How come Christians eat pork ?

[Kalhoun]

How else would you distinguish them from jews in a restaurant?

[davekhps]

Hijack, but related: if Christians figured out “lax rules” made for better marketing, i.e. evangelicalism, it’s interesting how Islam went the exact opposite route, i.e. far more rigid rules.

Which if my reading of history is correct, made for many hundreds of years of hilarious mix-ups in interpretations of both religions, as Christianity entertained fundamentalist streaks but remained by-and-large an extremely liberal faith, while Islam entertained its fair shair of “look the other way when gambling shows up” (e.g. The Ottoman Empire and its less-than-stellar fundamentalist record), yet remains to date a relatively restrictive (and often extremely prohibitive) religion for participants.

I guess that whole distinction of a “religion of choice” and a “religion of the sword” applies.

[Alan_Smithee]

@Vox_Imperatoris

Sigh You don’t have to mischaracterize things to argue your point. The Ten Commandments are not included in the laws revoked in the New Testament because they apply to all people, not just Jews (which, as has been pointed out, you don’t have to be to be a Christian). They are still considered the basic commandments about morality to follow.

Valete,
Vox Imperatoris

This is completely wrong, at least according to any theological tradition I’ve ever encountered. The Ten Commandments are the foundation of the Mosaic Law, which is specifically for the people of Israel. The very first Commandment says “I am the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” How would that apply to everyone?

[Skammer]

@Gorsnak

I would think that historically speaking christians eat pork because with very few exceptions the early church was a gentile movement rather than a jewish one.

Quite the opposite in fact. Depending on your definition of “the early church,” I guess. But all of Jesus’ disciples were Jewish, and nearly all the early congregations founded by Peter, Paul and the other missionaries were formed in Jewish synagogues. The record of Paul’s travel in the book of Acts shows that Paul almost always went to the synagogue first to preach about Jesus. It didn’t become a Gentile religion (much) until it got a foothold in Rome.

[Shodan]

The idea is that the Mosaic law contains three components - civic, ceremonial, and moral.

The civic part no longer applies, because the ancient state of Israel no longer exists, having been destroyed by the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. The ceremonial part no longer applies, since

A) most of the Church is Gentile, and
B) Jesus’ sacrifice supersedes all previous sacrificial systems.

The moral part still applies. This moral part is summed by Jesus when He said that the greatest commandment was “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength” and that the second commandment is “you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself”.

The Ten Commandments and the other moral laws are examples and/or explanations of how one goes about loving God and one’s neighbor.

There is lots of material, in the Gospel of Matthew in particular, where Jesus teaches that the importance of behaving compassionately outweighs the importance of strict adherence to the Mosaic law.

@Skammer

The record of Paul’s travel in the book of Acts shows that Paul almost always went to the synagogue first to preach about Jesus. It didn’t become a Gentile religion (much) until it got a foothold in Rome.

Well, sort of. One of the richest fields for early converts to Christianity was “the God-fearers”, who were Gentiles who were sort of semi-converts to Judaism, who worshipped Yahweh but did not keep kosher law. It is speculated that the Roman centurion whose servant Jesus healed may have been one of those.

But the early Church quickly discovered that these were prime candidates for conversion.

Regards,
Shodan

[Magiver]

@Kobal2

Or rather, why do they not *not *eat pork (or meat+milk etc…) ?

I would say the answer is Martin Luther. He showed that religion, specifically Christianity, can be challenged, studied and interpreted.

[Great_Dave]

@Huerta88

It’s rare that we know details with certainty about such minutiae a thousand years after the fact, and my limited Googling tracked down nothing resembling a cite.

Switching from bacon to ham to spite the Jews makes little sense, obviously, and I don’t know how many Jews there would have been around to hassle.

Easter comes at the end of Winter. I’d imagine any preserved meat would do for a celebration.

Exactly. It’s the best thing on hand to have a feast with.

[Alan_Smithee]

@Magiver

I would say the answer is Martin Luther. He showed that religion, specifically Christianity, can be challenged, studied and interpreted.

You’re kidding, right? Christians were eating pork and disregarding other aspects of Jewish law for fourteen hundred years before Martin Luther came along. They’d also been challenging, studying and interpreting Christianity for just as long, and their Jewish and Pagan forebears were doing so for millenia before that.

[Malacandra]

@D18

Good question.

WAG: Who knows, but presumably in Israel at that time there wouldn’t be a lot of pigs running around to eat in the first place.

There were a lot near Gadara (although a couple of thousand fewer after Jesus had happened by, as it turns out).

[WormTheRed]

@DrDeth

More or less those prohibitions are ignored, since they occur so rarely.

Speak for yourself. Blood based sausages and pudding is quite common in Northern Europe.

[Bryan_Ekers]

@Kalhoun

How else would you distinguish them from jews in a restaurant?

They tip?

Thanks, I’m here all week, try the kosher veal.

[MarcusF]

@Malacandra

There were a lot near Gadara (although a couple of thousand fewer after Jesus had happened by, as it turns out).

Good point - what were 2000 pigs doing being herded round “the country of the Gad’arenes” in Biblical times? Were there some groups who did eat pork?

[WormTheRed]

@MarcusF

Good point - what were 2000 pigs doing being herded round “the country of the Gad’arenes” in Biblical times? Were there some groups who did eat pork?

The Romans maybe?

[D18]

@Malacandra

There were a lot near Gadara (although a couple of thousand fewer after Jesus had happened by, as it turns out).

Good point! So maybe the answer to why Christians eat pork is “the devil made me do it”.

[Huerta88]

@WormTheRed

Speak for yourself. Blood based sausages and pudding is quite common in Northern Europe.

Indeed, they sell it at the Reykjavik airport, and I must say you guys make a very good version of it (albeit I may have violated some agricultural regulations by smuggling, er, importing it back home).