"God likes me more": an unacknowledged but totally present vegan/omnivore superiority struggle

“Well…I don’t think God really intended for us to not eat meat.”  :\. 

This is a line I’ve heard too often from other Christians when they learn I’m vegan.  This is annoying because it’s a pretty cowardly way of implying that I’m doing something spiritually wrong by abstaining from animal products.....I just…I just don’t think I am.

 I am guilty too though. I'm sometimes tempted (and this was especially true when I first went vegan) to have a superiority complex about abstaining from animal products, waiting for others to be enlightened and all that.  

Let’s explore the issue.

“And God said, ‘Behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. –Genesis 1:29-30

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden…” Genesis 2: 16

I think we should at least note the fact that in Genesis God explicitly names the plants— “every green plant”— and trees as food for [wo]man. Notice that he doesn’t add “and if THAT’S not enough feel free to kill and roast one of the new little pets I gave you.”  God brought the animals to Adam so that he could name them, he didn’t say anything about munching on a chicken leg or ox tail.

I would love to end here and be like “boo-yah! In your face omnivores!”

Alas, sometimes you think you have the upper hand but when you keep reading, you stumble upon things like:

“And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hands they are all delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

From this, and the fact that I know no stories of God’s wrath falling on anyone in the Bible solely because of meat consumption, I have to admit that it is not inherently wrong to eat animals (which is good news since it’s something I did happily for 23 years).

“Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink…Colossians 2:16-17; 20-23

“As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables (weak? Weak?! hmph). Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.  Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand…Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind…The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God…Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” Romans 14: 1-4;6b;13-19.

I always think of these verses (well, parts of them) when I’m questioned about what I eat and why or when I’m feeling particularly superior to meat eaters (yes I have those days, I’m sorry! ) “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”  Right on Paul. If you said it, I believe you. But I think in the case of our food industry today, our friends “context,” and “historicity” need to come out and play.

Feminists love context and historicity. The food industry as it existed when Paul spoke is not comparable to what it is today. Today the food we eat is so tied up in injustice, exploitation, deception, profit seeking, and sickness that I cannot separate my choices concerning it from my commitment to following the Lord. We are misinformed about nutrition for the sake of profit. People are being exploited in the name of profit. The environment is being destroyed in the name of profit.  Where’s the “righteousness, peace, and joy,” of the Kingdom of God in this area?! When I think about these things, I definitely see my practice of veganism as a great spiritual discipline.

The Bible frequently talks about fasting, and in Isaiah 58 God asks his people to learn the kind of fasting he chooses—the kind that loosens the chains of injustice, helps the oppressed, and destroys things that keep people bound. For me embracing a whole-foods plant- based diet is a part of doing this— it means confronting and resisting a greedy, corrupt, disease promoting (processed foods anyone?) industry, it means promoting the use of land for grain cultivation, It means voicing a preference for that grain to be used to feed people rather than animals that will be killed (animals who should be eating grass to begin with!) for rich people to eat. It means doing my part to preserve the environment and not polluting the waters of those in lower income neighborhoods, it means caring about the plight of animals that were created to do more than live a cruel life in a tiny, filthy cage hopped up on antibiotics and fear. (I CANNOT stress just how cruel of a system factory farming is. Please care.) It means promoting the truth in an area where lies and deception are the norm. Now THAT really gets me going! I feel a sense of rightness not because I’m certain it’s Gods will but because in choosing to live this way, I am honestly seeking God’s will.

So the point is…although the times I go through it are few, I repent of my superiority complex. If you come to me, however, and tell me (or in any way imply or I think that you’re implying) that God made me to eat meat, I will give you the stank eye. Feel free to do the same to if I rear my haughty vegan head.

June 8 2011, my first vegan morning, proudly sporting a kale smoothie 'stache. mmm-mmm :).