CHRISTSPIRACY: To Kill or Not Kill the Sacred Cow… That is the Question
To be completely honest, I am not sure how much of this documentary is legit, how much is manufactured, and how much is a man convincing himself of something that isn’t quite real but isn’t fake either… but I did find it quite compelling. I sat down to write a review and realized a true review from me just wasn’t going to work. I’m sure there are others out there who can give you a more straight forward review, but I’m more interested in chewing some of the fat and relating it to my own thoughts on the Church and faith and such.
To be clear, the original questions the film poses doesn’t actually mean an awful lot to me – which is as follows:
Is there an ethical or spiritual way to kill an animal?
Beginning with the Christian Church, filmmakers Kip Andersen and Kameron Waters explore this question, branching into other world religions and exploring other ethical paradigms. They explore what religious leaders think about killing animals and about eating animals, as well as the distinctions of the two. Many land on it being okay to eat the animals but not to actually be the ones killing them. They even pose the modern idiom of WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) in regards to the killing of and eating of animals.
There’s a great deal of interesting material in this regard, despite not being a topic I ever thought a ton on or generally care a ton about. Yet, the way they explore certain aspects of the question sheds light on a lot of other – for me, more interesting – aspects of faith and religion. Deep theological questions and surface ones alike abound throughout the film.
One such train of thought the film led me to ride was around the WWJD question. The trendy bracelets and clothing, to me, are asking the wrong question. When we are faced with a dilemma, asking WWJD isn’t all that helpful… because we are not Christ and even the most devout Christian isn’t called to BE Christ. Rather, shouldn’t the question I ask myself in the face of a situation be “WWJ want me to D”. So, even if Jesus himself would kill an animal – as this film’s interviewees generally seem to think – does that necessarily mean he wouldn’t want me to?
The film goes further down the path of possible nefarious links between the meat industries and religion, with some intriguing and even compelling possibilities presented. These links eventually lead the filmmakers to be followed and warned by some of their interviewees about the danger of asking these questions. Some of this feels manufactured, while some of it feels legit. I’ll give the filmmakers credit in that I believe that they believe in the danger of their path… though I’m personally not convinced. Nonetheless, it doesn’t necessarily seem to bolster the actual ideas the film is trying to explore – at least, not in my opinion. Still, it makes for some interesting fodder. Being unfamiliar with the filmmakers previous films, I’m not sure if this modality fits their modus operandi or is more sincere than that… though I’m not really sure I care.
All said and done, further viewing of the film and further deep dives into both the questions being asked and the further implications those questions have in other avenues of life and faith seems worthwhile and warranted. There are some ideas really worth exploring and I personally hope and plan to do just that. For now, I leave you withy the trailer and suggest that if any of these ideas intrigue you, you give it a go yourself as it will release in select theaters later this month and on VOd platforms, as well.
