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Christian Vegetarianism
and Non-Violence

Comments by Stephen Augustine
24 Oct 2001

Steve [Kaufman],

I think that you misunderstood what I was trying to say.  I am trying to think about violence and the role of Christian Vegetarianism in addressing violence in the world.  All these facets of life which you mention can probably be thought of as forms of violence.  An unhealthy diet - violence to oneself, the destruction of the natural environment - violence to Earth, world hunger - violence to humans, animal suffering - violence to non-humans. You could see Christian Vegetarianism as both a response to violence and the choosing of a peaceful way to live.

There's something to be said for deeply contemplating the violence in which we participate - both knowingly and without knowing.  For many people this can take the form of a spiritual journey as their awareness grows to the scale and forms of violence in the world and their direct or indirect participation in that violence.  The reason I feel that this is an issue is that I personally know people who would not ever hurt or harm any other person but have no problems eating veal even after knowing the suffering inflicted on veal calves.  On the other hand I'm guessing that there are ethical vegetarians who would have no qualms about seeing people die violent deaths.  If I understood Maynard correctly this gets back to his questions about rules and the moral ambiguity regarding how and when we dole out our compassion.

Personally I'm looking for an exploration of Christian ethics and morality which leads to consistency in how we live as compassionate people and which offers Christian Vegetarianism as a building block of this consistency - the "seamless garment" if you will. It would be helpful to have this "seamless garment" to offer to those aforementioned "peace loving" eaters of veal, among many others.

In Christ's Peace, <--- I guess I'm asking what this really means to others

Stephen

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