The San Francisco Vegetarian Society has now uploaded the YouTube video of my talk, “Vegetarianism and Christianity — Why Don’t They Mix?” This talk was given on Sunday, October 7, 2012, in San Francisco at the World Vegetarian Festival.
Let me know what you think.
Romney and Obama debate
The second debate between Obama and Romney demonstrated that both are clueless over the most critical issues facing the country and planet earth: those concerning the environment. Do we really have another four years to fiddle away while climate change and resource depletion continue their march forward, and we have a President who doesn’t understand the basic nature of the problem? Continue reading
Jesus in the temple (Greco)
Many times vegetarians and vegans ask the question, “is there a Christian church, group, or denomination, which it makes sense for me to join?” For most of us, the answer to this question is “no.”
Vegetarians in the churches are not numerous. The few existing Christian vegetarians are mostly interested in health. Most Christians (even most Seventh-Day Adventists), if they think about it, would say that Jesus ate meat or at least fish. To say that it’s wrong to eat meat would condemn the founder of the religion. So what’s an ethical vegetarian or vegan to do? Continue reading
Everybody agrees the U. S. national debt is too high, but no one can agree on what to do about it. Raise taxes, or cut spending, or both? So Congress decided to kick the can down the road one last time, by specifying a number of “drastic” measures (tax increases and spending cuts) which will go into effect automatically at the end of 2012 unless Congress can come up with something better.
So, are you worried?
This “fix it or else” alternative is known as the “fiscal cliff” because if these cuts and taxes go into effect, everyone fears it will mean another serious recession. The Fiscal Cliff is a symptom that we have run into the limits to growth advertised in the 1972 book of the same name. Continue reading
(Hint: It has something to do with the economic system)James McWilliams recently (September 4) wrote an open letter to Whole Foods asking them to close their meat counters. This is noteworthy because John Mackey, their CEO, is himself a vegan, even though Whole Foods sells a lot of animal products. Continue reading
Mary Magdalene
Karen King’s draft paper on Jesus’ wife, and the Harvard Divinity School’s web site on the subject, both have a minor grammatical problem: the English title given to the gospel fragment. They style it as The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife, i. e., the possessive form of “Jesus” is made by adding an apostrophe – “s,” rather than simply an apostrophe.
I would respectfully suggest that they change this in the final version. It should be styled “Jesus’ wife.” Saying “Jesus’s wife” is just too awkward. Continue reading
Mary Magdalene
Karen King, a Harvard Divinity School scholar whom I greatly respect, has submitted a draft of an article for the Harvard Theological Review discussing a Coptic gospel fragment which refers to Jesus having a wife. This is now all over the internet, it was on the PBS Newshour last night, and even made the front page of the Denver Post and other papers. The Smithsonian Channel is planning a special program. It’s big news!
The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife (as King has named it) is very short and very fragmentary. Continue reading
The “passive house” concept is taking off. This is a new way of building homes that reduces the energy required for their maintenance by an amazing 90% from the standard construction. This way of constructing buildings is essential if we are to deal with such challenges as climate change and resource depletion. Continue reading
The first precept of Buddhism is variously cited as “abstaining from taking life,” “not taking the life of any sentient creature,” or “not killing.” Buddhist groups seem to agree that the life which we are not to kill includes animals and even insects. So the first precept clearly implies (at least) vegetarianism.
But while many Buddhists are vegetarian, many other Buddhists are not. Many Buddhist teachers say that you don’t need to become vegetarian, and even claim that the Buddha was not vegetarian. Continue reading
I am honored to have been invited to speak to the World Vegetarian Congress in San Francisco, which goes from October 5 to October 8.
I’ll be speaking on: “Vegetarianism and Christianity: Why Don’t they Mix?” The talk will be on Sunday, October 7, in the Garden Room 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. I hope to see you there!
A lot of great speakers will be at the conference, including Vesanto Melina, Michael Greger, Melanie Joy, Brenda Davis, John McDougall, Will Tuttle, Gabriel Cousens, Alan Goldhamer, Michael Klaper, and International Vegetarian Union organizers and speakers from different countries.
