Why Eating Some (Particular) Animals Isn't OK

Once animals have associated (and bonded) with humans over an extended period of time, the nature of the animal-human relationship is fundamentally changed. The animals come to trust humans, on an instinctual level, and the humans with whom the animals have interacted and developed relationships come to see these creatures not as mere animals, but as individuals.

In such circumstances, sending the animals involved to the slaughterhouse is, simply, cruel, both to the animals and to the humans who have come to regard them as more than mere beasts. It is, perhaps, most akin to slaughtering the family dog or cat, and is increasingly viewed with revulsion by civilized persons, many of whom no longer raise stock animals with the expectation that these creatures will one day be consumed by humans.

The Last Words of James Naylor: An Early Quaker Text as "Found Poem"

A reminder:

A "found poem" is what happens when someone recognizes the lyrical qualities of a pre-existing prose text and releases the underlying poetry, the way Michelangelo talked about "freeing" the figures (statues) "imprisoned" within the marble. 

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_poem  for a longer and more precise discussion.)

There is a Spirit

which I feel

that delights
to do no evil,

nor
to revenge any wrong,

but delights
to endure all things,

in hope
to enjoy its own

in the end.

Its hope

is
to outlive
all wrath and contention,

and
to weary out

all exaltation and cruelty,

or
whatever

is of a nature

contrary

to itself.

It sees

to the end
of all

temptations.

As it bears no evil

in itself,

so it conceives none
in thoughts

to any other.

If it be betrayed,

it bears it,

for its ground and spring

is

the mercies

and forgiveness

of God.

Its crown
is meekness,

its life
is everlasting love

unfeigned;

it takes its kingdom
with entreaty

and not
with contention,

and keeps it
by lowliness

of mind.

In God

alone

it can rejoice,

though

none else regard it,

or can own

its life.

It’s conceived

in sorrow,

and brought forth
without

any

to pity it;

nor doth it murmur
at grief

and oppression.

It never

rejoiceth
but

through sufferings;

for

with the world's joy
it is murdered.

I found it

alone,
being

forsaken.

I have
fellowship

therein

with them

who lived

in dens

and

desolate places

in the earth,

who

through death

obtained

this

resurrection,

and eternal

holy

life.

"Found Poem": A Spirituality of Restoration

The best of Christian spirituality and - gasp! - theology, rather than conjuring up dark visions of a wrathful God who can only be appeased by the blood sacrifice of a human being (in a particularly horrific manner), points us toward the truth that the Creator yearns to see the entire cosmos restored to the perfection of God's original design.

Here are three originally separate texts which all witness to the same concept:

I believe in a God
who restores all things. . . .
      
All that has been lost to us       
will be restored. 
This is the gift of the Christ.     
Though life be lost     
and love       
and all that we hold dear,
it will be given back to us again
in him.

For God has allowed us

to know the secret of his plan,
and it is this:
that all human history
shall be consummated in Christ,
so that everything that exists

in Heaven or on earth

shall find its perfection

or fulfillment

in him.

The whole creation is on tiptoe

to see the wonderful sight

of the children of God

coming into their own. 

The world of creation

cannot yet see reality,

yet it has been given hope. 

And the hope is this:

that in the end

the whole of created life will be rescued. . . .

A "Found Poem" From William Penn

A "found poem" is what happens when someone recognizes the lyrical qualities of a pre-existing prose text and, like Michelangelo "freeing" the statues "imprisoned" within the marble, releases the underlying poetry. 

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_poem  for a longer and more precise discussion.)

This text is from More Fruits of Solitude, by William Penn (1644-1716), founder of both the city of Philadelphia and the colony (now a U.S. state) that bears his family's name. Penn envisaged Pennsylvania as a "Holy Experiment" in the ideals of a just and equitable society espoused by his Quaker faith.

Readers of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books may recall seeing the following as a foreword to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last novel in the series. More theologically-minded readers may also recognize these lines as a version of what is called the "Communion of Saints" in many Christian traditions. 

Death
is but crossing the world,
as friends do the seas;
they live in one another
still.
For they must needs be present
that love and live
in that which is
omnipresent.
In this divine glass
they see face to face;
and their converse is
free,
as well as pure.
This is the comfort of friends,
that
though they may be said to die,
yet their friendship
and society
are,
in the best sense,
ever present,
because
immortal.

An Early Quaker "Found Poem"

If George Fox was the father of Quakerism, Margaret Fell (1614-1702), was its mother. In 1666, she published Women's Speaking Justified, the earliest known defense of women's ministry actually written by a woman.

While Margaret's writing style is a bit rambling for modern tastes, and some of her arguments are more clever than profound, some of her language approaches the lyrical. I have always found Margaret's observation that women loved Jesus because he was kind to them, and so they kept faith with him even after he was buried, to be quite moving.

FROM WOMEN'S SPEAKING JUSTIFIED:

Those that speak against
the Spirit of the Lord
speaking in a woman,

simply by reason of her sex,

or because she is a woman,

not regarding

the Seed

and Spirit

and Power

that speaks in her,

such speak against

Christ and his Church. . . .

God the Father

made no such difference

in the first Creation –  

nor ever since –  
between the male

and the female,

but always,

out of his mercy

and lovingkindness,

had regard unto the weak.

So also his Son,

Christ Jesus,

confirms the same thing. . . .

Also,
that woman  

that came unto Jesus

with an alabaster box

of very
precious

ointment,

and poured it

on his head

as he sat at meat—
this woman knew more
of the secret power
and wisdom
of God
than his disciples did. . . .

Jesus

owned the love and grace
that appeared in women

and did not despise it:
and he received as much love,

kindness,

compassion,

and tender dealing

from women
as he did from any others,

both in his lifetime,

and also

after they had exercised their cruelty upon him. . . .

Mark this,

ye despisers

of the weakness of women:
if these women

who had received mercy
and grace

and forgiveness of sins

and virtue

and healing from him –  

if their hearts

had not been so united

and knit unto him

in love

that they could not depart

(as the men did)

but sat watching,

and waiting,

and weeping around the Sepulchre

until the time of his Resurrection,

and so were ready

to carry his Message,

how should his disciples have known

(who were not there)?

I Corinthians 13 as a "Found Poem"

A "found poem" is what happens when someone recognizes the lyrical qualities of a pre-existing prose text and releases the underlying poetry, the way Michelangelo talked about "freeing" the figures (statues) "imprisoned" within the marble. 

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_poem  for a longer and more precise discussion.)

If I speak in the tongues
of men and of angels,
but have no love,
I am like a booming gong
or a clanging cymbal.
If I am gifted with prophecy
and can fathom all mysteries
and all knowledge,
and I possess a faith
that can move mountains,
but have no love,
I am nothing.
If I give all I have to the poor
and deliver my body to be burned,
but have no love,
it gains me nothing.

Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud. 
It does not dishonor others,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs. 
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.

Love never ends;
but where there are prophecies,
they will cease;
where there are tongues,
they will be stilled;
where there is knowledge,
it will pass away.
 
For we know in part
and we prophesy in part,
but when completion arrives,
what is partial will come to an end.

When I was a child,
I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child – 

but when I became a man,
I put childish ways behind me.
For now we see but a dim reflection,
but then we shall see face to face;
now I know partially,
but then I shall know fully,
just as I am fully known.

So faith and hope and love abide,
these three –
but the greatest of these
is love.