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This way of
life, they believed, was in keeping with God's will as described
in the Bible. Metcalfe and his followers believed Jesus Christ was
a vegetarian, and that other Christians incorrectly interpreted
particular passages in the Bible. Although a few of Metcalfe's flock
took up meat-eating and fell away from the church soon after arriving
in the US, those Bible Christians who stayed true to the church,
especially Metcalfe and his wife Susanna, helped spread vegetarianism
in the United States.
Metcalfe wrote
articles and a book on the topic, and preached it from the pulpit
of his humble church. Another way Bible Christians promulgated vegetarianism
was through public dinners they organized and the cookbook they
published.
Decades later,
in 1850, Metcalfe with the two other foremost advocates of vegetarianism
of the time, William Alcott, M.D. and Sylvester Graham, organized
a convention in New York City to form The American Vegetarian Society
(AVS). That year, then, was the official beginning of the Vegetarian
Movement in America.
Dr. Alcott was
a devout Episcopalian, and Rev. Graham was ordained in the Presbyterian
church. Both men, like Metcalfe, believed vegetarianism a Christian
duty. William Alcott published health magazines and he was the author
of dozens of books and booklets, several of them on the subject
of diet. Along with Graham, he founded the American Physiological
Society, a vegetarian organization devoted to empowering people
to take control of their health through diet.
Graham was the
leading force in the advocacy of vegetarianism. In his book Science
of Human Life , and in lectures delivered before thousands of eager
audiences throughout the Northeast, Graham taught that God had designed
human beings not to eat flesh but to dine on the fruits, nuts, and
grains of the plant kingdom. The crusader influenced thousands,
including Mary Gove Nichols, Reuben Mussey M.D. and others who went
on to become outstanding vegetarian leaders. He enraged not a few
who heartily disapproved of vegetarianism.
Dr. Alcott's
cousin, New England Transcendentalist A. Bronson Alcott, advocated
vegetarianism in the Conversations he gave from Massachusetts to
Missouri. Although not associated with any particular church, Alcott
spoke about Jesus as his role model and encouraged his audiences
and students to live a Christ-like life.
In 1843 Alcott
co-founded Fruitlands, a short-lived vegan community in Massachusetts.
He later became a vice president of the American Vegetarian Society.
The 19th Century
progressed and other Christian-vegetarians were keeping the torch
burning. During mid-century, former slavery abolitionist crusader
turned sanitarium founder James Caleb Jackson, M.D. often lectured
on vegetarianism and health. He also lectured on why Christians
reject the killing and eating of animals: not only was flesh-eating
a sin against the body, the inherent cruelty in turning animals
into dinner opposes Christian love and gentleness, taught the crusader.
Dr. Jackson, a vice president of the AVS, lectured in New York at
his "Our Home on the Hillside" otherwise known as the
Dansville Sanitarium. He also wrote articles and a book about diet.
One of the visitors
to Jackson's sanitarium, Ellen G. White, had visions in which God
instructed human beings to reject meat . She later prophesized that
the raising of animals for flesh would bring about environmental
destruction and human disease. "Sister White" as she was
known by her followers, founded the Seventh Day Adventist religion.
Today the SDA church is worldwide and still a leading player in
its advocacy. One member of Sister White's church was a young man
named John Harvey Kellogg who would become the leading advocate
of vegetarianism of the Twentieth Century.
 Before
that would happen, Rev. Henry S. Clubb of the Bible Christian Church
led the vegetarian movement during the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. Clubb, also a journalist, wrote articles advocating vegetarianism,
and he gave talks and preached it from his pulpit. The minister
was active in Michigan state politics and renown for his work promoting
fruit-based agriculture. He was a major force in the establishment
of fruit orchards in Michigan.
Surgeon and
scientist John Harvey Kellogg, M.D. also came to fame in Michigan,
and his fame became worldwide. At his Battle Creek Sanitarium, Dr.
Kellogg taught the rich and famous, as well as all the other thousands
of patients and visitors to the hospital and health resort, about
the benefits of a vegetarian diet. He also invented numerous convenient
foods, such as Protose (a nut-based cutlet) to help people stay
true to their fleshless diet once they had returned to their homes
and daily lives. .
Although Kellogg
eventually split from the SDA church, the church kept up its promotion
of vegetarianism. For example, it published numerous books on the
subject and established food companies, helping to keep vegetarianism
alive in America, even in its darkest decades. World War I changed
American life, and it seriously slowed the forward movement of vegetarianism.
It was a member
of the SDA who helped vegetarianism to again be in the light. Mervyn
Hardinge, M.D. contributed much to the credibility of the diet during
the meat-and-potatoes era of the 1950s, Dr. Hardinge conducted a
series of human dietary studies, which gave scientific muscle to
vegetarianism.
During the Twentieth
century individuals of other organized religions and beliefs, including
Jews, Theosophists, Hindus, and Rosicrucian, also helped move vegetarianism
forward.
The Bible Christian
religion ceased to exist in the 1920s. The American Vegetarian Society,
established in 1854, lasted for four years. However, today, new
organizations that connect vegetarianism and Christianity have sprouted.
One is the Christian Vegetarian Association. This recently established
organization does not contend,, as did Metcalfe, that Jesus ate
no fish, but it does hold that if he were in human form today, Christ
would be a vegetarian.
Another organization
that relates vegetarianism and Christianity is People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA). While not specifically a Christian
organization, PETA promotes the belief that Jesus was a vegetarian.
Not incidentally,
the animal rights movement in America is also rooted in religion.
The very same individuals who promulgated vegetarianism did not
neglect to consider the plight of the animals slaughtered for their
flesh. A strong call for animal liberation can be found throughout
the writings of vegetarian Christians of America's past.
Whether vegetarians
of today are religious believers or atheists, the large and lasting
contribution of Christian advocates of vegetarianism throughout
the years should not be forgotten. Like other great social movements,
including that for the abolition of slavery, and for the establishment
of civil rights, vegetarianism has deep roots in Christianity.
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