Letter from Hannah About Religion and Vegetarianism - 24 Jan 2010
Letters From All-Creatures.org and The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation

Letter from Hannah About Religion and Vegetarianism - 24 Jan 2010

I'm a Christian and have been raised in church. AND, I've been a vegetarian for almost a year now... I've always loved animals, and plan on working with the SPCA as soon as I can. It drives me crazy that people can abuse animals like that!

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I agree with pretty much everything that you're saying. My parents freaked out when I told them I was becoming a vegetarian. It's hard to get your point across. Some of my friends still tease me about it. The main reason I became a vegetarian is because of the cruelty in the way the animals are raised and in the slaughterhouse.

I don't believe that you need to eat animals to be healthy, however, I don't think that God doesn't want us to. He did give us permission to eat them (remember the vision Peter had?). For me, eating a chicken or cow is just like eating a cat or dog, I don't see a difference, the idea makes me sick, but unfortunately, not everyone feels that way. I wish more people would become vegetarians, but a lot of people refuse. I have an uncle who has a farm. He has goats, chickens, ducks, geese, and other animals. While I don't understand how he can raise them and then kill them, the animals are VERY well taken care of. They live a good life, and are killed in the most humane way possible. I believe that if you absolutely INSIST on eating meat, you should raise the animals yourself. That way, you can ensure they have a good life, and that they're not sick or anything before you eat them.

And you never know, if someone raises the animals themselves, maybe they'll get attached and end up NOT eating them! (LOL) I don't believe God has a problem with eating meat, but I also don't think he approves of the way the animals are being treated. There is NO excuse for it, it's sick! There's obviously something wrong with someone who enjoys inflicting pain on animals, when they have no compassion. What's to stop them from being abusive to fellow humans as well? But, I don't think we should hate them. They don't know any better, they were raised to be calloused to the suffering of animals, to them it's like us stepping on a bug. Nothing wrong with it. But when they intentionally torture the animals and cause more pain just for fun? That's disgusting.

Hate the sin, love the sinner, it's hard, but hating them isn't gonna get us anywhere. Anyways, thanks for stepping up and sharing this information, I'm sure you've changed a lot of lives through this website and saved tons of animals!

Keep up the good work :)

Hannah

Reply from Frank and Mary Hoffman

Dear Hanna:

Thank you for your letter.

We totally agree with your feelings about the hardness of heart of so many people when it comes to causing animals to suffer, and for your dietary decision not to be a part of it.

We don't believe that eating flesh is ok with God. We believe that His creation and heavenly intent is that there would be no killing of any kind and that no animals would be eaten.

In the Love of the Lord,

Frank and Mary

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