Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Today’s video is
another installation of my interview with vegan activist Gary Yourofsky. Now we’re
finally coming to the end of this series and really getting into some intense topics. In
this segment, Gary will share his views on the relationship between veganism and religion.
This can be quite the controversial hotbed rife with tension. And if you know Gary, you
know that he does not mince his words. I'll tell you ahead of time that if you are easily
offended by strong language or religious topics, this is not the video for you. As an additional
note, I personally plan on doing a full video series on the intersection of religion and
veganism with a video dedicated to each religious view. I personally believe that veganism can
be a meaningful part of any religious practice and, in fact, is supported in various scriptures.
But today’s video is Gary's response to this topic. I would encourage you to push
through any resistance that may come up and listen for the underlying message of Gary's
answer. After we hear from him I’ll come back in with some of my thoughts. So prepare
yourself and gird your loins cause we're going in.
Can you speak a little bit to intersection of veganism and religion. Are there conflicts
there, can they compliment one another?
The only conflict that is going is that if you claim that you believe in God and you
murder God’s animals, you’re a murderer of God. You’re not believing in God, you’re
not worshipping God. Something I noticed that it is horrible- religious people, I don’t
care what religion you are, they never worship anything that God actually created. They only
worship things that we created in God’s name. Bibles, crosses, churches, synagogues,
Koran, mosque, The Stars of David, the Wailing wall, phony images of Jesus. And by the way,
let me just put this out there. If you believe in Jesus, if you believe he was a white guy
with blue eyes and blond hair in Middle East. You’re not in fucking reality. There are
no white people with blue eyes and blond hair naturally born in Middle East. So everything
about religion has to be made up shit. I believe in God, as I say to all these people “no,
I love God” I’ll proudly say it. I don’t believe in the organized religious God people
have made up. I see God in trees, I see God in cows. I look at cows and I see this huge
head, Big Red up at SASHA Farm or Bhima, I’m touching their heads are like 200 pounds,
I go “man, what was God thinking when he made this head?” I see a giraffe and I think
“what was God thinking when he made this neck that’s 17 or 20 feet long?” I’m
amazed at God’s creations. Sadly religious people see God’s creations and all they
want to do is kill them. That’s the first thing they do is kill them! Kill them! Steal
their babies! Rape them! Fuck them! Forget about them! I think- religious people got
it backwards completely. Forget about the book, God’s not in the book. Let me be clear
about that. God does not exist on paper. He’s not in the book, close the fucking book and
walk outside and look at what God created and then you’ll be a holy being. It’s
not about long beards, not about covering your head in cloth. That does not make you
a good person. Compassion makes you a good person. Not harming somebody else makes you
a good person. For the record, I don’t care what God you believe in, if you even believe
in a God. I care about how you act. Your actions count, not your beliefs. Your actions matter.
Are you killing somebody, are you enslaving somebody, are you oppressing somebody, or
you just discriminating against somebody. That’s what counts and that’s what matters.
And that’s what religious people need to correct. World would be a better place if
we actually embraced and protected God’s creations. Instead of just killing them all.
As I said in the beginning, I truly believe that the core of what one may call
“godly principles” are very much in line with veganism. The tenants of do no harm,
of love, compassion, empathy, kindness. Aren’t these the very bedrock of spiritual traditions?
Isn’t caring for the most vulnerable among us what countless religious practice advocate?
Certainly we humans have perverted even the most noble of principles with our own selfish
desires and motives. But when you really look at the original teachings and core philosophies
of most religions, veganism fits quite nicely.
I’m a huge advocate of the fact that anyone and everyone can be vegan. From atheists to
evangelicals, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, what have you. Anyone from
any background, ethnicity, religious practice, economic class, nationality- anyone can choose
to live with compassion. To look in the eyes of an innocent animal and say, you deserve
life. You will not die on my account. What is more spiritual than that?
So I’d love to hear what you think about this subject. If you do identify as religious,
do you find veganism to be in conflict or in line with your beliefs? What do you see
as the relationship between veganism and religion? Let me know in the comments.
Give the video a thumbs up if you liked it, or a thumbs down if it pissed you off. And
please do share it around to help spread the message. Stay tuned to the Bite Size Vegan
channel for the final installations of my interview with Gary. I’ve also posted bonus
footage and questions that didn’t make it to the channel in the ViV Area of BiteSizeVegan.com
which you can access for free by clicking below. And for even more behind-the-scenes
action and the best discussion of all things vegan, join us in the Nugget Army on Patreon.
You can click on that logo right there or on the link in the video description.
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Thou shalt not kill. Follow it for a change.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community