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From Accessible Airwaves:

Mainline churches should be silent while Religious Right political leaders get to speak their mind? Do you care?

I’m posting this banner, because I’ve heard from various groups recently that the news we hear is slanted in favor of whoever owns those reporting it. I heard it in Chicago when I went to the peace rally and march. I heard it from doctors who are trying to get the message out that switching to a low fat whole food vegan diet will not only prevent disease, but reverse it. I’ve heard it from animal rights groups who try to get documentaries or PSA’s on regular TV stations. I’ve read how the number of cattle in the USA with Mad Cow Disease is being played down by the USDA. And now it’s which Christians get in the news.

Maybe someday, people in this country will start to question the information we’re being fed — not only by the media, but by advertisers, the pharmaceutical companies, the charities that fund animal research, the government, and anyone else that stands to profit by the information we’re given. The question ought to be, “Who’s benefitting?” from the information we’re given? In Chicago, I saw a banner that said something like “There’s no profit in peace”. There is no profit in protecting animals. In fact, all legal exploitation of animals is good for the economy — and especially good for the companies that depend on it for their bottom line. There is no profit in choosing a healthy diet. There is a profit in selling drugs (and especially a cholesterol lowering drug) that allows people to continue their lifestyles-of-choice. We are an over-medicated society, and we seem to like it that way.

Click on the following URL to watch, or listen to, a 45 minute excerpt from the 2005 Healthy Living Expo: http://www.healthylifestyleexpo.com. If you don’t have 45 minutes to sit, watching it, open it in a new window, click, and then listen while you’re doing other things on-line, like looking around at this site.

Here’s one quote by Neal Barnard, MD:

“Dietary changes are first-line treatments. The patient comes in with high blood pressure. The prescription should be a diet change…. The person comes in with high cholesterol problem, or they come in with a weight problem. The first line of treatment should be diet. Medications and surgeries are alternatives. Medication is a complementary medicine…. We should address the cause. And that’s diet.”

Here are a few other things that came to mind:

“Youíll Get the Truth Only If There Is Money To Be Made”, by Dr. McDougall

U.S. Ate 777 Mad Cows

Analysis: What That Mad Cow Means

Safe Food

This group of vegan firefighters was just brought to our attention today:

- Engine 2’s homepage
- Photos (slideshow)
- Recipes
- Links
- Article about the firefighters
- Another article
- NPR audio clip

Today’s Gospel reading (for the third Sunday in Lent) was the Cleansing of the Temple. http://www.io.com/~kellywp/YearB/Lent/BLent3.html

John 2:13-22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”…

Although I’ve never heard it mentioned anywhere other than in J.R. Hyland’s articles & book, it amounted to a public act of animal liberation — the last straw before Jesus’ arrest. One of the other Gospel accounts implies pretty clearly that it was intentional and premeditated, whether or not the animals were the main thing. But in any case, it was a deliberate act that brought down a centuries-old, entrenched, accepted-without-question cultural system of abuse that had been perpetuated to the honor of an institutional god (like so many entrenched abusive systems of our day). Gotta love it!

THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENT
The relationship between the sacrifice of animals at the Jerusalem Temple, and the crucifixion of Jesus.

JESUS AND THE MONEYCHANGERS

Book:
God’s Covenant with Animals: A Biblical Basis for the Humane Treatment of All Creatures

“Faith in action is called politics.
Spirituality without action is fruitless and
social action without spirituality is heartless.
We are boldly political without being partisan
Having a partisan-free place to stand liberates the religious patriot
to see clearly, speak courageously, and act daringly.”
– The Rev. J. Edwin Bacon

Click here for a downloadable .pdf file: “Living in Lent, Caring for Creation”, from Presbyterians for Restoring Creation (PRC).