When the editors of The Green Bible
I also had the honor of contributing to a beautiful new book produced by the Sierra Club, called Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring for Creation
Readers of my books Everything Must Change, The Story We Find Ourselves In
Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net) is a speaker and author, most recently of Everything Must Change and Finding Our Way Again.
Well done, Brian.
Unfortunately, Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention, said this about the Green Bible: "Sure it's important, but when they asked Jesus what was most important, he said, 'Love your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.' He didn't say anything about creation."
As if loving one's neighbor and caring for creation have nothing to do with each other?
That isn't a logical conclusion to draw from what he said.
Environmental activism has been its own worst enemy in many cases. People think that being an environmentalist means sacrificing your livelihood to save some sort of subspecies of owl.
As a result, some people take pride in sticking it to the treehuggers, who are largely regarded as overzealous idiots. In Minnesota, the environmental movement is associated with emissions testing, which was a colossal waste of everyone's time and money.
Most evangelicals are willing to take reasonable steps to improve the environment. Almost nobody (evangelical or otherwise) is willing to sacrifice their job or pay a tax. That's the playing field as it relates to opinion on environmental issues, and I don't think futzing with the font color is going to move the needle any. .
I'm actually not a hockey fan...but the Wild's uniforms are so...pretty. Well, at least they were before they revamped them. They were this beautiful, rich, green jersey with probably the neatest logo of any sport. I almost bought a replica jersey a few years ago. But I don't know what this new uniform is all about! Perhaps too many hockey players decided it wasn't manly enough to wear uniforms that were so pretty. Although, gotta say, the new iterations don't look any tougher. They look like jammies.
Good luck Blue Jackets, and I hope the team has pretty uniforms!
I'm all for pointing out how God has instructed us to care for creation. Please keep it up. But please, please, please do not start using the phrase "Green Letter Christian" to refer to yourself or anyone else. Red Letter Christian is bad enough. Don't perpetuate this trend.
"Reasonable steps to improve the environment" are fine as long as they don't cost anything? I alway thought the "people will lose jobs" argument is a smoke screen. Should we not make illicit drugs illegal because all the dope dealers will lose their jobs? Is it too much to ask that people retrain for jobs that provide more benefit to society?
I remember from Econ 101 that there are costs associated with production that are external, that is the folks who make and consume the products don't pay them. Someone pays for destruction of the environment. It's just a question of who and how: higher prices that include the cost of cleaning up one's own mess, government regulation to force such, superfund style government action, or loss of natural resouces, illness, and death from the loss of clean water, air, and ecosystems.
Hopefully, adding the emphasis to these passages will simply point out to us Bible readers points that we have long overlooked. Sounds like a good way to love God and our neighbors to me.
Peace to all.
How true. For so long, caring for the "environment" has been looked on as an either environment or else jobs and economy issue. Kevin's and Hammerud's comments above seem to be cut from that old paradigm. We're now moving to a "both/and" paradigm, in which we're beginning to recognize that what's good for the environment is also good for the economy.
Unfortunately, too much political rhetoric is still stuck in the old paradigm (suggestion: use of the term "environmental extremist" isn't very helpful). Hopefully that will change soon.
Peace
Wow, all that money spent on getting American evangelicals to become more environmentally conscious, when we could spend that money supporting efforts to reduce poverty.
In all seriousness, though, it is a clever idea. I'm a bit interested in who made the decisions as to which text to make green. I know that with red letters, it's much more clear where Jesus spoke (though translators still have some debate), but it's much more subjective which parts talk about creation. I'm curious to see how it turns out. Maybe I'll get one for when I'm out in the woods :-)
According to the Bible, God intended the entire human race to follow a vegetarian diet (Genesis 1:29). Paradise is vegetarian. Rashi (Rabbi Solomon von Isaac, 1030-1105), the famous Jewish Bible commentator, taught that "God did not permit Adam and his wife to kill a creature and to eat its flesh. Only every green herb shall they all eat together." Ibn Ezra and other Jewish biblical commentators agree.
According to the Talmud, "Adam and many generations that followed him were strict flesh-abstainers; flesh-foods were rejected as repulsive for human consumption." Although man was made in God's image and given dominion over all creation (Genesis 1:26-28), these verses do not justify humans killing animals and devouring them, because God immediately proclaims He created the plants for human consumption. (Genesis 1:29)
In a letter to Pope John Paul II, challenging him on the issue of animal experimentation, Dr. Michael Fox of the Humane Society argued that the word "dominion" is derived from the original Hebrew word "rahe" which refers to compassionate stewardship, instead of power and control. Parents have dominion over their children; they do not have a license to kill, torment or abuse them. The Talmud (Shabbat 119; Sanhedrin 7) interprets "dominion" to mean animals may be used for labor.
Man was made in God's image (Genesis 1:26) and told to be vegetarian (Genesis 1:29). "And God saw all that He had made and saw that it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) Complete and perfect harmony. Everything in the beginning was the way God wanted it. Vegetarianism was part of God's initial plan for the world.
"It appears that the first intention of the Maker was to have men live on a strictly vegetarian diet," writes Rabbi Simon Glazer, in his 1971 Guide to Judaism. "The very earliest periods of Jewish history are marked with humanitarian conduct towards the lower animal kingdom...It is clearly established that the ancient Hebrews knew, and perhaps were the first among men to know, that animals feel and suffer pain."
After the Flood, God revised His commandment against flesh-eating. Human beings, since eating of the forbidden fruit, seemed incapable of obedience on this issue. One Jewish writer comments, "Only after man had proven unfit for the high moral standard given at the beginning, was meat made a part of the humans' diet."
A Jewish legend says Moses was found to be righteous by God through his shepherding. While Moses was tending his sheep of Jethro in the Midian wilderness, a young kid ran away from the flock. Moses ran after it until he found the kid drinking by a pool of water. Moses approached the kid and said, "I did not know that you ran away because you were thirsty; now, you must be tired." So Moses placed the animal on his shoulders and carried him back to the flock. God said, "Because thou has shown mercy in leading the flock, thou will surely tend My flock, Israel."
In their book, The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, Dennis Prager and Rabbi Telushkin explain: "Keeping kosher is Judaism's compromise with its ideal vegetarianism. Ideally, according to Judaism, man would confine his eating to fruits and vegetables and not kill animals for food."
In his excellent A Guide to the Misled, Rabbi Shmuel Golding explains the orthodox Jewish position concerning animal sacrifices: "When G-d gave our ancestors permission to make sacrifices to Him, it was a concession, just as when He allowed us to have a king (I Samuel 8), but He gave us a whole set of rules and regulations concerning sacrifice that, when followed, would be superior to and distinct from the sacrificial system of the heathens."
Some biblical passages denounce animal sacrifice (Isaiah 1:11,15; Amos 5:21-25). Other passages state that animal sacrifices, not necessarily incurring God's wrath, are unnecessary (I Kings 15:22; Jeremiah 7:21-22; Hosea 6:6; Hosea 8:13; Micah 6:6-8; Psalm 50:1-14; Psalm 40:6; Proverbs 21:3; Ecclesiastes 5:1).
Sometimes Christians cite Isaiah 1:11, where God says, "I am full of the burnt offerings..." They say the word "full" implies God accepted the sacrifices. However, in Isaiah 43:23-24, God says: "You have not honored Me with your sacrifices...rather you have burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities." This suggests, as Moses Maimonides taught and Rabbi Shmuel Golding confirms above, that "the sacrifices were a concession to barbarism."
Jesus taught his disciples to pray for the coming of God's kingdom (Matthew 6:9-10), the kingdom of peace, in which the entire world is restored to a vegetarian paradise (Genesis 1:29; Isaiah 11:6-9). Recalling Psalm 37:11, he blessed the meek, saying they would inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5) The kingdom of God belongs to the gentle and kind (Matthew 5:7-9) Christians are to "Be merciful, just as your Father is also merciful." (Luke 6:36) Those who take up the sword must perish by the sword. (Matthew 26:52)
Jesus repeatedly spoke of God's tender care for the nonhuman creation (Matthew 6:26-30, 10:29-31; Luke 12:6-7, 24-28). Jesus taught that God desires "mercy and not sacrifice." (Matthew 9:10-13, 12:6-7; Mark 2:15-17; Luke 5:29-32) The epistle to the Hebrews 10:5-10 suggests that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law and the prophets (which Paul regarded as "so much garbage"), but only the institution of animal sacrifice, as does Jesus' cleansing the Temple of those who were buying and selling animals for sacrifice and his overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple. (Matthew 21:12-14; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46; John 2:14-17)
Jesus not only repeatedly upheld Mosaic Law (Matthew 5:17-19; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 16:17), he justified his healing on the Sabbath by referring to commandments calling for the humane treatment of animals. When teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, Jesus healed a woman who had been ill for eighteen years. He justified his healing work on the Sabbath by referring to biblical passages calling for the humane treatment of animals as well as their rest on the Sabbath. "So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham...be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" Jesus asked. (Luke 13:10-16)On another occasion, Jesus again referred to Torah teaching on "tsa'ar ba'alei chayim" or compassion for animals to justify healing on the Sabbath. "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?" (Luke 14:1-5)
Jesus compared saving sinners who had gone astray from God's kingdom to rescuing lost sheep. He recalled a Jewish legend about Moses' compassion as a shepherd for his flock.
"For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? Who among you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
"And when he has found it," Jesus continued, "he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'
"I say to you, likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance...there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Matthew 18:11-13; Luke 15:3-7,10)
Jesus insisted upon the moral standards given by God in the beginning (Matthew 5:31-32, 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12; Luke 16:18), and this did not go unnoticed by early church fathers such as St. Jerome.
From history, too, we learn that the earliest Christians were vegetarians as well as pacifists. For example, Clemens Prudentius, the first Christian hymn writer, in one of his hymns exhorts his fellow Christians not to pollute their hands and hearts by the slaughter of innocent cows and sheep, and points to the variety of nourishing and pleasant foods obtainable without blood-shedding.
Some of the most distinguished figures in the history of Christianity have been vegetarian. A partial list includes: St. James, St. Matthew, Clemens Prudentius, Origen, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Benedict, Aegidius, Boniface, St. Richard of Wyche, St. Columba, St. Filipo Neri, John Wray, Thomas Tryon, John Wesley, Joshua Evans, William Metcalfe, General William Booth, Ellen White, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, and Reverend V.A. Holmes-Gore.
Reverend Marc Wessels of the International Network for Religion and Animals (INRA) writes:
"The most important teaching which Jesus shared was the need for people to love God with their whole self and to love their neighbor as they loved themselves. Jesus expanded the concept of neighbor to include those who were normally excluded, and it is therefore not too farfetched for us to consider the animals as our neighbors.
"To think about animals as our brothers and sisters is not a new or radical idea. By extending the idea of neighbor, the love of neighbor includes love of, compassion for, and advocacy of animals. There are many historical examples of Christians who thought along those lines, besides the familiar illustration of St. Francis. An abbreviated listing of some of those individuals worthy of study and emulation includes Saint Blaise, Saint Comgall, Saint Cuthbert, Saint Gerasimus, Saint Giles, and Saint Jerome, to name but a few."
According to contemporary Benedictine monk, Brother David Steindl-Rast:
"...the survival of our planet depends on our sense of belonging---to all other humans, to dolphins caught in dragnets, to pigs and chickens and calves raised in animal concentration camps, to redwoods and rainforests, to kelp beds in our oceans, and to the ozone layer."
In a sermon preached in York Minster, September 28, 1986, John Austin Baker, the Bishop of Salisbury, England, attacked the overcrowded confinement methods of raising and killing animals for food ("factory farming"), choosing as his example, the treatment of chickens:
"Is there any credit balance for the battery hen, denied almost all natural functioning, all normal environment, lapsing steadily into deformity and disease, for the whole of her existence?" he asked. "It is in the battery shed and the broiler house, not in the wild, that we find the true parallel to Auschwitz. Auschwitz is a purely human invention."
Rick Dunkerly of Christ Lutheran Church says:
"The Bible-believing Christian, should, of all people, be on the frontline in the struggle for animal welfare and rights. We who are Christians should be treating the animal creation now as it will be treated then, at Christ's second coming. It will not now be perfect, but it must be substantial, otherwise we have missed our calling, and we grieve the One we call 'Lord,' who was born in a stable surrounded by animals simply because He chose it that way."
Rose Evans, editor and publisher of Harmony: Voices for a Just Future, a "consistent-ethic" periodical on the religious Left, says there are more Christian vegetarians than Jewish vegetarians. Yet some people still react to the idea of Christian vegetarianism as though it were an oxymoron.
"Every year," says Reverend Andrew Linzey, author of Christianity and the Rights of Animals, "I receive hundreds of anguished letters from Christians who are so distressed by the insensitivity to animals shown by mainstream churches that they have left them or are on the verge of doing so...The time is long overdue to take the issue of animal rights to the churches...
"I derive hope from the Gospel preaching that the same God who draws us to such affinity and intimacy with suffering creatures declared that reality on a Cross in Calvary. Unless all Christian preaching has been utterly mistaken, the God who becomes incarnate and crucified is the one who has taken the side of the oppressed and the suffering of the world--however the churches may actually behave."
As an evangelical Christian, the phrase in Revelation 11:18 has always made an impression on me: "I will destroy those who destroyed the earth." It has always been obvious to me what God's mind is on man's responsibility regarding the earth. It is fine if someone wants to color words that reference different topics in Scripture, but all of the words of Scripture are given by inspiration of God. In that sense, all of the words are Jesus' words. King David in Psalm 119 stated, "I have esteemed all of your precepts concerning all things to be right...;" and Jesus said "the Scriptures cannot be broken" and also He pointed to the smallest grammatical marks when He said "one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." But I think a green letter Bible is fine if you want to focus on that aspect of things.
I don't like the new uniforms as much. They came up with a US flag-based design. I don't think it works so well on a uniform. But I haven't been to a game for a while, so I don't know what they look like on the ice.
I'm actually more of a college hockey fan than an NHL fan. The college game is a lot of fun, and the tickets are much cheaper. We became fans when we were living in Bowling Green, Ohio. Bowling Green State University had a really good team during the 1980s when we were there. They aren't so good now.
"American evangelicals to become more environmentally conscious" -- not sure what you're talking about. Evangelicals I know are as, if not more, environmentally conscious as anybody. They just don't worship and serve the "creature more than the creator" as Romans 1 mentions. I don't think environmentally responsible resource development (such as oil drilling and the construction of nuclear power plants) should be stopped by environmental extremists. It hurts our economy.
"Aren't things we call "pollution" part of God's creation?"
Yes, so are malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, viral hemorrhagic fevers, rabies, strychnine, plague, anthrax, river blindness, bilharzia, amebas that cause dysentery, bacteria that cause dysentery, funguses that grow in parts of the body where you really don't want them, worms that crawl into parts of the body where you really don't want them, viruses and prions that make the brain look like Swiss cheese, flies, mosquitoes, fleas, ticks
Thanks!
After months of near-panic and emotional lability, about two weeks ago I reached a point where I realized I was done studying and have felt a wonderful sense of calm and well-being. My wife says I'm fun to be around again. This was literally an answer to a prayer.
It seems God has put everything in place for me to take the exam this year, things have 'fallen into place," including the fact that it's being held in New Orleans this year!
So this time tomorrow I plan to be sitting next to the river treating myself to a muffellata.
Nice! It's great that you had the experience of much of that pressure lifting so far in advance of the exam--you will be much more relaxed and confident for it now. Congratulations (in advance) on getting through it all! I hope you ace the exam! Your wife is probably very happy to have you back.
But, a word of caution--be careful in your celebration. When I turned in the first draft of my thesis, my celebration consisted of sitting back and relaxing with a brand new episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, whilst gorging myself on some of my favorites--So, I ate most of a bag of chips and fresh salsa, an entire pint of Ben and Jerry's chocolate peanut butter cookie dough ice cream (they don't make that flavor anymore, sadly--it rocked), and washed it all down with a 32 ounce strawberry-kiwi Snapple. I was so sick, I could barely walk. I had to lie down on the couch in the bathroom before I knew that I would be able to move without, well, losing it, if you know what I mean...
So with that caution--I will nevertheless encourage you to enjoy the moment and the rush of relief from having made it through! In the words of Warf (who was probably talking about some Klingon victory) "It will feel GLORIOUS!"
Well, a guy can get himself into a lot of trouble overindulging in the French Quarter, but those days are over for me.
I can't get sick! I have a marathon of malaria symposia and scientific presentations to attend all next week during the ASTMH meeting (7 AM to 8 PM on at least one day).
My wife just doesn't understand my idea of a good time. She'll see me reading a paper on malaria and ask me why I don't read something just for fun. "I am."
That isn't a logical conclusion to draw from what he said.
Environmental activism has been its own worst enemy in many cases. People think that being an environmentalist means sacrificing your livelihood to save some sort of subspecies of owl.
As a result, some people take pride in sticking it to the treehuggers, who are largely regarded as overzealous idiots. In Minnesota, the environmental movement is associated with emissions testing, which was a colossal waste of everyone's time and money.
Most evangelicals are willing to take reasonable steps to improve the environment. Almost nobody (evangelical or otherwise) is willing to sacrifice their job or pay a tax. That's the playing field as it relates to opinion on environmental issues, and I don't think futzing with the font color is going to move the needle any. .
Squeaky, Carl, et al., thanks for your prayers!
The exam went well yesterday. I was more surprised by what wasn't on the test than what was. I didn't struggle with it and felt pretty comfortable at the end. I think there were only a couple of questions that stumped me, several that I wasn't too sure about, but felt I knew most of them. There were 200 questions on the exam, and I think 70% is a passing score, so I would have had to have answered more than 60 questions incorrectly to fail. That's not beyond the realm of possibility, but I don't feel that way. I wasn't the first person out of the exam room, but I wasn't too far behind him (which is not necessarily a good indicator).
I won't know if I passed or not for another 8 weeks. I spent the rest of the afternoon gathering up a stack of books that my darling wife has tolerated laying in various places around the house and putting them back on the shelf, and then consigning nearly a foot of study notes to the recycle bin (I have electronic copies of most of them). I haven't worked this hard for so long on something since the neuroscience nursing certification exam in '95.
My wife and I prayed before I left yesterday to remind myself that I'm doing this for God's glory and not mine, but it's hard not to feel proud
I'm actually not a hockey fan...but the Wild's uniforms are so...pretty. Well, at least they were before they revamped them. They were this beautiful, rich, green jersey with probably the neatest logo of any sport. I almost bought a replica jersey a few years ago. But I don't know what this new uniform is all about! Perhaps too many hockey players decided it wasn't manly enough to wear uniforms that were so pretty. Although, gotta say, the new iterations don't look any tougher. They look like jammies.
Good luck Blue Jackets, and I hope the team has pretty uniforms!
According to the Bible, God intended the entire human race to follow a vegetarian diet (Genesis 1:29). Paradise is vegetarian. Rashi (Rabbi Solomon von Isaac, 1030-1105), the famous Jewish Bible commentator, taught that "God did not permit Adam and his wife to kill a creature and to eat its flesh. Only every green herb shall they all eat together." Ibn Ezra and other Jewish biblical commentators agree.
According to the Talmud, "Adam and many generations that followed him were strict flesh-abstainers; flesh-foods were rejected as repulsive for human consumption." Although man was made in God's image and given dominion over all creation (Genesis 1:26-28), these verses do not justify humans killing animals and devouring them, because God immediately proclaims He created the plants for human consumption. (Genesis 1:29)
In a letter to Pope John Paul II, challenging him on the issue of animal experimentation, Dr. Michael Fox of the Humane Society argued that the word "dominion" is derived from the original Hebrew word "rahe" which refers to compassionate stewardship, instead of power and control. Parents have dominion over their children; they do not have a license to kill, torment or abuse them. The Talmud (Shabbat 119; Sanhedrin 7) interprets "dominion" to mean animals may be used for labor.
Man was made in God's image (Genesis 1:26) and told to be vegetarian (Genesis 1:29). "And God saw all that He had made and saw that it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) Complete and perfect harmony. Everything in the beginning was the way God wanted it. Vegetarianism was part of God's initial plan for the world.
"It appears that the first intention of the Maker was to have men live on a strictly vegetarian diet," writes Rabbi Simon Glazer, in his 1971 Guide to Judaism. "The very earliest periods of Jewish history are marked with humanitarian conduct towards the lower animal kingdom...It is clearly established that the ancient Hebrews knew, and perhaps were the first among men to know, that animals feel and suffer pain."
After the Flood, God revised His commandment against flesh-eating. Human beings, since eating of the forbidden fruit, seemed incapable of obedience on this issue. One Jewish writer comments, "Only after man had proven unfit for the high moral standard given at the beginning, was meat made a part of the humans' diet."
A Jewish legend says Moses was found to be righteous by God through his shepherding. While Moses was tending his sheep of Jethro in the Midian wilderness, a young kid ran away from the flock. Moses ran after it until he found the kid drinking by a pool of water. Moses approached the kid and said, "I did not know that you ran away because you were thirsty; now, you must be tired." So Moses placed the animal on his shoulders and carried him back to the flock. God said, "Because thou has shown mercy in leading the flock, thou will surely tend My flock, Israel."
In their book, The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, Dennis Prager and Rabbi Telushkin explain: "Keeping kosher is Judaism's compromise with its ideal vegetarianism. Ideally, according to Judaism, man would confine his eating to fruits and vegetables and not kill animals for food."
In his excellent A Guide to the Misled, Rabbi Shmuel Golding explains the orthodox Jewish position concerning animal sacrifices: "When G-d gave our ancestors permission to make sacrifices to Him, it was a concession, just as when He allowed us to have a king (I Samuel 8), but He gave us a whole set of rules and regulations concerning sacrifice that, when followed, would be superior to and distinct from the sacrificial system of the heathens."
Some biblical passages denounce animal sacrifice (Isaiah 1:11,15; Amos 5:21-25). Other passages state that animal sacrifices, not necessarily incurring God's wrath, are unnecessary (I Kings 15:22; Jeremiah 7:21-22; Hosea 6:6; Hosea 8:13; Micah 6:6-8; Psalm 50:1-14; Psalm 40:6; Proverbs 21:3; Ecclesiastes 5:1).
Sometimes Christians cite Isaiah 1:11, where God says, "I am full of the burnt offerings..." They say the word "full" implies God accepted the sacrifices. However, in Isaiah 43:23-24, God says: "You have not honored Me with your sacrifices...rather you have burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities." This suggests, as Moses Maimonides taught and Rabbi Shmuel Golding confirms above, that "the sacrifices were a concession to barbarism."
Jesus taught his disciples to pray for the coming of God's kingdom (Matthew 6:9-10), the kingdom of peace, in which the entire world is restored to a vegetarian paradise (Genesis 1:29; Isaiah 11:6-9). Recalling Psalm 37:11, he blessed the meek, saying they would inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5) The kingdom of God belongs to the gentle and kind (Matthew 5:7-9) Christians are to "Be merciful, just as your Father is also merciful." (Luke 6:36) Those who take up the sword must perish by the sword. (Matthew 26:52)
Jesus repeatedly spoke of God's tender care for the nonhuman creation (Matthew 6:26-30, 10:29-31; Luke 12:6-7, 24-28). Jesus taught that God desires "mercy and not sacrifice." (Matthew 9:10-13, 12:6-7; Mark 2:15-17; Luke 5:29-32) The epistle to the Hebrews 10:5-10 suggests that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law and the prophets (which Paul regarded as "so much garbage"), but only the institution of animal sacrifice, as does Jesus' cleansing the Temple of those who were buying and selling animals for sacrifice and his overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple. (Matthew 21:12-14; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46; John 2:14-17)
Jesus not only repeatedly upheld Mosaic Law (Matthew 5:17-19; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 16:17), he justified his healing on the Sabbath by referring to commandments calling for the humane treatment of animals. When teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, Jesus healed a woman who had been ill for eighteen years. He justified his healing work on the Sabbath by referring to biblical passages calling for the humane treatment of animals as well as their rest on the Sabbath. "So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham...be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" Jesus asked. (Luke 13:10-16)On another occasion, Jesus again referred to Torah teaching on "tsa'ar ba'alei chayim" or compassion for animals to justify healing on the Sabbath. "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?" (Luke 14:1-5)
Jesus compared saving sinners who had gone astray from God's kingdom to rescuing lost sheep. He recalled a Jewish legend about Moses' compassion as a shepherd for his flock.
"For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? Who among you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
"And when he has found it," Jesus continued, "he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'
"I say to you, likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance...there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Matthew 18:11-13; Luke 15:3-7,10)
Jesus insisted upon the moral standards given by God in the beginning (Matthew 5:31-32, 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12; Luke 16:18), and this did not go unnoticed by early church fathers such as St. Jerome.
From history, too, we learn that the earliest Christians were vegetarians as well as pacifists. For example, Clemens Prudentius, the first Christian hymn writer, in one of his hymns exhorts his fellow Christians not to pollute their hands and hearts by the slaughter of innocent cows and sheep, and points to the variety of nourishing and pleasant foods obtainable without blood-shedding.
Some of the most distinguished figures in the history of Christianity have been vegetarian. A partial list includes: St. James, St. Matthew, Clemens Prudentius, Origen, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Benedict, Aegidius, Boniface, St. Richard of Wyche, St. Columba, St. Filipo Neri, John Wray, Thomas Tryon, John Wesley, Joshua Evans, William Metcalfe, General William Booth, Ellen White, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, and Reverend V.A. Holmes-Gore.
Reverend Marc Wessels of the International Network for Religion and Animals (INRA) writes:
"The most important teaching which Jesus shared was the need for people to love God with their whole self and to love their neighbor as they loved themselves. Jesus expanded the concept of neighbor to include those who were normally excluded, and it is therefore not too farfetched for us to consider the animals as our neighbors.
"To think about animals as our brothers and sisters is not a new or radical idea. By extending the idea of neighbor, the love of neighbor includes love of, compassion for, and advocacy of animals. There are many historical examples of Christians who thought along those lines, besides the familiar illustration of St. Francis. An abbreviated listing of some of those individuals worthy of study and emulation includes Saint Blaise, Saint Comgall, Saint Cuthbert, Saint Gerasimus, Saint Giles, and Saint Jerome, to name but a few."
According to contemporary Benedictine monk, Brother David Steindl-Rast:
"...the survival of our planet depends on our sense of belonging---to all other humans, to dolphins caught in dragnets, to pigs and chickens and calves raised in animal concentration camps, to redwoods and rainforests, to kelp beds in our oceans, and to the ozone layer."
In a sermon preached in York Minster, September 28, 1986, John Austin Baker, the Bishop of Salisbury, England, attacked the overcrowded confinement methods of raising and killing animals for food ("factory farming"), choosing as his example, the treatment of chickens:
"Is there any credit balance for the battery hen, denied almost all natural functioning, all normal environment, lapsing steadily into deformity and disease, for the whole of her existence?" he asked. "It is in the battery shed and the broiler house, not in the wild, that we find the true parallel to Auschwitz. Auschwitz is a purely human invention."
Rick Dunkerly of Christ Lutheran Church says:
"The Bible-believing Christian, should, of all people, be on the frontline in the struggle for animal welfare and rights. We who are Christians should be treating the animal creation now as it will be treated then, at Christ's second coming. It will not now be perfect, but it must be substantial, otherwise we have missed our calling, and we grieve the One we call 'Lord,' who was born in a stable surrounded by animals simply because He chose it that way."
Rose Evans, editor and publisher of Harmony: Voices for a Just Future, a "consistent-ethic" periodical on the religious Left, says there are more Christian vegetarians than Jewish vegetarians. Yet some people still react to the idea of Christian vegetarianism as though it were an oxymoron.
"Every year," says Reverend Andrew Linzey, author of Christianity and the Rights of Animals, "I receive hundreds of anguished letters from Christians who are so distressed by the insensitivity to animals shown by mainstream churches that they have left them or are on the verge of doing so...The time is long overdue to take the issue of animal rights to the churches...
"I derive hope from the Gospel preaching that the same God who draws us to such affinity and intimacy with suffering creatures declared that reality on a Cross in Calvary. Unless all Christian preaching has been utterly mistaken, the God who becomes incarnate and crucified is the one who has taken the side of the oppressed and the suffering of the world--however the churches may actually behave."
"Reasonable steps to improve the environment" are fine as long as they don't cost anything? I alway thought the "people will lose jobs" argument is a smoke screen. Should we not make illicit drugs illegal because all the dope dealers will lose their jobs? Is it too much to ask that people retrain for jobs that provide more benefit to society?
I remember from Econ 101 that there are costs associated with production that are external, that is the folks who make and consume the products don't pay them. Someone pays for destruction of the environment. It's just a question of who and how: higher prices that include the cost of cleaning up one's own mess, government regulation to force such, superfund style government action, or loss of natural resouces, illness, and death from the loss of clean water, air, and ecosystems.
Hopefully, adding the emphasis to these passages will simply point out to us Bible readers points that we have long overlooked. Sounds like a good way to love God and our neighbors to me.
Peace to all.
How true. For so long, caring for the "environment" has been looked on as an either environment or else jobs and economy issue. Kevin's and Hammerud's comments above seem to be cut from that old paradigm. We're now moving to a "both/and" paradigm, in which we're beginning to recognize that what's good for the environment is also good for the economy.
Unfortunately, too much political rhetoric is still stuck in the old paradigm (suggestion: use of the term "environmental extremist" isn't very helpful). Hopefully that will change soon.
Peace
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Well done, Brian.
Unfortunately, Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention, said this about the Green Bible: "Sure it's important, but when they asked Jesus what was most important, he said, 'Love your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.' He didn't say anything about creation."
As if loving one's neighbor and caring for creation have nothing to do with each other?
Well done, Brian.
Unfortunately, Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention, said this about the Green Bible: "Sure it's important, but when they asked Jesus what was most important, he said, 'Love your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.' He didn't say anything about creation."
As if loving one's neighbor and caring for creation have nothing to do with each other?
I'm all for pointing out how God has instructed us to care for creation. Please keep it up. But please, please, please do not start using the phrase "Green Letter Christian" to refer to yourself or anyone else. Red Letter Christian is bad enough. Don't perpetuate this trend.
I'm all for pointing out how God has instructed us to care for creation. Please keep it up. But please, please, please do not start using the phrase "Green Letter Christian" to refer to yourself or anyone else. Red Letter Christian is bad enough. Don't perpetuate this trend.
Wow, all that money spent on getting American evangelicals to become more environmentally conscious, when we could spend that money supporting efforts to reduce poverty.
In all seriousness, though, it is a clever idea. I'm a bit interested in who made the decisions as to which text to make green. I know that with red letters, it's much more clear where Jesus spoke (though translators still have some debate), but it's much more subjective which parts talk about creation. I'm curious to see how it turns out. Maybe I'll get one for when I'm out in the woods :-)
Wow, all that money spent on getting American evangelicals to become more environmentally conscious, when we could spend that money supporting efforts to reduce poverty.
In all seriousness, though, it is a clever idea. I'm a bit interested in who made the decisions as to which text to make green. I know that with red letters, it's much more clear where Jesus spoke (though translators still have some debate), but it's much more subjective which parts talk about creation. I'm curious to see how it turns out. Maybe I'll get one for when I'm out in the woods :-)
As an evangelical Christian, the phrase in Revelation 11:18 has always made an impression on me: "I will destroy those who destroyed the earth." It has always been obvious to me what God's mind is on man's responsibility regarding the earth. It is fine if someone wants to color words that reference different topics in Scripture, but all of the words of Scripture are given by inspiration of God. In that sense, all of the words are Jesus' words. King David in Psalm 119 stated, "I have esteemed all of your precepts concerning all things to be right...;" and Jesus said "the Scriptures cannot be broken" and also He pointed to the smallest grammatical marks when He said "one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." But I think a green letter Bible is fine if you want to focus on that aspect of things.
As an evangelical Christian, the phrase in Revelation 11:18 has always made an impression on me: "I will destroy those who destroyed the earth." It has always been obvious to me what God's mind is on man's responsibility regarding the earth. It is fine if someone wants to color words that reference different topics in Scripture, but all of the words of Scripture are given by inspiration of God. In that sense, all of the words are Jesus' words. King David in Psalm 119 stated, "I have esteemed all of your precepts concerning all things to be right...;" and Jesus said "the Scriptures cannot be broken" and also He pointed to the smallest grammatical marks when He said "one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." But I think a green letter Bible is fine if you want to focus on that aspect of things.
"American evangelicals to become more environmentally conscious" -- not sure what you're talking about. Evangelicals I know are as, if not more, environmentally conscious as anybody. They just don't worship and serve the "creature more than the creator" as Romans 1 mentions. I don't think environmentally responsible resource development (such as oil drilling and the construction of nuclear power plants) should be stopped by environmental extremists. It hurts our economy.
"American evangelicals to become more environmentally conscious" -- not sure what you're talking about. Evangelicals I know are as, if not more, environmentally conscious as anybody. They just don't worship and serve the "creature more than the creator" as Romans 1 mentions. I don't think environmentally responsible resource development (such as oil drilling and the construction of nuclear power plants) should be stopped by environmental extremists. It hurts our economy.
"Aren't things we call "pollution" part of God's creation?"
Yes, so are malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, viral hemorrhagic fevers, rabies, strychnine, plague, anthrax, river blindness, bilharzia, amebas that cause dysentery, bacteria that cause dysentery, funguses that grow in parts of the body where you really don't want them, worms that crawl into parts of the body where you really don't want them, viruses and prions that make the brain look like Swiss cheese, flies, mosquitoes, fleas, ticks
"Aren't things we call "pollution" part of God's creation?"
Yes, so are malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, viral hemorrhagic fevers, rabies, strychnine, plague, anthrax, river blindness, bilharzia, amebas that cause dysentery, bacteria that cause dysentery, funguses that grow in parts of the body where you really don't want them, worms that crawl into parts of the body where you really don't want them, viruses and prions that make the brain look like Swiss cheese, flies, mosquitoes, fleas, ticks
Thanks!
After months of near-panic and emotional lability, about two weeks ago I reached a point where I realized I was done studying and have felt a wonderful sense of calm and well-being. My wife says I'm fun to be around again. This was literally an answer to a prayer.
It seems God has put everything in place for me to take the exam this year, things have 'fallen into place," including the fact that it's being held in New Orleans this year!
So this time tomorrow I plan to be sitting next to the river treating myself to a muffellata.
Thanks!
After months of near-panic and emotional lability, about two weeks ago I reached a point where I realized I was done studying and have felt a wonderful sense of calm and well-being. My wife says I'm fun to be around again. This was literally an answer to a prayer.
It seems God has put everything in place for me to take the exam this year, things have 'fallen into place," including the fact that it's being held in New Orleans this year!
So this time tomorrow I plan to be sitting next to the river treating myself to a muffellata.
Nice! It's great that you had the experience of much of that pressure lifting so far in advance of the exam--you will be much more relaxed and confident for it now. Congratulations (in advance) on getting through it all! I hope you ace the exam! Your wife is probably very happy to have you back.
But, a word of caution--be careful in your celebration. When I turned in the first draft of my thesis, my celebration consisted of sitting back and relaxing with a brand new episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, whilst gorging myself on some of my favorites--So, I ate most of a bag of chips and fresh salsa, an entire pint of Ben and Jerry's chocolate peanut butter cookie dough ice cream (they don't make that flavor anymore, sadly--it rocked), and washed it all down with a 32 ounce strawberry-kiwi Snapple. I was so sick, I could barely walk. I had to lie down on the couch in the bathroom before I knew that I would be able to move without, well, losing it, if you know what I mean...
So with that caution--I will nevertheless encourage you to enjoy the moment and the rush of relief from having made it through! In the words of Warf (who was probably talking about some Klingon victory) "It will feel GLORIOUS!"
Nice! It's great that you had the experience of much of that pressure lifting so far in advance of the exam--you will be much more relaxed and confident for it now. Congratulations (in advance) on getting through it all! I hope you ace the exam! Your wife is probably very happy to have you back.
But, a word of caution--be careful in your celebration. When I turned in the first draft of my thesis, my celebration consisted of sitting back and relaxing with a brand new episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, whilst gorging myself on some of my favorites--So, I ate most of a bag of chips and fresh salsa, an entire pint of Ben and Jerry's chocolate peanut butter cookie dough ice cream (they don't make that flavor anymore, sadly--it rocked), and washed it all down with a 32 ounce strawberry-kiwi Snapple. I was so sick, I could barely walk. I had to lie down on the couch in the bathroom before I knew that I would be able to move without, well, losing it, if you know what I mean...
So with that caution--I will nevertheless encourage you to enjoy the moment and the rush of relief from having made it through! In the words of Warf (who was probably talking about some Klingon victory) "It will feel GLORIOUS!"
Well, a guy can get himself into a lot of trouble overindulging in the French Quarter, but those days are over for me.
I can't get sick! I have a marathon of malaria symposia and scientific presentations to attend all next week during the ASTMH meeting (7 AM to 8 PM on at least one day).
My wife just doesn't understand my idea of a good time. She'll see me reading a paper on malaria and ask me why I don't read something just for fun. "I am."
Well, a guy can get himself into a lot of trouble overindulging in the French Quarter, but those days are over for me.
I can't get sick! I have a marathon of malaria symposia and scientific presentations to attend all next week during the ASTMH meeting (7 AM to 8 PM on at least one day).
My wife just doesn't understand my idea of a good time. She'll see me reading a paper on malaria and ask me why I don't read something just for fun. "I am."
That isn't a logical conclusion to draw from what he said.
Environmental activism has been its own worst enemy in many cases. People think that being an environmentalist means sacrificing your livelihood to save some sort of subspecies of owl.
As a result, some people take pride in sticking it to the treehuggers, who are largely regarded as overzealous idiots. In Minnesota, the environmental movement is associated with emissions testing, which was a colossal waste of everyone's time and money.
Most evangelicals are willing to take reasonable steps to improve the environment. Almost nobody (evangelical or otherwise) is willing to sacrifice their job or pay a tax. That's the playing field as it relates to opinion on environmental issues, and I don't think futzing with the font color is going to move the needle any. .
That isn't a logical conclusion to draw from what he said.
Environmental activism has been its own worst enemy in many cases. People think that being an environmentalist means sacrificing your livelihood to save some sort of subspecies of owl.
As a result, some people take pride in sticking it to the treehuggers, who are largely regarded as overzealous idiots. In Minnesota, the environmental movement is associated with emissions testing, which was a colossal waste of everyone's time and money.
Most evangelicals are willing to take reasonable steps to improve the environment. Almost nobody (evangelical or otherwise) is willing to sacrifice their job or pay a tax. That's the playing field as it relates to opinion on environmental issues, and I don't think futzing with the font color is going to move the needle any. .
I'm actually not a hockey fan...but the Wild's uniforms are so...pretty. Well, at least they were before they revamped them. They were this beautiful, rich, green jersey with probably the neatest logo of any sport. I almost bought a replica jersey a few years ago. But I don't know what this new uniform is all about! Perhaps too many hockey players decided it wasn't manly enough to wear uniforms that were so pretty. Although, gotta say, the new iterations don't look any tougher. They look like jammies.
Good luck Blue Jackets, and I hope the team has pretty uniforms!
I'm actually not a hockey fan...but the Wild's uniforms are so...pretty. Well, at least they were before they revamped them. They were this beautiful, rich, green jersey with probably the neatest logo of any sport. I almost bought a replica jersey a few years ago. But I don't know what this new uniform is all about! Perhaps too many hockey players decided it wasn't manly enough to wear uniforms that were so pretty. Although, gotta say, the new iterations don't look any tougher. They look like jammies.
Good luck Blue Jackets, and I hope the team has pretty uniforms!
