You will see from the title that I’ve chosen a cheery
subject to tackle for this article. I was going to say ‘get my teeth into’
but you’ll soon see that such a phrase would have been in very poor taste
(sic) so I’ll leave the jokes till later after we’ve chewed on the subject
matter for a while.
Some vegetarians are so full of evangelical zeal for their cause that
it puts we slothful Christians to shame. They think it is not enough to
just stop eating meat but that they should persuade the rest of us to do
the same. Their campaigning for this belief can be remarkably direct and
thought-provoking. I particularly recall the stickers they put about the
place which boldly proclaim:
"Eating Meat is Murder!"
Food for thought, If you’ll excuse me for saying so (that was the joke by the way). There I am digging my knife in another big juicy steak without a care in the world and reflecting on how wonderful life can be, when just then the poor animal’s spirit is reporting my name and those of my dinner companions to the ruminantocide department in the Heavenlies. Just think where it leaves the butcher, and as for the poor chap down at the abattoir, is there enough sulphur in hell to repay him his evils? Time to reach for the Bible.
The sixth of the Ten Commandments (was God into the decimal system even back then?) give on Mt. Sinai is, “You shall not murder”, rather than the ubiquitously misquoted, “You shall not kill”. In the Bible the word murder means the taking of human life. That is the dictionary definition of murder too, and murder is wrong specifically because mankind is made in the image of God -
Then God said, “Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Genesis 1:26
This verse is interesting in another way because it mentions livestock as a separate category of life-form. It implies that God gave ruminants, sheep, poultry and so on especially to be a source of food for humans. This is not particularly unusual in nature as most creatures kill others who are their natural prey: many have been given other living beings as food. We kill animals for food, clothing and sometimes for self protection and no moral guilt should be attached to the process. It is not murder. And it is murder and not killing which is forbidden in the commandments.
Before I am accosted in church next week by several
indignant vegetarians with hackles duly raised let me add hastily that
the verse from Genesis has further implications. Mankind is commanded by
the living God to ‘rule over’ the natural order, although I often think
that should read natural disorder. God has given us the ability
of discernment and choice, and we can perceive quite clearly that there
is a humane and an inhumane way to treat the animals in our charge.
Indeed, we must discharge our responsibility with
the greatest of compassion and care. I have sympathy with those who wish
to act as the conscience of the world by registering their strong disapproval
of our existing standards of husbandry. There is always room for improvement.
As for blood sports, where no use is made of the carcass and no benefit
derives to surviving flora and fauna in the environment, we must surely
say there is an abuse of mankind’s responsibility. The stand of concerned
vegetarians and animal rights protesters taken by some is to be admired
but let’s not get carried away with spurious moral arguments.
Killing livestock is not murder. Pass the ketchup
please….for the veggie burger you understand!