c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is on a quiet crusade to convince Christians to go vegetarian.”It’s what Jesus would do,”said Bruce Friedrich, the 28-year-old Roman Catholic leading the campaign.

In letters to more than 400 U.S. Catholic bishops and four prominent evangelists _ Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts and Billy Graham _ Friedrich laid out a case arguing Jesus was a vegetarian and all his followers should give up meat out of mercy for God’s creation.”Eating meat mocks God by torturing animals, polluting the Earth and destroying our own health,”he wrote in the letter.

Citing Genesis 1:29, in which God commands his human creation to care for all living beings and eat only plants, the letter asked the Christian leaders to use their pulpits to promote vegetarianism as an ethical way of life.

But the Virginia-based advocacy group would be pleased even if church leaders just begin to pray about the idea, Friedrich said. The campaign isn’t drawing much of a response from the religious leaders, he acknowledged.

Although he has asked for a response from each bishop and evangelist, he has received just three letters so far.

One bishop merely thanked him for the letter. Bishop James Timlin of the diocese of Scranton, Pa., said he would give serious consideration to encouraging the idea. And a representative of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association wrote to dispute the claim the Bible mandates meatless eating while encouraging all people to find salvation in Jesus.

Friedrich said it was the Catholic bishops who inspired the campaign and their discussion last November over restoring the longtime Catholic tradition of meatless Fridays as a symbolic sacrifice demonstrating the church’s opposition to abortion.

Although Catholics have historically considered meatless Fridays to be an act of sacrifice and discipline for God, Friedrich said PETA wants it to become a new statement of social justice because Jesus, he said, called on believers to have compassion for all living beings.

He argued Jesus himself was a vegetarian, a member of the meat-shunning Jewish sect called the Essenes.

It’s a view most religious scholars say has no historical backing, said theologian James Vanderkam of the University of Notre Dame. And, Vanderkam added, it is probable Jesus ate lamb while sharing the Passover meal with his disciples and that fish was part of his diet.

That doesn’t matter to Linda Clemons, an Indianapolis morning radio show host who says”amen”to the PETA campaign. For 10 years she has followed a vegetarian diet because she believes it is the will of God.

Four years ago, she created a Christian vegetarian eating plan _ the Temple Cleansing Program _ and began teaching it at her Indianapolis Church, Light of the World Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).”Do you know that your body is a temple of God?”she asked, referring to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.”Eating animals does not honor that temple.” Ridding one’s diet of all animal products _ meat, poultry, dairy, eggs and fish _ is central to Clemons’ concept.

Clemons main motive for Christian vegetarianism is a longer, healthier life of service to God. But she agrees with the nonviolent ethic PETA is promoting.”I don’t eat anything that has a mother or a heartbeat,”she said.”We must respect the rights of all in God’s kingdom, and that does mean that we do not eat our fellow citizens.” Sister Mary Margaret Funk is also vegetarian and vegetarianism is part of her spiritual life. But the Catholic Benedictine nun takes the middle path _ avoiding meat without criticizing those who do eat it.

She said she gave up meat 25 years ago out of concern for animals and the high environmental and economic cost of raising them for food.

But her vegetarianism has become a tool for deeper meditation and prayer _ eating lightly, she has removed food as a distraction from God, she said.

Funk sees the inconsistencies of scriptural passages on meat-eating as a call to tolerance of differences. In Genesis 1, God calls only for eating plants. But in Genesis 9, God says”everything that lives and moves should be food for you.”New Testament passages in Romans and Corinthians send similar conflicting messages, she said.

By refraining from eating meat, Funk and some 35 other nuns at her Indianapolis monastery set an example for others of the peace of mind and spiritual coming with vegetarianism.”But its best not to judge others,”she said.”Discernment governs each person’s practice.”

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