I’m not against eating meat, I oppose the cruel treatment of animals
Question:
I have read your article on Animal Rights and the Bible and it was enlightening. I am a Vegan and animal rights activist. I am not against people eating meat, I wish they wouldn't, but that is their choice. What I and all activists are opposed to here is the cruel and inhumane treatment of "God's Creatures". Where does it say that this is OK in the Bible? Those were different times when people lived more in harmony with the animals and the land. Today the land is raped and the animals exploited to satisfy man's ever-increasing greed and hunger. Where's the harmony? Look what man has done with his "dominion". His ego and lack of compassion have led him to a place where he is destroying the planet and eventually himself. We have strayed far off the path and if we don't have compassion for animals, then how can we have compassion for anything else? Are there people out there doing the right thing? Of course. Animal Activists are like evangelists, passionate, and uncompromising. They are spreading a message, a compassionate one. There is no room on the fence for indecision for them. Just like any Christian, you must hold strong to your beliefs, even in the face of adversity. Personally, I think Christ would understand. According to the Bible, it is not immoral to eat meat. OK, but what about inhumane cruelty? It exists, sadly everywhere.
Answer:
Your words sound nice, though your stance is extreme; but the fact has always been that to animal rights activists there is no way to kill an animal for food that is not considered cruel and exploitive. Thus your goal of forcing people to be vegetarians is met while simultaneously claiming that you aren't against others eating meat. The stance is hypocritical.
Each argument you made is based on emotion and a standard that is your own. "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts" (Proverbs 21:2). People rarely see the errors in their own opinions and stances but that is because each person is biased. You claim that Jesus would accept your stance, but you offer no evidence that Jesus ever supported your stance. Your opinion is worthless in determining what is morally right or wrong.
You have it correct. According to God Almighty, who owns all animals and all humankind (Psalms 50:10; Exodus 18:4), stated that man may eat animal flesh. "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs" (Genesis 9:3). Therefore it is right and proper for men to kill animals for food. And such you find specifically allowed. "However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike" (Deuteronomy 15:23). And in the New Testament, Peter was shown a sheet filled with animals and he was told, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat" (Acts 10:13). Even Jesus used stories about the butchering of animals as a part of the illustration, "And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry" (Luke 15:23).
No, you are not an evangelist. The word "evangelist" means a bringer of good news. You spread doom and gloom based on imagined terrors and are focused on this world, never seeing the world to come. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (II Timothy 2:17).
