Hello meat-loving friends. Before you judge me and associate with me all sorts of adjectives that you have created in your stereotyping of that ‘v’ word, I unashamedly declare that I love meat. I don’t personally have an issue with the eating of it. And so, in writing this, I hope to help my friends understand that whether we opt-in or opt-out, our lifestyles and everyday decisions carry individual convictions, and before we bring our own opinions to the table, that loaded word ‘tolerance’ finds its root in our openness to listen thoughtfully and with integrity to the other person’s story. I hope you will do me this kindness.
I love (and am extremely humbled by the fact) that God made the world for us. It’s beautiful and breath-taking to look at. It smells wonderful. The textures of the leaves, the grass, the water. And the taste! Before the Fall, when God’s created image-bearers, human beings, chose to rebel against His design and live their own way, God “caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food” (uh huh, we were originally vegetarians; Genesis 2:9) and He placed humanity in the centre of all this to enjoy in His presence. But when we chose to not live in His presence, under His rule, death entered the world and God, in His kindness, took animal skins to clothe Adam and Eve (when they knew their nakedness) (Genesis 3:21). And later, He says that “the fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are placed under your authority. Every living creature will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything. However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it. I will require the life of every animal and every man for your life and your blood. I will require the life of each man’s brother for a man’s life.” (Genesis 9:2-5). Where am I going with this? Well, as you can see, God really, really values us! We have a special importance in His sight. And He allows us to eat meat. We have a special authority over animals that no creature has over us. But something new comes into the mix after the Fall: death and the animals’ fear of man. All we know at the beginning was that God made us in His image, and that meant, in part, that we would rule over the animals (Genesis 1:26). However, I think this fear is new. It brings with it death. This doesn’t detract from the fact that we are still made to rule over them, as God would (because by our essence we are bearing His image and are to be image bearers of Him). I think what this implies is we are to care for the world as God Himself would – our environment, the animals – with authority comes responsibility, and with responsibility, an exercise of God’s character. And this is the part that I struggle with…
I think I used to over-exert my freedom to eat meat. Then a few years ago a friend of mine who I admired and respected as a Christian decided to become a vegetarian. I was confused and wanted to understand. He pointed me to the fact that his individual choice came out of a growing awareness, then understanding, and then conviction that our current meat industry is exploiting our environment. He had read the UN’s paper “Livestock’s Long Shadow”, which took a serious look at the impact of feed crop production required to maintain meat production (which is ever-increasing because of humanity’s increasing and excessive ‘thirst’ for meat). From local to global, meat production as an industry contributes alarming amounts of degradation to our environment. (You can read the report online.) That really challenged me. I had not thought about my image-bearing nature in this way – yes, I have freedom to eat meat, but I also have freedom (and responsibility) to live in a way that is as God designed me to live: responsibly doing my part to rule over His world as He would. I decided to become a vegetarian out of personal conviction of not wanting to be an ignorant steward of His world in this way. However, over a year, it became difficult with really low iron levels (and my lack of intentionality to make sure I consumed enough through other means). Also, I didn’t have as much freedom back then living without any income to determine my own menu. And so, I slowly opted back into meat-eating.
Recently, watching the critically-acclaimed film Okja, I was again stirred with a different confronting message. It is one thing that our current meat industry exploits and degrades our environment more than, arguably, any other single factor. But also, it is another thing too that, in our meat-obsessed cultures, we have completely turned a blind eye to our ethical responsibility to animals. Though the film is fantastical in nature, it raises some important questions about how much we justify our enjoyment of meat by this wilful ignorance. We choose to forget that animals have, as Sean McCorry puts it, “an ethically significant interest in [their] own well-being.” They feel happiness, love, kindness, sorrow, pain, fear (as Genesis tells us). In our effort to meet excessive demands for meat, we are constantly trying to ‘perfect’ efficiency and maximise productivity. Killing animals for their meat has become a human-dignity-stripping exercise. Ask anyone who has worked in an abattoir. They will tell you it is no lucky coincidence that they are highly paid (or have to work in an industry that struggles to hold onto employees to extend their working holiday visa). You’re lucky if you find someone who’s worked longer than a few months. (If you do, you will soon notice there is something not quite right about them.) I don’t think we were made to kill animals in the way we do today. Okja brings to us something of this. In fact, the director, Bong Joon-ho, in the process of his research for the film, chose to become a vegan. In the name of efficiency, we have lost our human dignity in the cruel and quite horrific methods being used to quicken animal production. Would you personally force an animal to breed with (or, more accurately, be raped by) another on a regular basis? Would you squeeze animals (who had previously never been exposed to metal containers or small confined spaces) into no-light, no-moving space shipping containers with no fresh water or space to excrete so you can maximise and make cheap live export to another country? (How do you think the Japanese get their Wagyu ‘so fresh’?)
And so, I end with this. I feel anguished and disgusted when I read the articles, see the images, and watch the videos that Bong Joon-ho would have seen in his research, and weigh up the evidence. I feel not human. I feel stripped of my image-bearing nature. God allows us to eat meat in our fallen state, but we have taken this freedom and abused it greatly. And so, personally, I have decided to opt-out. To my meat-loving friends, I am not writing to force you to do the same. However, I ask that you seek to ‘listen’ to my decision and try to understand where I am coming from. And in so doing, I hope you would consider your own conscience and response with sober judgment.* I also hope that you would be encouraged to not judge someone by their labels, whether self-professed or given them, by your own perceptions. May we exercise our image-bearing freedoms with the dignity and privilege afforded to us, to the other person, and to the well-being of all of God’s creation.
*Perhaps you’re not so ready to opt out. May I encourage you to consider some alternatives? For example, purchase RSPCA-approved chicken, turkey, pork, eggs. If you check out rspcaapproved.org.au, you will find the companies/products that meet their standards for ethical treatment of animals. Consider eating less meat in general. Health experts say that we only really need one-two servings of meat a week. Instead, we, on average, consume that once a day! Sure, your individual footprint isn’t going to do much to the local or global scene, but by choosing to reduce, you are choosing not participating in the excessive meat eating driven society we live in.
Also, consider how you can make a difference by speaking out against unethical animal practices such as the live export of Australian cattle: https://www.rspca.org.au/live-export
life matters 