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Add to NewsvineFather Wilson sends along this oldie but goodie from Dom Bettinelli's blog, recounting Father George Rutler's 2003 letter to the editor of Crisis magazine, responding to something or other argued by the Catholic Vegetarian Society. This is one of the best letters to the editor ever:
I was delighted to read the Manichaean ramblings of Danel Paden, director of the Catholic Vegetarian Society (“Letters,” June 2003). It confirmed my theory that fanaticism in Western society alternates between nudism and vegetarianism, both of which contradict the order of grace.As an optimist, I happily trust that Paden confines his extreme commitments to vegetarianism.
Taste is one thing; it is another thing to condemn meat eating as “evil” and permissible only “in rare and unfortunate circumstances.” Paden disagrees with no less an authority than God, Who forbids us to call any edible unworthy (Mark 7: 18-19), and Who enjoins St Peter to eat pork chops and lobster in one of my favorite revelations (Acts 10: 9-16). Does the Catholic Vegetarian Society think that our Lord was wrong to have served up fish to the 5,000, or should He have refrained from eating the Passover Lamb? When He rose from the dead and appeared in the Upper Room, He did not ask for a bowl of Cheerios, nor did He whip up a meatless omelette on the shore of Galilee.
Man was made to eat flesh (Genesis 1: 26-31; 9: 1-6), with the exception of human flesh. I stand on record against cannibalism, whether it be inflicted upon the Mbuti Pygmies by the Congolese Army or on larger people by a maniac in Milwaukee. But I am also grateful that the benevolent father in the parable did not welcome his prodigal son home with a bowl of radishes.
Vegetarians assume an unedifying posture of detachment from the sufferings of vegetables that are mashed, stewed, diced, and shredded. In expensive restaurants, cherries are publicly burned in brandy to the applause of diners. It is not uncommon for people to submerge olives in iced gin and twist the peels of lemons. Be indignant, vegetarian, but not so selectively indignant that the bleat of the lamb and the plaintive moo of the cow drown out the whine of our brother the bean and the quiet sigh of the cauliflower.
Vegetables have reactive impulses. Were we to confine our diet to creatures that lacked sense and do not even respond to light, we could only eat liturgists and liberal Democrats.
The Rev. George W. Rutler
New York City
UPDATE: Taylor Clark has a funny reflection on his life as a vegetarian. Excerpt:
Please don't try to convince us that being vegetarian is somehow wrong. If you're concerned for my health, that's very nice, though you can rest assured that I'm in shipshape. If you want to have an amiable tête-à-tête about vegetarianism, that's great. But if you insist on being the aggressive blowhard who takes meatlessness as a personal insult and rails about what fools we all are, you're only going to persuade me that you're a dickhead. When someone says he's Catholic, you probably don't start the stump speech about how God is a lie created to enslave the ignorant masses, and it's equally offensive to berate an herbivore. I know you think we're crazy. That's neat. But seeing as I've endured the hassle of being a vegetarian for several years now, perhaps I've given this a little thought.
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Comments
I'll just point out that saying...
I claim no moral superiority in foregoing meat. My main impetus is not to support agribusiness which is inhumane and unhealthy in the way animals are raised.
...is a bit like saying, "I make no claims to intellectual superiority, I'm just better educated than you."
Not that there's anything wrong with going veg for those reasons. I'll just present Romans 14 as about as good a statement as can be made on the matter and leave it there.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Barrett | May 9, 2008 7:21 PM
Dish of the Day
http://tinyurl.com/3rn2tk
Posted by: meh | May 9, 2008 8:39 PM
I have several friends who are vegetarian -- some for religious reasons (i.e., meat and sin were introduced to the world together) and some for health reasons. I was always relatively uncomfortable with it, and it wasn't until I read The Omnivore's Dilemma that I could articulate why: vegetarianism puts you at odds with society in a permanent way. During Great Lent and the other fasts, I am grateful for the reminder that Christians are not "of this world." My husband and I try to avoid most food-based social events so that we won't have to break the fast, but also in order to focus our time on prayer and our own relationship, and I think to do that a few times a year is very healthy. But come ON, to have to avoid every backyard barbeque from now till your dying day? Or to attend and politely eat just the potato salad and watermelon? Or to presume upon your hosts to cook a processed tofu substitute? It seems to me that all three options are a little unfair to the rest of the world, especially when the rest of the world has gone out of its way to include you and wants to make you feel comfortable.
Few of us would disagree that sharing a meal is one of the most elemental and sacred acts of togetherness that humans can do together, and I can't imagine, as Doug has said, cooking a steak dinner and then eating it alone while my husband munched carrot sticks. I'd probably convert to whatever he was doing, just so we could share plates again.
On the other hand, the story of Doug's wife is pretty fascinating. I know a man who started following a RAVE diet (no refined foods, animal products, vegetable oils, or exceptions) at 65 years old, and within a year he had actually reversed most of the damage to his heart, which had been so bad that he couldn't go into surgery even to get a tooth pulled. There are plenty of stories of people beating cancer this way, too. I can readily believe that there are enough toxins in what we generally eat, even the fulfilled, happy and grass-fed cows that grace my table, that to get rid of them altogether might be a good thing.
For now, though, I am glad to be in the land of the carnivorous with most of the rest of the world.
Posted by: Emily | May 10, 2008 8:50 AM
Rod, you do a book review in the April 21, 2008 issue of The American Conservative?!
The Conscience of a Carnivore
By Rod Dreher:
Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food by Gene Baur
Posted by: meh | May 10, 2008 9:45 PM
I am Catholic, vegan and well-educated ( three advanced degrees ). Your ramblings and rude comments are exactly that and nothing else. There is nothing wrong with compassion. I find it laughable how you use the Bible andd Jesus to justify the slaughter of animals for human consumption. Cruelty and violence is never justifiable. Resorting to ridicule says more about you than being vegan and compassionate. Maybe you can buy a heart and common decency at your local supermarket.
Posted by: Ana | May 30, 2008 7:20 PM
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