Weekly Newsletter from Christian Vegetarian Association CVA - December 12, 2019
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

  1. Consider a Holiday Gift for the CVA
  2. The Garden of Eden and Human Sexuality
  3. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

1. Consider a Holiday Gift for the CVA

Our ministry relies on its donors to cover the cost of booklets and other outreach materials. We hope you will include our ministry in your annual giving. To donate, go to the bottom of the page at www.christianveg.org/materials.htm

Thank you, and have a blessed Christmas season.

2. The Garden of Eden and Human Sexuality

Last week, I discussed how the intensity of human sexual passions can frighten us, in part because they can make us fear losing control. The strength of these feelings is also a major threat to human community. Humans, in general, have strong sexual desires, and they also tend to care deeply about who are their sexual partners. Having sexual relations with people we find attractive is gratifying at a biological level and also raises self-esteem.

However, “attractiveness” is largely determined by cultural factors, and mimetic desires play a key role. For example, men in the Renaissance would likely have found contemporary female models with low body/mass indexes unattractive. Our standards for “attractiveness” tend to be based on those physical, personal, or social status features that our peers call “attractive.” Also, we gain self-esteem by having sexual relations with people who are culturally deemed “attractive,” because this signals victory in the competition for the more attractive mates.

This is a problem when we are trying to build and maintain the “beloved community,” which I think is what Jesus had in mind when he referred to the Kingdom of God. Whatever passes for “attractiveness” is a relative term, with some people regarded as attractive and others not so much. Invariably, there are insufficient “attractive” people to satisfy the desires of the general community. The competition for attractive sexual partners leads to conflicts that can tear communities apart. As discussed in earlier essays, the scapegoating process alleviates such tensions by blaming one or a minority of individuals for conflict. However, the Kingdom of God is incompatible with the injustice of the scapegoating process.

These concerns relate to animal issues, in large part because nonhumans are convenient scapegoats. I will turn to this next week.

Stephen R. Kaufman, MD

3. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

  • December 12, 2019 Newsletter: We just published this week's edition of our all-creatures Newsletter, which we hope you like and share with others to help stop the exploitation and killing of animals.
  • Sermon from Rev. Frank Hoffman
    Hope Looks Forward

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