The Episcopal Church elected its first African-American presiding bishop, Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina, during the church’s recent national assembly. Curry is a passionate leader in social justice and public policy.
We rushed him a letter of congratulations, along with a gift basket full of delicious vegan favorites, asking him to encourage his congregation and community to remember all God’s creatures in his call for compassion and justice and to set a wonderful example for all followers of Jesus by adopting a “Kingdom diet”—that is, one that’s free from cruelly produced meat, eggs, and dairy products. At this very moment, God’s creatures are suffering on crowded factory farms, in freezing-cold or sweltering-hot transport trucks, and in blood-filled slaughterhouses, where wide-eyed animals watch in terror as their brethren’s throats are slit. Many will never have felt the warmth of the sun, formed friendships, roamed freely, or done any of the other things that God intended for them.
We hope that in his new respected position as presiding bishop, Curry will shine a light on the routine abuse inflicted upon animals used for food and challenge followers of Jesus to help animals every time they sit down to eat—by swapping beans for beef, vegan wings for those made of real animal flesh, and almond milk for cow’s milk.