In the last 24 hours I have watched two DVDs, both of which made me weep.
The first one was called: Not in my Name, the result of secret filming in a slaughterhouse. It showed animals, strung up on hooks, having their throats cut. Many of them were obviously still conscious, having failed to be adequately stunned prior to their disembowelling. They wriggled and screeched on the hooks, whilst the conveyer belt slowly moved them along the line. There was lots of blood; it was a cold, compassionless, ritual for those wielding the knifes.
The second film was Mel Gibson’s, The Passion of Christ.
I saw distinct parallels between both films.
Both films were about the suffering and slaughter of innocent victim/s; both were about bloody and merciless violence; both brutalised the perpetrators; in both films the victim/s were tortured and killed to satisfy the needs of the powerful; both acts of brutality were at the behest of powerful institutions that influenced the populace – the Temple hierarchy and the meat industry; the ultimate meaning and outcome of both acts of violence was to benefit humanity, one with the promise of redemption and the other to fulfil the appetite.
One victim was known as the Lamb of God, some of the other victims were known simply as lambs.
Stuart Hartley, Blackburn Meeting.