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By Craig Cline - 11 Mar 2016

Sure Frank -- I get that.  However, it is indisputably true that the vast majority of the humans on this earth are religious or spiritual in some way; mostly in the form of an organized religion.

And who are there more of than any other organized religion?  Christians, about 2.2 billion of them.

That's exactly why I keep looking at them as the KEY to any meaningful change.  And that's why I sent you the info. from Faunalytics, to show that there is hope for change by A.S.K.ing the Christians, in particular, to initiate and continue it.

If we don't "move the needle," to get past the 10% tipping point that Che Green terms the "adoption diffusion curve," we will continue to lose our battle for the spiritually-related compassion that ALL animals deserve.

A primary reason for this, as I've mentioned before, is that the human population continues to grow exponentially.  The March 2016 issue of "Population Connection" magazine states that "we're adding another billion people to the planet every dozen years."

That's over 83 million per year, on average.  And what are all the new human babies taught by their parents and their culture, generally speaking?  To eat dead animal flesh ("meat") and other animal-sourced "products."

I feel that the animal advocacy movement, though I love the compassionate ethic it stands for, has long been in denial of the facts and the truth.  As man evolves to become the overwhelmingly dominant force on the planet, not only will he use and abuse more and more "food animals" over time, but at ever-increasing rates.  We are deluding ourselves if we think that we are in fact progressing in a truly significant way -- numbers-wise.

Here's one other comment, taken from the March 2016 issue of the lauded "National Geographic" magazine.  On page 92 of a fascinating article titled "Return of the Seychelles," this appears:  "We live, we are told, in the age of the sixth mass extinction, a human-induced spasm of species loss, a great redacting of the story of life.  How do we reverse that trajectory?  We could begin by reciting the opening words of the Seychelles Constitution:  "We, the people of Seychelles, GRATEFUL to Almighty God that we inhabit one of the most beautiful countries in the world;..." 

I'm stopping there because you will note that the Constitution invokes Almighty God.  This invocation tells me that God is on people's minds -- and is in fact on the minds of the majority of humans, all over the world.  They still associate Him with their earth, its beauty, and its creatures.

They generally believe that God created the earth and all of its creatures.  Yet they act in discord with His Creation, by continuing to ruin it in all manners of ways.

I'm saying that it is high time that religious leaders like you, and all other such leaders as you (like Steve and the CVA organization, for example) can get to join you -- by A.S.K.ing them to go out to, in particular, all the Christians.  They must be asked to change, and it seems to me that to ask their acquiescence and change is most easily done by presenting the expanded application of "their" Golden Rule to them.  They own it.

Because the Golden Rule is so well known to them as a moral and ethical precept, it should be easy to present and discuss.  It can be presented in the positive light that it reflects, so the "campaign" can be one of positivity rather than negativity.

In a recent conversation I had with Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns about the Golden Rule campaign, she said she thinks it may well be "doable."  She encouraged me to pursue it as a concept that has potential; especially amongst the religious and spiritual folks.

Though she cannot initiate such a campaign, she may well be willing to sign on to it if it gets established.  So it is up to religious leaders to establish it.  I think other organizations will gladly sign on too.  Even "environmental' organizations like the Center for Biological Diversity (it has a "Take Extinction Off Your Plate" campaign that is very good) are likely to sign on, in my opinion.

Dr. Will Tuttle and I have discussed the higher and better use of the Golden Rule as well.  His last written message to me on the subject, from 2-18-16, was:  "The Golden Rule is the key...- you're right."

So I leave you with an exhortation to become braver than you've ever been.  I know it is difficult to approach people on a subject that they would rather ignore, because it moves them out of their comfort zone.  They don't necessarily want to "see" the abominable cruelty and slaughter that underlies their learned dietary choices.  I get that too.

But we HAVE to make them uncomfortable.  We HAVE to A.S.K. (again, this is an acronym for Ask -- Seek -- Knock from the Bible) to change.  Perhaps we have to implore them to understand that that is what their God wants, if only He were to come down to earth to try to recreate (or should I say save?) His Creation.

A final fact:  People, for the most part, didn't want to hear what Martin Luther King, Jr. had to say.  But he knew he HAD to say it.  And as he began to speak, and to A.S.K., he began to get his civil rights message into the minds and hearts of at first a few, and then enough of the population to effect the necessary change.  He got to the "adoption diffusion curve" tipping point.

And the nation tipped. And civil rights became a matter of law.  And those rights were based on what was morally and ethically "right."  I think the analogy can be made between civil rights and animal rights; between social justice and individual justice (all animals are individuals, just as we human animals are).

And so it can go for the basic rights of all the "other" sentient animals -- if the billions upon billions of religious and spiritual people lead the way.

Isn't taking that message out to those billions of people, in the final analysis, simply a matter of our showing the courage of our convictions -- and being proud enough of those convictions to INSIST that they be heard and acted upon? 

Yes, I say.  I ask that you say the same.  We MUST follow in MLK, Jr.'s footsteps -- and Gandhi's, and others who have helped create a path for us to follow; THE path toward the moral and ethical lifestyle that veganism stands for.

Please let me know if you will say "Yes."

Craig

Go on to comments: By Chris - 19 Mar 2016
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