The question of ethics and Christian beliefs

Note: This particular Blog posting contains many blatant Biblical points and is written for a Christian leaning audience on a subject with a Christian theme. If that isn't your cup of tea, this post is not for you:

On goes the psychological struggle about homesteading, the family eating humanely raised and butchered livestock and me being the hard-core vegetarian I am. I understand the hesitance, the desire to accept the status quo because it is easier to stay distanced from our food, detached. It is not Right, but it is EASY.

The question isn't whether I will or will not eat livestock that might be raised here in the future and slaughtered in a humane manner because I will not. I am a vegetarian and that is what suits me. The struggle is about how proceed with a husband and sons choosing to eat meat. I know the right thing, but it is a hard thing to accept and move past, to overcome emotionally.

Let me give some background on my own vegetarianism. I am not inclined to go into the long and drawn out version, but basically, if you have even a elementary understanding of the Bible, you already know that in Genesis 1:31, the world God set forth was very good. That is powerful coming from the Lord, that something was, here in the natural world and very good. The Amplified takes it further and reads, "he approved it completely." It is almost unheard of that we encounter God so very pleased with anything on earth, but he was thus concerning the garden and how he set up the workings of it.


So, on the Earth, in the beginning, there was no slaughtering and eating of animals, and God assigned a clear vegetarian diet in Genesis 1:30. The following passage affirms the creation and workings to be "very good." This was a world without sin. One might say something akin to perfection on Earth, but following the Fall of Man and the Flood, everything changed. After sin entered and man became aware of evil and essentially began to glory in it, the flood was sent.


Following the flood, God tells Noah and his family that he now gives man all things for meat. In Genesis 9:3, the Bible reads, "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green vegetables and plants, I give you everything," and so we see, eating meat became acceptable - what I consider God' permissive, not his perfect, will. This was only after sin ran rampant and the "perfection" found in the Garden, or God' ideal world, has passed.


I believe and know that eating meat is not sinful or wrong. I believe God allows it. I know he has made his perfect desires known in the way he set up his world in the beginning, and we have failed in so many ways, he has given us options, and that is his merciful and kind nature. Food, least of all, is another way he has made an allowance for his people. However, he has never given permission to be cruel or act as anything less than compassionate caretakers toward the earth and the animals within.


There are scriptures in Romans dealing with Jews seeking to follow Christ and eating meat, but this has nothing, essentially, to do with vegetarians seeking to following God's original diet, to some degree, ordained in the garden. Context applies, and vegetarianism, such as I practice, as a gentile, if you will, related very little here in this scripture, if at all.


Of course, my original vegetarianism came from a simple desire to not eat animals 14 years ago. I spent some time as a vegan as well. I did not research it more back then as a child, and all I knew was the Bible did say, reading from the Amplified Bible:

Proverbs 12:10

"A [consistently] righteous man regards the life of his beast [...]"

That was enough for me, and that scripture beckons me now to look for a way to regard the lives on the animals that feed my husband and children, if that is the way they choose to eat, and it is, at this time.

How can Christians disregard such a scripture? How can someone claim to have regard the life of an animal and claim to be righteous and support commercially slaughtered or raised meat? I like the Amplified's use of consistently ("A [consistently] righteous man regards the life of his beast [...]"), meaning over and over, which makes me think of those who eat, day in and day out of cruelly raised and butchered livestock - their lack of consistent righteousness in this area, that is.

We know God is concerned enough for the well being of animals that he actually has laws concerning their care, such as we find in Deuteronomy, "You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain." Of course, later, Paul expounds on this in 1 Corinthians, but it should not be misunderstood to discredit the fact God had concern for the well being of the animals he created.

Luke 12:6 tells us God even feels for the seemingly inconsequential sparrow, "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies ? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God."

Many people find nothing wrong with eating animals kept in disease ridden feed lots, fed unnatural feeds, kept away from their natural forage (grass) and apart from anything found in a natural life or any kindness. Many such people do not find this to be sin or find anything wrong with it at all. Those people will eat animals who are processed while still alive, animals too weak to walk that are shoved with machinery into areas to have their throats slit and left alive to die a painful and slow death in beyond contaminated conditions, terrified and devoid of having known any affection in their whole lives, then turn, be appalled, criticize or even attack people who suggest raising and caring for their own livestock, as we have suggested doing and others I know are doing. That is to raise these animals in a natural way with proper nurturing and in a far more normal setting and with the livestock being butchered on their own farm in a quick, painless a manner as possible.

You cannot partake of something that is clearly in defiance to the Bible, as a Christian, as long as you do not do it with your own hands and then condemn those who demand a more kind, human and safe way of life because it makes you uncomfortable.

Simply put, It is not easy to always decide to do the right thing. If the right thing were easy to do, the Bible would not need to read in Matthew 7:14 "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." In this case, the right/moral thing isn't the easiest or most fun. It is simply the Right thing.


I am sure, for me, the road will be one fraught with sadness and agonizing moments, truth be told. But regardless, it is, I know, the correct one.

For those who cannot raise their own beef, chicken, pork, milk, eggs, cheese and so forth:

Visit EAT WILD

http://eatwild.com/
To find humanely raised meat and naturally raised vegetables

in your eat. Any farmer listed must meet strict criteria to be listed there.
To find real milk and dairy products:

http://www.realmilk.com/where2.html
And to gain access to real milk in state where citizens are denied a right to choose their own foods, sign my real milk petition:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/legalize-raw-milk
Share these links on facebook and twitter, if you can.