A Return to Eden:
How compassionate consumer choices can heal our world and our spirit.
By Barbara Gates
Summit Unitarian Universalist Sermon 3/19/06
It was Abraham Lincoln who said, “I do not trust a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.” I was proud of my religion last week with the sermon, “The Souls of Animals.” Thank you to Pilar and Rev. Tom. Their sermon - and hopefully today’s - is a reminder that, as we go about our day to day lives, it is vital to slow down and be mindful of how our daily actions and choices affect the souls of animals: From the time when we get up in the morning as we bath and brush our teeth; to the simple act of dressing ourselves or laundering our clothes; and of course when we sit down to eat several times a day. Every one of these actions and so many of our daily tasks impacts animal souls. It wasn’t until Lucy, my second child, was born that I learned how my consumer choices impacted not only animals and the planet, but also my own spirit. The student was ready and the teacher’s appeared. One teacher was author John Robbins. I will be basing much of this sermon on his groundbreaking book, Diet for a New America.
I always had a special connection to animals, even insects. I’ll never forget the neighbor boy torturing and killing bugs – for fun. Besides pulling of their legs, the neighbor boy burned them with his magnifying glass on the sidewalk in front of my house – Benji Whitmer. My mother would cradle and comfort me as I cried at the cruelty. How come he didn’t feel compassion for them? I grapple with those same questions as an adult when I see how our society accepts cruelty to animals; animals other than pets. So for those of you who relocate spiders, who have lifted a fallen baby bird back into it’s nest or taken in a stray (animal, that is), I ask you to listen today with an open mind, loving heart, and welcoming hands. Because today I am talking about something more taboo than politics or religion or sex; I’m going to talk to you about food. People are extremely passionate about food. Men - who have a hard time expressing their feelings - can easily express deep passion and love and commitment and loyalty to certain foods. While eating something wonderful, people moan, erotically… Eating can be a deeply religious experience.
And when we slow down and consider the bounty that grows from this earth – in all it’s colorful, beautiful, shapes sizes, colors, flavors and textures, and nutrient contents – mangos, bananas, avocados, nuts, chocolate! (Slide 2 – bountiful plant foods)… Food in its natural state - as it grows from mother earth - is truly miraculous. It is a gift from God. It is sacred. When I think of all the wondrous foods that grow on this planet, not to mention the flowers and animals, I can’t help but think of Eden; of Eden lost and waiting to be restored: A peaceful and plentiful and green world.
Now I have been advised over the years not to talk about food as an ethical subject. Well meaning folks have tried to persuade me to approach this subject from a health standpoint so that people won’t “turn off.” But to avoid the cruel realities of those industries who profit from animal suffering - animals who have souls - for me to make this sermon anything other than an ethical and spiritual subject – in Church – would be a sin. But, what I’m not going to do today is give you the long list of reasons for making compassionate food choices. Instead, I’m going to ask you, for the duration of this sermon to simply accept – for arguments sake – that the list is long and compelling and legitimate and true. I want you to accept for now – for arguments sake – that animal food production contributes to major environmental devastation and to intense, horrific animal suffering. I want you to accept if only for today, that you don’t need animal foods or byproducts to be healthy and happy. In fact you will likely ward off killer diseases by shifting to a plant centered diet. I wont’ try to prove it to you. As UU’s with one of our principles being “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning,” I trust you’ll find the proof - if you need it. So…just for arguments sake – for the duration of this sermon – I ask for your trust… because I know this subject. So what I want to do instead, is examine the question: If we accept these statements (about cruelty, the environment, and our own health), and if we accept that animals may have souls, why do we still allow them to be killed, even tortured, for that which is unnecessary?
I remember when a young, passionate intern minister came to our church about 2 or 3 years ago to discuss the “V” word. Thanks to Ned White’s courage, this young man was invited to give a courageous sermon on the merits of vegan dietary choices. And let me just take a moment to clarify just what a vegan is: We simply try in our day to day lives to live in accordance with the value of: “harm no living thing;” Emphasis on “try.” We practice deliberate kindness. For example: We would choose Cirque De Soleil, rather than Ringling Brothers circus, who abuses wild animals ; we strive to buy natural, non-toxic household and personal care products that are not tested on animals; and we don’t normally wear fur, leather, or even silk (as the silk worms are boiled alive to retrieve their silk). And many of our compassionate consumer choices we have in common with non-vegans; or “pre” vegans; But that food thing – that which we are all so passionate about – that’s where things get tricky. So at circle discussion after our visiting vegan minister gave his heartfelt talk, I heard one older member staunchly say, “I don’t like being made to feel guilty.” And there were more dismissive comments like, “Big fish eat little fish,” and, “With species extinction, I can’t see giving cows and pigs much attention.” I understood every one of those rationalizations because I’ve made them myself. Until one day, I could no longer avoid the cold hard truth: For me to eat animals was for me to kill animals (Slide 3 – dead turkeys in route to slaughter). For me to eat animals was for me to support cruelty to animals (Slide 4 – lone pig’s face chewing on confinement crate). But I loved animals. Killing that which you love is not rational. I wouldn’t hunt, so the fact that a slaughter house worker does the killing for me is merely a technicality.
So, I started to feel - God forbid – guilty. Someone made me feel guilty because they told me the truth and asked me to acknowledge the truth. These damn self righteous animal rights eco radicals not only told me the truth, but they asked me to take responsibility for my actions which supported these grizzly truths. I had to own my own guilt. In a little inspirational book called “Just Do It,” it reads, “Guilt is the energy for personal change.”
As for species extinction being more important than the 9 billion, yet individual and sentient farm animal souls being tortured and killed each year: You may not know that Bears, mountain lions, wolves, and prairie dogs have been annihilated to the point of near extinction, in the name of protecting livestock; grazing livestock that are over-running our wild places and have no business being in those wild places. (Slide 5 – cows grazing in woods) As we speak, the wild bison of Yellowstone are being shot because of the threat of disease being spread from the bison to the cattle, and yet there is not one case of such a contamination. And the pollution to our rivers and ground water from animal waste is beyond comprehension. Speaking of water, it takes over 2000 gallons of this precious and dwindling resource to produce one pound of beef.
Big fish do eat little fish, but there are obvious environmental and biological reasons big fish eat little fish and I’m happy to report that humans have virtually none of them in common with fish. We’re actually built – physiologically - almost identically to vegetarian animals, Apes for example who we share 98% DNA, which is why it is impossible for a carnivorous animal to die of a stroke or heart attack from cholesterol clogged arteries. But back to the fish, something else to keep in mind about eating fish is that humans have managed to over fish our oceans to the point of creating dead zones. La Jolla Cove is one such biological waste land. In some fishing towns, you may have heard stories of the fish stocks being so low that humans are competing with sea lions. So, the fishermen shoot the sea lions. Orcas are on the decline in Washington due to low fish stocks, agricultural runoff (farms), and because of all the baby orcas that were kidnapped from there pods – their families - for marine “entertainment” parks a couple of decades ago. That’s one of many reasons a vegan doesn’t visit Sea World. These vegan issues – issues of compassion - touch every strand of our interdependent web. It is highly complex and yet it is so simple. It’s simply compassion; Compassion over killing. We have a choice.
But with all the pressing social issues we face, how and why should we give this one our attention. There are suffering children and wars raging. I’m reminded of an exchange with an acquaintance, who in her argument to not even consider giving up animal foods used the example of women in Afghanistan. Afghanistan women and their predicament, she believed, was not her responsibility; just as it was not her responsibility to make the world more just for animals. Now, I understood that as a person living in America, it would be difficult to find a way to help women in Afghanistan. So I posed this question to her: What IF there was something you could do on a daily basis that would counter the discrimination and suffering of women in Afghanistan – then would you do it? If it didn’t cost you anything and only required a shift to say… rice milk instead of cow’s milk. Can you see where I’m going here? This is one cause where we can make a difference simply by making alternative choices. Every meal, every clothing purchase, and every trip to the grocery store is an opportunity to create a more compassionate world. It’s an opportunity to support animal and eco friendly small businesses. It is an opportunity to heal our own bodies and elevate our spirit. And it’s doable. It can even be exhilarating as you discover personal care products and foods you never knew existed – foods that make you moan. By the way, this person never answered my question. She just continued to say it wasn’t her responsibility (Slide 6 – intensely confined laying chickens).
So why do we still eat animals with souls? Why do you turn a blind eye? The most common answer I hear is simply, “I love meat” …exclamation mark. “I could never live without cheese,” exclamation mark. We are so passionate about our food, lustful for flesh; the result being that our passion over- rides our capacity for compassion, which is where all violence stems from: Theft, Murder, Adultery – which is emotional violence. Do not doubt that slaughter houses and factory farms and animal laboratories and animal circuses are horribly violent places – they are hellish (Slide 7 – pigs in rows of crates). I have seen much of this hell first hand, and much more I have seen – and heard – from powerful documentaries. As painful as it was to bear witness – excruciating – I made myself watch. And I didn’t let myself repress the images afterwards – there pain was far more significant than mine There pain warranted attention over mine. Paul McCartney is quoted as saying, “If slaughter houses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarian.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.” Nobel Prize winning author and Jew, Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote, “… the parallels are plain to see. Everything the Nazis did to Jews we are today practicing on animals. Our grandchildren will ask us one day: Where were you during the holocaust of the animals? What did you do against these horrifying crimes?”
I believe that if we had to look into the eyes of an intelligent social pig, or a gentle cow or lamb, or a brave and proud chicken – it would be extremely difficult to go through with killing it ourselves – perhaps impossible, unless it was a matter of survival. Most of us don’t hunt. Many of us even have a sense of disdain for the brutes that do it - for so called, sport. Now, I’m not condoning hunting, but on the scale of cruelty, factory farmed animals endure far more suffering than hunted animals. On the scale of cruelty, the baby cows of the veal industry are one example of heart wrenching cruelty. After the trauma of being ripped from their mothers at birth, these babies are confined in the darkness, in tiny crates so that they cannot walk or even turn around (Slide 8 – crated veal calf). This creates the tender pink meat. Well, the big anti veal campaign raised much awareness for these innocent baby cows and a lot of us boycotted veal. But what few people realize – and I didn’t know until I was middle aged - is that these veal cows are a by product of the dairy industry. The veal industry was born from the surplus of baby cows from dairy farms.
It had never occurred to me that in order for a cow to make milk, she had to have a baby. And I was nursing Lucy when I started to become informed about this particular “animal rights” issue. I wasn’t a vegetarian at the time, but I certainly was boycotting veal and had been for some time. I was connecting some pretty profound dots. If we’re going to boycott veal, then it follows that dairy products should also be boycotted; because as long as we continue to eat foods like ice cream and cheese and butter and milk – all of which are so very decadent and which contribute to diseases; diet related diseases which will kill some of us or our loved ones – we support the appallingly cruel and unnatural veal industry. Now I know what you might be thinking: But we need cow’s milk for calcium. True we need calcium, but we don’t need cow’s milk to get it. Western nations with the highest dairy intake have the highest rates of osteoporosis! Cow’s milk is a cruel hoax. In fact, the renowned and late Dr. Benjamin Spock in his last revised Baby Book boldly renounced drinking cow’s milk and recommended a vegan diet for children. He went vegan at age 88 by the way. It’s never too late. Consider: humans are the only species that drinks milk beyond infancy. From a spiritual standpoint, taking those baby cows away from their mother at birth so that we can eat ice cream and brie cheese is a crime against God (whatever that means to you). BTW, Vegan ice cream makes me moan. Try it. And try my vegan cookies at social time. I also brought an array of non-dairy milks and coffee creamers, so I hope you’ll have fun “taste-testing.”
So I think the answer to the question, ‘If animals have souls, WHY do we still allow them to be tortured and killed unnecessarily?” … if that answer is “I love the taste,” and “It would be so hard to change,” then it’s time to take a long hard look at how that fits into your spiritual and ethical framework. I think it’s an absolutely genuine answer, but I also believe it is an easy answer for a much more difficult dilemma. Perhaps there are other reasons that lie deeper and buried in our hearts and minds. Perhaps it is the fear of change; of the unknown. Or perhaps it is the fear of being alienated from society, or worse, family; the fear of going it alone. It is not easy separating from the tribe; standing up for something that is unpopular; not at first. But over time the change can feel liberating and empowering. Perhaps we are truly addicted to animal foods. Again, there are solid studies that support this theory. I believe its true. There is a saying that people are motivated by one of two things: fear or love.
I remember the day Jim and I decided to pursue the lifestyle of Veganism. I remember where we were standing in the kitchen. He had finished the book Diet for a New America at my request. His exact words were, “What am I going to put on my cereal? What about Ice Cream?” He was genuinely perplexed rather than defensive. He was beautifully vulnerable in that moment. It was scary. And now look at me. Look at Jack and Lucy and big Jimbo.
The times “They are a changin.” When I was a young girl everybody smoked and there was no PETA. There were no veggie burgers or animal rights activists or internet - with websites exposing these realities. There was the civil rights movement, which many thought was impossible, even those who agreed with it. There was the women’s rights movement. And lots of folks thought that was absurd. And now there is the gay rights movement, which we will win. We know that standing up for these causes won’t change the world overnight, but it changes us.
Abraham Lincoln also said, “I believe in animal rights as well as human rights, that is the way of a whole human being.” The time has come. The animal rights movement is real and growing and inspiring and it is imperative. Animals are capable of thinking and feeling and suffering, and even inventing and creating (NOVA, PBS). God gave them souls; and they deserve their God given right to a natural life, free from suffering at the hands of human gluttony.
I promise that with a little effort, you really can be happy w/out going to circuses with animals; you really can be happy w/out buying those designer leather shoes or glamorous fur coat. And you can be happy and fulfilled and even healthier without consuming animal foods. Personally, these changes brought with them a greater spiritual fulfillment and a feeling of being more in harmony with mother earth. I have never enjoyed food the way I do now. People think eating vegan is limiting when in fact I now eat foods from around the world that I never knew existed. It’s as though the flood gates are flung wide open and I am floating towards Eden. I’m in good company: Albert Schweitzer, Einstein, Frances Moore Lappe, Dr. Jane Goodall, Buddha, Ghandi, Jesus, Jim and the kids. A vegan meal is the one and only meal that people of all faiths from around the world can sit down together and enjoy - in peace; in harmony; in love.
In the forward of Diet for a New America, written by author Joanna Macy, she writes, “After reading this book for the second time …a strange fantasy arose in my mind. It was a scenario of what would happen if Americans no longer found animal products attractive… What would happen? (Slide 9 – boy patting pig) What would it mean for our lives and our world? …The effects on our physical health are immediate. The incidence of cancer and heart attack, the nation’s biggest killers, drops precipitously…” She elaborates about the reduction of other diet related diseases including “neurological disorders and birth defects due to pesticides and other chemicals…” She writes, “The social, ecological and economic consequences are equally remarkable. We find that the grain we previously fed to fatten livestock can now feed five times the U.S. population; so we have become able to alleviate malnutrition and hunger on a worldwide scale… The great (oxygen producing) forests of the world, that we had been decimating for grazing purposes (and excessive feed crops), begin to grow again…the water crisis eases and the amount now available for irrigation and hydroelectric power doubles. Meanwhile the change in diet frees over 90% of the fossil fuel previously used to produce food…our reliance on oil imports declines, as does the rationale for building nuclear power plants...” And finally, she ponders the effect on our souls. She writes, “The less obvious effect of our animal free diet, but perhaps more telling on the deep psychological level, is the release that it brings from the burden and guilt of cruelty inflected on other species …we breathe easier, letting ourselves be emotionally in touch again with all our brothers and sisters.” In her forward, Joanna Macy was describing Eden; a consciousness, a compassion, and a healing of our world and our spirit that is the opposite to the Hell of the Holocaust of the animals (Slide 10 – Turkey w/child).
Offering: As we consider our offering today, I would like to briefly tell you about a conversation I had with fellow Summitarian, Mark Weedman. I was expressing my concerns to him over the controversy of my sermon subject. He was so wonderful in reassuring me that taking on these tough issues was what Unitarian Universalism was all about. He said our church is the perfect place because we take risks in our efforts to resist complicity.
Ours is a liberal religious community with a strong faith that we can make the world a better place with our actions – our karma - hear on earth. So at this time we ask you to help us carry on this important work.
Closing Reading: #648 Beginners (responsive, from hymnal)
Closing Words:
Reverend and Doctor and vegetarian Albert Schweitzer taught us, “Not until we extend our circle of compassion to include all living things shall we ourselves know peace.”
May we extend our circle of compassion to include all living things so that we ourselves shall know peace. So may it always be. Amen. Shalom. Allah. Aho. Namaste.
