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What Does the Bible Say About...Vegetarians?

Is being a vegetarian a sin? What does God say about not eating meat? I will eat meat if it was hunted but I think that the meat industry as a whole is wasteful and cruel. The bible says to treat your body like a temple and many sources have proven that meat is unhealthy.

Answer

It is not a sin to be a vegetarian. It may not be totally healthy, according to many scientists, but the Bible doesn’t say you have to eat meat. It allows people to eat meat, since Noah left the ark. “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” (Genesis 9:3)

Eating too much meat may be harmful to the body, just as eating no meat may be harmful. The meat industry as a whole may be wasteful and cruel. (If so, find a good kosher butcher. The Jews insist on the slaughter not being cruel.) But the only sin in being a vegetarian would be if you were to insist that other people have to be vegetarians too. “But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.” (1 Corinthians 8:8)