Ever since the presidential debate, there has been nearly non-stop news coverage concerning the claim that some immigrants in Ohio have been eating cats. To a great extent, this coverage has nearly blocked out the discussion of issues such as inflation, violence, wars, etc. Just think about the fact that part of the decision of who the next president of the United States will be is going to be determined because one candidate was outraged because some immigrants may have eaten some cats, while the other candidate was insulted that the first candidate even mentioned that some immigrants may have eaten some cats. While this conversation has become the focus of attention among American citizens, the entire fascination with this topic must be humorous or confusing to much of the world watching American news media.
Not humorous because the eating of cats is funny. Humorous because, in many countries around the globe, millions of people have no problem with the idea of people eating cats. Stop to think about this truth. Throughout most of our planet, our western cultural values that object to eating cats and dogs are not shared because most of the world is not influenced by our mix of biblical values and western values. People in other countries have zero problem with eating monkeys, rodents, scorpions, termites, and even, yes, cats and dogs. While this may seem weird or gross to most westerners, it is no weirder than people in the United States eating alligator, crawfish, shrimp, octopus, squirrel, rabbit, or snake, not to mention turtles, oysters, and clams.
One of the reasons eating cats seems so objectionable to Americans is that our culture was largely established upon biblical values, and those biblical values place pets like cats and dogs outside of what is considered food. Unfortunately, westerners like Americans make this distinction based partially upon biblical precepts, while at the same time eating certain other biblically prohibited animals. While many Americans would never even consider eating a cat or a dog, they have no problem at all eating many of the other animals which the Bible prohibits as unclean such as shrimp, crawfish, lobster, pig, and catfish.
It is this inconsistency in what we choose to eat and not eat that is seen as humorous by many people around the world, as they watch the debate and the media and social media conversations post debate. After all, if eating opossums, snails, squid, and crawfish is totally acceptable, then why are our two presidential candidates and our two major political parties arguing over whether or not people from another country with different values did or did not eat cats?
I’m not writing this to be judgmental, self-righteous, or to Judaize. I’m writing this to simply point out that outside of the instructions G-D provided in the Bible, in places such as Leviticus 11 to inform Israel what is to be considered food and what is not to be considered food, the only determining factor is culture and tradition. So, without following biblical directives about what we should eat or not eat, man makes those choices in the same way that Adam and Eve determined what to eat in the Garden of Eden: by doing what is right in our own eyes.
So, when those from nations and cultures immigrate into the United States, people who don’t hold to Judeo-Christian values and conventions, those people who do hold to those values shouldn’t be shocked by what they eat. The thing that is shocking is when those who claim to hold to biblical values are appalled by those whose culture and diet is different, while they choose to eat foods that are equally appalling, foods which the Bible calls detestable or abominations, they still judge those outside our faith and culture for eating things like cats, based upon the very values that we fail to live by ourselves.