I grew up in Texas, where the steaks are big and the belt buckles are bigger. But recently, I’ve been convicted about my eating habits in ways I never imagined — or wanted. The reason is not that animals have an inalienable right to life — although, before God, neither do humans. Rather, my thinking about eating habits began to be shifted by a few interesting Bible passages.
For instance, in the idyllic Garden of Genesis 1, just after delegating the first humans to subdue and have dominion over the earth, including all the animals, God said to them, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.”
The animals, too, were given every green plant for food. It was this state that God pronounced “very good.” God did not give the beasts, birds, and fish for man to eat until after the flood in Genesis 9. Even then, comparing this passage with Genesis 1:28-30 makes obvious that Genesis 9 is God’s accommodating will rather than his ideal will.
In the future state of shalom — the time when God will reign on the earth — envisioned by Isaiah and other Old Testament writers and inaugurated by Jesus, it seems creatures will return to doing each other no harm and only eat vegetarian. We as the Church are what New Testament authors refer to as the “firstfruits,” which means we are called to display in the present what the entire world will be in the future.
What about the vision Peter received from God in Acts 10 in which Peter was shown various animals and told to “kill and eat?” The point of the vision is not a command from God to eat meat, but rather that dietary laws should not prevent the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles. It seems from verse 28 this is what Peter garnered from it.
But what about Jesus? After his resurrection in Luke 24, his disciples “gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.” And in Romans 14:2-3, Paul instructs vegetarians and omnivores not to pass judgement upon one another. Granted, God seems to allow the consumption of meat in this present age. But just because it is permissible does not mean it is profitable or edifying. Why might it be unprofitable or unedifying to eat meat?
The key is the fact that more than 95 percent of all American meat comes from industrial factory farms where thousands of animals are grown like crops for meat production, according to Victoria Moran in her book “Compassion the Ultimate Ethic.” The conditions in which these animals live are undeniably violent and cruel. For instance, broiler chickens — which make up nearly 8.5 billion of the 10 billion animals raised for food each year, according to Moran — are genetically engineered to grow extremely large in the breast. As a result they often cannot support their unnatural weight and proportions. Their legs remain malformed or break, and many die early deaths from heart or lung failure. For cows and pigs, when the stun gun is not effective in knocking the animal unconscious, the animal’s throat will be slit and it may be dismembered while still alive.
These are some of the worst things that go on in the factory farms, granted, and the usual abuse of the animals is limited to living in cramped quarters and being given unnatural food and supplements. This is not a natural evil; this is something humans do.
As Solomon writes in Proverbs 21:10, “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” Surely, to partake in meat products is in some sense to partake in the cruelty of the animal factory farms. Therefore, as a mark of the Christian calling to live mercifully, I feel it is best for Christians to abstain from meat. As a spiritual discipline as well as an encouragement toward godly care for animals and creation, believers ought to move toward a more plant-based diet.
