The conservative vegetarian—is there such a thing? I’m living proof that there is. Now before I lose both my conservative and liberal readers, let me explain. I’m really not the oxymoron you may take me for.

So why don’t I eat meat? It started years ago when I ran an animal rescue. To my surprise, animals that were so-called “livestock” had the same unique, sweet personalities as dogs and cats. They had the same emotions, the same intelligence, the same natural trustingness and ability to love. I soon came to see them as just little people in different-shaped bodies. That’s the moment I couldn’t eat meat anymore.

I have a weird, biblical theory. Here’s how it goes. In Genesis, Adam and Eve are told the “nuts of the trees” shall be their “meat.” God gives them all the seeds and fruits of the earth for their food. Meat eating doesn’t start in the Bible until after the Fall. Before that, man and the animals lived in harmony.

It was the Fall that introduced death. Did simply eating an apple do that? What if the “forbidden fruit” was actually slaughtering an animal? What if that first act of violence is what brought evil and suffering into the world? Ever since the Fall, humans have been killing animals, and animals have been killing one another. What if the way to return to Heaven on Earth is to stop unnecessarily taking life? What if that is the secret that will restore our humanity?

Genesis has God giving man “dominion” over the animals. Perhaps a better translation would be “stewardship.” I oppose the slaughter of animals for the same reason I oppose the slaughter of children in the womb. Both are selfish acts. One takes another’s life for the sake of the pleasures of appetite. The other takes life for the sake of personal convenience. As a vegetarian, I see both as heartless. As a conservative, I see both as sins.

The scriptures promise that someday the lion shall lie down with the lamb, that someday mankind will return to a state of innocence. What if that happens one human choice at a time? What if we are the answers we’ve been waiting for?