Morality should guide life choices

In November 2002 the evangelical Environmental Network asked the question "What Would Jesus Drive?" It caused a lot of debate and was severely criticized. "No one should questions what I drive," opponents said. "The church has no right to judge vehicles as sinful."

However, it is a moral choice. It affects air quality and the quality of all communities. They might have also asked the question "What would Jesus eat?"

We know that tens of millions die annually from starvation-related causes and close to a billion suffer from malnutrition. Thirty-seven percent of the world's harvested grain is fed to animals raised for slaughter. In the United States the figure is 66 percent!

Forty percent of the world's agricultural lands are seriously degraded. "Factory farms" in the United States run by corporations kill tens of billions of animals yearly. Counting sea animals you can add another 15 billion per year! They live a horrific life and die a terrifying and most painful death. Many are still alive when torn apart, thrown into boiling water or scaled. You may not have realized this: meat-eaters and fur-, leather- and wool-wearers are paying others to kill and torture animals.

Our wonderful creator loves animals and Bible verses confirm this. God is concerned about how they should be cared for and specifically forbids cruelty. Most certainly he would not condone the "Factory Farms" we have in modern societies.

The harm done to the earth, to the health of all people and the extreme cruelty in the way animals are raised and slaughtered happens because "majority opinion" can be indifferent to what occurs and even good and faithful followers of Jesus "can be stone-blind to the cruelties in their midst." St Francis of Assisi included animals in his ministry. He preached love, peace and compassion for all. "If you have people who will exclude any of Gods creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity you will have people who will do likewise with other people." If Jesus was alive today he certainly would be speaking out against animal abuse, and yes, he would most likely be a vegetarian!

Pat Curnow

Grayslake