Would You Give Up Eating Bacon?

Last Saturday my two granddaughters were sitting next to me at the dinner table. They were eating chicken nuggets. Kenzie, who is five, made the observation that chicken comes from chickens. Then she leaned over to me and asked, “so where does beef come from?” I responded, “cows.” Next she turns to her father and asked, “Ok, where does bacon come from?’ Her dad answered, “bacon comes from pigs.” With a look of great disgust Kenzie proclaimed, “Ooooo, nasty! Bacon comes out of pigs…how do they get the bacon out of pigs, do they poop it out?” After the laughter died down my first thought was, “I’m going to give up eating bacon.” Before we become too critical of Kenzie’s explanation of how we get bacon out of pigs, consider this: have you ever seen a chicken lay and egg?

Let’s be serious for a moment. I am not about to give up eating bacon or eggs. Bacon is the candy of the meat group. Could you imagine volunteering to give it up? And let me reassure you that turkey bacon is not a suitable substitute. (Unless you are talking about a turkey wrapped in bacon). However, under the Law of Moses the Israelites could not eat pigs. They were considered unclean. According to Islam, Muslims cannot eat bacon. And even certain denominations of Christianity forbid the eating of pork.

Religiously New Testament Christianity does not forbid the eating of bacon. God showed Peter a rooftop vision of a great white sheet descending from heaven with all kinds of animals, clean and unclean and told him to eat. Peter refused until God said, “What God has cleansed you must not call common” (Acts 10:15). In fact, Paul warned, “that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:1-5).

Before you begin to think there will never come a time as a Christian where you would be called upon to give up bacon, think again. More than once Paul claims he would give up eating meats under certain situations. A former Jew who as a new convert may still have a conflict in his conscience about eating bacon. Therefore Paul said, “it is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak” (Romans 14:21). Furthermore, a former idolater may have problems eating meat that had been sacrificed to an idol. “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (1 Corinthians 8:13).

There is another possibility of giving up bacon and that is for health reasons. Sadly enough, some people suffering from health issues that require them to make certain dietary sacrifices. Now I do not know whether this is true but I read somewhere that for every strip of bacon you eat takes nine days off your life. So according to my math I should of drown during Noah’s flood.

Life is short and sometimes hard but you can still eat bacon. Just remember to give thanks to the Creator for pigs or as I like to call them: “bacon seeds.”

— Daniel R. Vess

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