Thanksgiving is like a vegetarian day of Lent. We don't have to give up vegies entirely, but we are required to taste the flesh of dead animals so that we understand the fleeting pleasure the beast-like craving for animal flesh gives our regular meat eating friends and relatives and why they defend their heathen practice as 'normal.'
In fact I've found a sermon, Not Like the Beasts, that helps explain all this.
What does it tell us that, when faced with any attempt to make the case that this substance should be harder to get than it is, some reliable subset of defenders can be counted on to respond more like animals than like people? If such is not the very definition of addiction, what is?It was the insight regarding the animal-response that has stuck with me since I first read this article. It’s not just, it seems to me, those enslaved to pornography who may lash out when their sin is exposed. No.
Instead, it seems to me that any of us is tempted to respond like that whenever the light encroaches on our dark places. And Satan is surely pleased that it can devolve us into beasts.
It may be an aspect of the mystery of lawlessness that causes us, at times, to respond not with gratitude but with (un)righteous indignation when our pet addictions, our personal idolatries, are exposed.
If we respond with disdain when our spending habits come under scrutiny, perhaps we’ve fallen into mammon-worship. If we respond with vitriol when our relationships are questioned, perhaps those relationships are inappropriate. If we respond with hatred when our particular political party is critiqued, perhaps we’re worshiping the wrong king.And if one responds thusly to having one's carnivorous lusting pointed out, perhaps one is worshiping the destruction of life and gluttony.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving turkey and remember, it gave its life to bring income to turkey farmers (not too much), agro-business (a lot), and retail food outlets (more than farmers), as well as satanic pleasure to your palate.
And vegetarians, savor this date of eating flesh so that you are less judgmental of your flesh-eating brethren. This is, for many, an addiction which they cannot escape, despite the cruelty suffered by so many of the animals they devour, despite the damage caused to the environment by factory farms and by the need to destroy forests to grow feed for the animals, despite the unnatural chemicals in the flesh they devour. Show them understanding and lead them out of temptation, not through your own self-righteous nagging, but through your own good example.
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Thanksgiving isn't just about eating dead bird. It kicks off a period where a lot of people over-indulge and gain weight from bad eating habits during the holidays, spend too much money on junk that neither they nor their friends need, and they make New Years Resolutions to loose weight, budget and stick to it, and get organized! AMAZING how this perpetuates the same articles in magazines year after year, isn't it?
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