The amount of resources for learning about God’s love for all of creation is growing immensely! These are a few of the resources that I have found to be most useful in my quest to draw near to God and to understand his attitude toward creation.
Internal Faith Resources
Over one hundred passages in the Bible that reveal God’s love for animals and confirm the changeless instructions God has given us for how to care for the earth and every life therein. This is a great and very convenient resource for your own personal bible study as well as for sharing with others in your outreach and when spreading the message of God’s love for all creation, particularly to fellow believers.
Question and Answer format with answers to nearly one hundred common questions regarding animals in scripture. Topics include: God’s covenant with Noah, animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, animals in heaven, dominion, 1 Timothy 4, the coming kingdom, prophesies in Isaiah, Romans 14, permission, animal fear, Jesus and fish/lamb, animal souls, human corruption of animals, Peter’s vision, 1 Corinthians 8, the Pope’s position on stewardship of animals, lab-grown meat, and several others, including answers to some frequently asked questions unrelated to animals.
External Faith Resources
Shepherding All God’s Creatures
This blog site is committed to sharing God’s love for all creation, especially focusing on stewardship of animals as an often overlooked topic in the church, and includes many wonderful resources. It also has its own monthly prayer group that people can call into as well as a Facebook page.
Live Mercifully is a web-based ministry run by Lily Marie that aims to promote mercy and compassion and to inspire people to move toward a God-honoring, healthy, plant-based lifestyle through blog posts, photos, videos, recipes, and more. Please check out their website and subscribe to their YouTube channel and Facebook page.
This is a short yet powerful video produced by Live Mercifully, encouraging people to choose compassion over violence:
The number of books on faith as it relates to animals has grown considerably over the past decade. It mostly started with Andrew Linzey and now there are dozens of authors addressing animals in the Bible. This is a list of books to get you started. You can also find dozens more on Amazon.com.
This website has a wealth of articles, sermons, and news stories related to faith and living compassionately.
Christian Vegans Facebook group
With over 4,000 members, this group is designed to encourage each other in the faith, to share testimonies, to post articles or good news stories about our individual ministries, or to ask questions. As with any large group, the responses to a post can vary widely, but I have found most members of the group to be warm-hearted, encouraging, knowledgeable, and most importantly faith-driven individuals. There are believers from many different denominations. The common thread is having a heart for God and for all of creation.
Heaven is Vegan
Facebook Community
This website is designed to educate people through analysis of scripture about God’s love for animals.
A vegan pastor of the Humanitarian Church, he offers regular video sermons on his YouTube channel with an emphasis on merciful stewardship.
Vegan Resources
There are many wonderful resources to assist in transitioning to a diet that honors all of God’s creatures and which allows us to live up to our calling as loving stewards over all creation and as children created in God’s holy and merciful image. These are a few I have found to be the most useful.
An article about why to go vegan, aside from scriptural reasons.
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine – Nutrition Page
Doctor recommendations for eating a whole food plant based diet to prevent several common diseases and to maintain optimal health, including: vegan starter kit, the power plate (an improved version of the food pyramid), and lots of information about the impact different foods have on your health.
This website has tons of information about plant sources for every essential vitamin and nutrient as well as scientific studies related to vegan diets and tips for new vegans.
The purpose of this Facebook group is to bring together new vegans looking for help and more experienced vegans who desire to help them. The unique aspect of this group is its commitment to non-judgment, focusing instead on encouraging people in their desire to live compassionately. If you would like personal assistance in your newfound vegan walk, this is the group to get connected with people willing to help and offer you their knowledge and encouragement (for free of course!). I helped Sue Brickman create this group a few years ago and it now has over 55,000 members from all over the world!
This is a link with profiles for many of the world’s top vegan athletes, proving definitively that you don’t need animal products to build muscle or to be a top athlete.
Get involved in animal advocacy by looking into the organizations that currently exist. Try to find one with a local chapter where you can get involved. Live according to God’s instruction to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are appointed to die” (Proverbs 31:8).
swords2plowshares on Instagram
This is my Instagram account where I post photos of all the delicious food I make, including: smoothies, juices, curries, wraps, veggie bowls, veggie chili, and more!
Veterinary testimonies of suitability of plant-based diets for dogs and cats
YouTube video by veterinarian Dr Andrew Knight discussing the health benefits of dogs and cat on plant-based diets.
Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Armaiti May also has a video presentation on the subject of plant-based diets for companion animals.
National Institute of Health’s Report on Companion Animal Diets
If you have a dog or cat as a companion animal, this is a good resource for learning about the science on animal nutrition. Animals, just like humans, require specific combinations of nutrients in order to thrive and you want to make sure they are getting all the nutrients they need. There is no magical property in meat and as long as animals get elsewhere the nutrients they would otherwise get from meat, they can thrive. This is one of several recent studies disproving the obligate carnivore hypothesis that still abounds in pop culture and in some less knowledgeable veterinary circles that rely solely on outdated research.
More scientific research showing that nutrients, not ingredients, is what really matters when it comes to nutrition (in this case, cat nutrition). The same principle applies to dogs and many other animals.
Just Be Kind
Nutrition and feeding chart for making your own nutritionally complete plant-based dog food, along with appropriate supplements.
Additional Resources
Swords2Plowshares Podcast. Recorded group bible studies on various vegan-related topics in scripture.
Memes. A collection of memes regarding faith, love, and responsible stewardship. They were each found circulating on social media in various places. Some contain identifying marks and others do not. They are posted here for your enjoyment and to be recirculated for the purpose of bringing people into a closer understanding of God and his boundless love for all creation.
Videos. Our YouTube channel with ministry videos.
“Faith and Compassion” in Barefoot Vegan Magazine
I guest authored a short article on pages 55-56 of this free online magazine where I discuss the growing number of people in the world that are both Christian and vegan and why it’s becoming a movement, including the biblical basis for being vegan and the hope offered by the bible to previously non-believing vegans.
This test has 105 very short questions designed to make you think about your individual strengths and abilities as they pertain to ministry. It took me about 10 minutes to complete the test. Based on the spiritual “gifts” described in the Book of Acts, the test scores your responses on a scale of 0-35 points across each of 15 different categories. It then presents you with all your scores, including a detailed description of your top 3 gifts. It is a fun way to think about where you could be most effective in the church and where God may be calling you. Here were my results:
Swords to Plowshares 