Pastor Anderson shares words of wisdom about vegans

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Jebus
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Pastor Anderson shares words of wisdom about vegans

Post by Jebus »

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/10/27/christian-hate-pastor-veganism-is-a-substitute-for-biblical-morality/
How to become vegan in 4.5 hours:
1.Watch Forks over Knives (Health)
2.Watch Cowspiracy (Environment)
3. Watch Earthlings (Ethics)
Congratulations, unless you are a complete idiot you are now a vegan.
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: Pastor Anderson shares words of wisdom about vegans

Post by brimstoneSalad »

Sounds interesting.
I can't open patheos on this computer (some of the adds crash my out of date browser). Can you quote a few excerpts?
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Jebus
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Re: Pastor Anderson shares words of wisdom about vegans

Post by Jebus »

Here is a Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe0LiseXWaQ&t=
How to become vegan in 4.5 hours:
1.Watch Forks over Knives (Health)
2.Watch Cowspiracy (Environment)
3. Watch Earthlings (Ethics)
Congratulations, unless you are a complete idiot you are now a vegan.
User avatar
brimstoneSalad
neither stone nor salad
Posts: 10273
Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 9:20 am
Diet: Vegan

Re: Pastor Anderson shares words of wisdom about vegans

Post by brimstoneSalad »

Jebus wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 4:53 pm Here is a Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe0LiseXWaQ&t=
A lot to respond to there.
In short, he's wrong for three reasons:

1. Not clear that Jesus ate the passover, and if you take a strict interpretation he broke numerous old-Testament laws (or, arguably, was exempt from them for being God incarnate, and if he was exempt from the laws he didn't need to eat passover either or especially because a blood sacrifice is meant to cleanse man of sin and Jesus was presumed to be without it)

2. There's no evidence that Jesus was in Genesis or ate beef therein (provided by Abraham for guests):
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+18
A. There's no reason to believe these three are the trinity. The Lord is referenced distinctly from them, and exists in a different place from them when they carry on. Likewise, the three wise men motif is repeated at Jesus' birth (was he there for his own birth?). They are called men, and servants of the lord, not the lord incarnate.
B. There was much food before them, and it only said they ate. Beef was one option, it did not say they ate it.

3. It's irrelevant if Jesus ate or didn't eat meat; he existed on Earth in a fallen state and may have done these things out of necessity (like the fish in a time of famine) and while temporarily permitted by God after Noah. The garden (where man was to eat only plants) and the kingdom to come (where man and all animals would be vegetarian) is a better example of God's ideal plan for humanity.

Beyond that, he's also short sighted:

Man is permitted to eat meat, but also to keep slaves and do many things that are not necessarily good in the eyes of God. If a Christian's only goal is to follow the letter of the law and make it into heaven (and there's reason to believe that's not enough) then eating meat may no go against that. But if a Christian loves God and wants to embody the compassion taught by Jesus (who argued against sacrifice and for mercy), then he or she will be just and compassionate in excess of the bare minimum required to squeeze by.

Likewise, because Christians are commanded to evangelize, whether they believe animals have any moral value at all and whether they believe harm to them is wrong and whether they believe in the environmental damage at all, they should realize that behaving in ways that others will see as falling short on compassion and doing things that offend their fellow man does not make them good emissaries.

Jesus said we will know false prophets by their fruits:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A15-20&version=NKJV
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
By the words of the Bible, we should reject the claims of Christians who bear bad fruit by harming the world and animals unnecessarily for sake of gluttony. They bear false witness.

So for the same reasons vegans should try to keep themselves from becoming obese or overly thin (which will imply to others bad fruits from the lifestyle they're advocating), Christians should strive to be the best most compassionate least selfish people possible to prove the truth of Christianity by the standards Jesus laid out so that nobody will have legitimate cause (supported by the words of Jesus himself) to doubt their evangelism.

He did advocate being nice to people when it comes to what you say, but kindness of words doesn't cut it when you display cruelty by your actions.
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