theophiliacs

Part of an ongoing series on Leviticus and Law in Post-Culture War America.

“A calf might spend the first few months of its life eating grass on the range, but typically the rest of its short life is spent in a feedlot, ankle deep in manure. By nature, cattle are equipped to turn the grass that grows naturally on arid land into high-quality protein. However, allowing cattle to graze is considered inefficient these days, because it takes too long. Today’s beef cattle in the United States go from 80 to 1200 pounds in just fourteen months on a crash diet of corn, protein supplements, and drugs. They are given hormone implants (banned in Europe) to promote growth. Their calories come from corn, which is cheap and convenient but depends on the use of lots of petroleum products, and wreaks havoc on their ruminant digestive system, which is designed for grass. [...]

The meat is cheap, but the social costs are not included in the price. Each head of cattle requires about 284 gallons of oil in its lifetime. [...] ‘We have succeeded in industrializing the beef calf, transforming what was once a solar-powered ruminant into the very last thing we need: another fossil-fuel machine.’”

- William T. Cavanaugh, “Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire“

Creational concerns pervade the dietary laws in Leviticus. At times ignored or even criticized for what might seem to the modern reader as arbitrary distinctions, at the center of these pastoral prohibitions is a profound concern for created life.

Blood—symbolizing life and vitality in the ancient world—is a preoccupation for the community in Leviticus. Just as Abel’s blood called out to God from the ground after his murder and the same prohibition is a chief tenant of covenant with Noah so in Leviticus, the divine gift of blood is protected. Enlightened notions of a ‘right to life’ or ‘animal liberation’ are foreign to the God-centeredness of the Leviticus text.

“Blood, whether animal or human, is a metaphor for life; when it is spilt—and in the case of animals, consumed—by a human being, God’s creation is diminished by the loss of life.”

- Samuel E. Balentine, “Leviticus“

Too often such foreign sounding prohibitions can be explained away as the archaic superstitions of an agricultural, pre-modern people. In reality, such interpretations say far more about how removed the average American has really gone from the source of his or her food than it does about the text itself. These clever little things called “farmer’s markets” which we believe ourselves to have invented are actually one of the oldest and still by far the most common methods for human beings to get their food.

We should not so lightly gloss over the obvious connections between Israel and the land. Even the prohibitions against eating certain types of animals show this respect for creation. Admittedly, the ancient orderings with such categories as cleft hoof and cud chewing (Lev. 11) defy modern scientific taxonomies and can obscure meaning. Yet despite the millennia, we should notice at least this:

…created life is not to be destroyed or consumed carelessly. This is more than a sentiment of kindness towards animals or environment—but a necessary component of holiness in the land.