Tag Archives: veganism

Creation Care

Meat, Climate Change and the Bible

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by Vincent Mossberg.

In 2013, an IPCC (Intergovernmental panel on climate change) report was published stating that 95 percent of scientists are positive that the climate crisis of today is caused by mankind. Over the past 40 years, greenhouse gas emissions due to human activity have increased by 70 percent. During the same time, global meat consumption has tripled.

The connection between meat consumption and greenhouse gas emissions received increased attention in 2013, when the UN’s Organisation for Food and Agriculture released a report stating that around 18 precent of greenhouse gas emissions today comes from animal agriculture. And even if there would be zero emissions from all sectors such as energy, transport and trade, but not from animal agriculture, this would still not be enough to keep the planet from overheating. The issue of meat production and ultimately meat consumption is one of the biggest environmental issues of our time.

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Click on the image for an up-scaled version.

So what is the church’s role in reducing the global meat production in order to steward the planet and the animals that inhabit it? Continue reading Meat, Climate Change and the Bible →

Creation Care, Spirituality

Four Ways an Apostolic Lifestyle will Solve the Climate Crisis

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You thought that we had enough wars, hunger, and diseases. You thought that the current refugee crisis was big. You thought that natural disasters were too severe already.

Well, you were wrong.

The recent IPCC report cannot be taken lightly. It is based on 6,000 scientific studies and has received input from 40,000 peer-reviews. This is the scientific consensus. It’s time we stop getting distracted by climate change deniers and face the facts.

And the facts are that we are heading right into enormous environmental disasters that will kill and hurt hundreds of millions of people.

There is still time to change course, but it has to be done immediately. The modern, Western lifestyle is doomed. Either we choose to abandon it, or we will be forced to do so when the climate crisis hits. Many are confused as they are not sure how they ought to live in order to reduce their ecological impact on others.

What if I told you that we as Christians have had the solution to this problem for 2,000 years? What if I told you that if we simply lived like the early Christians, there would be no climate change? Continue reading Four Ways an Apostolic Lifestyle will Solve the Climate Crisis →

Creation Care

How To Save the Climate: No Meat, No Air Travel, No Car and No Babies?

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A new study from Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies in Sweden has identified the four most efficient things one can do to reduce one’s greenhouse gas emissions. For us who have studied environmental issues they aren’t surprising, but for the general public they might come as a shock since most environmental organizations tend to emphasize other, less efficient actions when calling for a transition to a greener society. The four actions are:

1. Going Vegan

Eating a plant-based diet instead of a meaty one will save you approximately 0.8 tonnes of CO2-equivalents every year. That’s four times more than what you save if you always recycle, and eight times more than changing your lightbulbs to energy efficient ones. In fact, UN studies have shown that the meat and dairy industry account for 18 % of all greenhouse gas emissions, which is why the UN Environmental Program has urged the global population to eat more vegan food.

2. Skipping Air Travel

Air travel is a luxury, being experienced by only 6 % of the world’s population any given year. Every transatlantic trip one avoids saves 1.6 tonnes of CO2-equivalents.  A family abstaining from flying to hotter countries every other holiday will do a massive environmental heroic deed. Take the train if you want to go somewhere, or use the Internet to talk with people in other countries. Continue reading How To Save the Climate: No Meat, No Air Travel, No Car and No Babies? →

Creation Care, Economic Justice

It Should be Natural for Christians to be Vegan

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by Sarah Stenmark.

I have discovered that few things are so controversial among Christians and met with such incomprehension (and ignorance) as veganism. “Do you eat only salad?” is a question I often get, or “you don’t eat wheat flour, right?” Not to mention all the extremely hilarious meat jokes (sarcasm intended). But I have discovered that most times people have preconceptions about what it means to be vegan and the reasons behind it.

When I tell people that I’m vegan, most assume that it is due to the animal ethics. And to be honest, it was probably how it started. Twelve years ago, I became a vegetarian because I loved animals, and felt like a hypocrite towards them when I ate meat. But over time I began to think about whether this really was a sufficient reason. As a Christian, I believed that humans have been appointed to manage creation and that we have a higher value than animals. If an animal’s death would be the prerequisite for human life, it would be a morally acceptable thing to do (as it turns out this is not the case today, as I will explain below).

The Bible doesn’t condemn meat eating or consumption, it doesn’t forbid us to kill animals. Jesus ate fish. Paul ate meat. I know. But this is not directly applicable to today’s society; partly because of the meat industry’s impact on climate change, but also because of hunger. Continue reading It Should be Natural for Christians to be Vegan →

Creation Care

A Case for Pentecostal Veganism

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by an anonymous Pentecostal pastor.

“I don’t eat the flesh of animals, their by causing them pain…” wrote the man that was to become the first General Overseer of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN). A.J. Tomlinson’s story of facilitating the growth of an international Pentecostal denomination begins in the lonely hamlet of Culbertson, North Carolina.

Tomlinson, a native of Indiana, was no stranger to this part of the American South. He had been on missionary journeys to rural Appalachia before. Armed with the disciplines of fasting and prayer this journey was to be one that would make a lasting impact on 20th century Christianity.

Tomlinson moved to Culbertson, N.C. on October 16, 1899 with an Edenic vision in his heart. Tomlinson referred to himself and his cohorts as Bible Missionaries Living in Common. Their goal was not only to recreate the egalitarian vision of the early church, but to also restore a reality experienced in the Garden of Eden.

Continue reading A Case for Pentecostal Veganism →