Everyday Liturgy

This is the first post on the subject of Economic Care, one of the five spheres of a Christian ethic of eating. We discussed before Creation Care and Animal Care. In today’s world, the majority of people by food. As Christians, we need to begin to explore how the money we spend on food travels through the global economy and how where food comes from is a justice issue.

I hate caring about what I eat or where I spend money. I am a thrifty person. Or, as most other people say, I am a cheap skate. I was the type of kid in high school that hounded his friends to pay back that $5 I lent for a hamburger. I lived in a very me-centered economy.

As I grew older I began to resonate with matters of social justice. I began to see the whole chain of the economy, not just my needs and wants. I was studying postcolonial literature and reading up on economics and began to connect colonialism, economics and social justice together. The big picture is a complex world where fair wages and safe practices are not always common. There are no easy solutions.

I get why so many people do not want to change their habits. Life is easier when you don’t think about ethics: about sweatshops and bonded labor, or suicides in tech factories and cruel working conditions in warehouses, or about how we treat animals or where that McDonald’s hamburger or Taco Bell meat really comes from.

It used to be so easy for me to just consume with reckless abandon, not caring about my health, your health, the world’s health—just me, all me. I could just walk blissfully through life with my cheap spending habits, buying whatever junk (food or otherwise) I wanted without a worry in the world.

See, it is so hard to change your eating habits because it requires discipline, a characteristic that is not very common in a culture that accepts debt, shopping sprees and overspending as normal activities. We as a culture have so little discipline when it comes to how we spend our money that people like Dave Ramsey (money) or Jamie Oliver (food) having created whole industries out of selling common sense.

For the Christian it is even harder. Changing our eating habits to line up with our faith means that we need discipline’s Christian cousin: discipleship.

Changing the way we eat as Christians is not a sin or holiness issue. Peter’s vision of all food being clean sets a clear message for the church about what we eat. Instead, changing the way we eat as Christians is a justice issue. Is what we are eating providing justice to the earth, the animals, the soil and all of creation. Is God’s kingdom and will kissing the earth when we eat? Are we saying grace for our food and realizing the true cost in terms of land and sacrifice? These are the types of questions that start to surface when we view food as an issue of justice.

Food costs money. It is part of a global economy that is incredibly complex. Yet, Christians are called to spend our money wisely and to be stewards of what God has given us. That includes  learning where our money goes in the economic chain just like we have to respect where we are in the food chain.

Learning how to spend our money wisely and taking the time to learn how our food dollars affect the growers and pickers and butchers of our food takes discipline. As Christians, we are called to this kind of discipleship, to begin to see how the world economy can become more like God’s economy, even with such a seemingly innocent thing as food.

Part of our discussion of Creation Care was a recipe for Brie & Apple Sandwiches, so I did not want to leave the sphere of Animal Care without a simple and elegant recipe for carnitas. Talking about eating ethically is absolutely necessary, but if there is not a practical element to the Christian ethic of eating then its all an exercise in thought and not action. Use this recipe to enjoy meat that is ethically raised!

Carnitas is the name for Mexican pulled pork. It is not meant to be hidden with a bunch of lettuce or rice like some restaurants do. Instead, it is best served with warmed corn tortillas, salsa verde and some queso fresco. Have your rice and beans on the side.

Slow Cooker Carnitas
Makes 6-8 servings

3 lbs. pork shoulder or boneless pork butt, organic or ethically raised
1 T cumin
1 T Mexican style chili powder
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Accompaniments:
12 corn tortillas, organic
salsa verde
queso fresco
beans and rice (I think pinto beans and cilantro rice go best)

1. Mix together the cumin, chili powder, cayenne powder, salt and pepper. Use more or less of the chili powder and cayenne depending on how hot you like your food. I tend not to measure and just dump the spices on liberally, but I can never seem to make my food hot enough.
2. Coat the pork  with the spice mixture. You want to have a nice even dusting. Try to prevent the spices from lumping together (especially the hot ones).
3. Place the seasoned pork into a slow cooker and pour water until it is about one inch up the pork.
4. Slow cook the pork for six to eight hours.
5. After cooking has completed, remove the pork to a serving plate. Fork the pork until it is completely pulled and stringy.
6. Place the pork in a very large skillet with some oil and sear, until the pork begins to turn light brown on the edges.
7. Return to the serving plate. In the same skillet, warm up your tortillas.
8. Serve the carnitas with warm tortillas and top with salsa verde and queso fresco. Accompany the meal with your favorite mixture of beans and rice.

For leftovers, I love to pan fry the carnitas in a skillet with potatoes and onion and serve with huevos rancheros (eggs and salsa). It makes a great breakfast!

This is the eighth post on the subject of Animal Care, one of the five spheres of a Christian ethic of eating. We discussed before what ethical treatment of animals means, how it is accomplished and why it is so important. Now we will turn our attention to  a discussion of a “rule” to eat ethically.

People tend to chafe at rules. We like to think of ourselves as free thinking individuals, ruled by only our own grit and know how.

Christians are called to something different. We are called to no longer hold to the patterns of this world and to transform ourselves by the renewing of our minds.

The abuse of animals in industrial agriculture is a pattern of the world.

How can the Christian transform his or her self by the renewing of the mind when it comes to the ethical treatment of animals?

By adhering to a rule.

No, not a rule like “the law.” This is not a law versus gospel argument.

I am talking about a rule in the monastic sense.

Monks, starting with St. Benedict, had a rule for their order. It was not a list of do’s or don’ts. It was what they held in common. It was their creed, their bond, their manifesto. The Rule of St. Benedict is not about what you cannot do but what you most certainly should do. It is positive. It is about passing along the goodness and uniqueness of the community from generation to generation.

We need a rule for eating meat ethically. Like a monastic rule, it is a list of what we should do to uphold the moral and ethical duty of our faith when it comes to eating meat.

1) Take your stewardship of God’s creation seriously. We are all stewards of God’s creation. We are appointed to serve as God’s diplomats in the world, approaching creation as he approached it: with a loving and creative hand. Ask yourself as you eat: Would God be pleased with how this animal was raised? Did the farm that raised this animal act as a steward of God’s creation?

2) You cannot serve both God and Money, so spend your money on what is right. Eating ethically can be more expensive than eating a conventional diet, depending on your eating habits. A choice must be made between spending money on what is right or spending money on what is cheap. You may end up having to change your eating habits, but this change is part of no longer being caught up in the pattern of this world.

3) Praise God for the bounty of creation. Saying a blessing at a meal is so ingrained in many of us that we overlook the depth and beauty of these simple prayers: to thank God for our food. This rule calls us to look beyond ourselves and our own nourishment to thank God for how the food was raised for us. If it was not raised in an ethical way, can we truly be thankful?

4) Food defines us. Food is a life source. It might be cliché, but we really are what we eat. Food truly does define us: our culture and our heritage. Should it not define our faith as well?

5) Care deeply about your food. Food reminds us that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. It reminds us that we are connected to the economy of our country: from tractor parts to food prices to dented grocery carts. It should remind us that we are living in God’s economy as well. God’s economy is a kingdom where the world is being changed into a more just and beautiful world. Let what you eat make the world a more just and beautiful place.

I humbly submit this rule to you as a jumping off point. Eating meat ethically is a complicated issue that is not solved in a few easy steps. It takes personal dedication, patience and humility to cultivate a deep appreciation for God’s creation and the rich bounty it produces every single day. Let this rule guide you in the throwing off of the pattern of this world to treat animals unethically for the sake of profits. Let this rule guide you in the renewing of your mind.

This is the seventh post on the subject of Animal Care, one of the five spheres of a Christian ethic of eating. We discussed before what ethical treatment of animals means, how it is accomplished and why it is so important. Now we will turn our attention to meat eating in the New Testament, particularly the area of sacrifice. After this discussion we will move into a discussion of a “rule” to eat ethically.

There are three main passages that detail the eating of food, particularly meat, in the New Testament. The first one is in Acts 10, when the apostle Peter has a vision from God that tells him all animals are now clean and acceptable to eat. This Christian is most thankful for this vision, because without it I would be living in a world without bacon, and that’s not the kind of world I want to live in.

The next two passages are in 1 Corinthians. Paul makes two major statements about food sacrificed to idols (this was almost always animal sacrifice). Once Gentiles became Christians they were confronted with a problem that did not affect Jewish converts: what to do about non-kosher food, particular food that was part of idol worship. Throughout the Greco-Roman world the butcher’s work was integrally tied into temple worship: the food sold at the market by the butcher was from animal sacrifices. The early Christians, understandably, became wary of eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Paul offers his advice on the subject in 1 Corinthians 8:

Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

He picks up the discussion again in 1 Corinthians 10:

Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

The messages in these three passages are united around one common point: meat can be part of the diet for a Christian, even meat considered unclean by the Jewish faith.  1 Corinthians 8 & 10 seem to conflict on the food that is dedicated to idols. When it comes to spiritual knowledge in 1 Corinthians 8, Paul is advising that people not get so wound up in a proper theological justification for eating meat that is sacrificed to idols that they cause former idol-worshipers to stumble. The conversation seems to allow for the fact that food sacrificed to idols is not tainted in any way by the sacrifice, since idols aren’t real. Paul turns the whole argument upside down in 1 Corinthians 10 though, as he makes a case concerning food sacrificed to idols not in terms of knowledge but in terms of worship. Reading between the lines, what Paul seems to be saying is that while we may know that eating food sacrificed to idols does not taint the meat or make it unclean in anyway, the fact that it was sacrificed to idols means that the person who consumes it is participating in the sacrificial act. It is interesting that the conversation would turn this way, but what I think Paul is doing is making a point about allegiance to the new covenant of Christ’s kingdom. Animal sacrifice is a sign of a covenant relationship with a god. So, if we follow this logic, the Christian sign of the covenant relationship is the Lord’s Supper. Paul is arguing that eating food sacrificed to idols is to capitulate to the Roman culture. To abstain from food sacrificed to idols is then a sign of allegiance, a counter-cultural act that designates the Christian as a citizen of Christ’s kingdom and not a citizen of Rome.

This leads me to a very provocative point, and one I have thought long and hard about. I truly believe that these passages still speak to us today. When we view these passages in light of our modern day agricultural practices, I believe that idolatry is alive and well today. The way the majority of animals are treated in the industrial food system is influenced by the idols of money, violence and consumerism.

Ask yourself: could that bacon cheeseburger you just ate be food sacrificed to an idol?

Bottom line: it should be a matter of conscience that the meat in our supermarkets and restaurants is meat sacrificed to the idols of money and violence. To eat meat that is not sacrificed to idols, we should look to farmers and businesses that raise animals humanely and sell meat that is butchered in a humane manner. Jesus told us that we could not serve both God and money. Even though stone and wood idols have fallen out of the norm, Paul reminds us that our allegiance is to Christ’s kingdom. We renew the new covenant every time we eat the body and blood of Christ during communion. With food being so central to the practice of Christ’s kingdom, we can in turn do our part to build Christ’s kingdom in this world by renouncing food that is sacrificed to the idols of money, violence and consumerism.

This is the sixth post on the subject of Animal Care, one of the five spheres of a Christian ethic of eating. This post is a bridge between thinking about eating meat to dealing with the thorny issue of sacrifice, which will take several posts to unpack. After a discussion of sacrifice we will move into a discussion of a “rule” to eat ethically.

Now that we’ve defined ethical treatment and discussed how ethical treatment is accomplished, we can turn to the question of why?

Why would you go through all of this extra work and thought when you can just go to the supermarket and buy cleanly packaged and wrapped meat for cheap?

The reason, in a nutshell, is that our faith should call us to a higher standard than the culture we are surrounded by, the one that is only concerned with consuming (whether it is shoes or steaks). Christians are called to care about creation, and animals make up an integral part of creation. We must treat animals ethically, otherwise we aren’t living up to our mandate to be stewards of God’s creation.

We often praise God for how awesome his creation is, but then we forget that our actions can mar and damage creation. Treating animals with dignity and respect not only impacts the animal’s welfare, but also your personal health and the welfare of creation itself.

Just a couple of examples:

Grass-fed beef is better for the environment – when you eat grass-fed beef, instead of beef from an animal that is trapped in a feed lot being stuffed with food it doesn’t naturally eat, you are helping to build richer soil, curb deforestation and create less greenhouse gases (source: “How Eating Grass-Fed Beef Could Help Fight Climate Change“).

You’re healthier: grass-fed beef is healthier for you than industrial beef. Grass-fed beef has double the omega 3 fatty acids as industrial beef (Source: “The Truth About Grass-Fed Beef“). And if you are eating meat that is raised without antibiotics or hormones, you are keeping yourself from ingesting those chemicals when you eat (and allowing the animals to have normal lives, not medically controlled lives).

Ethical Treatment of Animals stops the cycle of chemicals in creation – animals don’t exist in a vacuum. They are an integral part of creation. So when you choose to eat ethical meat you are making a choice that impacts all of creation. If an animal is raised ethically the following chain reaction occurs in creation:

-the grains and grass used to feed ethically treated animals are not treated with industrial or toxic pesticides and herbicides.

-less pesticides and herbicides in the environment help to reduce contamination of the soil, our water and ourselves. There are diseases today like Parkinson’s that appear to be linked to the plethora of toxic chemicals we lace our food with (Source: “Pesticide Exposure Found to Increase Link Of Parkinson’s Disease“).

-less use of corn and soybeans for animal consumption means a more diverse culture of crops. The more crops that are planted, the better that we can protect our economy from spikes in food prices and shortages of food (this has happened during the past few years: “How to End the Global Food Shortage“).

The important thing is that we think about more than just the animals and more than just ourselves. There is a whole world that is affected by our food choices, and the more ethical our choices are, the better the world will be.

This is the fifth post on the subject of Animal Care, one of the five spheres of a Christian ethic of eating. This post is a bridge between thinking about eating meat to dealing with the thorny issue of sacrifice, which will take several posts to unpack. After a discussion of sacrifice we will move into a discussion of a “rule” to eat ethically.

In the ever burgeoning world of farm-to-table food, there is a growing desire for ethically treated meat. This, as discussed before, can mean different things to different people. The important thing about the ethical treatment of animals is not as much the meaning of “ethical treatment” but recognizing the choice we all have to eat ethically every day. When we cultivate an ethical conscious it begins to shape our food choices in profound ways.

The how-to of ethically treating animals is fundamentally simple. The simplest way to raise an animal ethically is to follow the golden rule: treat the animal the way you would want to be treated if you were in the same position. Now there is some divergence here, for this is the point where vegans (people who have decided to not eat any food that comes from an animal, including dairy) would say “you don’t want to be killed, do you? So why would you eat animals at all?” It’s a valid question, and one I will discuss in a later post (have to keep you reading, don’t I?”), but suffice it to say that my stance on the issue is that humans and farm animals have entered into a symbiotic relationship, like the one Michael Pollan illustrates happens with plants in The Botany of Desire. Domesticated animals, like domesticated plants, enter into a contract with us for mutual preservation: we keep the animals alive, provide a consistent food supply for them, let them reproduce and enjoy a happy life, and then at the end of their life we eat them.

The way to raise animals ethically then, is simply to use common sense for the most part. Chickens naturally want to be outside and peck. It would be ethical then to allow them to do this. Pigs want to wallow in mud and eat slop. It would be ethical then to allow them to do this. Cows want to walk around a pasture or barn. It would be ethical then to allow them to do this.

What becomes unethical is to treat an animal like it is a commodity. Most big farmers, the ones who shove pigs into crates, cram chickens into cages and jam cows into confined rows, are thinking about animals as part of an industrial production unit. This line of thinking sees animals as not part of a farm but as part of a factory, churning out animal products like computers by any means necessary, which does undue harm to the animals, our environment and ourselves. Large commercial farms lose sight of animals as sentient beings, which allows them to treat animals like parts in an assembly line instead of living, breathing things. It’s human nature to numb ourselves to the plight of a person or thing if it makes us money. Modern day slavery, sweat shops, suicides in technology manufacturing, and animal cruelty are all rooted in the same darkness.

To treat an animal ethically is to allow it to live a life that is both natural and humane. It is to choose a symbiotic relationship with the animals on the farm and to honor an animal for their intrinsic value as a fellow creature and, eventually, a source of food.

In the next post we will discuss why the ethical treatment of animals is so important for Christians.

This is the fourth post on the subject of Animal Care, one of the five spheres of a Christian ethic of eating. This post is a bridge between thinking about eating meat to dealing with the thorny issue of sacrifice, which will take several posts to unpack. After a discussion of sacrifice we will move into a discussion of a “rule” to eat ethically.

It seems to happen more and more often.

I’ll be sitting to eat with some co-workers or friends, and they notice I don’t eat any meat. They’ll ask, “are you vegetarian?” And I inevitably reply, “it’s complicated” (see my previous post “How Was Your Thanksgiving Turkey Treated?” for the full story).

Lately, people have been more than willing to hear about my values: what “ethically treated” actually means, how this is accomplished, and why it is so important.

So before digging further into the Christian basis for ethical treatment of animals, I wanted to share a bit about the basics of ethical treatment.

What does “ethically treated” actually mean?

The short answer is “depends on who you ask.” There is no uniform definition of ethical treatment of animals, and people have different perspectives on the minimum. It can be a very personal and emotional decision. My wife and I have chosen as our minimum definition of ethical treatment that an animal has the ability to actually live like an animal and not a prisoner. This is what Joel Salatin has described as “the pig-ness of a pig or the chicken-ness of a chicken.” What my wife want is an opportunity for an animal to have a normal life and not be confined in a small cage and injected with hormones and antibiotics like it is a lab rat. There are others who take a more radical approach. I know someone who is a vegan but will eat meat when it is hunted, because she does not like the way animals are slaughtered and butchered, but respects the necessity of people feeding themselves by providing for themselves by hunting. I know others who will only eat meat if it is certified organic or humane. There are tons of certifications out there though, and it only serves to muddy the picture, not define it better. Because of this, my wife and I are okay buying something that is not certified as long as we know how the farmer has treated the animals and are comfortable with that. So don’t be shy, go talk to your local farmer or butcher about how the animal was treated.

The point is, whether we can ever agree on a definition or not, the fact that you begin to actually think about the life and welfare of an animal is vitally important. We can’t just be idle consumers who eat whatever is put in front of us. Caring about the meat we eat is to enter into the conversation about “ethical treatment.”

The next post in this series will be on how ethical treatment is actually accomplished.

This is the third post on the subject of Animal Care, one of the five spheres of a Christian ethic of eating. This post is a bridge between thinking about eating meat to dealing with the thorny issue of sacrifice, which will take several posts to unpack. After a discussion of sacrifice we will move into a discussion of a “rule” to eat ethically.

Robert Capon’s mesmerizing book, Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection, is a treatise on nothing more than the theological reason for eating itself. Saturated in the percolating joy Capon has while in the kitchen, the Episcopalian priest beckons the reader into cooking as a spiritual act.

I was hooked from the very beginning because the language Capon uses is so theological dense yet about the most simplest of tasks: making dough, serving wine or cutting an onion. Like an hors d’oeuvre before a meal, here is but a sampling of Capon’s rich prose, as he explains the act of cutting an onion:

Then look. The myth of sphericity is finally dead. The onion, as now displayed, is plainly all vectors, rissers and thrusts. Tongues of fire. But the pentecost they mark is that of nature, not grace: the Spirit’s first brooding on the face of the waters. Lift one of the flames; feel its lightness and rigidity, its crispness and strength. Make proof of its membranes. The inner: thin, translucent, easily removed; the outer, however, thinner, almost transparent—and so tightly bonded to the flesh that it protests audibly against separation.

It is with this zeal that Capon preaches to the reader the joys, frustrations, humor and utter delight of cooking and eating. Capon finds this join in the actual supper of the Lamb, all those times that Christ ate with people or created food for people in the Scriptures, as well as the Last Supper and the Supper that will happen at Christ’s Second Advent.

It is easy to see the joy of cooking as rooted in the joy of Christ’s salvation. The trickier side of the issue comes in the book when reality sets in that, though cooking may be a joyous act, sometimes a “supper of the lamb” is actually a time when you eat a lamb.

This is not as easy of a task as we would hope for. An animal has died that we might continue to live from its sustenance. The connotations to Christ’s sacrifice here, caught up in the metaphor of the last supper, are exactly what Capon intends to capture in this book. The whole world meets us when we sit down to eat. And while that world is marvelous—the breads, the desserts, the onions, the bountiful harvest—there is the dark side of the world that meets us at the table as well—sacrifice, death, malnourishment, hunger. The table, then, becomes a liminal space for the eater: a place where the light and dark of this world collide.

Fortunately for us, there is a greater Light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Christ meets us at the table, and comes along side those of us who eat suspended between the first supper of the Lamb and the second supper of the Lamb.