The Christian Vegetarian Associations’s May 16th newsletter (section 4) and the May 9th newsletter (section 2) had comments about the need for a new word as an alternative for vegan. David Wachsman suggested the term vegcon for vegetarian conscious and Susan suggested the term crecon or creacon for creature conscious. The commentors give conscience, physiology, and speciesism as reasons to live a vegan lifestyle and use those same reasons as premise for needing a new word.
The most popular rationalizations for choosing a vegan lifestyle are ethics, environment, and health. Ethics covers both conscience and speciesism, health covers any physiological reasons. According to Oxford Dictionary however, vegan is simply the following:
a person who does not eat or use animal products
As defined by Oxford and coined by Donald Watson, vegan is simply a dietary decision, more recently it has come to include abstaining from any animal products completely, no new term is needed.
What is needed is for Christians who share dietary and wardrobe beliefs with vegans to use those beliefs as stepping stones to share the Gospel. Instead of trying to coin a new word, why not boldly proclaim that your convictions come from the Bible and not trends or philosophy. When Paul approached the Greeks in Athens he started by speaking of “THE UNKNOWN GOD” which the Athenians had an altar for. He made this UNKNOWN GOD known to them by preaching the Gospel.
Like Paul you can use something that is familiar (veganism) as a stepping stone to describe God’s design for humans and in turn use that as a stepping stone boldly proclaim Christ.
The following verses show that God’s design for human diets, treatment of animals, and care of the environment are very similar to vegan beliefs.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. (Genesis 1:29 KJV)
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (Genesis 2:15 KJV)
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: (Genesis 2:16 KJV)
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. (Genesis 9:4, KJV)
It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood. (Leviticus 3:17 KJV)
Thou shalt not kill. (Deuteronomy 5:17, KJV)
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; (Psalms 104:14 KJV)
A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. (Proverbs 12:10 KJV)
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. (Isaiah 11:6 KJV)
That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well. (Acts 15:29 KJV)
It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. (Romans 14:21 KJV)
The last two verses can easily flow into a conversation about drunkenness or fornication why it is bad, and how God blesses you by abstaining from it. Just like God blesses you for following a vegan lifestyle (no high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or cancer), God blesses you by following other lifestyle designs as well. Following a sober lifestyle blesses you (no drug dependencies, addiction, or damaged organs), having a heterosexual monogamous marriage blesses you (no STDs), as questions arise you can address those questions with verses from the Bible.
Just like the word vegan, Christian has a rather simple meaning and Bing provides a clear and concise definition,
believer in Jesus Christ as savior
All that is needed to be a Christian is to believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
He became the final sacrifice that atoned everyone of their sins. He saved us from legalism and showed us that it is possible to live according to God’s design through his example. He made it possible for non-Jews to get into Heaven. You don’t need a long prayer or to have a sinless life beforehand.
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. (Jeremiah 33:3 KJV)
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18 KJV)
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. (Luke 17:6 KJV)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9 KJV)
A “salvation prayer can be as simple as this”.
God, I confess Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. Help me to turn from my sin. Amen.
That is all that is necessary, God will take care of the rest. He will give you the reasons to abstain from everything that is considered “sin”. Sin is anything that is not according to God’s design. Another word for sin is transgressions (offenses) and while it may seem impossible to stop “living in sin” Psalms tells us:
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalms 103:12 KJV)
God removes your transgressions. God makes your crimson colored sin white as snow. God is faithful and just to forgive you. God makes those mountains obey you. All you need to do is confess. Admit you were wrong. God takes care of the rest.