Posted on 02/07/2008 9:00:04 PM PST by Alex Murphy
Salt Lake City - This morning, PETA sent a letter to newly elected Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Thomas Monson wishing him well in his new position and urging him to emphasize God's requirement to protect His creatures and treat our bodies as sacred gifts by urging all Mormons to go vegetarian.
"As you know, the Doctrine and Covenants states, 'And [animals] hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger,'" writes PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich, a lifelong Christian, in his letter to Monson. "Adopting a vegetarian diet is a wonderful Christian response to the unholy abuse of billions of animals every year by today's industrialized meat industry."
To help Mormons adhere to scripture, achieve better health, and save animals from bleak lives and painful deaths, PETA is offering to work with Monson to design a Mormon-focused version of PETA's "Vegetarian Starter Kit" to be distributed at various temples and church events.
PETA's letter to Thomas Monson follows.
February 7, 2008
Thomas S. Monson, President The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
1 page via fax: 801-240-1899
Dear President Monson:
On behalf of PETA's more than 1.8 million members and supporters, I am writing to wish you the best during this time of transition for the Church. I'm also writing to urge you to emphasize God's requirement to protect His creatures and to treat our bodies as sacred gifts by urging Mormons to go vegetarian.
As a lifelong Christian, I have long admired the Mormon faith for its exemplary translation of Christian principles into everyday living through continuous acts of compassion, piety, and love. As you know, the Doctrine and Covenants states, "And [animals] hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger." It would be a great thing for the Church--both morally and for the health of Church members--if it were to reaffirm this scriptural requirement forcefully.
Adopting a vegetarian diet is a wonderful Christian response to the unholy abuse of billions of animals every year by today's industrialized meat industry. In factory farms, baby chickens and piglets are mutilated without any painkillers. Chickens, turkeys, and pigs are routinely crammed into tiny cages or filthy sheds to maximize profits. After a life of suffering, farmed animals have their throats slit and are dismembered in slaughterhouses, often while still conscious. Please visit Meat.org to see this for yourself. Of course, God designed each of these animals with the capacity to feel pain and have their own desire to be free and be with their families. Today's corporate animal agriculture denies them all of this.
Mormons wisely avoid alcohol and other drugs. But the health risks of meat consumption are greater than those associated with drinking alcohol. According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians are less prone than meat-eaters to heart disease, specific types of cancer, diabetes, and obesity. A healthy plant-based diet contains all the protein, vitamins, and other nutrients that we need to thrive--without all the saturated fats and cholesterol found in animal flesh.
I would be thrilled to chat with you more about this and how we can work together to promote compassion for animals and better health for humans. For example, we would be happy to work with you to design a Mormon-focused "Vegetarian Starter Kit" to be distributed at various temples and church events.
Thank you for your consideration.
In Christ's Light,
Bruce Friedrich Vice President
Here’s to hoping there isn’t a new revelation. I don’t think Monson is that slow...
Oh boy.
I DO follow a scriptural diet. Check out Genesis 9:3.
How sweet. They are offering starter vegetarian kits to be distributed at temples. Actually, the Mormon scriptures advise to eat sparingly of meat and not waste it. They also say that it pleases God to provide animals for meat for man and also the following: “Whoso forbiddeth to abstain from meat, that man should not eat the same, is not ordained of God. For behold, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance.” Doctrine & Covenants 49:18-19 I doubt President Monson will be advocating anything more than a generally healthy diet, including moderation in meat.
PETA is blatantly lying. There is no scriptural requirement to be a vegetarian. There is no scriptural requirement to not eat animals in order to prevent their suffering or be what PETA says are ‘good stewards’.
In fact, Peter was getting confused about what he should eat, because he had been speding a lot of time with Gentiles, and began to eat their foods (which were not kosher). Some of his fellow Jews started to criticize him for this and he began to stop eating gentile food and began following the law again regarding food. God finally had to tell him to ‘arise Peter, kill and eat’ and tell him that no food is unclean. It’s not the food that makes you unclean, what makes you unclean is your sin.
Read Acts and confirm this for yourselves.
PETA is totally lying about this, there is no truth to it. The diet of Genesis, which was vegetarian, was modified by God after the flood, when he told Noah that animals could be eaten for food. In Leviticus the types of animals that were and were not to be eaten by the Israelites were defined. However, in Acts we find God telling Peter that now, under Christ, no food should be considered unclean (ie off limits) to God’s people.
That’s fine, you can. But you are under no command to do so. You aren’t sinning if you don’t follow it. PETA is trying to say you are if you don’t.
Personally I am not going to trust PETA at all when it comes to what the bible means. They kill more animals than any other group that ‘helps’ animals that I know.
There is no Biblical basis for a vegetarian diet being preferred over any other. The writer is twisting Scripture to meet his own agenda!
In the OT many of the animal sacrifices were to be eaten by those sacrificing.
And in the NT Paul admonishes those Christians to eat whatever is sold at the “shambles” (meat market), asking no questions for concience sake. Much of the meat was of animals sacrificed to idols.
While some may have been vegetarian most were not yet Paul said he would not eat meat if it caused a brother to sin.
It does not mean he did not eat meat.
Did you check out Ge.9:3? It tells me to eat meat!!! :>)
Paul describes the latter-day apostasy—Christ is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe.
1 Tim 4
1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
Yes, that is what I said.
He is the LAMB of GOD
... not the SOY of GOD
... not the HUMMUS of GOD
... not the BROCCOLI of GOD
I love my veggies/beans/etc. as much as the next guy ... but c'mon, people !!!
I’ll maintain kashrus, thanks.
AMEN
Well, we were originally designed to eat fruits and green herbs. But only in a pre-flood world - which changed drastically afterwards. That diet would no longer sustain us post-flood, and God allowed the eating of animals because now we would need these sources of nutrition.
I should have added, that PETA is ignoring what they want to ignore and push a distorted and unsupported view here. They are trying to play on people’s guilt by telling them an outright lie. Trying to make the be under a law that doesn’t exist.
If God had meant us to be vegetarians, he wouldn’t have made animals out of yummy meat.
Mmmm. This thread makes me think of the lovely tenderloin in my freezer. I think I’ll take it out and serve it, seared on the outside, covered in wonderful spices, served rare and juicy.
Mmmm.
Do they taste like chicken?
***Well, we were originally designed to eat fruits and green herbs. But only in a pre-flood world - which changed drastically afterwards. That diet would no longer sustain us post-flood, and God allowed the eating of animals because now we would need these sources of nutrition.***
Not sure about preflood, but for right now, the best indicator is the teeth and digestive system.
Our teeth are omnivore, with some heavy duty incisors for cutting some meat.
Our digestive system is definitely carnivore but extending to simple vegetation such as fruits and nuts. It simply cannot handle grasses and the more complex carbohydrates such as trees and shrubs.
Anyone who claims humans are natural vegetarians has a political agenda.
PETA thinks animals like fish are equal to humans Therefore killing a crawdad is like killing a person. But they are generally pro-choice so human fetuses can be killed at will as they rank lower than a crawdad in their spiritual cosmology.
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