小白杨结局是什么:信仰与食物

信仰与食物

Jennifer Dykes Henson Sunday, 13 November 2011

作者：詹妮弗?代克斯?汉森  2011年11月13日 星期日

Is it a sin to eat meat?

吃肉是罪吗？

What did you have for dinner last night? How about breakfast this morning? Lunch last Friday?

昨天晚饭你吃的是什么？今天的早饭呢？上星期五的午餐又是什么？

If you’re like the overwhelming majority of Americans, every meal you eat includes a hefty helping of sizzling, savory meat. And why not? Meat tastes great—and provides us with all-important protein, right? Well, that’s what most of us have always believed, anyway.

如果你和绝大多数美国人一样，那么你的每顿饭都会有一大块儿吱吱冒油、香味扑鼻的肉。干嘛不呢？肉不但好吃，而且又给我们补充所有重要的蛋白质，是不是？不管怎么说，我们当中大部分人相信是这样的。

Yet when it comes to what’s on our plates, how it got there and how it affects us, we are in an unfortunate position; we don’t know what we don’t know.

不过，说到我们的盘中餐，它们是怎么来的，又会如何影响我们，这个时候就比较尴尬了：我们连自己不知道什么都不知道。

Just two years ago, I didn’t know what I didn’t know either. I was going about my business, happily eating the foods I was raised on—chicken breasts, turkey sandwiches, hamburgers and steaks. I had no problem partaking in the meat-filled, all-American diet. But then my eyes were opened to the reality of meat consumption as it related both to my body and to the world around me, something shifted and I became one of the twenty- and thirty-somethings who are trending toward vegetarianism at an astounding rate.

仅仅两年以前，我也不知道我不知道什么。每天自顾自地、高高兴兴地吃我从小到大一直吃的东西——鸡胸、火鸡三明治、汉堡和牛排。我对这种纯美国风味儿的肉食大餐一点儿意见也没有。但是，当这种饮食和我的身体还有我生活的世界联系起来看的时候，我的眼睛被擦亮了，看到了事情不同的一面，然后我迅速转变成了那些倾向素食主义的80,90后当中的一员。

There’s an inarguable proverb that says, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom” (Proverbs 4:7). The problem is we don’t necessarily want wisdom regarding our food choices because, whether deep-fried or lightly broiled, our ignorance tastes finger-licking good. But for the sake of our own health, and for the sake of the animals and the planet we’ve been entrusted with, it’s time we started seeing our eating choices through the lens of reality rather than social conditioning. In other words, it’s time to get wisdom.

圣经《箴言》当中有一节再明白不过的经文：“智慧的开端是求取智慧。”（箴言4:7，新译本，下同）。问题是，我们并不一定想要吃得有智慧，管它是油炸还是软烤的，我们只管好吃就行。但是为了我们自己的健康着想，同时也为了这颗委托给我们管理的星球和上面的动物着想，我们现在应当实事求是地重新审视我们的饮食选择，而不要再屈从于社会的局限性。换句话说，现在是求取智慧的时候了。

The majority of young adults who are now opting for a vegetarian lifestyle point to four reasons for making the leap: health, animal welfare, environmental issues and world hunger.

那些选择素食的年轻人大多将他们生活方式的改变归结于四个原因：健康、动物权益、环境问题、和全球饥饿问题。

Here’s what’s interesting: While these four issues are all things that those of us who are Christ-followers are called to be concerned with, our interest in how we nourish ourselves and how our choices nurture the world pale in comparison to many of our non-Christian counterparts.

有意思的是，尽管我们这些跟随基督的人理当去关注这四个问题，但是在如何填饱肚子的问题上的选择，和这种选择如何造福整个世界这件事上，我们在那些不信仰基督的面前相形见绌。

Why is it that some vocal sectors of the unbelieving culture around us are acutely interested in the personal and global impact of their eating choices, while those of us who are specifically called to compassion, understanding, love and excellence saunter up to the burger bar without a second thought?

为什么我们身边那些没有信仰的群体对自己的饮食选择对个人和世界带来的影响更加有兴趣？而我们这些被明确教导要有同情心、善解人意、爱邻如己和良好德行的人，却在大快朵颐的同时想都不去想这些事情呢？

Get Wisdom

求取智慧

While we like to believe that our meat comes from healthy animals raised on Norman Rockwell-certified farms, that’s not the case. The evolution to factory farming over the last half century has radically changed the way we eat meat, in terms of both quantity and quality. Small, well-run farms have been virtually eliminated by factory farms that mass-produce animals as if they were widgets being prepared for shipment. Let’s take a look at a few implications of factory farming, as they relate to each of the four categories mentioned above.

我们都愿意相信自己盘子里的肉来自健康的牲畜身上，而它们都生长在和宣传画上一样的农场里，但事实并非如此。过去半个世界发生的农业的工厂化革命已经在数量上和质量上彻底改变了我们食肉的方式。那些有农夫悉心照料的小农场已经几乎完全消失，取而代之的大农场以工业化方式批量生产牲畜，就像流水线上的零件一样，随时装配并准备运走。让我们分别从上面所说的四个角度，来看一看工厂化农业到底意味着什么。

Health—Doctors who are serious about disease reduction recommend that we eat under half a pound of meat per week. The average American takes that down in a day. Consuming animal protein at the current rate has sent obesity, cancer rates and heart disease through the roof over the last 50 years.

健康：那些真正希望减少疾病发生的医生会建议我们每周食肉不超过半磅（227克）。一个普通的美国人一天就要吃这么多。过去五十年来，人们消耗动物蛋白的速度使得肥胖、癌症和心脏疾病的发生率急剧上升。

Not to mention, factory farmed meat—which is 97 percent of the meat currently available in the United States—is always served with a complimentary chemical cocktail. The level of super antibiotics, modified hormones and other synthetic substances that make it into the flesh we find so tasty leads to its own host of health issues.

更不用说工厂化生产的肉类（美国市场上97％的肉类都是这样生产的）总是要搭配一道化学药剂的拼盘。我们视为美味佳肴的肉类当中含有的超级抗生素、调控激素和其他合成物质水平也会导致各种健康问题。

Animal Welfare—Whether devoted animal lovers or not, we can all agree that God’s creation deserves to be treated with a modicum of respect. We have been given dominion over the animals that populate the earth. With that dominion comes responsibility. The way we engineer (yes, engineer) and slaughter animals today flies in the face of any definition of thoughtful stewardship. The details, which I can’t even begin to scratch the surface of here, would turn any stomach. As Marc Bittman of The New York Times pointed out in a recent TED talk, “There’s no way to treat animals humanely when you are killing 10 billion of them every year.”

动物权益：即便你不会投身于动物保护事业，也会同意上帝的造物理应得到一点点尊重。我们被赋予了统治动物、遍布全地的权柄。随着权力而来的是责任。人类现在设计生产（对，就是设计生产）和屠宰动物的方式对我们被赋予的管理者身份简直就是一种侮辱。这些所作所为的细节让我作呕，可谓磬竹难书，在这想要开个头儿都难。引用纽约时报的马克?比特曼最近在一次TED演讲中的话来说，“人类每年要杀掉100亿只动物，还有什么脸谈动物保护？”

Environmental Issues—Next time you walk into your local supermarket to pick up a pound of ground beef, take a look at how much more is sitting in those cooled, well-lit containers. Think about the beef in the back of the store, waiting to be put on Styrofoam, wrapped in Cellophane and displayed for the rush of dinner shoppers. Combine that image with the amount of beef in the supermarket down the street, then in every supermarket in your town. Multiply that by every city and town in your state and every state in our great union.

环境问题：下次你到超市去买牛肉馅的时候，注意看看那个灯光明亮的冷藏柜里一共摆了多少包肉馅。再想想超市仓库里还有多少要放在塑料泡沫托盘上，用塑料薄膜包起来，然后摆在货架上让人买走去做晚餐。然后再加上城里别的超市，再算上你的州里所有的城市，还有我们伟大合众国的每一个州。

Now, imagine the elaborate back-end process necessary for breeding, slaughtering and distributing those cows—not to mention, their chicken, turkey, pig and lamb cohorts. The environmental ramifications are staggering, and we haven’t even brought restaurants and fast food chains into the visualization.

现在，想象一下这些牛肉所需要的那些复杂精密的饲养、屠宰和运输工序，当然不能忘了那些家禽、猪和羊同志们。所有这一切对环境造成的巨大冲击是难以想象的，我们甚至还没算上餐厅和快餐连锁店。

To put it lightly, our meat habit wreaks havoc on the world we live in. Experts contend that if everyone in the U.S. skipped meat just one day per week, the benefit would be comparable to taking 7.6 million cars off the road.

说得轻一点，我们的食肉习俗也给我们生活的世界带来了巨大的破坏。专家们主张，如果每个美国人每周有一天不吃肉，带来的好处相当于减少七千六百万辆汽车。

World Hunger—While Americans grow increasingly obese, approximately 1 billion people around the world go hungry. How are these two realities connected? Close to half of the corn and grain grown on the planet is used to feed livestock. Each farmed animal must consume many pounds of it to produce just one pound of meat—an extremely inefficient use of resources. If we spared the middleman and distributed those corn and grain crops directly to the poor and needy, world hunger would be a thing of the past.

世界饥饿：在美国人变得越来越胖的同时，世界上还有大约十亿人处于饥饿当中。这两件事实要怎么联系起来？全世界生产的玉米和谷物有一半要喂给牲畜。每头牲畜要吃很多公斤粮食才能长出一公斤肉，这是极端低效的资源利用方式。如果我们抹掉这个中间环节，把那些玉米和谷物直接分配到贫穷和有需要的人受伤，世界饥饿很快就会成为历史。

Many adamant meat eaters look to Jesus for justification. They argue that Jesus ate meat, so meat eating must be OK. Jesus also wore a long linen robe with a sash and simple sandals. Is that going to be your outfit of choice this season? Don’t get me wrong—Jesus should be our example in all things, but we have to be wary of using Him as an easy excuse or in an attempt to rationalize what we want to do.

很多意志坚定的肉食动物拿耶稣来当挡箭牌。他们争辩说耶稣也吃肉，所以吃肉是可以的。耶稣还穿长袍和草鞋呢，难道你也要把这个当作秋冬季新时尚？别误会我的意思，我们应当把耶稣作为每一件事上的榜样，但是必须注意不能拿他来当借口，试图给我们自己想要做的事情去找理由。

In Jesus’ day, small, family farms were obviously the norm, and there was no option outside of local. Synthetic hormones hadn’t been invented. People who ate meat ate it in extremely small quantities (usually just for special occasions) that came from healthy, well-fed, well-cared-for animals. Meat eating today is a different story altogether. The apropos question to ask is, “Would Jesus eat meat if He were walking the earth now?” Arguably, He would not.

在耶稣那个年代，显然家庭农庄是主流，而且几乎没有长途运输来的东西。合成激素还没被发明。人们就算有肉吃，也吃的很少，而且一般要在特殊的场合。他们吃的动物也真正是健康的、营养正常的，并且得到悉心照料。今天我们吃肉则完全是另一码事。我们应当问这样一个问题：“如果今天耶稣在人间，他还会吃肉吗？”恐怕，他不会。

When you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s easy to do things the way you’ve always done them. But then wisdom steps in and something has to change. As followers of Christ, we are called to be mindful of how we treat the bodies we’ve been given and how we engage in the world around us. We don’t have the luxury of turning a blind eye to suffering—whether that of our nation’s health, starving children or tortured animals—while we live to please our stomachs.

当你连自己不知道什么都不知道的时候，按照习惯办事是再简单不过的。但是如果智慧到来，就必然有些东西要改变。作为基督的信徒，我们应当注意如何对待上帝赐予自己的身体，和如何与身边的世界互动。在取悦我们的味蕾的同时，对我们国家的健康、饥饿的儿童，还有被折磨的动物，这些重重的苦难，我们没有权力视而不见。

Change is not always easy, but small steps can make a big difference. Continue seeking out truth regarding your food choices and begin making small adjustments where you can. Perhaps you stop eating meat one day a week. Maybe you decide to find and support the few remaining family farms. Whatever you do, get wisdom, live mindfully and choose to respect the life and the planet you’ve been given.

改变是困难的，但积跬步至千里。我们要不断在日常饮食中寻求真理，并随时作出哪怕微小的调整。也许你可以每周有一天不吃肉，也许你决定去寻找并支持幸存的家庭农场。不管你要怎么做，请寻求智慧，谨慎生活，选择尊重生命和赐予我们的这个星球。

Jennifer Dykes Henson is a freelance writer based in New York City. She is the co-author of The Generosity Ladder (Baker 2010), Revolve: A New Way to See Worship (Baker 2011) and numerous other titles for church leaders.

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詹妮弗?代克斯?汉森是一位生活在纽约的自由撰稿人。她与人合著了《慷慨之梯》（Generosity Ladder, 2010），《旋转：新的视角看敬拜》（Revolve: A New Way to See Worship, 2011）和很多其他为教会领袖所写的作品。