“Habits begin like cobwebs
and end in iron chains.”
– Emma Gloudeman
“Episcoveg Translation”, and what the quote brought up for me:

Basically, our holiday meals, which we like to think are “traditional” are just habits. And they cause immeasurable suffering for animals who may very well end up hanging from chains in the slaughter houses. So I take it quite literally.

A meat-based menu that we’ve inherited ever since our childhoods oh so innocently, ends with hopeless, panicked animals, hung by shackles awaiting a most horrendously violent death…. More than 10,000,000,000 each year in the US alone. More than 312 every second of every day — “sustainable use”. (Or is it really sustainable?)

Think consciously, creatively, healthfully, ecologically, economically and compassionately about meal planning….
Think outside the “1950’s meat and potatoes” box.

We have shopping choices our parents and grandparents didn’t have. ÔøΩ(We have choices that Jesus didn’t have, for those who like to argue that he ate fish “once”, and presumably lamb.) We just need the will and the grace to relinquish the old inherited habits, ruts, and privileges that blind us from the suffering we don’t want to acknowledge enough to create a societal paradigm shift. It doesn’t have to matter to an individual, if their own actions can’t “change the world”. One person can make a personal decision that “Enough is enough! I don’t need to be a part of this, anymore!” and choose to live in ways that don’t require others to suffer and die needlessly. One person’s actions sends ripples into unknown destinations. Please give this some serious thought, when you decide what you’d like to do for Lent this year. The suffering of animals in factory farms and in transport, and the torture on the kill floors is a weightier issue than the ultimate fate of cookies, cake and chocolate. How is it that animals have become so objectified, and their plight so invisible to us, that giving up sweets becomes the accepted self-denial of choice for so many during Lent? How many animals have to die to satisfy our appetites? What would it take for people to reach a point that they could care enough to make live-giving changes?

What is at the root of our culture’s meat-eating habits? Is it “privilege” we’re unwilling to relinquish? Is it a symbol of our prosperity? Is it selfishness? Is it a real or imagined expectation laid upon us by our families or friends? Is it just an unconscious act that leads us on automatic pilot down the same aisles in the grocery stores each week?

Is compassion for “the least of these” a sacrifice of self or of self-will, that Christians could make for 6 weeks out of the year? Can Christians demonstrate that they truly want God to keep them “ever mindful of the needs of others”, as the meal-time grace proclaims, by going “Veg for Lent”?

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“We can’t be holy people, good religious people, unless we act with compassion…. Compassion scares us to death. It threatens our privileges, it demands change in our social structures. Compassion is far more than a warm fuzzy feeling, a smile of encouragement or a hand-out. Compassion sees the dignity of every child of God, and acts to protect and promote that dignity, even at a cost to ourselves….”
– from “Proclaim Jubilee: Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly with God”
By Dr. Linda Gaither

(I translate “child of God” to read “creature of God”.)

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After reading some episcopal responses to the question of endorsing a vegetarian Lent, I am reminded that many Christians still consider Lent to be a season of self-denial and penance. That’s perfectly fine. (Then let those bishops be the first to model self-denial and penance.)

Although I try to soften the message so that my readers don’t think I think penance is due, in reparation for the atrocities our species commits against all others, I have to say that giving up all animal flesh and by-products throughout Lent (and beyond) falls very well into either practices of self-denial, or taking on something positive. And as the Orthodox Christians say, fasting in conjunction with prayer makes one spiritually strong. So I think we could cover everyone’s bases, except those who insist on justifying cruelty on Biblical grounds — or denying the fact that a vast majority of farmed animals are not humanely raised, as an excuse for the Church to remain silent. (There’s no excuse for churches remaining silent anymore. The Episcopal Church has adopted a resolution pertaining to captive and domestic animals, which specifically mentions factory farming, which accounts for 95% of the meat and eggs, and a high percentage of dairy.)

The self-denial/penance philosophy ought to work very well for anyone who isn’t willing to extend sufficient compassion toward those over whom we have unmitigated power and control. In other words, if mercy and compassion aren’t the primary practices of one’s Lenten journey, then the self-examination, penance and self-denial route can work just as well (if not better).

Why is it that people still buy into the myth that there is such a thing as “humane slaughter”?

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11th hour appeal to observe a cruelty-free Lent

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“[T]here is something so very dreadful, so satanic in tormenting those who never have harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power, who have weapons neither of offense nor defense, that none but very hardened persons can endure the thought of itÔøΩ. Think then, my brethren, of your feelings at cruelty practised upon brute animals, and you will gain one sort of feeling which the history of ChristÔøΩs Cross and Passion ought to excite within you.”
– Cardinal Newman (from his Good Friday sermon )

Tags: Lent

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