My Answer: Eating your children

Q: Deuteronomy 28:53 tells us that “because of the dire straits to which you will be reduced when your enemy besieges you, you will eat your own children, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the Lord has given you.” I’ve recently lost my job due to outsourcing. Does this mean I can eat my kids? — S.C.

A: First of all it’s important to realize you are not alone in your confusion over this particular verse. Over the years, many fine and gentle Christian people have asked me: “Can I eat my young?”

In this matter, as in all things, God has the answer.  While you quite correctly interpreted the meaning of Deuteronomy, Jesus provided us with additional assurances in His Sermon on the Mount where He said:

Therefore take no thought, saying, :What shall we eat? or,
What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
(Matthew 6:31-32 )

God has always provided for our needs. Not with a candlelight steak dinner, obviously, but by placing us in a world with plenty in it to avail ourselves of freely.

With a current world population of 7 billion and the expectation it will surpass 9 billion by 2050, we’re rapidly reaching the limits of what this earth can provide… at least in conventional practice. I think we need to begin to look at food differently, just as Deuteronomy suggests.

Look around you, Believer, and tell me: how can famine exist on a planet overrun by meat? We’re everywhere. We’re practically tripping over each other. It takes me three hours commute time to get to work and back every day because our cities are crawling with people. Meanwhile, we’re demolishing entire neighbourhoods of traditional single family detached homes to construct high-density, high-rise buildings. Why? We’ve run out of surface area! We’re stacking people in apartments like groceries in the pantry. What are we waiting for, more guests to arrive? It’s time to pull a few of those morsels off the shelf and get the oven on.

As to who decides whether you are seated at the dinner table or lying on it, it’s survival of the fittest—as much as I am loathe to invoke comparison to that blasphemer Darwin. But this idea was stolen from God Himself. It is no more and no less than a proclamation of the natural order.  While difficult to accept, it has been divinely decreed… and it does more to solve the crises of famine and overpopulation in one fell swoop than any other solutions that have been brought to the table, if you’ll forgive the expression.

I am aware of the cultural hurdle we face in this task, overcoming years of social mores and the presence of the “Thou Shall Not Kill” provision in the Commandments, but we must. Culling the herd to feed the hungry is not a sin. It is righteous, not to mention delicious—and good for you!   Bipedal livestock is as nutritious as any cow, pig or chicken. Perhaps moreso, given the high grade of feed that they have access to. Naturally, there is some continuum of quality across the species depending on regional diet, health habits, and the nature of the breeding stock itself.

Yes, we must begin to think of excess people as “livestock”. Acceptance of a lifestyle change of this magnitude entails the use of certain euphemisms. It is important to make a clear distinction between yourself and your food. Persisting in the use of names and roles (like “Fred, my lawyer”) completely undermines the foundation that the system rests upon.

So my answer is this: stop thinking of your children by name, and start thinking of them as Sunday dinner, brunch, or Thanksgiving Day Feast plus leftovers. And remember — God loves you, and life’s greatest joy comes from knowing Him. Open your heart and life to Jesus Christ today.