as the miracle of the loaves in early writings. And When Jesus referred to the Miracle, he spoke of feeding the 5,000 with 5 loaves, and feeding the 4,000 with 7 loaves – no mention of fishes (Matthew 16:9-10).

In John 21:11, Jesus helped fishermen catch 153 fish, then took the men away from fishing.

The number of fish is relevant, because it refers to a well-known story about Pythagorus, a vegetarian and opponent of animal sacrifices. It is recorded that in 530 BC, Pythagoras had a bet with some fishermen that if he correctly guessed the number of fish that they had caught, the fish would be released. He guessed 153 and the fish were released, and survived their ordeal without harm. Whether this story is true or not, the number 153 is a significant number for several reasons, and was obviously used here by John for a purpose. What that purpose was, is still debated. To me, the number seems to have been used to signify that the fish were released unharmed.

Lenten Practices

While on the subject of fish, did you know that the Catholic Church has reclassed some animals as fish so that they can be eaten during Lent? Those reclassified include amphibians and reptiles. Also some mammals that spend time in water. The capybara (a large rodent) and the beaver for instance, are fish as far as Lent is concerned.

Cleansing of the Temple

Rev Andrew Linzey explained how the cleansing of the Temple by Jesus was the act which precipitated Jesus’ trial and execution 4 days later. He cleansed the Temple by throwing out those who were buying and selling animals, and he freed the animals. The Temple was a mass slaughterhouse, with the smell and sight and sounds of death pervading the place. The trade in animals sustained the Temple and provided taxes for the Romans. Jesus drove out the cattle, sheep, birds and all (John 2:15).

The Rev. Munro from the Humanitarian Church said that, by this cleansing of the Temple, Jesus was attacking the culture of killing animals for profit and eating them for food. He struck at the root of evil, the oppression of people and the construct of war “in one fell swoop”, said Rev. Munro.

I remember visiting a church in my diocese, and being confronted with a scene which shocked and horrified me.

The lobby of the church was given over to CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development)’s appeal for its gifting programme.

There were large posters showing different animals, a pig, a goat, chickens, fish, as well as one depicting trees and another with a vegetable plot. Each animal had its own poster, with the price of that animal written on the poster.

An electronic device to easily enable payment via debit/credit card was prominently displayed, with step-by-step instructions detailed on another large poster.

I felt, as Jesus must have felt 2000 years ago when He was confronted with the buying and selling of animals in God’s house, that it was not acceptable. But I lacked the courage to tear down the posters! At least I did complain. And if you feel as I do, please sign my petition: https://www.change.org/p/tell-the-catholic-church-to-stop-its-exploitation-of-animals-as-gifts

Civilisation is based on the exploitation of animals. Animals were used as money and were a source of conflict. It had earlier been explained in the film that the word ‘capital’ comes from the Latin capitalis and meant the head count of the herd. ‘Pecuniary’ is from pecu, Latin for livestock. The word ‘war’ comes from the Sanskrit word meaning desire for more cows.

Dr Deborah Rooke, professor of Hebrew Bible translation, Oxford, said that knowing he was soon to die, Jesus now felt able to create havoc against the Temple Leaders and their Roman bosses. She was about to have an “Aha” moment, as she described it, when she looked deeper into the word used by Jesus when he said, in Matthew 21:13 “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of thieves.” She found that the word used for thieves meant ‘violent ones’ and would better describe murderers than thieves. This was a revelation to her.

Animal Rights written out of religious history

Evidence from historians and scriptures that Jesus, John the Baptist and the early Apostles were vegetarian, and indeed strict vegetarians (vegan), are mainly ignored by the Christian churches. There is evidence from many sources that Jesus and the early Apostles were vegetarian. For instance, the Gospel of the Ebionites, the writings of Eusebius, Epiphanius, Hegesippus, Josephus, Clement of Alexandria and Clementine among others.

Scriptures which showed that Jesus did not eat meat and condemned animal sacrifices, for instance the Gospel of the Ebionites, were rejected and suppressed. History is written by the winners, and the animal exploiters won. After James, a vegetarian, was murdered, his vegetarian followers were persecuted.

The references to John the Baptist eating honey and locusts are in contrast to other descriptions of him living on roots and fruit, and could easily be mistranslations, with the food referred to being any of the following – figs, dates, bulbs from the melagria plant, the carob pod or any sweet pod or bulb, or a sort of flatbread made from a desert plant.

The reference to him being clothed in camel’s hair and wearing a leather belt is also out of character for one described as a strict vegetarian leading a strict ascetic lifestyle. Not that it matters in relation to our choice of lifestyle. Our choice should depend on how much we are able to live without causing harm, not on how much people living thousands of years ago were able to live without causing harm.

Eventually, the Ebionite Gospel was declared heretical and books which did not align with Paul’s narrative were burned. It seems to me that St Paul wrote both for and against animals, and both for and against women, but the Vatican seems to have chosen to accept his ‘anti’ views regarding women and animals.

Tyrannical treatment of animal liberationists

It is possible that Jesus was an animal liberationist, and was executed because of it a few days later.

Animal liberationists have always been treated harshly and designated as terrorists, despite not having harmed anyone. The FBI once designated animal rights activists the no. 1 domestic terror threat in the States. I remember that as an animal rights campaigner, I and others like me were regarded as terrorists by priests, the police and the Government. Priests and police believed the Government’s propaganda. I remember when I introduced myself to a priest many years ago, saying I was an animal rights campaigner while shaking his hand, he snatched his hand away as if my hand was hot or contaminated. And once on a demo the police arrested one of us because they believed that the water spray we were using had acid in it! That priest and those police genuinely thought we were terrorists.

In Jesus’ time and now, the reason for the hard-line treatment of animal rights activists was and is because they threaten the profits which come from animal abuse.

Dead Sea Scrolls

In 1945 the Nag Hammadi texts were discovered. These were Gnostic texts, and Gnosticism was the chief ‘heresy’ that was ruthlessly suppressed by the Catholic Church, allied with the military dictatorship of the Roman Empire.

Then the Dead Sea Scrolls came to light. They were discovered over a period of ten years between 1946 and 1956 in the Qumran caves on the northern shore of the Dead Sea.

There were 4 main religious sects around in Jesus’ time: Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots

Some scholars think that the Essenes lived at Qumran and were the ones who wrote and stored the scrolls. They were Jews who did not eat meat or offer animal sacrifices.

The Roman Catholic dominated International Team led by Fr. de Vaux (and his successors Pierre Benoit and John Strugnell) managed through deceit, secrecy and cover-ups to suppress the publication of the Scrolls for decades. They exercised complete control over the Scrolls. Thy refused to collaborate with other scholars, or even to let other scholars see the Scrolls.

It is thought that though greed, vanity and vested interests may have been partly responsible for the scandalous suppression of these highly significant discoveries, religious bigotry was involved. The team were worried that the Scrolls would put a different interpretation on Jesus and the early Christian Church than that promulgated by St. Paul and accepted by Catholic tradition.

Through their connection with the Catholic Ecole Biblique, the French Dominican archaeological School in Jerusalem which they were members of, de Vaux and his priest supporters on the International Team enabled the vested interests of the Catholic Church to control the narrative of the Scrolls, instead of allowing objective, scientific research.

Cherry Picking

Everyone cherry picks from the Bible. It is necessary to do this because of the contradictions which are scattered throughout and because of the knowledge we can bring to our understanding of the writings in the Bible. Some things the Catholic Church completely ignores, such as Matthew 23:8-12 “do not call anyone on earth ‘father’…for whoever exalts himself will be humbled”. And Matthew 19:9 “anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery”.

Contradictions

There are many contradictions in the Bible. I’ll mention some from the Gospels.

In John 12:47 Jesus says “…I did not come to judge the world…”

But in Matthew 25: 31-46 he says that the Son of Man will separate the sheep from the goats and pass judgement on all.

In Matthew 5:18-19 Jesus says “It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.

But in Mark 10:5-9 Jesus changed the Mosaic Law and forbade divorce.

And Mark 7:1-8 shows Jesus ignoring the rules on washing.

And in John 8: 5-11 Jesus refused to follow the Mosaic Law of stoning a woman taken in adultery.

In John 14:27 Jesus says “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you”.

But in Matthew 10: 34 he says “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword”.

John 5:14 has Jesus say to an invalid “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you”.

But in John 9:3 Jesus says “Neither this man nor his parents sinned”.

In John 14:3-4 Jesus says “you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going”

But in John 14:33 he says “Where I am going you cannot come”

John 6:47 “I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life”.

But Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father in heaven”.

Matthew 6:1-4 “when you give to the needy, do not announce it”

But Matthew 5:16 “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds”

Luke 12:10 “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven”

But Luke 12:9 “But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God”.

Matthew 18: 15-17 “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault…and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector”.

But Matthew 18: 21-22 ‘Then Peter came to Jesus and asked “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times”.’

There will be explanations for all the contradictions, if we but knew them.

We need to look deeper into what is written in the Bible, not just accept a literal meaning. We need to understand what was meant, the spirit of the words.

That we should use reason and evidence to validate our faith is backed up by 1 Thesalonians 5:20-21 – “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good” and by Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will”.

Making a point

Jesus often says things to make a point, for example in John 6:63 Jesus says “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing”.

In Matthew 5:22 he says “anyone who says ‘you fool’ will be in danger of the fire of hell”.

In Luke 22:36 he says “If you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one”

And in Mark 9:43-48 he says “If your hand/foot causes you to sin, cut it off”.

These words are not meant to be taken literally.

The Church is well aware that Jesus often says things to make a point, and the Church decides what to take literally and what to understand in the spirit of what was being said.

Also, Jesus’ knowledge and power came gradually to him, and he was sometimes mistaken, for example he thought the end of creation would be coming soon after his death: Matthew 10:23 / Matthew 16:28 / Matthew 24:30 & 34 & 36 / Matthew 26:64 / Mark 9: 1 / Mark 13: 30 & 32/ Mark 14:62 / Luke 9:27 / Luke 21:31-32 /John 5:25 /

We need to think about what the explanation for a puzzling quote might be. Jesus may have been making a point, or it could be that the words used by the original writers may have different meanings from the usual interpretations, or the words may have become altered either mistakenly or deliberately. There are a variety of reasons why Gospel quotes should not necessarily be taken literally.

Continuing Revelation

What is written in the Bible is not the last word.

In John 16: 1-13 Jesus says “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth”.

Being able to understand God will come gradually, and we are supposed to cherish new understanding, not ignore it.

It’s interesting to note that the 10 Commandments miss out any mention of how to treat children. They also miss out mention of how to treat animals. They are God inspired yes, but also partly a product of their time and culture.

Creation is waiting for the Fruits of Jesus’ Redemption.

How terrible is creation for countless beings. Needing every day to seek for food, to try to avoid being eaten, to stay healthy and to avoid accidents. And through it all to suffer. For many, it is like a hell on Earth. The suffering is beyond belief.

Do we really believe that a good God gave an animal legs to run away from a predator, and gave another animal teeth to rip flesh, and said ”survival of the fittest! May the best one win!”?

Even if humans were benign, and the environment was as nature intended, life on Earth would still be a horror story for countless beings.

Unconscious Bias

We read the Bible with a large amount of unconscious bias. For instance, we decry Herod’s slaughter of the innocent in Bethlehem, Matthew 2:16-18, but we accept God’s slaughter of the innocent firstborn in Egypt, Exodus 12:29.

We accept that in the Bible, lands were invaded with God’s blessing, but consider any invasion of our land as unacceptable.

We see the pagan rituals of animal sacrifices as repulsive, bloodthirsty and superstitious, but accept the Mosaic laws of animal sacrifice as approved by God to take away sins. Paul realised it was all a waste of time: Hebrews 10:11 “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.”

Conscience is supreme

I follow Jesus, and I follow the Roman Catholic religion. But I would be betraying both if I ignored what I believed to be wrong in the Church. The Church herself acknowledges that conscience is supreme. My plea to all people is, follow your conscience, let that be your guiding light. And cause no suffering if you can avoid it.

Christspiracy Film: https://christspiracy.com/

Christspiracy Sources: https://christspiracy.com/sources

---

Posted on All-Creatures: March 10, 2025
Return to Animals: Tradition—Philosophy—Religion Articles