Is God a Vegetarian? Christianity, Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights

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The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the
kid, the calf and the lion and the fading together, and a little child shall
lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down
together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child
shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its
hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy
mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 1 1:6–9)

O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things,
our brothers the animals to whom thou gavest the earth as their home
in common with us. We remember with shame that in the past we
have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty so that
the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to thee in song, has
been a groan of travail. May we realize that they live not for us alone
but for themselves and for thee, and that they love the sweetness of life.
(St. Basil the Great, cited in The Complete Book of Christian Prayer,
Continuum, 1996, p. 145)

On our dining room wall we have prints of two of Edward Hicks' paintings, “Noah's Ark” and “The Peaceable Kingdom.” The latter depicts Isaiah 11:6–9 with a wolf lying down with a lamb, a leop

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