Weekly Newsletter from Christian Vegetarian Association CVA - August 13, 2024
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

  1. Advocating for High Ethical Standards
  2. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

1. Advocating for High Ethical Standards

I wish to expand on the idea that the way people treat nonhumans is a good indication of their trustworthiness. People who say that they value justice, compassion, or kindness belie this claim when they directly or indirectly cause misery and suffering to vulnerable individuals. If they abandon those values and ethics that they find inconvenient, there is little reason to take their ethical standards seriously.
 
The problem is not that the unethical person who advocates for high ethical standards is a hypocrite. Hypocrisy itself only relates to the character of that person and does not necessarily negate the ethical standards. One problem is that the hypocrisy, particularly if widespread, raises doubts about whether we can expect people to live up to these standards. If not, we should not expect our community to uphold the standards when it becomes inconvenient for its members to do so. Kindness and respect among members of communities that readily treat non-community members with cruelty and injustice is a façade. Their ethos readily leads to mistreatment of each other, should the need or desire arise.
 
Also, we have good reason not to trust the “social justice” claims of people who make lifestyle choices that promote violence and injustice, such as consuming animal products. Such people might promote certain policies in the name of justice, but their harmful, self-serving personal choices naturally encourages others to wonder whether their high-minded assertions actually reflect self-interests.
 
Milan Kundera, in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, wrote, “True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind’s true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude toward those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.”
 
Indeed, the fundamental violation of ethical standards for the purpose of exploiting nonhumans means that those standards are provisional. We can never have peace in our communities as long as we are ready and willing to sacrifice our values.
 
Next, I will illustrate this problem by arguing that contemporary threats to American democracy relate to its “original sin” of slavery.

Stephen R. Kaufman, MD 

2. From All-Creatures.Org Ministry

All-Creatures.org Newsletter, August 7, 2024

Plant Forward 2024 campaign in 9 Asian countries — Christian leaders against bullfighting — Animal Moral Considerability — wild Animal suffering matters — Brussels transitioned from horse-drawn to electric carriages — Paul Watson's threatened extradition to Japan, actions to take — Animals Respect — Devastating consequences of land-grant university system — why are rodeos so popular? — looming crisis of Chevron Decision — and more…

All-Creatures.org Newsletter, August 14, 2024

Birds and window collisions — capturing, killing, turning Painted Wholly Bats into decorations — Athens' aquarium protest — 'vegan snakeskin'? — UAE veterinary clinics approve plant-based food for Dogs — more overlooked hazards of big ag — suffering of cashmere goats — bad climate news: fossils in Greenland — more on zoonotic diseases — emissions from fishing industries — about processed meats — dinner date with a big game hunter — and more… 

Do you have things that you would like to see included in future newsletters? Then send it to us at veda@all-creatures.org. 

In the Love of the Lord,
Frank L Hoffman
All-Creatures.org

and

Kindness,
Tams Nicholson
Executive Directress
All-Creatures.org 

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