Letter From Roland About Bible Verses and Eating Animals - 19 Feb 2009
Letters From All-Creatures.org and The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation

Letter From Roland About Bible Verses and Eating Animals - 19 Feb 2009

Dear Frank and Mary,

My family (parents and brother and now wife and kids) are all vegetarians, as am I. We are also Christians who share your frustration with the Church in its lack of consideration of the issues of animal welfare. We became vegetarians some 26 years ago for these very reasons.

I grew away from the Church, partly due to this issue that I could not ignore. I could not celebrate with and be in harmony with people who for whatever ever reason chose to practice such willful blindness.

A couple of years ago one of my daughters befriended the daughter of a local Baptist Minister. I am Anglican and grew up in the Catholic school system. The Minister's wife enquired one day as to my non attendance at church when she knew that I am Christian. I explained my concerns to her and to my surprise she offered to consider and try vegetarianism if I was willing to give church another chance. So I agreed.

Well, the Minister's wife is now a vegetarian and whilst the Minister is not strictly vegetarian, he is not against vegetarianism and appears quite open to it, at least from a personal health perspective. The Minister's wife however has now been a vegetarian for a couple of years and has seemingly had a total change of heart after she considered the issues I raised. I feel many Christians would make the same decision if they too were presented with the information that willful blindness hides so very well.

I have not had a chance to look through your web site and links thoroughly as yet, but can you direct me to any links in relation to biblical text or interpretations that would support a Christian vegetarian ethic please? I am aware of Genesis 1:29 where God creates all kinds of fruit and seed bearing plants for our food. Nowhere in Genesis do I recall God indicating that he created animals for our food. I am also aware of the relevance of the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" which the Anglican church has changed to "Thou shalt do no murder". I'm not sure why this change was made, but obviously the killing of animals is not generally referred to as murder and I wonder whether this is not the motivation for the change in translation.

Thank you for efforts and ministry through your site, God bless.

Kind regards, Roland

Reply from Frank and Mary Hoffman

Dear Roland:

Thank you very much for telling us your story, and for your kind and encouraging comments.

We have not found that trading Bible verses is as profitable as the compassion argument against the indifference to the suffering inflicted upon animals. However, we do discuss several passages in our Bible section. Please take a look and let us know if we can be of further help.

We look forward to hearing from you again.

In the Love of the Lord,

Frank and Mary

Please visit our web site, and refer your family, friends, and others ——

If we REALLY want God to bless America and the earth, GO VEGAN!

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