Can a Christian live a Vegan life?

[amandalav]

Can a Christian live a vegan lifestyle?

what does the bible say about it?

[ayin jade]

You are free to eat vegan if you wish. Do you have to live vegan? No. What is there about a vegan lifestyle that you think is not scriptural?

[Guest]

Colossians 2:16 Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a festival, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. 

Romans 14:3
The one who eats everything must not belittle the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted him.

[SavedOnebyGrace]

9 hours ago, amandalav said:

Can a Christian live a vegan lifestyle?

Yes, but why would you?

9 hours ago, amandalav said:

what does the bible say about it?

Nothing.  Old Testament dietary laws are for the Jewish people trying to live and be saved by works.  Our righteousness is from Jesus by grace, not by works so that no one can brag.

[Willa]

All of us would be more healthy eating more fruit, vegetables and whole grains, nuts and seeds.  One does need to be careful to get enough iron and other minerals which come largely from animal products. 

[missmuffet]

11 minutes ago, Cobalt1959 said:

In the very beginning, pre-Flood, mankind was only allowed to eat plants.  After the Flood, God gave mankind everything to eat, including animals.  A Christian is free to choose what they wish to eat, and that would mean that if they choose to eat only plants, that is perfectly acceptable and if they choose to eat meat as well, that is perfectly acceptable as well.

Yes, it is a choice and I do like and eat meat.

[angels4u]

17 hours ago, amandalav said:

Can a Christian live a vegan lifestyle?

what does the bible say about it?

Welcome to Worthy Amanda, this is a welcome section only, if you have 5 posts or more you could ask them in a different section of the board.

Welcome

[GandalfTheWise]

19 hours ago, amandalav said:

Can a Christian live a vegan lifestyle?

what does the bible say about it?

From the eating standpoint, I see no issues with it.   My wife and daughter went with an all plant and whole food based diet about a year ago for a number of reasons.  We still get our grass fed beef (for me and a family friend we have Sunday supper with every week) from some friends that have a farm.  Most of the food we get is either organic or grown locally.  We basically avoid processed food products.  I don't eat as much meat or dairy as I used to, but I haven't sworn off it.   My daughter also avoids products (such as chocolate) that have a bad reputation for exploitation of people in the production of it around the world.  

I've done some research and my sense is that avoiding processed foods (high in salt, corn syrup, and preservatives) is a good idea.  Ultimately, the goal of processed foods is easy mass production, distribution, storage, and profits.  Increasing salt content of products causes them to absorb more water (and weight) meaning you can put less product in a half-pound container since it has more water.  The stuff my wife and daughter gave me to read about plant based diets is not overwhelmingly compelling to me.  I downloaded the data from the China Project to analyze it myself.  I really don't see the case for absence of meat correlating to health in that data.  But my sense is that eating more fiber based natural plants and plant products is generally healthier than the typical western diet that includes tons of processed foods.  The bottom line is that they are both feeling better (especially my daughter who has lost about 20 pounds in the past year and is sleeping better).  On the other hand, I've lost over 50 pounds in the past couple of years mostly due to getting a lot of stress out of my life more so than a diet change.

Now, from the ideological standpoint, there are a couple things about vegan views to be aware of.  Some are animal rights advocates in contrast to animal welfare advocates.  Animal rights advocates push for the idea that animals should have rights in the same sense as humans having rights.  Animal welfare advocates push for humane treatment and good stewardship practices. My sense is that the vast majority of Christians are animal welfare advocates to some degree.  However, the vegans who are animal rights advocates would ban all meat eating (and other things) due to violating the rights of animals to not be killed and eaten or used by humans.

Biblically speaking, the disciples and Jesus ate fish.  For example, John 6 (in the story of the feeding of 5000) there is verse 11 "Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks,and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish."  If Jesus had been an animal rights advocate in the sense that some vegans are, this would have been a perfect teaching point to the disciples about not eating fish.  However, the fish were distributed along with the bread.  In addition, there is no mention of a dietary change during the Passover (which by the Law of Moses included a lamb).  If a dietary change eliminating meat was going to happen, it seems this would have been the ideal time to do it by changing the Passover rules.    In first Corinthians (addressing the issue if it was okay to eat meat from an animal sacrificed to an idol), Paul writes, "Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience".   If there was an ethical issue with eating meat (likely from bulls, cows, goats, or similar), Paul would have likely raised that as an issue and simply told them not to eat any meat rather than discussing in detail about the source of the meat being from sacrifices or not.  There is also Peter's vision in Acts 10 where Peter is explicitly shown animals to eat.  

My sense is that the Bible has explicit examples that show Jesus and the disciples eating meat and not explicitly condemning eating meat of various types.  In addition, the OT has the practice of sacrifices at the temple in which the person bringing the sacrifice and the priest both would eat meat from the sacrifice.  Also, the simple fact of the promised land being constantly referred to as a land flowing with milk and honey suggests that animal products were considered a normal and desirable part of a diet.  The bottom line is that there is no explicit mention of animal rights (as contrasted to animal welfare) as a moral imperative.  

However, to me, a key point in this is that often when eating meat in the Bible, the person usually had some type of connection with the animal.  There is a huge difference (in my opinion) between an agrarian society where people do their own killing and processing of animals that they raised or hunted themselves, and have some degree of respect for the animal in contrast to our frankly awful modern mass production system where people have no clue where meat comes from.  This is a contradictory type of thing, but I grew up in a rural area where many people lived on farms and most people hunted to put meat on the table and viewed killing as a solemn thing that was not done lightly.  These are people who would kill animals for meat but be infuriated at poachers or hunters who killed deer purely for getting a nice set of antlers  to mount.  Also, one of the surest ways to be disrespected (at least where I grew up) was to become known as a farmer or a person that mistreated animals.  In my opinion, meat eating in the Bible was largely associated with hunting, fishing, or agriculture where there was a close personal involvement with the animals and a keen awareness of what was being done.  I think that there is a difference between that and what we have in the U.S. (and other countries) today where people can walk into a store and pick up a clean sanitized package.

If a Christian has strong views about the treatment of animals and has severe qualms about eating meat or other animal products or using animal products, I don't think they should eat them or use them.  I don't think other Christians should be obnoxious about it either (and do things like waving a bacon cheeseburger in their face figuratively or literally) and should be respectful about it.  I think that the converse holds as well.