How to Encourage
Christians to Become Vegan
No matter what your religious orientation is, or if you are agnostic or
atheist as vegan activists we need to challenge the Christian community
about how they treat animals. About 86% of Americans consider themselves
Christians. Many Christians have been taught by their religious leaders
to think God created animals for our use, but there is a growing number
of Christians who believe the Bible's core message is love, peace and compassion
for all of God's creatures. There is hope that other Christians can be persuaded
to adopt veganism as part of their lifestyle.
You do not have to be a Christian to do this and it is so easy and effective!
A group of Minnesota animal activists with many different believe systems
concerning religion, but one main goal of animal liberation have been church
leafleting. We have been distributing the powerful and persuasive booklet
"Honor God's Creation" produce by the Christian
Vegetarian Association. At Catholic churches we distribute "Christianity
and Vegetarianism" written by a well-known priest and peace activist
available PETA Jesus Veg. We also
stick "Why Vegan" booklets in the middle of the Christian booklets
(available at Vegan Outreach).
With our big, friendly, veggie smiles most of the people have been willing
to take literature from us. So far MN activists have leafleted to16
churches and 21 christian events
and have distributed about 25,050 booklets.
Think about how many more people we could reach about Veganism if we could
encourage more activists to engage in this type of out-reach!
To find the next Christian concert in your area to leaflet, visit Christian Concert Authority.com.
The MN leafleters at Christian churches and events!
When I do tabling and displays events about Veganism, I always have information
about Christianity and vegetarianism available and this information quickly
leaves the table. Again, you do not need to believe in Christianity, but
realize as an activist how important this material is to help encourage
Christians to become vegan.
When I am challenged about Christianity and vegetarianism. I respond by
saying:
I do not share your interpretation of the Bible. I believes God's will for
us is to be Vegan. The bible depicts a peaceful world at creation and at
the end of time. God found everything in Eden 'very good,' and gave all
animals and humans a vegetarian world(Genesis 1:29-30). Several prophesies
such as Isaiah 11:6-9, foresee a return to this vegetarian world where the
wolf, lamb, lion, cow, snake and little child co-exist peacefully."
Christian Vegetarians believe we should strive towards the peaceable kingdom
Isaiah envisioned. Christian vegetarians believe we should try to follow
Christ's mission, expressed in the Lord's prayer. Thy kingdom come. Thy
will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
When I am being accused of picking and choosing biblical verses; my response
is, because the Bible is open to such a wide range of interpretation, all
Christians pick and choose certain biblical verses that support their believe
system. The God I pray to is about love, peace, and compassion for all creation.
In the past people used the Bible to justify slavery, segregation, and the
oppression of women. We now understand this was a misuse of the Bible and
its true intent. The same is true for eating meat.
If you do have religious intolerants please put them aside for the animals'
sake and take the opportunity to share with Christians; how extending compassion
to the animals and the earth is part of their religion and by doing so---you
bring love, peace, and compassion back to humanity. Remember: What to we
want? Animal Liberation Now!!!
Disclaimer: (At different points of my life I have considered myself a Christian, until I started studying Christian history and could no longer find it to be the truth. I'm now agnostic. The greatest mystery on this planet is that there is not one living person who knows what happens to us after we die and this is the truth!) The Skeptic's Annotated Bible