Learning not Leaning
Jun 10th
Learn, Don't Lean.
no time to proof read, spelling errors abound…enjoy!
As you may have guessed (it’s no secret), these blogs are born out of frustrating conversations. Conversations which just make me smack my forehead and, after a second or two of resistance, give up because debate is obviously pointless. I’m talking about conversations / discussions / debates where I just can’t respect the other point of view because it’s asserting a point of view that has, quite obviously, been pulled from elsewhere. The tell tale signs to me are:
- They are one sided, not willing to even look at the other side
- They use the exact same examples I’ve heard on TV, radio, read in the news, or heard thrown around in the local coffee shop
- They rely on ‘common sense’. They have a “well, everyone knows…” attitude about them without any actual facts or specifics
These conversations are frustrating not because I disagree with a point being made (sometimes I don’t) but because they smack of ignorance. They are full of popular thinking which was handed down to the person by someone else. There’s no fact checking. No critical thinking. No honest debate. They’re beliefs without basis, assertions without learning.
One Side Learns, The Other Side Leans
Normally, there’s 2 (or more) sides to a conversation like this. There’s a belief or point being debated. We live in a world where ‘everyone is entitled to their own ideas’, but we never stop to consider the fact that some people’s ‘ideas’ are uneducated. They’re talking points. They’re never researched or investigated. They’re easy to assert (maybe because they’re simple) but aren’t based on fact (sounds like sound-byte TV to me!).
For most issues I encounter, there is pretty obviously a side of the discussion which educates itself (usually endlessly) and one that doesn’t. Now, it seems obvious that logic dictates that the side who is actively educating themselves on the issue is going to be closer to the truth, doesn’t it? But in this ‘everyone has an right’ society, we overlook this point. We think that, ignorant or not, everyone can be right. Guess what? That’s crap.
One side is usually learning and the other side is ‘leaning’ on someone else’s ideas without actually fact checking or learning anything for themselves.
An Example
Let’s take an example of the learning vs. leaning idea: Ever since Food Inc. I hear lots of discussions about eating meat. Some people are against it, some people want to be against it, and some people defend their God given right to devour corn fed flesh. But did you ever notice something? How many books are there about how great it is to eat meat? How many scientists are out there saying “eating factory meat is great for our environment!”? None, that’s how many. On the other hand, how many people are writing books about the way meat-eating is wreaking havoc on our planet? How many news articles are there about what factory farms do to their workers? Generally, how many ‘for’ arguments vs. ‘against’ arguments are there?
This should tell you something: The people defending meat eating, to their death, aren’t out there reading book after book about how great it is. They aren’t pouring over the studies that show it’s great for our world and economy. They’re not because these things don’t exist. Yet, those out there against eating meat are sucking up book after book, study after study, learning all they can about the issue. They devour newspapers, news reports, and expert (and amateur) testimony on the subject.
Who here is learning and who is leaning? Who, is a more reliably source of fact and information?
We didn’t deal with those who want to be meat eaters. These are the folks who saw Food Inc. and think they understand the whole situation. They’re almost as bad as those defending meat in the sense that they’re simply taking pop culture thinking (and a single source) at it’s word, regurgitating everything they heard. They don’t continue study, they don’t dive deeper. They’re leaning (not learning) on a single film. Better..but still leaning.
Learn to Say “I don’t know”
If we could all learn to say “I don’t know” more often, we’d be in better shape. If you’re in a converation about food, or government, or politics, and you haven’t actually studied it, dove in, learned about it…just admit you don’t know. There’s no shame in that. Owning up to ignorance keeps it at bay.
On the other hand, next time you’re talking about how bad the president is, or how bad the economy is, make sure you’re basing it on concrete information. Make sure you haven’t taken Rush Limbaugh’s word for it. Make sure you aren’t just believing everything the New York Times spouts off. Read books & newspapers….LOTS of them. Once you feel like you actually understand what’s going on (and can defend that with FACT instead of gut feelings) then converse.
But until then, stop leaning. It’s really annoying (and embarasses you even if you don’t know it)
Christians Eating Animals
May 10th
If you’re not a believer in the Bible, feel free to stop reading now. Sure, it may give you some insight about the way Christians (and probably Jews, as well) think and make decisions about behavior, but none of the following debate will be written for anyone who isn’t interested in following scripture….you’ve been warned :)
Ok, so….if you’re still reading, you’re someone who is attempting, more and more every day, to live the way God wants us to live, right? You make a conscious effort to learn more about who God is and what he wants us to be as each day passes, correct? You’re someone who believes God is difficult to fully comprehend, therefore believe that each day we can learn (or relearn) things that we didn’t know about Him…is that right?
If so, why have so many Christians buried their heads in the sand when it comes to eating animals?
Pretending To Sleep
I read a great quote in a book called Eating Animals recently which wasn’t written about Christians, specifically, but made me think of us directly. Paraphrasing, it said something like this:
“You can wake up a sleeping man with the slightest sound but no amount of noise, no matter how loud, can wake someone pretending to sleep.”
Think about what this means for a minute. It roughly means that if someone truly is ignorant of an issue, the slightest peek into it can wake a desire to learn more, to grow, and to understand what else lies beneath. However, someone who is reamining willfully ignorant (ie. they know there’s more to learn but refuse to) won’t be driven to action by any amount of fact, any argument, or any otherwise convincing truth.
The Movie
I can’t tell you how tired I am of hearing about Food Inc. when it comes to our food supply. I know, I know. I should be happy that it’s waking people up to some very basic ideas about where our food comes from. But there’s two reactions that drive me insane when we talk about those ‘pretending to sleep’:
- I don’t want to see that movie because… This reaction is extremely common and when I hear it coming out of the mouth of a Christian, I seriously doubt the authenticitiy of their faith.“Are you insane? You’re saying because I don’t want to watch Food Inc. I’m not really a Christian???” Indirectly that’s exactly what I’m saying, but not for the reason you think. By making a statement like this, you’re saying you don’t want to improve your life, your family, your responsibility, or who you are as a person simply because “you want to eat what you want to eat” and don’t want to change.. This unwillingness to better yourself, especially in a situation where you already know what the outcome will be, is a blatant spit in the face of God. You know what’s right and you refuse to look it in the face. To me this is the sign of an inactive faith.
- The second thing that drives me crazy about the movie is that people see it, encounter the facts, but make no real change or, even worse, commit to change for a month or two, then fall back into their lives. I applaud this group for being willing to change, but am sad that they lack the willpower to sustain it. I guess I don’t judge the faith of these folks…only their priorities.
Back To Animals
Ok, that was a big tangent. Back to Christians eating animals.
I’ve mentioned many times the question my tattoo artist asked me that began this change in me. He asked why more Christians aren’t vegetarians (he truly didn’t understand). He said “In Genesis God created Adam and Eve to eat plants, not animals…why don’t you try and live how He created you?”. To me, this was the slight noise that woke me as I slept. I couldn’t ever shake it.
Over the years that followed I thought more and more about this and asked lots of questions. I never heard a satisfying answer. In God’s perfect creation, animals were not for consumption. Shouldn’t we strive to be as close to what He intended as possible?
The Food Inc. rant wasn’t totally unrelated, I suppose. As I read all of the books that lead up to the creation of that film, my eyes opened further. We weren’t only failing to eat as God originally intended, we were systematically harming His creation in the process.
The Earth Is The Lords And Everything In It…
This verse from Psalms sums it up. The Earth is God’s as are all the plants and animals in it. They are not ours. They are His. I think of this each time I think about eating animals. Personally, I’m not going to argue that, at this point in time, God condemns us for eating animals. I believe that when He told Noah that it was permissible, He meant it (even if it wasn’t ideal). So, in theory, I don’t think we’re violating God’s creation or his will by eating meat. The problem is that before our meat is meat…it’s a living, breathing animal created and loved by God.
Preparing Animals
In our society we forget that animals are alive. To share a phrase I heard recently which I loved for it’s simplicity: “You know that the chicken you’re eating is a CHICKEN…right?” Sometimes we forget something so simple. We treat them like wheat, or sugarcane, or corn: A raw food product that needs to be processed so we can stuff it down our gullet. The problem is these animals are not food, they’re animals. They feel pain. They panic. They can be tortured. And this, to put it mildly, is exactly how we treat God’s animals before we eat it.
Cows being skinned alive and dismembered while still conscious are not anomolies in our food system. They keep statistics on this stuff and it happens consistently. Chickens who are injected with drugs and cross bread so they are so huge (and so sick) that they can’t stand up and their organs can’t function isn’t an exception: It’s the method they use to raise the chicken you buy in the grocery store. Cutting off pig tails, forcing sows to have piglets in a box so small they can’t move isn’t an exception: it’s standard practice in the industry…it’s the way our food is created every day.
I could spend volumes on all the horrendous practices that are used to raise our food which are standard practices used every day in every factory but it could fill many thousand page books (and has), so go read those if you’re truly sleeping (ie. not willfully ignorant). It is 100% guaranteed that if you buy meat from a supermarket, you’re buying meat that comes from animals that have been mistreated and abused. It’s that simple.
Do You Care?
If you do a little bit of reading instead of remaining willfully ignorant, you’ll see that what I’m talking about here is not some hippie extremest liberal philosophy. It’s the truth: God’s living breathing creation is being abused because we can’t get enough bacon. As a Christian only one last question remains. Do you care?
Personal Issue or Call To Action?
In the previously mentioned book, Eating Animals, the author makes another point that resonated strongly with my experience. He says that sometimes it’s very difficult to distringuish between a personal choice, something I’ve decided to do for myself and my family, and something so important that you should ask others to stand with you. Is the issue of Christians eating factory meat something I should be silent about or say “it’s just my opinion” or should I ask others to learn about and commit to standing together with me to fight?
Up until now, it’s been the former. Sure, I’ll tell someone about why I don’t eat meat whenever they ask but I’ve never…EVER…asked someone else to make the choices I have (except my family). I’ve never condemned someone else for eating meat. I’ve never expected they should come to the same conclusions I have. However, the more I learn about the issue, the more I see Christians “pretending to sleep” when it comes to treatment of God’s creation, I have a harder time staying quiet. I have a harder time not asking people to stand with me.
Are You Sleeping? (or pretending to sleep?)
If you’re a Christian, look at yourself and ask if you’re truly sleeping (in which case, reading this is a little sound to wake you) or if you’re pretending to sleep. If the former, then I ask you to learn more. Read more about the issue (I’ve got a library of books I can loan or recommend). Think about how we’re treating God’s creation, His beloved animals. Think about what God thinks about how we treat them…does it make Him sad and angry? The more you learn, I think the more you’ll be convinced that it does.
If you’re pretending to sleep and are remaining willfully ignorant of this issue (or any other about which so much is known), I view that as a sign that you’re not serious about following God. You value your selfish wants more than His precious creation. I look at that and see not just a sinful person (which we all are), I see a willfully sinful person, which means a whole different thing.
Hear that little noise in the background? It’s your wakeup call. Will you wake or continue pretending to sleep?
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