Coram Deo

I just finished reading Family Friendly Farming by Joel Salatin and he said something pretty profound. He said, "At the risk of being labeled a heretic, I would suggest the defending forage based cattle production is no different than defending the virgin birth. Why is it spiritual to defend the virgin birth, which establishes the efficacy of Jesus Christ, and not spiritual to defend the creation, which establishes the perfection and order of God?

He goes on to talk about attending a local crises pregnancy center fundraising dinner. "I called the banquet chairman and offered to donate chickens for the meal. "No, it’s too difficult to deal with whole birds. Besides, we just get the cheapest thing available," he said.

I thought: "What a joke. Here’s a group dedicated to the sanctity of life and they couldn’t care less that this chicken is 9 percent fecal soup, (actually I've read one study that found that about 10% of the chickens tested were fecal soup) that these birds were raised in the most inhumane conditions imaginable, and that the farmers and processors are viewed as cogs in a corporate wheel. Everything about this food is dehumanizing…" (comment in red is mine)

He goes on to say: "We believe strongly that there is no difference between the world we see and the one we don’t. Everything has a spiritual dimension. Everything. I wish I knew how many churchgoers feed their cows chicken manure. I wish I knew how many churchgoers foul the water with chemicals. I wish I knew how many churchgoers put their cows on concrete and destroy their ligaments in 24 months…

…the way they (our children) weed beans reflects how they love what’s good. Keeping chickens in water and feed is just as important as defending righteousness and truth. Nothing makes a mockery of God faster than taking a flippant approach to His creatures…"

He also talks about the laying houses with 9 de-beaked chickens squeezed in each 16"x22" cage, the feedlots with cattle so covered in manure they can't even swing their tail, the pigs drowning in the manure swamps...

Pretty powerful comments and they gave me a lot to think about. I'm not suggesting that people and animals are the same, that chickens are no different than babies.  But I am saying that we have a responsibility before God for the way we care for what he has entrusted to us.  And I believe that includes the animals He gave us for food. 

Most Christians understand that we are to be good stewards of what God has given us. But are our actions consistent with our thinking? What about stewardship of our food supply? We show our support with our dollars, and I’m afraid we often find it too expensive or inconvenient to stand for what is right. Antibiotics, hormones, gmo, viruses, fecal soup, pasteurized, irradiated, the list goes on. Will our grandchildren even have access to clean, healthy food?

The choices we make matter. Because we serve a God who created animals, gave them instincts about what to eat and how to live, and called them good. He created plants with specific characteristics, and they were fertile.  Most of the produce you buy in the supermarket can't even replicate itself.  There were no pluots or brocciflower, and there certainly weren't plants with pesticides in their dna.

The parable of the talents shows us that we are to be wise stewards, improving upon what God has so graciously provided.  That doesn't mean just leaving things alone and restricting all access in order to preserve the "natural" state of things.  For we are dominion takers.  But nurturing and respecting God's creation, encouraging fertility, health and abundance through proper care and management.  And I am not talking about government zoning and regulations.  We have more that enough of that.  More government intervention is rarely the answer.  Less intervention would result in freer markets and more choices for the consumer.

We need people, especially Christians, who are consistent in their thinking and willing to educate themselves.  Ignorance never was an excuse. 

Proper stewardship results in healthy plants and animals, which in turn create healthy people and a healthy environment. There is a beautiful symbiosis in God’s creation.

Do we really want huge corporations and biotech companies in charge of our food supply?