No blood tossing; no shrink-wrapping

No blood tossing, no shrink-wrapping, no “Your Mommy’s a Murderer” handouts—it’s the Christian Vegetarian Association. While “CVA” doesn’t have quite the ring as “PETA”, the dietary recommendations of CVA are ringing true with at least some believers.

No sooner had I bloggerated about PETA (see 11/28 post) than a column by David Briggs shows up in today’s paper: “Christian vegetarians turn to a Garden of Eden Diet.” The article describes the motives, biblical rationale, activities and dietary recommendations of CVA, a Cleveland-based group formed as a Christian alternative to the very secular and religion-averse PETA.

The CVA website, http://www.christianveg.com/default.htm offers much the same fare as PETA’s, the most sensational (perhaps sensationalist?) of which is the section on the medical, environmental and economic downsides of “flesh eating,” as well as the health benefits of the vegetarian diet. They seem quite convincing to me and are worth a look.

The descriptions of meat, milk and poultry production are not pretty and they are accompanied by photos intended to upset. So I won’t include any here, especially the turkey photos, which would not be appreciated so soon after Thanksgiving. (even if the Blogger program would allow me, which I don’t think it does—or at least I haven’t figured it out yet.)

We should be thankful, at least, that there are organizations that point out animal abuse (and in the case of PETA at least,) put up a legal fight against it.

The thing that I like about CVA, as compared to PETA, is its biblical approach. At least they try to approach the subject from a biblical worldview and honor and give glory to the only One who deserves any. Whether or not strict vegetarianism can be legitimately supported by scripture is debatable (which debate is presented in Briggs's column) at least CVA is trying. And that’s a good thing (was that a little Martha-esque?) And the positive, encouraging approach may, in the end, be more effective. At least it’s not nasty.

These are important issues to think about and act upon, if the Spirit moves. And now we will move on to other topics—unless something else shows up on the subject in one news medium or another. Happy eating, whether from the flora, fauna, or both.

Bioman, in case you're wondering, will not become a vegan any time soon. I don't eat a tremendous amount of red flesh--maybe a once-a-year cholesterol special, like a double cheese bacon burger at Friendly's. But if you are convicted by these blogs, why not give the veggie lifestyle a try?