Dinner with Jesus: Pass The Tofu?

August 22, 2001

According to the Bible, when Jesus found himself surrounded by 5,000 followers eager to hear his divine message but hungry for some earthly food, he turned five little loaves and two scrawny fish into a banquet for the masses.

But some Christian scholars think if he were alive today, he might rethink the menu.

In books, on Web sites and in scholarly research, they've created a new acronym for Christians questioning how to live their faith. It's WWJE: What Would Jesus Eat? It's a spinoff of the widespread term WWJD, What Would Jesus Do?

Citing a range of Scripture passages, from a Genesis account of the diet of Eden to the apostle Paul's admonition to treat the body as a temple, Christian vegetarians claim that if Jesus were alive today, he'd be a vegetarian.

"Jesus taught a ministry of love and compassion," said Stephen H. Webb, the author of a new book, "Good Eating: The Bible, Food and the Proper Love of Animals," scheduled for release in October. "It was love and compassion for all of God's creation."

Webb is an associate professor of religion at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., and the chairperson of the international

He describes himself as an "evangelical theologian" whose vegetarian lifestyle is biblically based. He argues that the Eucharistic celebration itself may be one of the most powerful symbols of a divine diet: a vegetarian meal that harks back to the meatless Garden of Eden and looks forward to the Revelation promise of the lion and the lamb coexisting in peace.

It's a theology, he admits, that departs from the mainstream Christian view of the animal kingdom, where a glazed ham is the Easter bounty and a baked turkey is the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal.

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