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2 December 2007 Issue
4. 38th IVU World Vegetarian Congress [announcement]
Presidential candidate Bill Richardson, in reference to teachers’ salaries, said at a recent debate, “Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I will tell you what you value.” If you value our ministry, please go to www.christianveg.org/materials.htm and make a donation the bottom of the page. (Feel free to order CVA t-shirts, bumper stickers, and other supplies while you’re there.) Those donating $25 or more receive our daily Take Heart! e-notes.
Kathleen, leafleting at Switchfoot with Reliant K in Fargo, ND, writes: The leafleting went very well. According to the box office, about 2500 were in attendance. We got there plenty early and started handing out the leaflets to those standing in line. The crowd was young, since it was a hard-rock Christian concert, so a lot of people were open to taking them. No problems with anyone, just a kid saying he loved eating cows! I had one young man ask me, "What is it about eating meat that is bad for your health?" He was sincere, and I told him about high cholesterol and blood pressure, and the like. It was really easy to hand them out right at the door, because we held open the doors, and said, "Enjoy the concert!" and "Just in time!" They probably thought we were with the staff, as some tried to hand me tickets, and kept asking what time, which door, and what line.
Out of 1500 leaflets, we passed out about 1000, and collected about a 100 or so back from the ground, garbage and on top of the garbage, and ones handed back to us when we stood at the doors.
Upcoming events
12/8 MN Eden Prairie Jars of Clay Christian Rock Concert
12/9 WI Brookfield Jars of Clay Christian Rock Concert
12/9 CA Los Angeles Michael W. Smith Christmas Tour 2007
12/11 CA Rocklin Michael W. Smith Christmas Tour 2007
12/13 TX San Antonio Jars of Clay Christian Rock Concert
12/14 TX The Woodlands Jars of Clay Christian Rock Concert
12/15 OK Broken Arrow Jars of Clay Christian Rock Concert
12/16 MS Southhaven Jars of Clay Christian Rock Concert
12/6 FL Orlando Benny Hinn-Miracle
12/6 MN Kenosha One Wintry Night-David Phelps
12/17 IA Des Moines One Wintry Night-David Phelps
12/18 IN Fort Wayne One Wintry Night-David Phelps
12/23 CA Seaside Phil Wickham Christian Concert
12/31 GA Norcross Salvador Christian Rock Concert
12/31 AZ Tucson Phil Wickham Christian Concert
1/3/08 MO Branson Phil Wickham Christian Concert
To find out about all upcoming leafleting and tabling opportunities in your area, join the CVA Calendar Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group.christian_vegetarian. Read the home page, and then join. You will then be able to log in anytime to identify upcoming events in your region. Contact Paris at [email protected] if you might be able to help.
California is burning, Mexico is drowning, and sub-Saharan Africa is dying of thirst. In the wider context of these disasters, how we treat animals seems to be a disproportionately small concern. But why is California burning, and Mexico drowning, and Africa parched? We talk about this country's addiction to oil. It's nothing compared to our addiction to meat. A recent U.N. report published earlier this year found that the methane produced from the flatulence of cows causes more damage to the atmosphere than all the exhaust from trains, planes, and automobiles combined (try quoting that in your headlines tomorrow). Turns out, how we treat animals is a lynch pin to so many other pressing issues of the day, particularly when it comes to the environment. Quite literally, animals are the environment, so their fate is our own, and if we can't muster enough character and compassion to look after their welfare, we, too, will go the way of kiwi, and soon the polar bear, and perhaps already the honeybee.
When posterity looks back at this point in history, they'll say one thing: that instead of simply carrying on with business as usual, we radically re-altered our priorities and reassessed our relationship to the planet. I'm confident they'll say this because, if we simply carry on with business as usual, there will be no posterity. Which means that right now, in this room, we have a chance, not simply to change the course of history, but to actually keep it going.
I was born and raised in the outback of the Philippines to missionary parents, right on the edge of a jungle and near a farm, which means I grew up in very close proximity to animals of all kinds - our own pets: dogs, cats, and birds; the farm animals: cows, goats, pigs, chickens; and the wild native animals: snakes, bayawaks, monkeys, and birds of every kind. I had a very holistic view of animals and from a young age felt quite an affinity to them... well, to some of them, at least. I grew up, in other words, understanding that they were, quite simply, an indispensable part of the fabric of life. And now here I am, some thirty years later, essentially making the same claim. But now, according to the stereotype, as an Evangelical Christian I'm supposed to care about animals primarily for how they taste, and not, as I did when I was child, for who they are. But who says? Certainly not Scripture. Certainly not Jesus. And certainly not this Proclamation.
As a minister in the mainline evangelical tradition, I have a very compelling reason to treat animals with compassion: because they are a part of God's creation, and dominion is not domination. The center of Christ's commands is, in fact, a radical call to compassion. Indeed, to love. But there's no place here for tawdry theological sentimentalism. Leave my dog or cat to its own devices and it will kill for meat. But an animal takes only what it needs, and that's the difference between them and us. We don't stop at need. We want and want and want, and as a result, we're killing our planet out of sheer greed. So at the end of the day, this Proclamation, this entire initiative really, is fundamentally about two things: compassion and restraint, which are really opposite sides of the same coin.
So what's the verdict? Are we going drown ourselves in gluttony and greed at the expense of animals and their suffering and, as a result, forfeit not only their future but the future of our children, or will we, in a bold, difficult, even audacious move, restrain our appetites and, for one exalted moment, stay the knife?
May God bless the work before us.
4. 38th IVU World Vegetarian Congress
Dresden, Germany
100 Years of Food Revolution
Sunday July 27 - Sunday August 3, 2008
Your question and comments are welcome
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