Lions & Lambs

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/united-nations-draft-biodiversity-framework_n_5e1c8ecbc5b6da971d19f17d Amongst the worst crimes of mankind is our assault on nature. We have decimated thousands of species, driving many of them to extinction. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-the-sixth-mass-extinction-can-be-stopped/ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01448-4 https://ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment The most fundamental cause of this carnage is the meat industry. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/08/meat-eaters-may-speed-worldwide-species-extinction-study-warns Just as Christians should be at the forefront of those calling for peace, Christians should also be at the forefront of those advocating for a vegan diet. Vegetarianism has a long history within Christianity. For millennia many Christians have embraced vegetarianism. For example:

• And so, though they were Jews who kept all the Jewish observances, they would not offer sacrifice or eat meat; in their eyes it was unlawful to eat meat or make sacrifices with it. –The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis Part 18 1:4

• And the things which are well-pleasing to God are these: to pray to Him, to ask from Him, recognising that He is the giver of all things, and gives with discriminating law; to abstain from the table of devils, not to taste dead flesh, not to touch blood; to be washed from all pollution; and the rest in one word,—as the God-fearing Jews have heard, do you also hear, and be of one mind in many bodies; let each man be minded to do to his neighbour those good things he wishes for himself. –The Clementine Homilies Homily 7 Chapter 4 • He [The Apostle James the Less] was holy from his mother's womb; and he drank no wine nor strong drink, nor did he eat flesh. – Church History Book II by Eusebius • At the beginning of the human race we neither ate flesh, nor gave bills of divorce, nor suffered circumcision for a sign. Thus we reached the deluge. But after the deluge, together with the giving of the law which no one could fulfil, flesh was given for food, and divorce was allowed to hard-hearted men, and the knife of circumcision was applied, as though the hand of God had fashioned us with something superfluous. But once Christ has come in the end of time, and Omega passed into Alpha and turned the end into the beginning, we are no longer allowed divorce, nor are we circumcised, nor do we eat flesh, for the Apostle says “It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine.” For wine as well as flesh was consecrated after the deluge. – Against Jovinianus (Book I) by St. Jerome • Holy obedience confounds all bodily and fleshly desires and keeps the body mortified to the obedience of the spirit and to the obedience of one's brother and makes a man subject to all the men of this world and not to men alone, but also to all beasts and wild animals, so that they may do with him whatsoever they will, in so far as it may be granted to them from above by the Lord. – Salutation of the Virtues by St. Francis

• Catholic Monks have for centuries abstained from meat. Animals are feeling creatures and our fellow creatures. We should treat them with kindness. There are other reasons to go vegan. Industrial agriculture causes immense cruelty. A vegan diet is healthier without all the cholesterol and saturated fats that lead to cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. A vegan diet is better than any medical treatment to improve our health. Meat production contributes to climate change. Regarding politics, our first goal should be to end subsidies for unhealthy food. Conservatives and Liberals can both support such a goal. However, we don’t have to wait for politicians to act. Eating vegan is something any of us can do immediately.