Monday Morning Greetings #5 – Thou Shalt Not Kill
Dhanurdhara Swami February 1st, 2016
A good editorial writer is not only concerned with speaking truth, but more importantly having truth understood. He has to constantly ask, “What are the readers understanding?” Sometimes, he may even be pondering the objections of a few people to see if he can potentially clear their doubts, or he may decide their prejudices are too deep and why bother. This brings me to my last piece, Archbishop John, My Good friend. While writing, I considered whether to answer the question posed by a particular type of reader:
“You are glorifying the character of this particular Christian, but does he eat meat? And if so, how can you describe him as saintly!”
I had thought of such a reader and decided it was beyond the scope of my essay to address, but I will briefly state my opinion here.
I have seen otherwise very decent people not pick up on what should be a very clear tenet of their moral values whether they are Christians or even Atheists – that to unnecessarily kill innocent creatures just for one’s palate is abominable. At the same time, I see that when people are fed a philosophy and culture that justifies such activity they can eat meat without considering its moral ramifications, and otherwise be of high character and devotion. For those people, especially Christians, like the one I wrote about, I am sharing an old and very biting poem by Madan Oppenheimer on the cognitive dissonance of eating meat and practicing Christianity.
Separation of Church and Steak
Which part of ‘kill’ don’t you understand?
Doesn’t ‘Thou shall not’ sound like a command?
Amidst the screaming and crying
You only hear your greed
Drowning out the voices
Of those on which you feed
Hurting them to help yourself
Taking care of your own hide
You have dominion over them
And you feel justified
Which part of ‘kill’ don’t you understand?
Doesn’t ‘Thou shall not’ sound like a command?
Chewing flesh, saving souls
A lie that I don’t buy
Your heart is full of contradiction
Search your soul for why
Give it up, walk away
Turn the other cheek
Find the love within your heart
And show it to the weak
Which part of ‘kill’ don’t you understand?
Doesn’t ‘Thou shall not’ sound like a command?
Meat is murder, God is love
Where is the connection?
Docile stare, knife-blade glare
Crime escapes detection
Words of truth interpreted
Ask your fellow man…
Which part of ‘kill’ don’t you understand?
Doesn’t ‘Thou shall not’ sound like a command?
- Greetings from Vrindavan , Monday Morning Greetings
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