Eating Meat, Technology, and Being Human

Welcome to any new subscribers! In this newsletter I share a few things that I think provide a taste of truth, goodness, or beauty. Sharing something doesn't mean I agree with it, just that I think it's worth some of your attention. I love to learn from quite disparate sources, and I'm sure that will come across in what I share. Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

I was too involved to get photos (surely, a sign of time well spent!), but my family had a joyful weekend inaugurating the summer season with swimming, kayaking, and burgers. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

I’m looking forward to reading Andy Crouch’s new book The Life We’re Looking For. His previous books have all been stimulating. From a review:

It is important to see at the outset that Crouch’s book primarily offers a moral and social anthropology, even a politics, and only secondarily a critical treatment of technology. Our devices and platforms are both cause and consequence of our collective misfortunes. There are deeper forces at work, then, and in this respect Crouch interprets our digital distempers as symptoms of a larger problem. That problem goes to the heart of who we are and what we are meant to be. But we must have a picture of health — what it means to flourish as a human being — in order to see our present unhealth, much less to mend it.

This is one of the reasons my YouTube channel exists: to invite you into flourishing as a human being in a digital age by cooking and eating well. What video topics would you like to see me work on toward this end?

(See also a recent interview with Andy Crouch on Mere Fidelity)

person holding clear wine glass with red wine

A beautiful reflection on John 2—a passage I spent significant time with recently (see my wine video). And appropriate timing since you may have heard John 21 in church this past Sunday.

How odd, then, that when Jesus has risen from the dead, he devotes one of his three precious appearances to his disciples to a simple seaside luncheon of grilled fish and bread (John 21)! But there is a fitting closure here. We began with a wedding banquet in which Jesus affirmed the goodness of ordinary life; we close with a lunch—a reminder that the transcendent good to which we are called is to be pursued, for now, within the confines of the world as we know it. So while the ordinary things of life are good indeed and well worth enjoying, they are also signs, pointing beyond themselves, to the Logos through whom all things were made.

black and white cow on green grass field during daytime

In my latest video I explored a biblical theology of meat-eating and looked at modern meat production practices. There’s more to be done in developing a robust Christian perspective on meat, so keep an eye on the channel this summer.

Despite the marketing, alternative proteins are not necessarily a silver bullet answer to the problems with factory farming:

Many alternative proteins fall into the category of ultra-processed food. Many also contain soy, palm oil, and wheat which depend on industrial monoculture farming and greenhouse gas-intensive processing. The report shares that companies plan to outsource agricultural production from the global South, which would disrupt the livelihoods of millions of farmers.

“Well-meaning consumers of alternative proteins may not realize they’re buying into the same giant meat companies that are operating the biggest of factory farms, contributing to deforestation and forced labor, and slaughtering millions of animals everyday,” the report states.

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

(Revelation 5:11-14)

Happy Easter and God bless,

Ralph

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Ralph Roberts

Eating Meat, Technology, and Being Human

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