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That Hideous Food
Nathanael Devlin on Preserving Physical & Spiritual Nourishment
Today there is a voice within the agricultural world whose insights about farming and food may be instructive to those who are seeking to live with integrity as the church in the world. Joel Salatin is a self-described Christian, libertarian, environmentalist, capitalist, and lunatic farmer in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. He has written numerous books, but his tenth, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs, is, according to Salatin, his coming-out book. Here he addresses Christians, saying,
The bottom line for me, and the theme of this book, is that creation is an object lesson of spiritual truth. Just like object lessons for children point them to biblical principles, so the physical universe is supposed to point us to God. "The heavens declare the glory of God," the psalmist writes in Psalm 19 (NIV). Indeed. If that is the case, then what does a forgiving farm look like, a beautiful farm, an ordered farm, a neighbor-friendly farm? And not just a farm, but an entire foodscape?
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Nathanael Devlin is the Associate Pastor at Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. He and his wife have three children and live in Mt. Lebanon.
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