Tams’ Theology

A theology of Christ, creation, compassion, and nonviolence

My theology begins with a simple biblical truth: God loves what God has made and called us all 'good'.

The creatures with whom we share this world are not mistakes, objects, resources, commodities, or background scenery in a story concerned only with humanity. They are God's creatures. Their lives originate in God, are known by God, and have value beyond what our small sinful human minds assign to them. He made a covenant with them. His word tells us to learn from them. He allows us to understand that they can see angels. And more.

For me, ethical veganism grows from these theological foundations. It is not merely a diet. It is a way to seek and live faithfully within the much larger call of Christian discipleship, and a way to honor and recognize His desire for us to live as vegans- in the garden, in the desert, in the Peaceable Kingdom, and in heaven.

Creation Was and Is Good

The biblical story begins not with violence but with creation—and God repeatedly calling creation good. In Genesis, humans and other creatures inhabit the same created world under God. Genesis 1:29–30 describes a creation in which plants are given for food. Whatever questions we may have about how these ancient texts should be interpreted, their theological vision are clear: violence and killing are not presented as the foundation of God's original goodness.

This changes the question I ask.

Instead of beginning with, What are human beings permitted to do to animals?, I want to begin with:

What kind of relationship between God's creatures most closely reflects the goodness God intended?

We Are Creatures, Too

Christian theology rightly recognizes something distinctive in humanity's calling and responsibility before God. But I do not believe this gives us permission to treat the rest of creation as though everything exists for our consumption.

We are not gods standing above creation.

We are creatures living within creation.

The human capacity for power therefore creates responsibility, not entitlement. Jesus repeatedly turns worldly understandings of power upside down. Greatness becomes service. The powerful are called to protect rather than exploit. Love reaches beyond the boundaries we construct.

I believe those principles should influence our relationship with other creatures as well.

Dominion without Christ can become domination.

Dominion viewed through the love of Christ looks very different.

Christ Is the Center

My faith-based veganism is ultimately Christ-centered.

Jesus teaches a radical form of love—merciful, sacrificial, courageous and concerned especially with those who are vulnerable. He continually calls people beyond legalistic questions about what they can do and toward the transformation of who they are becoming.

That distinction is important to my theology.

The central question of Christian ethical veganism is not simply:
“Does the Bible allow me to eat animals?”

A deeper question is:
“Given the choices available to me today, what most closely reflects the love of Christ?”

Those are very different questions.

Christian discipleship continually asks something of us. It challenges our habits, comforts, assumptions and desires. I see our relationship with animals as one more place where Christ can invite us into transformation because we have been deceived to think our survival depends upon our violence.

The Fall Does Not Have the Final Word

Scripture is remarkably honest about the world in which we live. Creation contains violence, suffering, fear, predation, exploitation and death but Christianity does not require us to call these things good or participate in them simply because they exist.

The biblical story gives us something much more kind and peaceful to walk towards.

The peaceable vision of Isaiah speaks of former predators and prey dwelling together without destruction. Christian hope ultimately looks toward God's renewal of creation—a world in which suffering and death do not have the final word.

So I find myself looking in two directions:
back toward the peace of God's original intention and forward toward God's promised restoration of creation.

And then I must decide how to live here, between those two visions.

If violence is not the beginning of God's story and is not its promised end, I believe Christians should seriously consider how much unnecessary violence we want to participate in during the chapter in which we presently live.

All Creatures Belong to God

One of the ideas that emerged from my earliest work through Silent Communion remains deeply important to me: there are relationships between God and God's creatures that human beings cannot fully comprehend.

Job tells us:
“Ask the animals, and they will teach you; or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you.” — Job 12:7

Scripture repeatedly portrays God noticing, feeding, preserving and taking delight in creatures apart from their usefulness to us.

I therefore approach other creatures with humility.

I do not need to understand everything about another creature's relationship with the Creator before recognizing that the relationship belongs to God and that creature—not to me.

There is mystery here.

And mystery should produce reverence rather than entitlement.

Compassion Must Become Practice

Compassion that never changes anything risks becoming sentiment.

If I say that an animal is God's creature, but my ordinary choices cause that creature unnecessary suffering when reasonable alternatives are available to me, my theology and my life have become disconnected.

That is why for faith-based and ethical vegans, it is a lifestyle that we consider in everything we do.

It asks me to consider what I eat, purchase, wear, support and participate in; how animals are used for entertainment and experimentation; how I speak about them; how I respond to the smallest creature who crosses my path; and whether convenience has quietly become more important than compassion.

We will never do this perfectly, but the objective is not legalism or acting like the Pharisees and Sadducees did with their false purity.

The objective is love, mercy, and faithfulness. And we lead by our example.

Ethical Veganism Is Discipleship

I therefore understand ethical veganism as a holy vocation within my Christian life.

Food is certainly part of it, but veganism cannot end at the dinner plate.

It becomes a way of continually asking:

Does this choice of word, action, or decision create unnecessary suffering?

Am I seeing this creature through the assumptions of my culture or through the eyes of compassion?

Is my convenience taking precedence over another creature's life?

What would mercy ask of me here?

What would love have me do?

Those questions reach into every area of life.

Transformation Begins Within

One of the central convictions of my original Silent Communion work was that lasting change begins within the heart. I still believe that.

This is why I am interested in more than persuading Christians to substitute one food for another.

We have inherited deeply rooted ideas about animals—ideas about which creatures we love, which we fear, which we ridicule, which we call pests, which we eat, and which we believe were created for our use.

Some of those assumptions have been repeated so often that they feel like truth to people.

Christian discipleship gives us permission—and requires us—to examine them.

We can bring our traditions, appetites, fears, conveniences and inherited beliefs before Christ and ask whether they are producing the fruits of love.

That inner work is an essential part of faith-based veganism.

Nonviolence Includes How We Advocate

I believe the means matter as much as the goal.

We cannot build a more compassionate world through hatred.

First Corinthians 13 was foundational to Silent Communion, and its message remains foundational to my theology: without love, even seemingly righteous actions can become empty noise.

That means Christian vegan advocacy should never be an excuse for contempt toward people who have not reached the same conclusions.

We can speak truthfully about suffering. We can challenge institutions. We can confront injustice. We can refuse to participate in practices we believe are wrong.

But we must seek to do these things without surrendering love.

The creature being harmed deserves our compassion. The human being standing before us does too.

Nonviolence cannot stop at species boundaries in either direction.

A Continuing Theology

I do not present these beliefs as though I possess every answer about God, animals, Scripture or creation.

Quite the opposite.

The longer I walk this path, the more seriously I take mystery.

My theology has developed through Scripture, prayer, study, contemplation, Christian tradition, Franciscan spirituality, relationships with animals, theological education, advocacy, loss, experience, and many years of examining assumptions I once took for granted. It also developed through my experiences of former atheism and agnostic lens.

As a child of God, I am assured that He will continue teaching me.

Faithfulness does not require having every mystery solved before taking the next compassionate step.

Sometimes it simply requires enough humility to ask:
Lord, where can I love more fully today?

That question lies at the heart of my theology—and at the heart of FaithBasedVegan.org.