Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: belville@athena.mit.edu (Sharon Belville) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Paul and vegetarianism Message-ID: Date: 11 Jun 91 03:31:52 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 31 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu This is just a brief address of the subject, not meant to be thoroughly scholarly :-) The Romans 14 passage is in the context of eating meat sacrificed to idols. Many new converts had participated in this idol worship before becoming Christians, and for them the meat was reminiscent of their old lives. If they could not handle these connotations, they should not eat meat. To make an application to our culture, let's look at drinking alcohol, given that the Bible teaches against drunkenness, but not against drinking wine. (And that's as far as I'll go on that subject.) Converts who are recovering alcoholics should not even touch a bit of alcohol, because it would be a struggle for them, given their past history of alcohol abuse. Some Christians will be able to handle alcoholic beverages, because they have the self-control to refrain from drinking too much. The context of Romans 14 is about judging each other in matters of opinion, and wanting to help each other be righteous, not putting stumbling blocks in your brother's way. Each Christian has his or her own responsibility to decide about issues such as vegetarianism or drinking, and then be fully convinced in his own mind. Romans 14:23 "But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin." Mark 7:18 "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body."... "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' -- Sharon Belville