Christian Vegetarian Association
Blog
Discussions
Update Newsletters
Take Heart!
Take Heart Contents
| Animal Issues | Articles | Bible | Children | Devotionals | Environment | Food | Health | Opinion | Quotations | Recipes |

Update Newsletters
3 March 2010 Issue

1. Activist Feedback
2. The March Peaceable Table Is Now Online
3. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman
4. Commentary: Answer to a Question on Scapegoating

1. Activist Feedback

Trish, who leafleted at Third Day Winter Jam in Nashville, TN on Feb. 21 writes: My daughter and I got at the head of the crowd waiting to go in the Sommet Center, and we proceeded to give out leaflets. Most people were too interested in getting in the door as they had been waiting for a long time. In about 90 minutes we handed out 720 Christian Veg leaflets. We tried different techniques, but found that saying "Would you like a brochure?" yielded the best results. After the crowd went in, people were trickling in and it was easier to talk to them. A less-than-positive comment I have is that I was actually ASHAMED of the witness some "Christians" gave by throwing trash and cigarette butts on the ground all around the entrances. We had a chance to chat with the security people who were very lenient about our leafleting, and were very appreciative that we picked up our leaflets that had been discarded. All in all it was a positive experience, my daughter's first time leafleting. The teens were more receptive to her as she is a teen herself.

For God's Purpose,
Trish

Upcoming Activist Opportunities    

Contact Paris at christian_vegetarian@yahoo.com  if you can to help. To find out about all upcoming leafleting and tabling opportunities in your area, join the CVA Calendar Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christian_vegetarian/  

2. The March Peaceable Table Is Now Online

Contents include:

* If you have sometimes wanted to know more about the Quaker Animal Kinship Committee which sponsors the Peaceable Table, this month's Editorial, which is our present Position Statement, will help. It is headed by a banner showing our logo, a perky goat peering through a Q.

* Concern about overuse of antibiotics in factory farms has gone mainstream, according to one of the NewsNotes.

* One of the Reviews features actor Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet. In a light, sometimes amusing style, she encourages readers to face sober truths and to learn about the good they can do for their health, for animals, and for the planet by eating both compassionately and well.

* The Recipe section includes one for a savory miso soup that will warm and refresh you on a cold March day.

* The Pioneer, Leonie Van Gelder, is a fourth-generation vegetarian whose diet caused her some childhood problems. In retrospect, these situations are rather amusing.

As you read, do you have any comments that you would like to share? We welcome letters.

You can read this issue online at http://www.vegetarianfriends.net/issue63.html

Toward the Peaceable Kingdom,
Gracia Fay Ellwood
Editor

3. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman

Our sermon offering for today is:
I Want to See Jesus
http://www.all-creatures.org/sermons97/s11mar90.html 

4. Commentary: Answer to a Question on Scapegoating

One reader asks: It’s not clear to me as to why humans have been scapegoating since the beginning of time, since sooner or later people should discover that scapegoating inspired by a quest for self-esteem doesn’t work. In fact, some could argue that we are in worse shape when realizing the atrocities and the suffering we’ve caused throughout human history. Is this rooted in our genes?

People believe that punishing “evildoers” is both morally justified and socially efficacious, but by definition scapegoating involves inappropriate attribution of guilt onto victim(s). Many people are convinced that their “punishment” (which is actually scapegoating) is appropriate because, in the short term, it works. Initially, people do have their self-esteem elevated by transferring guilt onto victims. Further, collectively blaming victims for communal crises, particularly those that are driving people apart, can generate a sense of camaraderie that brings people together.

This reader is quite right that scapegoating doesn’t work in the long run. As long as people need elevated self-esteem to believe that they are worthy of God’s love, they will need scapegoats to assuage their guilt. Further, as long as people compete with each other in order to gain self-esteem, there will be rivalries that threaten to destroy communities and that can only be resolved by blaming scapegoats for conflicts. Therefore, scapegoating is a temporary “solution” to a chronic human problem. And, as this reader recognized, the tendency to blame and punish victims rather that confront the consequences of human desires tends to sow the seeds of self-destruction. Indeed, animal advocates see this all the time. People tend to denounce us for “caring more about animals than people,” and yet hardness of heart, when it comes to animals, results in harm to humanity, as my previous commentaries have stressed. Similarly, environmentalists, such as Al Gore, have been ridiculed while scientific evidence overwhelmingly points toward a growing environmental crisis.

I think the human tendency to scapegoat is rooted in human nature, which is related to our genetic makeup. However, our faith teaches that we can transcend destructive desires. This was a lesson from the recent Lectionary reading of the Three Temptation stories in Luke 4:1-13. Jesus, as a man, fully experienced human desires, yet Jesus rejected Satan’s temptations and kept his focus on God’s desires, not his own.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.

Your question and comments are welcome

| Home Page | Bibliography | Blog | Books, T-shirts, Etc. | Community | Contact Us | CVA Board | CVA Videos | Essays and Coloring Book | Honoring God's Creation | How to Help | Links | Membership | Mission | Podcast | Take Heart | Vegetarianism's Benefits |

This site is hosted and maintained by
The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation.

Since