Christian Vegetarianism: "The Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat."

The Biblical verse quoted in the title is taken from Numbers 11:18 and is just one of many which indicates the absolute dichotomy between traditional Christian thinking and the idea that Christians can be vegetarians.

For one thing, there are many "animal" motifs throughout Christian Theology, such as the belief in Jesus Christ as the sacrificial "Lamb of God" and the use of the fish symbol.

Therefore, the question is "Can a Christian be vegetarian for Christian reasons? And if so, what exactly are these reasons?

Blessed are the Merciful

One reason given by Christian vegetarians concerns the central Christian belief of God as Love. All creation belongs to God; thus it is worthy of being cared for not eaten.

By being vegetarian, Christians are embodying the attribute of mercy and are fulfilling Jesus' words, "Blessed are the Merciful."

The website JesusVeg gives an example of this approach on its FAQ page, where it replies to one users' query stating that Christians should be vegetarians even if Jesus Christ wasn't.

This line of thought also involves Christian vegetarians to interpret Biblical narratives and events in non-traditional ways, which support their cause; such as this video on the Cleansing of the Temple.



And the idea that the natural state of humanity in the Garden of Eden was to practice Vegetarianism, as is indicated by some Biblical passages:

Jesus Christ: The Vegetarian

Despite some vegetarians believing that Jesus himself wasn't vegetarian, there are many that believe he was. This argument rests on the premise that passages in the Bible which portray Jesus eating fish, have actually been misunderstood and misinterpreted.

JesusVeg argues that the fish-eating verses were added in later by Greek scribes, because the Greek word for fish is an acrostic for Jesus Christ.

Other interpretations state that the Greek words for "fish" and "meat" are so general, that they can actually mean "dish" or "food," meaning that Christ never ate meat, but was a vegetarian:

Opposition

Despite the increase in Christians who are vegetarians, there is much opposition amongst non-vegetarian Christians. The latter argue that the former are guilty of making Jesus in the image of humanity, rather than humanity being made in the image of Jesus, as this blogger claims.

It seems that this argument is quite popular and also generates a lot of controversy and heated discussion, both on this site and on Christian Forums, where a thread on the subject lasted for 4 pages and ended up being closed by a moderator.

Conclusion

Thus, it is clear that many Christians preach a vegetarian lifestyle through using the internet and whilst this doubtlessly challenged traditional Christian thought regarding meat-eating, there is still much debate, controversy and opposition. This is not likely to change and perhaps the same situation exists for Islamic Vegetarianism.