Vegetarian diet prevents disease, adheres to Bible

To the editor:

Should Christians be vegetarians? Thanks for the thought-provoking article in which Professor Stephen Webb answers yes, Christians should be vegetarians.

Most heart disease, strokes and peripheral vascular disease could be prevented by a low-fat vegetarian diet. The Framingham study and other quality studies have proven this beyond a reasonable doubt. Many cancers also are linked to a high-fat omnivorous diet. We do not need to eat meat to be healthy. Quite the opposite.

As to Christians in particular, Jesus clearly would not want us to hurt and kill ourselves. Nor surely would he want us to hurt and kill other creatures. The cruel realities of factory farms and slaughterhouses are caused by man's choice to eat meat. Animals feel fear and pain probably much as we do. No logical grounds exist for excluding from Christ's unlimited love those creatures who do not possess reason. This is an arbitrary choice. We are the ones with reason and should know better. Causing the suffering and death of animals is inconsistent with the loving kindness Christ died to teach us.

Eden was a vegetarian world (Genesis 1:29). With the fall came suffering and death (and meat eating). Given what we now know about the links between meat and many diseases, everyone should be vegetarian. Christians have an additional reason to avoid meat: One simply cannot follow the heart of Christ's message and choose cruelty and disease over kindness and health.

DR. STEPHEN W. STIGERS

Cape Girardeau