Recently, I had a mild disagreement, as my friends from Sweden would say. It was problematic they might say. I have been subscribing to the feed at Zen Habits for a couple months now, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the posts and content focused on simple living, minimalism and productivity. Well the other day it turned from productivity blog into activist blog. I woke up and was hit with a post about compassion to animals with links to PETA in the post. Just this alone didn’t get me worked up. It was the comments that followed.
The author on the blog is a vegetarian- I’m not sure if he is a Vegan. The comments were like an onslaught of patronization, platitudes and eventually intolerance of anyone who eats meat or animal byproducts. At first I wanted to open my mind to animal cruelty as I had never looked into it before. I believe that organizations like PETA have a voice and it is a free country- they can speak out against that which bothers them. Although they do it in a questionable manner like protesting outside of my church because some of the 20,000 members work at Yum brands. That makes sense. They don’t have an agenda other than animal rights!
As I went into the discussion with an open mind, I soon realized I was not debating anyone with an open mind. Just a bunch of commenter’s who thought anyone who ate meat would soon realize their ignorance. There was misuse of scripture all over the place. For instance one commenter told me that the bible says thou shalt not kill- and it means animals too. I couldn’t help but laugh, because he must have stopped reading the bible at Exodus because right next door in Leviticus God gives instructions to the Hebrews on how to make animal sacrifices in great detail. Not to mention Jesus declaring all food clean. I gave other references as well, since the bible speaks louder and clearer than Bryce. I have no problem with vegetarians or vegans. Hey that’s great. I try myself to eat organic products and I try to buy meats processed humanely. Of course animal cruelty cannot be avoided totally since death is cruel and a required part of the process. I even apologized or Christians that take for granted our call to be good stewards of our environment. My mention of dominion and subdue in Genesis did not go over so well. It brought lots of references to misogynists and even brought out comments about slavery and oppression. The quote on the bottom of the original post referenced the fact that animals are basically on par with humans. Of course being a bible believing Christian, I believe we (being man and woman) were created in the image of God.
I found the hypocrisy too much to take. I tried to use logic for instance. If you believe that anything with hopes and dreams or that can feel pain (their premise) should not be killed or harmed especially for the purpose of food; then it would follow that aborting babies would fall under that category. Much to my amazement (just kidding) no one used logic in this case. I explained that no one could prove that cattle have hopes and dreams on the one hand. On the other hand babies develop a spinal cord and nervous system before anything else- so they must feel pain. No dice. I’ve figured out the elite among us often like to study logic but do not like to use it or stand by it.
I never said a hurtful word. I was proud that I kept my cool and tried to reason with the other commenters. I had recently purchased the authors book and was using his habit changing forum. I have since unsubscribed to his blog feed, put his book down and I’m using a different habit forming tool. I think as Christians we must be in the world witnessing but not of the world. It’s clear to me that they have a new age kind of Christianity going on at that blog- I’m going to flee.
My last comment was a little spiteful I do have to admit. I mentioned the lunch that the now President Obama was having after the inauguration. The menu included duck, pheasant, shrimp, lobster, scallops and cod. I wondered if anyone on this blog might think differently of their candidate if he partakes in an occasional meal from animals.
To close if you are a Vegan and or Vegetarian I think that’s great for you. If you are a Christian be a better steward of God’s creation. Somewhere deep down, a natural desire lies within us all to preserve our health (as we should since it’s God’s temple for his Holy Spirit) for as long as we can. We strive to preserve our environment as long as we can because we have to live here for as long as we can. As Christians we forget that this is not our home. Eternity is much longer than life on earth. If you don’t have that hope in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and the gift of eternal life- then I can understand fighting to save everything you know as the here and now. It’s all you’ve got. Christians have eternity. Here’s the good news. Here is the gospel. You can have it too by admitting you need it and following Jesus Christ. He’ll take you wherever you are.
To be a Christian doesn’t just mean realizing Jesus taught some cool principles. Ghandi did that. Mandela did that. Buddha did that. Moses did that. Just as C.S. Lewis says that a “Gentleman” used to mean a man with a coat of arms or an estate and now it means a nice guy; a Christian means a follower of the resurrected Christ- not just a nice guy or someone who thinks Jesus was a master teacher and nothing more. The power was in the resurrection and the empty tomb. Go and look for the leaders of all other religions and you will find them where they lay-look for Jesus and he is not there. He is eternal.
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I came to see your page from the Zen Habit page. It sounds like it’s the other commentators that you’re frustrated at and not really the writer. Of course it’s totally your choice whether or not you want to subscribe to his blog or read his ebook, but it does seem drastic to drop it because of other people who have left comments. Just because he’s allowed some arguably incorrect and illogical comments doesn’t mean that his blog has lost all value and valuable advice. I’m not some psycho Zen Habit fan or anything, but here’s to arguing logic with logic.
Also, Jack Handey is great! Cracks me up everytime.
I agree that it’s not Leo that posted the comments. I agree with your logic that it seems childish to unsubscribe when I’m more upset with commentators than the writer. The thing that you might be missing is that I get upset when writers of blogs get off topic and use their voice to advocate an agenda. This breaks the trust with readers. I unsubscribed to Scoble’s blog when he went political during October and November. He took shots at conservatives and Christians and he broke the trust he had with me and many others. I haven’t been back and never think about his blog. I get the info somewhere else. After all I can find the things Leo writes about many places. It just happened that Zen Habits captured my attention and gained my trust first before any other productivity blogs. All I have is my little voice, and I have to use it.
I have purposely set up a personal blog, a business blog and a company blog. I don’t post about my political beliefs on my business blog, and I don’t hit my personal readers with a bunch of business ads. The Zen Habits blog is a very good blog and has very useful information. I resonated with Leo because I liked his story and the way he turned his life around. He claimed to be a Christian in a post he did around Christmas, but it seems to me more like a combination of Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age, and Christianity. That is the main reason I unsubscribed not because of what his commentators said. I wish Leo well and he will not miss my little eyes reading his posts. I said I put his book down, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t pick it back up and finish it. In my mind there are principles to be learned from every faith, but the truth only lies in one. I only tagged my post with one tag. Jesus. I didn’t want anyone other than my readers to find it. I didn’t want to gain traffic because of a conflict with some other blog. I actually hate conflict. Can’t stand it.
I am the kind of guy that will quit whatever I deem unproductive. I will get up and walk out of a movie that isn’t very good. I will put down a book that doesn’t interest me after a couple chapters. So this isn’t groundbreaking behavior for me. I wasted a whole day of productivity posting and thinking about the post the other day. I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole again.
Thanks so much for the kind way you posted and yes Jack Handy was a blast from the past when I saw his site and added that widget.
Ah, interesting. Well, in that case, I can understand why you unsubscribed. I must have skipped Leo’s entry related to religion. I often do that just to avoid the inevitable heated debates. While I’m not religious, I do respect people who are dedicated believers and not just picking out their favorite parts of a particular religion like many often do.
Anyway, it’s interesting how the blogging world has developed and the etiquette behind it. I’m no expert though. I have a couple of blogs but they’re not very organized and I’m pretty sure there’s only a small handful of readers.