Why Every Christian Should Be a Vegan

By: Ryan Hicks

Narrated by: Poppy Royana

Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Today, much of Christendom is closely associated with the eating of animals. Some churches even have hunting and fishing trips. Meat, eggs, and dairy are a staple in most professing Christian’s diets. Is any of this in line with God’s will or pleasing to him? Could it be that so many passages of Scripture that traditions have told us are teaching the ethics of killing animals are actually stating something completely different?

This book takes a Scriptural approach to the subject of humanity’s treatment of animals, what God desires from us, and what the Bible says about it all. If you have been raised thinking that animals are here to be food for humans or for our entertainment, then by listening to this book, you will discover many edifying truths.

There are so many topics covered that almost every question one could have about veganism from a Christian perspective is answered.

The contents of the book are:

• Introduction
• Chapter one: "What Is Veganism?"
• Chapter two: "Terms Used"
• Chapter three: "What Is Meat?"
• Chapter four: "What Is God’s Diet for Humanity?"
• Chapter five: "What About Noah’s Allowance to Eat Flesh?"
• Chapter six: "How Animal Flesh Gets to Your Plate"
• Chapter seven: "Eggs and Dairy Must Be Humane, Right?"
• Chapter eight: "Factory Farms Are the Problem, Not Family Farms?"
• Chapter nine: "What About Honey?"
• Chapter 10: "God’s Original Provision for Israel Was Vegan"
• Chapter 11: "Animal Sacrifice in the Bible"
• Chapter 12: "Animal Sacrifice and Flesh Eating Go Together?"
• Chapter 13: "Is All Animal Flesh a Sacrifice to Idols?" 
• Chapter 14: "Compassion Towards Animals in Scripture"
• Chapter 15: "Fish in the Bible"
• Chapter 16: "Do Fish Lives Matter?"
• Chapter 17: "The Feeding of the Multitudes"
• Chapter 18: "Did Jesus Eat Fish?"
• And 48 more chapters answering all the questions you may have about why every Christian should be a vegan!

©2019 Ryan Hicks (P)2020 Ryan Hicks

Important questions that need to be asked

This is quite a good work addressing a lot of the questions about vegetarian/vegan ethic and scriptural interpretation and how these can be seen to be compatible and mutually supportive. This is very important work and I hope that Ryan Hicks and many other will continue to do more work in examining and building the understanding of the ethics, benefits to people, environment, and animals, that result from returning to the diet that according to Genesis, God originally designed and estsblished for human beings, as well as animals. From a health side there the National Health Association that knows and promotes the evidence-based science of plant-based nutrition through their Health Science podcast and other activities. I have personally been eating this way for 10 years and have benefitted immensely in terms of both physical and intellectual health. A few years ago I discovered Orthodox Christianity which is the ancient form of Christianity practiced in Greece, the Balkan states, Russia, Palestine, and the Middle East. I found in reading the lives of many of the saints recorded in the Synaxarion, many of them specifically noted their vegetable based diets, free from animal products, which stated or implied bot causing harm to animals. Many of the ascetics who followed poant based diets lived until a ripe old age with strength snd mental acuity, as is still the case with many of the ascetics who devote their life to prayer as monastics on Mount Athos or other Orthodox monastic communities. With what we know today about nutrition, we should transition back to a healthy, delicious plant rich way of eating. And for the difficult to obtain nutrients such as B12, DHA, and a few others, we can supplement them, and avoid the consumption of sea animals, eggs, and dairy that are still commonly used to supplement the mainly vegetarian diets of the monks, and observers of Orthodox fasting periods.

Necessary and Beneficial Book, but

I searched out vegan/vegetarian books with a Judeo-Christian perspective. There should be more available on Audible. I was happy that this book could be purchased. I appreciate the many scriptures that the author cites, some I had never known before. As was said in other reviews, the looseness of exegesis with which the author treats the scriptures is maddening. He started with his vegan bias (I say that objectively), and then he forcibly jammed that bias into texts that clearly have Jesus eating Pashal lamb, Jesus approving the apostles’ being fishermen, John the Baptist eating actual locusts, Abel offering a lamb as an approved sacrifice, et al. There is no evidence that Paul was himself a vegan, but he says he would become one if his brother was offended by his eating meat (1 Cor. 8:13: “If…then…”). My approach is a more accommodative one, using Romans 14:1-6 to say God approves for a servant of His to eat only vegetables (Harold Littrell’s English Study Bible). Just egregious interpolation by the author throughout. That being said, I am glad to have discovered and read (heard) this book. I appreciate the genuine concern the author has for all of God’s creatures, with which we are fellows. I would buy this book again, even despite the errors in interpretation contained therein, it helped me tremendously in moving to a more plant-based diet, and I will listen to it again in the future.