Christian Vegetarian Association Blog - Monday, September 28, 2009


	CVA BLOG

CVA Blog
Monday, September 28, 2009

Stewardship and Mercy Toward God’s Animals: Our Sacred Role

1. Male Chicks Ground Up Alive
2. Famous Quote – Voltaire
3. “Pain-Free” Animals
4. Bible verse – Romans 5:3-4
5. Ethical Eating Debate
6. This Week’s Video

1. Male Chicks Ground Up Alive

Mercy for Animals (MFA) released an undercover video showing unwanted chicks being tossed alive into a grinder at an Iowa plant. Tossing male chicks, which have little value because they can't lay eggs or be raised quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat, into grinders is common industry practice. About 200 million male chicks are thought to be discarded every year in the US. To read the full article and watch the video please search online for Male chicks ground alive, caught on video

How appalling that the egg industry treats God's animals with such cruelty! People who keep purchasing eggs or products that contain them are saying "keep doing it, we support it". Unless we show compassion to all creatures we are not following Jesus' path of love and mercy.

2. Famous Quote

“People must have renounced, it seems to me, all natural intelligence to dare to advance that animals are but animated machines.... It appears to me, besides, that [such people] can never have observed with attention the character of animals, not to have distinguished among them the different voices of need, of suffering, of joy, of pain, of love, of anger, and of all their affections. It would be very strange that they should express so well what they could not feel.“
~Voltaire (1694 - 1778), French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher.

3. “Pain-Free” Animals

Given that factory farming causes unimaginable pain to animals, Adam Shriver, a philosopher at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, contends that genetically engineered pain-free animals are the most acceptable alternative for those who want to continue eating meat. Progress in neuroscience and genetics in recent years makes this a possibility and there is already research in that area taking place. To read the full article please search online for Pain-free animals could take suffering out of farming

Although one day we might be able to raise "pain-free" animals, the fact that they are being manipulated just to fit our desire for profit and taste, makes factory farming unethical and dishonoring to God. Moreover, God's farmed animals are capable of feeling fear and joy, and they desire to exercise their God-given instincts, which they cannot do in factory farms. The most God-honoring behavior would be to treat them with mercy and compassion; and therefore, do our best to avoid exploiting them.

4. Bible Verse

(RSV) Romans 5:3-4
"We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."

We live in a world where suffering is inevitable. However, suffering can help us grow in our Faith, knowing that God has a perfect plan for all of Creation.

5. Ethical Eating Debate

Read about the great debate organized by the Harvard College Vegetarian Society between Wesley N. Hopkin ’11, a social studies concentrator and member of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society, and Bruce G. Friedrich, vice president of policy and government affairs for PETA. Throughout the debate Friedrich’s ethical reasoning opposing the eating of animals transpired loud and clear. Please search online for PETA debate: On Tolstoy and Bonzai trees

6. This Week’s Video

Enjoy watching one of God’s animals, a cow, playing with a ball in the same way a dog would. Please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQvukhDinII and share it with friends and family. Maybe it will get them thinking….

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