Right? Killing is wrong, right? Not only is it said in the Bible, but also in so many other religions and laws. In the USA, if you kill someone, you will be punished, severely. And if you kill multiple people or a police officer, forget it. You may never again see the light of day. The Golden Rule is found in all major religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Yoruba African religions, Jainism and Zoroastrianism. It says that you should love your neighbor as yourself, from the Jewish and Christian traditions. It starts with the assumption that you love yourself! Perhaps a better wording is “People should wander about treating all creatures as they themselves would be treated”, from the Jainism tradition.
So let’s start there. What should we not kill? All creatures. Are plants creatures? In some traditions, yes. Some believe that plants have souls. What I think we can agree on is that plants are alive. They start from a seed and grow, and through pollination, they reproduce. In some traditions, when seeds are planted, they are each blessed before being placed in the ground. Isn’t this a nice way to honor them? Also, when the fruits and vegetables are harvested, gratitude is given. Just before eating, once again, gratitude and blessings are said. In this way, when plants are grown and harvested or killed, the life that they gave has been honored from the beginning to the end, and then the life is transferred to us, who consume them.
Without food to eat, we would be killed. So, we kill plants so that we do not kill our bodies. However, we can so so with honor, reverence and gratitude for all life, and the circle of life.
The argument could also then be made for killing animals that are eaten. I know that some traditions have hunted their food, beforehand asked for success and killed only what was needed, give thanks and used every part of the animal for their use. However, in this modern day, few people eat meat that has been killed by their own hands that was hunted in the wild. While in Uganda recently, a chicken was served for dinner that had been received as a gift. You can imagine what happen between the gift of gratitude and the serving of delicious meat. The life of that rooster had been in a remote village growing and living with other chickens around the owner’s house. Not caught in the wild, however, raised with appreciation and love for the gift of life.
Now think about the chicken you may have eaten this week. Can you imagine the farm? The building with thousands of chickens? I won’t go further. However, I am quite sure that the eggs that those chickens came from were not prayed over and blessed. I am sure that the chicks who emerged were not received with gratitude. I’m sure that the lives they had were not appreciated. And I am sure that many people do not bless their meal and those who raised the chickens, and brought the food to the market for you to eat. But I am also sure that many of you might remember to bless your next meal, or at least give thanks.
Please read on. At this point you might think that I am shaming you for eating. And yet, that is the farthest thing that I want! No shame, only thoughtfulness. Do your life as you choose, but do it with intention! Now, back to the consideration of killing.
Next we consider the killing of humans, and when it is necessary. In some states in the United States, a person can walk out of a courtroom “Scott-Free” if it is proven that the killing was done in self defense. This way, if a woman is attacked by a stronger man she is allowed to kill him so she herself would not be killed. A famous case in 2020 ended in acquittal when it was found that a 17 year old who killed 2 men and wounded one at a protest had acted in self-defense. So in cases like these, is killing necessary? Is it justified? Can we equate it with killing a head of lettuce or a chicken? What about the life of the one killed? If they acted in a murderous way, is it justified that they be killed? And should a person who killed once – a woman or a 17 year old – should they resume their life as if nothing happened? Should they perhaps go into mandatory court ordered therapy so that they don’t continue their life feeling that people are out to get them and they way out is to kill?
There are people who believe that killing is so wrong that they would rather be killed than kill. They are people who could not walk around this earth with the guilt of murder in their hearts, no matter how justified. These are the people that we can look up to as examples of the peace keepers – Jesus, Gandhi, MLK.
Then there are the murderers who are on death-row. They will have to give up their life because they were insane enough to do some of the worst killing. Yet the government (people) has put them in a place where they wonder each day if today is the day they die for their murderous acts. Is it justified to kill someone, in however a humane manner, who killed? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Who has to turn the switch or give the injection? Are they treating others as they want to be treated? Are they honoring life? Perhaps, perhaps not.
Now the tough one. War. Most people believe it is justified. I cannot ever think that killing mass numbers of people is justified. I can never think that one soldier is justified in killing another because he was born in a certain location on the earth. What about the soldier on the other side? What about their mothers, fathers, and siblings? And today, we drop bombs from a remote comfortable chair by using drones. The one who clicks the mouse that drops the bombs on the people below does not have to hear the cries, see the blood, or feel the guilt. Killing is routine, heartless and common. So common that millions of people practice it in their video games, as if preparing for a war that could happen at their doorstep in the near future.
Oh, this hurts me to write. My heart starts beating very fast, and I cannot breathe. This happens each time a person begins to tell me that killing is justified, because, you know, Hitler. It always comes back to Hitler. Yet then I go to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Were we, the United States, justified in killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian men, women and children?
I will stop here and now. Because I am visualizing a future world where love and compassion rule the day, not justified murder. A day of world peace, that I have wished for, for over 60 years, as I dropped pennies into fountains. A world where we treat each other with kindness and generosity. Where we look into each other’s eyes and see the divinity shining back at us. I think we are at the Dawn of the New World. Want to join me?
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