WTBS attitude towards vegetarians ...

by El blanko 27 Replies latest jw friends

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  El blanko

  Having flirted with meat off and on through my life, but mostly conforming to the vegetarian standard (due to the obscenity for the most part that is the meat industry) - I noticed when serving with the society, that I came under fire from the brothers.

  My moral arguments about cutting down on meat consumption based around the factory farming methods were cast aside and often sneered at.

  "Well God gave us the right to eat meat" was the usual line I had to swallow down.

  Have any of you guys faced the same situation?
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  cyber-sista

  I think that JWs never liked anything to do with vegetarians much as they represented a counter culture that they didn't want to be associated with. I knew very few vegetarian witness and if they were they had to keep it to themselves and were thought of as strange.
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  Elsewhere

  JWs sneer at anything that is not "the norm". They like to create a bunch to subtle social rules for things that are and are not acceptable. When someone breaks one one of these subtle rules, all of the JWs will stop and take notice with a look of disapproval.

  JWs don't like change from withen the rank and file... but get excited when someone from bethel introduces a change.
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  Valis

  I don't know why they would sneer...I mean everyone knows they won't be eating meat in the new system of things...unless of course the lions are getting ripped off!

  AHA! BUT, the dubbie thinks Jehovah is going to fix everything so why bother? I have had such arguments with my dad before. For instance if an owl's habitat was going to be destroyed because a business wanted to put a plant or distribution center smack dab in the middle of it....Well from his perspective Jehovah will fix it in the end so why not build the distribution center....

  Sincerely,

  District Overbeer
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  new light

  I've encountered this as well. JW men are essentially not allowed to be vegetarian, or even health-conscious, without enduring some attempts at humiliation. They all seem to think that it does not matter what you eat, Jehovah will fix it, as Valis wrote. I suppose that being health-conscious implies a lack of faith. Seems to me that it is a worse sin to abuse your "God-given" body with a lousy diet.
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  tink

  FWIW, i've been a vegan for about eight years and a vegetarian for ten, and i was never reprimanded or thought of as odd because of my diet as a JW.
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  SixofNine

  It isn't whether farming practices are moral or not, or even if farming practices conform to the bible (they don't), it's "has the society commented negatively on it?" that matters to a Jehovah's Witness. "Morality" is 100% aligned with the wishes of the Governing Body to a JW.
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  ApagaLaLuz

  I heard that vegetarians generally smell nicer than meat eaters. Though I'm not sure what the WTBS thinks about that :)
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  XQsThaiPoes

  The reason is the blood issue. THere was a no meat movement when the blood issue came up. Being a vegetarian insure a blood free life style. But that would be too cult like. And the GB loves its steaks. There was a mini fire fight about brothers advocating converting to a meatless diet. So I assume the anti vegetarian retoric is left from back then.
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  truthseeker1

  I never heard any complaint from the dubs about eating/not eating meat. I guess since even lions will eat hey in the new system tm then its OK to stop now. but I'm in California, so we have a different outlook than most people. Its the Cheese.