It’s the morning of Tabaski (Eid Al-Adha, Feast of the Sacrifice, the Greater Eid, Kurban Bayram, Eid e Qurban, Bakr’Eid). There’s an excitement in the air. This is the day we’ve all been waiting for. The men rise early and go to the mosque. The return and begin to say ‘Baal ma’ (forgive me) and others respond with ‘baal ma ag’ (you’re forgiven). Then the fun begins. The rams are lined up, holes are being dug outside of houses along the street to capture the blood. One by one, the rams are slaughtered, an offering to Allah, in remembrance of Abraham who was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac. In our household, like many others, 3 rams were killed that day. These rams had been bought at least 2 months ago, fattened up, then transported on top of vehicles to the family home. The men set about skinning, gutting and chopping up the animals (our family actually had a race to see who could do it the quickest and best…) As soon as the liver is taken out, it is given to the women, who cut it and put it on the small barbecues. It’s eaten by everyone, children and adults alike. Hundreds of kilos of potatoes have been prepared and the women are cooking them, chips! What a treat. But the rams fascinate me. They spare nothing. The stomach is taken out, emptied and cooked. The intestines are wound into bundles and cooked. But the best meat, the legs and thighs and ribs and shoulders, they’re all barbecued carefully. Within 2 hours of the rams being killed we’re sitting to our first meal of the day, fresh barbecued ram with crispy chips, onion sauce and a side of homemade mustard. It the best meal I had eaten in a long time and by far the freshest meat I’ve ever had. The excess meat was but into coolboxes, freezers, kept for later. That meat was fashioned into so many variations of meals. Soups, stews, barbecued, fried, mixed with rice, mixed with sauce. We got sick of the taste of it. One day they brought out a plate of dry couscous, poured a nice peanut sauce on top, then place a rams skull on top of the dish. I was expected to scrape the meat from the cheeks and the brain. Needless to say I went hungry that night.
You may be wondering why I’m writing about an Islamic Festival. This is because I spent 11 months living in Senegal, where 95% of the population are Muslims. I was placed to live in a Muslim family, which gave me a fantastic insight into another religion and culture. But my focus today isn’t about that. It’s about meat.
Living on the coast, by a port, meant that fish was easy to come by. Then came red meat, bought at the market for a higher price. It was always bristly, chewy and fatty. The real luxury was chicken. We had it rarely. When my family came to visit, I had to go and buy some chicks for about £5 and raise them so that we would have enough chicken for my two families to eat. Living on animals like this meant that our neighbourhood was a walking farm. Goats everywhere, chickens sprinting around and fish being carted here and there by horses. Pigs would roll in the mud near the Christian areas. A group of cows even grazed in the school quad.
So when I returned home, the thing that shocked me the most wasn’t the rich culture or the shiny cars or the ‘closed-door’ culture we live in. I could cope with those. But I couldn’t stand supermarkets and avoided them for about a month. When I finally took the courage to go shopping to the local Morrisons with Mum, I had thought that I’d prepared myself. But I wasn’t ready for the shock that I got walking down the meat aisle. Mum was walking ahead of me: ‘Do you fancy chicken for dinner? Or how about lamb?’ My legs were frozen, I couldn’t move. I could hardly take it in. Rows and rows of meat, so clinically clean, packaged, skinned and boned and with no guts or eyeballs or brain to be seen. I could get cheap meat. Free range meat. Wings. Thighs. Breast. Chicken. Turkey. Lamb. Ham. Fish of all kinds. Beef. Not to mention the freezer section of processed meats, the hams, the pre-cooked roast chickens.
Where had this meat come from?! How long had the animals lived? Were they killed humanely? What had happened to the ‘waste’, the bits nobody wanted? What was in my chicken nuggets? This meat was a perfect demonstration of how impatient our culture has become. I need it, and I need it now.
When I tell people that I chose vegetarianism for Lent, they don’t understand. ‘But Christianity doesn’t force you not to eat meat! What sort of religion is that?’ For this Lent, rather than seeing it as a glorified diet, cutting out chocolate and Facebook, I decided to take away something that I knew would challenge me. My favourite pizza topping has always been meat feast and I looooove chicken in anything. So I knew better than anyone this would push me. I suppose it’s been an experiment, to try out another lifestyle. Yet as I abstain from meat, I realise more and more how dependent our food culture is on meat. In some cases, we have meat in 3 meals a day. I notice that every time I refrain from meat, that’s another person eating it. We are pushing the meat industry harder than ever, which means that the market is supplying demand.
What does the Bible say about eating meat? And how do we do this in our Christian lifestyle?
The Bible has many references to eating meat, which causes debate between herbivores and carnivores, Muslims and Christians, vegans and vegetarians… I would like to make it clear that I am not against eating meat! Genesis 9:3 says “Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” It’s evident that God gives us meat to enjoy and eat. However, God wants us to look after and care for all animals, as is written in Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Upon our creation, God orders us to care for all kinds of animals. There is a difference between eating meat and eating meat ethically and carefully. So often this is the case in our society: cheap = badly sourced and mass produced. Meat, clothes, chocolate, you name it. We just need to cast our minds back to the Tesco horsemeat scandal to see that. I believe that as Christians we should be caring for our earth, environment and animals. Next time you go shopping, why not get the free-range eggs? And try heading to the butchers instead of the familiar shiny packaged supermarket meat. Yes it’s an effort. Yes it’s time and a bit more money. But life isn’t meant to be easy. Let’s not conform to the easy, spoon fed society.
In Romans 14, Paul writes:
“17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification […] 22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”
So let us take this verse literally, and know that eating is not the be all and end all. Let us step out and do everything in faith. The love of God for us is far greater than whether we are vegetarian or a meat-eater. But let’s remember to care for this world, as we’ve been ordered to from our first days. Love God, love one another, and love the world.
Kate Townsend
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