For His Creation He Does Care...

Thank you, Brian D. McLaren, for writing your book Everything Must Change and reminding me that God loves all his creation: Man and woman, pagan or Christian or Jew or Muslim or Hindu, human and animal, animal and plant, etc. For a long while I've longed for some indication outside of myself and my own interpretations of the existence of humans, animals,and nature that God has a concern for those things which I am driven most towards.

Nature is not only God's blessing to us; nature is God's loved, intrinsically-worthwhile masterpiece. That, in my mind and interpretation, is why we should not only appreciate it every once in a while but commune in it daily, fight to protect it, and not desire to be far from it- in distance or in deed.

The Gospel According to Me

I am no longer afraid, at least intellectually.

God places no weight upon me to agree with all those who are Christian by name or deed or truth. (If he did: ha! There are far too many beliefs...) In fact, he doesn't even require that I whole-heartedly believe what the congregation I am a part of professes. (I make this statement on the basis that God requires a relationship and not adherence to a religion- not to say that relationship won't manifest itself into adherence.) Therefore....

I believe God doesn't want humans to eat animals. I believe God did create animals for their own pleasure and for ours, just as we were created for both our pleasure and his. I believe it is unethical to kill what 1. desires life and 2. has been deprived of a natural life. I believe that by looking at the outcome or "fruit," if you will, of meat consumption, I can see that nothing but environmental degredation, suffering, and danger comes from the practice. Therefore, I believe it is wrong to consume meat. Am I forming God in my own image? Perhaps. Could I be wrong? Perhaps. But I have examined the issue and see no logic in nor feel any compulsion to excuse the consumption of flesh. All have formed God from what they know- that doesn't mean he doesn't exist objectively, however- and if I have erred, I pray he have mercy on me.

Yes, I have departed from common Christian vegetarian wisdom... But my faith is NOT weaker because I refuse meat. I do not intend on pulling any away from God or Christ but wish to pull all creatures closer to God's intention.

I had forgotten..

Just what being a Christian meant for me.

It meant having hope, a family, a way, and a truth; it meant I didn't have to be vulgar, vengeful, judgmental, typical, lost, or alone; it meant that things didn't have to go my way for me to trust that something good would come. It meant that it wasn't all about me, no matter what "it" was, is, or would be.

So how came I to forget it all? Why did I discard my position on a rock for a place in quicksand?