Blessed Are the Peacemakers: A Vegan Mandate. Dr. Chapman Chen

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God,” says Jesus (Matthew 5:9). According to American animal rights activist cum autodidactic theologian Norm Phelps’s (2002) famous work, The Dominion of Love, the way we treat animals is fundamentally violent. We strip them of their God-given right to live in accordance with their natural instincts and needs; instead, we compel them to exist—and perish—according to our selfish wants. We destroy their ecosystems and homes, we confine, abuse, and slaughter them, doing whatever serves to turn their lives into means for our gratification. Toward animals, we are not agents of peace. We aren’t even fair opponents—since the term “warrior” implies some degree of justice, parity, or honour. Rather, we act as oppressors—despots, tyrants, dictators. We wage unprovoked brutality on innocent beings with barely a moment’s hesitation. As Isaac Bashevis Singer observed, the animals live under a totalitarian regime at our hands, one as cruel as Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union, or Mao’s Communist China. A lifestyle grounded in cruelty toward animals is inherently violent, regardless of how gently we may behave in other areas. Such a way of life is unworthy of anyone who hopes to live as a child of God (Phelps 2002, 154).

Norm Phelps (1939-2014) was particularly known for his work bridging spirituality and animal advocacy. Apart from The Dominion of Love: Animal Rights According to the Bible, he also authored The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights, and The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA. He was a longtime member of The Fund for Animals and later a founding member of the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV). #VeganChrist #VeganGod #VeganChurch  #VeganTheology

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