Way up North

Yesterday I drove up to USU in Logan to do my Mormons for Animals presentation as part of the Food Day portion of their Earth Week.

It went well. For some reason it took 2 hours and 40 minutes to get there, but only 2 hours to get back. This was a good thing because I got back just in time to teach my ethics class (also on Animal Ethics).

My favorite part (besides the vegan lunch they bought me) was the slide with one of the most famous mormon scriptures:
"When you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God."
(Mosiah 2:17)
I think the converse applies as well: If you act in the disservice of your fellow beings then you act in the disservice of your God. We have a moral duty of kindness towards all beings on this earth.

Thanks to all those who went. I am resolved to do better about posting to this blog! You'll hear from me more soon.

UVU Review

A few months ago I was invited by the Humane society of the United States to be part of their interfaith council. I happily accepted.

As a result a week ago my wife and I went out to DC for their faith outreach conference. It was great. The people at the conference were awesome (working for animals in some way or other in various faiths throughout the country). Not all are vegetarian or anything like that, but the point of the HSUS is to work with people where they are and help society to move in the direction of kindness to animals.

Today in the UVU Review (UVU's student paper) there was a very nice article by Lindsey Nelson about me and about my work with HSUS.

Here is the article:
http://www.uvureview.com/2011/11/21/animals-have-the-right-to-live/

Lindsey said she tried to put more of the quotations from LDS leaders about kindness to animals, but they were edited out because of space considerations.

If you came to this blog because of that article, please take a look at my powerpoint two posts ago. There you will find lots of scriptures and prophetic quotations backing up my arguments. Thanks for visiting!

Occupy Earth!

Sandy Parsons, Salt Lake artist just posted this on facebook:

"In this time of revolution, of taking our power back, please don't forget to include our non-human brothers and sisters. They are the real majority on this planet and they need our voices to speak out for them. It is our economy of extraction and consumption that is destroying our environment. Please be aware of that correlation when you are asking leaders to increase jobs and boost the economy, because boosting it will only ...kill the Earth faster. Progress = Environmental Destruction. Please fight for "green jobs" and restoration projects instead. Please fight for local community gardens and plant-based diets. We are all connected to the environment and all life on Earth. 200 species are driven to excinction every day. Their fate is OUR fate. We cannot consume the planet and still live on it. Please wake up to this reality. Make Peace for ALL~"

Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=282231261798368&set=a.237881582900003.61790.236808346340660&type=1&theater

My Lecture is Now on Youtube

The UVU ethics center was kind enough to film my full presentation at their studio. This allows for up to six students to be present and for high production quality. I have digital copies of it, but it is also on uvu's Youtube site for all to see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6iDp9E67fY

Unfortunately it is 1h20m long, and I was a bit stumbly at points, but it is all here. Please feel free to share far and wide.

We may do a shorter version (10min) soon. I'll keep you posted!

My Powerpoint Presentation!

Mormonism and Animal Ethics

View more presentations from Christopher Foster