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Update Newsletters
3 November 2010 Issue

1. Activist Outreach

2. Praise for Good News for All Creation

3. Essay: Thoughts about the Golden Rule

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

1. Activist Outreach

Case writes: I distributed CVA booklets at Texas Christian University along with some Vegan Outreach literature this past week. 

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. Praise for Good News for All Creation

Emily writes: Good News for All Creation was the best book I have ever read. I read it two years ago and have been a vegetarian ever since. I passed the book on to my sister a few days ago and we just got off the phone and she told me that she loves the book and has also decided to go vegetarian. I love your books (I have asked for the others for Christmas). I have looked for years to find one that compares....I always come up short. Thank you!!!

[This book and others are available at www.christianveg.org/materials.htm .]

3. Essay: Thoughts about the Golden Rule

Last week I suggested that the Golden Rule is a nearly universal ethic. Christianity’s expression can be found in Matthew “whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them” (7:12). For example, we see in Islam, “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” Such expressions of the Golden Rule are helpful, but they have the drawback that our desires vary and what we might want might differ from what our brother or sister might want.

I am fond of the formulation by the Jewish rabbinic scholar Hillel, who said in the 1st Century BCE, “That which is hateful to you, do not unto another: This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary.” We are very similar in what we don’t want – nearly everyone wishes to avoid pain and other forms of suffering. If we use this principle as a guide, we will seldom err.

Should we regard animals among the “others” for whom the Golden Rule applies? I think so, because animals share with humans the core desires to avoid pain and suffering. Those who would disregard animals from consideration must produce a morally relevant reason to do so. Otherwise, their position would be arbitrary and, most likely, based on unsupportable prejudices.

We don’t regard intelligence, capacity for moral action, or other mental skills as morally relevant when determining whether humans should be considered “others” for whom the Golden Rule demands equal regard, so these criteria should not apply to nonhumans either. Many Christians defend harmful exploitation of animals on biblical grounds, but the CVA has addressed these claims and found them wanting. (See, for example, our booklet Would Jesus Eat Meat Today? www.christianveg.org/honoring.htm .) It seems inconceivable that the Prince of Peace would regard the violence of contemporary animal agriculture, characterized by extremes of abuse, and call it good. Indeed, we should question the validity of any religion that endorses the abuse of innocent individuals in order to satisfy nonessential desires of those with power. Such a self-serving ethic appears to have its origins in human desires, and not divine ones.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.

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

Daniel, God’s Man in the Field (Part XV)
http://www.all-creatures.org/sermons97/s15oct89.html .

Your question and comments are welcome

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