I will not self-righteously force my
view on others.
The highest standard of Christian ethics is love, and this means that
when I share my beliefs in this or any area, I am to do so
respectfully, in full acknowledgement of each person's
God-given
right to choose how he or she conducts his or her own life. This
standard also means that I am not to cause hardship or inconvience for
my family while I share a kitchen with them. That means that when
I have fully acclimated to the vegetarian lifestyle, I will do the
following at dinner to avoid causing them problems.
Make alternative protine sources for myself while consuming
the plant-based parts of the meal prepared for them, or:
prepare my own meal and eat it with them.
I am a vegetarian first out of
concearn for starving people elsewhere in the world, second out of
concearn for preventing the unnessasary suffering of animals, and third
out of concearn for my own physical health.
First, the production of meat is costly and inefficent. If all
grain feed to livestock animals in the United States was instead fed to
hungry people, world starvation could be eliminated tomorrow.
When I am buying my own food, I intend to use whatever money I save on
meat to benifit feed-the-hungry programs. Secondly, I am aware
that most livestock farms treat animals in an inhumane manner.
Thirdly, I recognize that a diet of predominantly plant-based materials
is best for promotion of physical health.
Lacto-vegetarianism with limited egg
consumption.
When I am fully acclimated to the veggetarian lifestyle, I will be a
lacto-vegetarian, meaning I will eat dairy products as well as
plant-based products, but not red meat, or poultry or fish. I do
not believe that eating fish contributes to starvation, that it causes
animals unnessasary suffering, or that it is a great risk to personal
health. I will avoid fish out of desire to avoid the censure of
the members of the vegetarian community, many of whom may have no other
contact with Christians. The credibility of the Gospel comes first.
Though I know that most egg farms treat hens in a shockingly inhumane
manner, out of respect for my family I will not make an issue of eating
the eggs that are included in family dishes, but will as far as I am
able seek to avoid preparing and eating them myself. Once I am
buying my own food, I will consume eggs only from farms I know
raise thier hens in a humane manner.
I choose to continue consuming dairy products because I believe the
dairy industry to be more humane than other livestock industries and
because my body needs the nutrients found in these products.
Making myself sick through nutritional deficit will not enable me to
help those causes that motivate my vegetarianism.