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INTERFAITH
THOU SHALT HONOR THY BROCCOLI
Inspired to become vegetarian through the principle of ahimsa, teacher KIRSTIN ODEGAARD shares the role that vegetarianism and non-violence have played in other faiths
eventh Day Adventists, members of a religion based on Christianity, promote healthy
lifestyles. Roughly fifty percent of their members adhere to a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. They justify this diet through the words of the apostle Paul, author of 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament, who stated that the body is a temple of God. Thus, followers eschew alcohol, tobacco and meat. Vegetarianism is seen as God's natural plan because in the Garden of Eden, not only were Adam and Eve vegetarian but so was all of God's creation. God tells Adam: "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground - everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food. (Genesis 1:29-30) It was not until after the fall of man that God cursed the ground so that it would 'produce thorns and thistles' (Genesis 3:18) so that man,
now sinful, was forced to rely on the Jain Education Interational
By permission of the British Library "The Last Supper' by Khatchatur (scribe). Manipulation of image authorised by the British Library
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