PETA's Jesus

Even for the notoriously irrational PETA, this is amazing. Having convinced themselves that Christ was a vegetarian, they have created this... installation: a "diner" made out of an Airstream trailer, featuring a model of Christ presiding over a Last Supper company composed of various famous real and alleged vegetarians-- Ghandi, George Bernard Shaw, Paul McCartney as Sergeant Pepper, Kafka, and K. D. Lang-- all behind bars, so, I guess, they won't be vandalized, but looking like they are in jail. It is the silliest thing I have seen so far this year.

Some friends had pungent reactions.

Tom McIntyre: "This is my celery? This is my cider?"

Patrick Burns:
"PETA just proves it's filled with folks that have never read the Bible. Say what you want about Jesus, but he was Jew, and as such was raised in a world in which the Torah -- the most sacred book of God -- was wrapped in animal skins with the fur still on them. His was a world of sheep and goats, camels and donkeys, horses, and mules. Sheep and goats were routinely sacrificed and eaten, just as they are today. Larger pack animals were used to the very edge of their miserable existence, and then they were killed and skinned for water bags, saddles drums, shoes, bags, and cord -- just as they are today. In much of the Middle East, little has changed in 2,000 years, and I assure you that there is no notion of Animal Rights at all.

"In both the Old and New Testaments, animals do not have rights, and in fact at least one day every year -- during the Passover sacrifice -- practicing Jews always had to eat meat as it was part of the traditional meal. Jesus was born in a manger -- a place where beasts of burden and servicve are houses. The story in the New Testament is not of loaves and Tofu, but of loaves and fishes, and it was fish -- a living thing -- that was killed and which Jesus fed to his followers. Add to this the story in Samuel where the fox's tail is set on fire to help torch the fields of the Philistines (made famous in a Kipping poem entitled "The Fox Meditates"), the Old Testament tales of frogs falling from the sky (not a good day for the frogs, I suspect), and the wholesale drowning of animals (Great Flood and Exodus), and it's clear that God is not a PETA member.

"We have more direct evidence, of course. If God made man in his own image, as the Bible says, then God has canine teeth.

"Try to reconcile that with vegetarianism.

"God did not make man alone, of course. He aso made spiders which bind up living things, inject them with poison, and then eat them eat them alive, one piece at a time. God made the hawk which will rip the head of a fluttering sparrow still grasped in his claw. God made the fox which will chew the legs off a living mouse so that the flapping rodent can serve as a toy for its kits.

"In short, God made nature, red in tooth and claw, and I assure you it is not all a mistake.

"OK, enough out of me -- off with the dogs for a few hours in the field. Time for me to listen to a little Stained Glass Bluegrass.

"Let us prey."

A PETA spokesman said "I’ve had people telling me they’re going to be re-evaluating their food choices and lives after seeing the display.”

Maybe after laughing themselves silly they all go off for bloody steaks.

Oh and-- THERE'S A PIG ON THE ROOF.

UPDATE: Patrick shares thoughts on his religion.