Bible Study, Part 2: The Fall of Man (Genesis 3)

Genesis 3 contains a lot of eating and talking about eating. Of course, since the discussion centers around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the eating is plant-based. In this case, the eating of fruit is in rebellion against God's command to stay away from that fruit. This act of disobedience results in a curse against mankind and, indirectly, the first use of animals recorded in scripture when God "made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them."

The serpent, Adam, and Eve, each in their turn receive a curse from God. While woman's curse centers around family, her relationship with her husband and child-bearing, man's is centered on laboring in the earth to bring forth food. Genesis 3: 17-19 states, ". . . cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken."

Notice there is no mention of difficulty in raising and butchering livestock, for the eating of animals has not yet entered into the history of mankind. That won't come for many generations.

No Big Deal

Sunday night I survived my first large social gathering as a vegetarian when the singles group at my church had a fellowship at the home of some friends of mine. The common running joke is that Baptists can't get together without involving food and that is no less true when the gathering is approximately one half single men. They broke out the grill, which meant a huge pile of hot dogs and kielbasa, but there were other things to be had as well, and I certainly didn't starve. I was a little concerned going in, but I figured that if I simply passed up the meat and ate other things no one would really notice, and I was right.

I will confess that when the hostess noticed I wasn't partaking of the hot dogs and asked if I was sure I didn't want one I simply turned it down rather than explaining why. I'm not sure if that was the right way to handle it. I certainly wouldn't want her to think I was turning down food just to turn down food, but at the same time I don't think that every food choice I make has to come from being a vegetarian, and I know that not everyone is going to want to hear about it. I imagine eventually eyes will start rolling and I'll hear: "Yes, Darcy, we know you're a vegetarian."

Maybe I need to investigate vegetarian etiquette before the Memorial Day barbecue I'm going to on Saturday. One thing I have read though is that it is considered good etiquette, for vegetarians especially, to offer to bring a dish of some kind when invited to a meal or party so as not to put any undue stress on the hosts, and I think that's very appropriate. My food choices are my own thing, and though I'd love to inspire others to try vegetarian eating, I don't want them to feel like they need to cater to me. It's not like I have a deadly allergy.  So to the barbecue this weekend I'm bringing a Greek-style pasta salad made with orzo. Should be yummy. To the singles group fellowship Sunday night I took a vegan chocolate chocolate chip cake made from the Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake recipe in The Joy of Cooking. Check out my new Recipes page for the recipe.

I did get a few questions about my new diet, but no criticisms or defensiveness, which is what I was bracing myself for. It was a great evening catching up with friends. I didn't go hungry. People seemed to enjoy the cake (though most didn't know it was vegan, ha ha!). No big deal.

Bible Study Part 1: Creation (Genesis 1, 2)

As I mentioned in my opening post on Monday, part of my transition to a vegetarian diet will involve exploring the Bible thoroughly to make sure that my philosophies about animals and food line up with Scripture. I couldn't think of a better way to this than to start with Genesis 1 and just plow through to the end of Revelation, keeping detailed notes on what I read as I go.

Please keep in mind that I'm not a theologian. I don't know Hebrew, Greek or Arabic, though I do have access to common Bible study tools such as a concordance and Bible dictionary. My thoughts and observations in these Bible study posts are just those: my thoughts and observations. I encourage you to read these passages for yourself and join in the discussion. If you disagree with me or think I am in error, or have a thought you would like to add, please leave a comment below. I want to foster discussion on vegetarianism (or even "animal rights") amongst Christians, not just get on a soap box and spout, as I much as I enjoy that.

I began my study with Genesis 1, as I said, and food gets a mention by verse 29. Gen. 1:29, 30 states (all quotes are in the English Standard Version, unless otherwise specified), "And God said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.' And it was so."And the discussion on food ends there. God explicitly gives plants to man and beast for food in these two verses. He does not in any way give animals or their products to man for food here.

If we back up just a bit to verse 28 God says, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." By putting all three of these verses together I think we can reasonably infer that eating animals does not follow from what God means by "dominion." If it did, it would be unnecessary to then point out that plants are for food while animals are for dominion, or to rule over (which is what the Hebrew radah means).

As we move on to Genesis 2, events step back chronologically to give a bit more detail about the creation of man. Genesis 2:8 states, "And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." Again we have an explicit link between plants and food. There is no mention of animals (for food or otherwise) in the verses immediately before or after this passage.

In fact, animals don't get a mention until verse 19, the first time animals come into the discussion since their initial creation account in Genesis 1, but only as possible companions for Adam, and certainly not for food. Gen. 2:19-20, "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.' So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was it's name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him." The passage goes on to describe the creation of woman.

I personally find this passage very interesting, and I believe describes the reason man and animals have such a strong link. We've all heard stories about children finding animals to take in temporarily ("just until we can find a home for it" or "just until it gets better") and the mother or father allowing it, but discouraging the naming of said animals. Why? Because once you name something you become attached to it. God gave Adam the task of naming the animals; He did not name the animals himself. Why? I believe it is because God wants us to be attached to the animals over which we have dominion, to love them and care for them. The Hebrew word does carry with it the idea of subjugation, but it is more the idea of the rule or dominion being total rather than hard or severe.

Of course, this is isn't the end of the discussion on animals or even eating animals. Things will change as events in the Bible unfold, but I think this is a good stopping point for now.

I'm a ding dong!

That's right. I am a Grade-A, first-class ding dong. All of my life I have been running away from anything that could possibly be referred to as greens, because of this odd phobia I allowed myself to develop when my mother would try to get me to eat healthy things like spinach and oatmeal (by the way, thank you, Mom, for making the three of us eat good things, for refusing to turn the kitchen into a short-order restaurant, and instilling in us a sense of responsibility about our diets). I didn't like spinach when I was 14, and so avoided it like the plague, or at least a less-contagious cousin of the plague, until a couple of months ago (19 years later-you see where the ding-dong thing is coming in?). Now I eat it all the time. I had been denying myself a wonderful, plant-based source of iron, calcium, etc., etc., etc. Spinach, however, was where I stopped. It is easy to eat raw spinach tossed into my usual salad, but what about greens that really should be cooked?

I was still afraid things like kale, collard, beet greens, mustard greens. You know the stuff that looks like the part that gets thrown away or composted once the real vegetable has been removed. But when I decided to become a vegetarian I realized that I would need to add a greater variety of foods in order to get enough iron and calcium in my diet (more on calcium in a post further down the line), and that my more varied diet should probably include greens. But, the thought of eating a pile of soggy, smooshy, green stuff just make me want to go "Blech!" Vegetarian Times to the rescue!

While perusing their web site I saw a listing for a recipe called "Crispy Kale Leaves." Hmmmmm. I e-mailed it to myself, wrote it out in my little recipe notebook I keep (once again, thanks, Mom!), and promised myself I would try kale. As I mentioned in my last post, I picked up a bunch of kale at Whole Foods on Tuesday. And I mean bunch in every sense of the word. This bag of kale I had was enormous! Now it is slightly less enormous, since I ate roughly 1/3 of it last night.

I was nervous about the crispy kale leaves, I'm not going to lie. What if I hated it? Can you be a vegetarian and NOT eat kale? Would the experienced vegetarians think I was a sham? All of these thoughts ran through my head while the kale got, well, crispy in the oven last night. I followed the recipe precisely (except for the amount of oil they recommended, which I cut in half), the timer went off and I pulled my baking sheet from the oven. I sprinkled a little sea salt on the leaves (which had shrunk quite a bit), picked one up and popped it in my mouth. Oh my . . . It was crispy, it was green-y (and I mean that in a good way). It was like eating an ultra-healthy potato chip. I'm not ashamed to say I stood there and ate about five right off the baking sheet, though gobbling might be closer to what I was doing, before I realized my gnocchi needed attention (I was supposed to be watching for them to turn "pillowy." No joke.)

So there you have it. Fear had kept me from experience some truly amazing foods. Foods created by God for me to use. I am a ding dong.

P.S. Check out my new recipe links to the right! The list will grow as I try new things.

If Whole Foods was a man . . .

. . . I'd want to spend the rest of my life with him . . .it. I love, love, love, love shopping for food at Whole Foods. Where else do you have a reasonable expectation to find organic Italian kiwi, next to the organic kale (red OR green leaf, whichever you prefer), which is next to the organic fresh herbs? YUM! If I was a bajillionaire I would shop there every day. I would also weigh 350 pounds.

Today was my weekly shopping trip. I LOVE MY WEEKLY SHOPPING TRIP! Other than the mild nervousness of not knowing whether all the yummy things I want to eat will fit within my budget, it is my favorite weekday thing to do. I plan and re-plan my menu all week long down the exact fruits I want to eat for which breakfast (this of course changed when I got home because I now have a large Costa Rican pineapple instead of my usual bunch of bananas). The bananas were all green. I don't like it when I have to choose between bright green organic bananas and semi-ripe conventional bananas. So today I chose no bananas, proudly driving home with my ripe organic Costa Rican pineapple, which I butchered promptly so I could have a little with lunch. Yum! And then I remembered why I often see sliced pineapple in the shape of a ring. There's sort of a core thing in the center. Hmmmmmm. I'll remember that next time.

Sadly I think most people assume that eating organic is too expensive. Is it cheap? Certainly not. But it doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive. Often you can get an organic version of something for just a bit more than the conventional version. And when my budget seems really tight and I'm deciding whether I should just get the conventional because it's 50 cents per pound cheaper I say to myself (and I'm not joking): "So what you're saying, Darcy, is that you would eat pesticides if someone paid you 50 cents to do it?" Because that's what it amounts to.

I've also been making the most wonderful discoveries while comparison shopping between Walmart and Whole Foods. Walmart, to their credit, offers a growing number of organic items including a bag of three hearts of romaine. Then I discovered that Whole Foods has it cheaper. Hello! I've been discovering over and over again that while, yes you can spend $12.99 for a pound of Yodeling Goat Gouda at Whole Foods, you can also get a bag of organic baby spinach for $1.99 and a liter of cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil for $5.50. (Note: These are Greenville, South Carolina prices.)

I've also discovered that the hole in my budget once occupied by meat can now easily be filled with more fresh fruits and vegetables, encouraging me to try new things like the bunch of kale I left the store with. *GULP* I think I mostly bought the kale because it seems a lot of vegetarians eat it (plus it was on sale). I also bought it because I found a really great-looking recipe for crispy kale leaves (we'll find out if it's great tasting tomorrow night). Next week I'm trying quinoa for the first time. Hopefully the week after than I'll try another new thing, and the week after that, and the week after that.

My eating habits can easily get into a rut, and I can only imagine that yours sometimes do also. This week try shaking things up a bit. Shop at a new store, add a new vegetable to dinner, and add a few organic items to your pantry.

So what's the deal?

What made me do it? Why vegetarian, why now? The entire story would take far too long to write, and though I am certainly willing to undertake the task, I’m sure you would find all the details that led up to it to be vastly less interesting than I do.

Going vegetarian is not a great leap for me. I started eating organic five years ago. A three-year hiccup (during which time I was living on a university campus, working on a master’s degree, and eating in their dining common) was reversed when I watched Robert Kenner’s extraordinary documentary Food, Inc., which reminded me of why I had been eating organic in the first place. And so I returned to eating organic in December of last year. Not always easy to do on a limited budget, but I do the best I can.

I rarely eat fast food, I make every meal at home myself outside of the few a month which are meals out with friends or my roommate is having company and I get a free home-cooked meal (yay!). Salad ranks among my favorite foods/meals, I make my own granola, and I love whole grain breads and pastas.

Vegetarianism, for me, is the next logical step towards becoming as healthy as I possibly can. Towards the end of my three years in grad school and through the end of last summer, my eating habits took a complete nose dive and I realized I was putting on weight. I took the weight off, started exercising regularly, switched back to organic food and felt better than ever. Statistically speaking I was probably among the most-healthy eating people in the state, but I wasn’t satisfied. I wanted to eat even better.

Many people are vegetarians because of health reasons. Many people are vegetarians because of animal cruelty issues. I am a vegetarian for both reasons. I no longer have the desire to eat meat or participate financially in an industry so full of cruelty. The kicker was watching this video from PETA:

I realize this is not commonplace amongst born-again Christians, especially the fundamentalist circles I travel in. And it’s a shame. I am the temple of the Holy Spirit, and if that means keeping alcohol, cigarette smoke and illegal drugs out of it, I think it should also mean keeping unhealthy “foods” out of it. And if we are so adamant in defending the fact of the EVENT of creation I think we also should adamantly defend the PRODUCTS of creation (and not just the human ones). I also want to make sure that my reasons are scriptural and so intend to undertake a study of the entire Bible in the attempt to discern God’s intentions for food for His children. This may take a year or more.

Becoming a vegetarian is not an instant transformation. This is a journey. There will be days, especially at the beginning, when I will be very proud of myself and eat very well, and there will also be days when I will eat poorly or be too embarrassed to tell someone I am a vegetarian and will find myself eating meat rather than draw attention to myself. There are self-righteous vegetarians who love to announce the fact publicly at parties and barbecues. I pray I will not become one of them.

One of the pros of becoming a vegetarian publicly is that I will have accountability towards those who read this blog (even if they be only my mother and sisters) along with their support. One of the cons is that I will also find myself accountable to those who do not support my decision and will seek to question and find inconsistencies. But this is not about them; it is about me, and what I believe I need to do. So here it is: my blog on becoming a vegetarian.