If a person thinks that they are righteous from what they eat, then they have fallen into error. It’s not the food that we eat that makes us unclean. However, foods these days are made in ways that don’t help us be healthy, and also animals are kept in ways which are not anything like the way animals are to be kept according to the Bible.
In the near future I will write a bit more about diet and religion, but basically the Proverb says “the righteous man hath regard for the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel”. Therefore cruelty, and the supporting of cruelty to animals is something that the Bible identifies with “the wicked”. When I think of battery hens and the way many other animals are handled I cannot but agree with the idea, that ignoring this is not the way of someone seeking to live in a righteous way.
When it comes to fish, we are in a different situation. Whereas we see the meat of birds and mammals conspicuous by its absence from the table of our Lord, it’s explicitly mentioned on several occasions that He ate fish, commanded people to catch fish, etc. Therefore there cannot be anything immoral about the catching and eating of fish per se. Here I wonder about the sport of angling, where fish are repeatedly caught just for fun, and wonder how righteous that is. And I also wonder how righteous modern fishing methods are which use technology so as to go after shoals which we never would have found in conventional fishing, so that the oceans are severely depleted – except of jellyfish of course, which make up the gap very quickly and assume the proportions of a near Biblical plague.
I don’t think that mass fishing methods which simply scoop up everything are biblical at all. Compare the way the Jews were commanded not even to harvest their fields to the end but leave the fringes unharvested. Nothing like that is done by the fishing industry today, which is why fish stocks are critically low. We may already never be able to get them back to what they were as the balance is now changed – the fish which will thrive the most are those which will eat the jellyfish – along of course with the plastics they contain, as they feed among the microscopic man made garbage, and we will all be eating them. We are also eating levels of mercury and other heavy metals in fish hundreds of times above what would have been the experience of Jesus in New Testament times and people should think hard before putting that in their bodies.
We’re free to eat everything. We see it in Acts 10. But freedom comes with responsibilities. We are not to judge others, but to show a good example ourselves. When it comes to fish, the Seventh Day Adventists, who do it fish but don’t accept other forms of meat, show on average life expectancies in America 7 years longer than normal Americans. So even with the eating of fish, you still get the main benefit of vegetarianism, a healthier life, if you refrain from the other sorts of meat. I’m not a fan of a number of theological points of SDA’s, but some things they are quite correct in.
And on that basis I do eat fish very occasionally. I’m eating about 10-20% of what I would have eaten before. Being non-kosher, shellfish would not have been on the plate of our Lord, and things that He would not have eaten I would also prefer not to eat. It makes a good witness to the Jews also, so when eating with them it assists matters a lot to remember that shellfish are off menu. They are also the ones in the front line for absorbing the mercury and heavy metals which sink down in the water.
God’s plan isn’t really a world in which his creatures bite and devour one another. This came into the world when sin came. And whilst it’s a tolerated reality of this world, I would rather anticipate that when Jesus comes to reign we will all be eating vegetables, even lions and tigers then will be trusted to lie down with the lamb and the gazelle. This is indeed prophesied in the Scripture and in some way it will come to pass. These creatures may be giving up willingly their milk and honey without cruelty, or maybe we will have no appetite for milk and honey either. I suspect the former will be true, as Israel, which is a prophetic form of God’s Kingdom is described as a land flowing in milk and honey. Until that time I would sooner err on the side of caution, though.
Even the consumption of vegetables can be sinful if a person eats thanklessly, so the final thought here sure be that whether a person eats flesh or just eats as Daniel did, they should in any event eat as to the Lord, and eat thankfully, with worship of the Creator in their heart.
Dietary choices don’t add to or detract from the salvation of the believer in Jesus one iota. But they can cause improvement to our health, reduce our impact on the world making more space for future people who also can become members of Jesus’ kingdom, increase our effectiveness, improve our sense of taste, give witnessing opportunities and a deeper understanding of certain Biblical issues and experiences.
Thanks for this post the way we eat and how that impacts on the creatures with whom we share the planet, is something very dear to my heart. I’m so glad you have have raised this issue as a matter we should all think about.
Judaic dietary law sems to have much to commend it in general , but I would prefer to avoid eating any quadrupeds as the raising of living creatures for the purpose of eating seems cruel to me. I know it is rather hypocritical of me to eat fish as they, too, would want to continue living. There is always some cruelty, even if only psychological (animals in a slaughter house knowing they are about to be slaughtered) in the taking of any life. I suspect though, that the awareness levels of fish would be less than that of mammals in this regard.
If mankind finds it necessary to eat other mammals then at least we should return to the days of ethical (a relative term) farming ; the pre-factory farming days where animals were at least allowed to live a natural life before they died. Many smaller farming units where the land and animals were not just seen as products to be exploited as intensely as possible.
If we cannot treat nature, in all its manifestations, with reverence, care and compassion then what point is there in being alive ? We become aggressive automatons, sans care, sans purpose, sans point.
Referring back to an earlier response I made to a post about holiness, I see now that what we need as the dominant species on the planet is a sense of reverence and holiness even if we are not theists. even if we are unsure about the existence of a God, we should live as if we were answerable to him. Just as one doesn’t need to believe in reincarnation to follow the dictates of the Buddha. That way, even if your disbelief condemns you in the eyes of a creator God, your manner of living will not have offended the created order.
When the great Jewish teacher Hillel (1st century b.c.e.) made his memorable pronouncement (when asked by a non-jew if he could relate the whole of the Torah whilst standing on one leg), “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it.”, he did not specify that this should include the whole of the animal kingdom. However, if we extend “neighbour” to include our animal “neighbours” , we have a succinct and valuable guide for ethical living.
I like your view on this, and I agree. However, I am not a vegetarian myself, mostly for practical reasons, but also economic and social ones. The practical and economic reasons are easy; I don’t refuse free food, which very often contains meat. The social one is not as strong, but if a friend has this delicious dish that he really wants to show me, it’s much easier if I don’t restrict my diet. Also, I don’t have to explain myself all the time. In addition, there is the aspect of taste; a lot of good food is not vegetarian.
In practice, I rarely buy anything myself that contains dairy or meat, though. I figure that although I don’t eat all the foods I should, avoiding some that I know are bad for me is better than nothing. I have easy access to rice milk at around the same price as normal milk, and it works for all kinds of cooking, although it’s a bit sweeter. One thing I don’t avoid even though I know it’s bad for me, are the cheap gingerbread cookies (“pepper cakes”, as we call them) that are left after Christmas. One box can replace a meal, and they cost only from 4.5 to 5 NOK, which works wonders for my budget, so I bought a whole bunch of them when they came on sale.
When I’m done studying, maybe I’ll earn enough money to eat more healthily, but for now greens are too easy to cut out of my normal food budget.