Part 1
When Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Revolution and splintered the unified Catholic church, his division created more than two of one. From Protestantism came dozens, then hundreds of varied versions of Christianity. The story of vegetarianism is, to one very small extent, somewhat similar. From vegetarianism came, not one man, but many particular vegetarians with particular ideas on dietary matters. Over time, and over dinners, changes were made to the tenets of the sacrosanct vegetarian laws.
Today we see these variations. Some groups eat fish, many do not. Some allow milk and milk products to be eaten, others oppose this dietary blasphemy. Many subscribe to vegetarianism only loosely and subscribe merely for health-related issues, while others have allowed their devotion to vegetarianism to supplant their religious faith. In fact, veganism is often perceived as a kind of faith-based dining inclination.
This article discusses the most common variation in the world of vegetarianism-veganism.
The word vegan (pronounced: vee'-gun) was originally derived from the word "vegetarian" in 1944 when Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson, frustrated that the term "vegetarianism" had come to include the eating of dairy products, founded the "United Kingdom Vegan Society." The word starts and ends with the first three and last two letters of vegetarian, representing that veganism begins with vegetarianism and then takes it to its logical conclusion. Therefore the term vegan was originally coined to differentiate those vegetarians who (primarily for ethical or environmental reasons) sought to eliminate all animal products in all areas of their lives from those who simply avoided eating meat.
Those who are vegans for ethical reasons today generally oppose the violence and cruelty they see as involved in the non-vegan food, clothing and other industries. By extension, cruelty and exploitation are ideally avoided in all human activities and relationships between humans as well as with non-human animals. Though vegans are often accused of placing more importance on non-human animals than on their fellow humans, most vegans are aware of human rights issues and seek to avoid companies and organizations that exploit others and to be ethical consumers.
Many find themselves becoming increasingly active in the fight for human rights as a direct result of embracing veganism. Animal products such as leather, silk or wool are avoided. Soap must be of vegetable oil instead of animal. Toothpaste and hair products, etc., must not be tested by animal experiments such as the Draize or the LD50 tests.
