QuakerInfo.com Forum

[pilgrim]

John,
Perhaps God has allowed for people to eat meat at different times throughout history. However, in the Kingdom of God all creation will live in peace. And as Christians we are called to live in that Kingdom now to the best of our abilities.

Also, I don't see any reason to believe that Jesus did not support the Jewish dietary laws as laid out in the Torah.

[Anthony]

[Shay]

[Anthony]

[Shay]

[jnsn]

[kevin roberts]

i haven't eaten animals in so long that the stuff doesn't register with me as food anymore, and i've lost all taste for it. i once heated up a can of what i thought was vegetable soup in my truck (it was dark). when i opened up the can there was all this yellow grease floating on the top. i looked at the label and realized that it had been made with chicken broth. now, to a meat eater, chicken broth makes soup taste good. but all i could think of as i looked into that can was "somebody boiled a dead bird in my food." i ate it out of necessity, but to my taste buds it was pretty gross.

i've killed so many things in my life that it saddens me. mostly unnecessary death, as well. hundreds and thousands of things, what with random violence, pest control, and butchering. also academic zoology, with its emphasis on taking animals apart to see how they work. i don't do it anymore. the only animals i kill now are the rabid ones and the mice that crap all over my dishes in the kitchen drawers.

i live in a hunting part of the world, and i let one of my neighbors harvest the deer off my property every fall. he's a good archer, and it keeps the deer from becoming even more of a problem than they already are. in my area, deer have multiplied many-fold from their pre-european colonization numbers, and can become a serious agricultural pest and road hazard.

i've left off the raccoons until i have bees again, as there's no enmity between them and me and i would never kill one if they would leave me alone. i've killed my last skunk, as well

for bears, however, i would happily sacrifice the front of my car to encourage them to move on. luckily for my auto bill, they're not common. shay, there's actually lots more of those where you live, i believe

[jnsn]

Pilgrim- I also think that there is every reason to think that Jesus followed the dietary laws as detailed in the Torah. But that is because he was a Jew. I am a "gentile" and I am guessing you are too.

There was something around 800 years between Isaiah and Acts according to my handy bible time-line. And 2010 years to get here. One point that might be made is that the Jews do not seem to feel that Isaiah is the trump.

On another note- did you get a lot of snow in this latest go-round?-John

[Shay]

[Shay]

[Pulpculture]

[Anthony]

[wheatpenny]

[Kiahanie]

Jesus is recorded as having eaten fish, and fed fish to a few thousand people. He also told his followers to prepare lamb for a Passover meal.

Concerning cleansing the Temple, Jesus had 3 major problems with the 2nd Temple rituals and organization.

There was the "den of thieves" aspect: money changing and the selling of sacrificial animals was a source of profit for the Priests, which burden fell most heavily upon the poorest.

There was also the difference between Second Temple ritual, and the interposition of priests between God and worshipers. The Pharisaic movement (the pre-cursor to the post-Temple rabbinical organization of Jewish worship) emphasized the personal connection with the Divine, living right before God and man. Jesus was almost certainly a part of that movement. Ritual sacrifice (and the selling of those sacrifices) did not lead to right relationships between people or their God. The Temple had become a "marketplace" rather than a house of worship.

Finally there was the political part: The Temple Priests and their their "class", the Sadducees, were broadly seen as collaborators with the Romans. The institution of the Temple was effectively a means for the Romans to exert another level of control over the Jewish population. The priests obliged in order to stay in business.

The Gospels record the first two aspects. (The third would have been politically infeasible for a movement that was trying to gain traction in the post-Temple Roman Empire.) Jesus is not recorded as acting out of concern for the animals, but rather out of a concern that Temple practices were violating the relationship between worshipers and the divine.

Nevertheless, he did return to the Temple to teach at least once.
_________________
"There is a field out beyond right and wrong. I'll meet you there." --Jellaludin Rumi

[Anthony]