29 December 2010 Issue - Christian Vegetarian Association Update Newsletters


	Update Newsletters

Update Newsletters
29 December 2010 Issue

1. Upcoming Activist Opportunities

2. Essay: Are We Crazy to Care about Animals?

3. Comment from a CVA Member

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

1. Upcoming Activist Opportunities

1/7 TN Chattanooga Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/8 WV Charleston Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/9 NC Charlotte Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/14 FL Jacksonville Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/15 FL Tampa Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/16 GA Atlanta Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/21 IA Des Moines Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/22 IL Dekalb Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/23 IN Ft. Wayne Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/28 PA University Park Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/29 OH Columbus Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

1/30/11 OH Cleveland Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

2/3/11 MS Tupelo Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

2/14/11 KY Louisville Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

2/5 NC Greensboro Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

2/10 GA Augusta Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

2/11 SC Greenville Winter Jam 2011 Tour Spectacular

7/5-8 OH Cincinnati TABLE Church Turning the World Upside

Contact Paris at christian_vegetarian@yahoo.com if you can 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. Essay: Are We Crazy to Care about Animals?

I don’t think I’m at all alone in wondering from time to time whether perhaps I’m at least a little crazy when it comes to animal issues. Nearly everyone I meet, who generally come across as quite kind and decent, seem to have a fundamentally different view about whether we have the right to harm nonhuman beings. An episode last spring in Ohio reinforced in mind that I’m on the right track.

At Conklin Dairy Farms, an undercover investigator for the group Mercy for Animals videotaped farmers sadistically abusing animals, including viciously punching calves in the head, hitting cows with an iron rod, and twisting cows’ tails. Segments of the video were shown by the television networks, and Ohioans in general were outraged. This tells me that, indeed, society at large does recognize that abusing animals is terribly wrong. Where I differ from most people is that I also oppose institutionalized animal abuse. It certainly appears that people strongly object to animal abuse only when the abuse is designed to satisfy someone else’s desires. When the animals are abused for the benefit of people in general, those people don’t find it nearly as objectionable.

Christianity, as well as nearly all religions and secular belief systems, teach compassion, caring, humility, and self-sacrifice. To promote and sponsor brutality violates core Christian values. Anyone can call themselves a “Christian,” but to be Christian means taking Jesus’ message seriously. Endorsement and contribution to animal abuse is fundamentally anti-Christian.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.

[I prepared some essays on the nature of the soul. The essays address fundamental philosophical and theological questions relating to language and dualistic versus nondualistic thinking. Reviewers found the essays quite dry and academic and perhaps not quite right for the weekly e-newsletter. People who would like to see the essays should contact me at cva@christianveg.org.]

3. Comment from a CVA Member

Many thanks for your thought-provoking articles. I really enjoy them. After reading this latest essay, I got to thinking - and I would like to share that I also believe that 'proof'' that God cares about non-human animals can be found in the love of them that he imbues in people like us - I, like many people, feel I was just born with a enormous love and capacity for caring for animals. It's part of who I am, and it's God's way of showing his love for animals, by making me this way. I am reminded of the words of Lydia Christenson Prince, when talking about her work in Jerusalem taking in homeless children:

"I thought that I loved the children and that's why I should take them. Later I came to see that it's the Lord that loves the children, and that's why he gives me the love for them"

Substitute the word "animals' for "children" and I think we can also apply it to God's feeling about his non-human creation.

Best wishes
Tess

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

Daniel, God’s Man in the Field (Part XIX)
http://www.all-creatures.org/sermons97/s19nov89.html .

Your question and comments are welcome

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

Since