Emil Edward Kusel

“ Selfish civilized intellectual human takes his gun and repairs to the forest and wantonly slaughters wild game. Perhaps he kills outright; perhaps he wounds; perhaps the animal he has wounded is dying a slow, painful death; perhaps he wounds or kills a mother and the young are starving in nest or lair, and perhaps a professed Jew, Catholic, Protestant or Christian Scientist is relishing the seasoned carrion while the little ones are dying for the want of that mother's care. God forbid the belief in such a god! ”

“ We finally study the Laws of Nature, and we live from that time on according to the dictates of conscience and reason, with some little faith in addition. The first thought that impresses us is the inhuman custom of taking life blood, knowing that every man, woman and child, who possesses an atom of feeling, would shudder to look upon the butchery of our dumb fellow-creatures, and we know if the horror of the slaughter pen is admitted, it surely is a heinous crime to slaughter. ”

“ We live the life as recommended by these noble logicians and benefactors. Now we look from the heights to the vast expanse of empty faith cure, cults and isms, creeds and dogmas, and theories, and realize how narrow they all are by not embodying humanitarianism and the laws of health and hygiene in their teachings.
From a spiritual conception, it is just as reasonable to recommend human cannibalism as the eating of butcher shop carrion. ”

“ Yes indeed, you show the inconsistency of a religion that gives us an evil right to kill things while every last one of us, without exception, cling to life with the tenacity of a coward.
You fully convince me that false prophets had a hand in writing the Scriptures because God in His Infinite Love could not have created the dear innocent lamb our Savior carried in his bosom to be killed nor could he have created the sweet little baby calf to be slain and eaten by human beings. ”

“ The church folk encourage the killing of quadruped, fish and fowl and then have the audacity to say grace at meal time, thanking God and imploring Him to shower blessings upon them.
You believe in all that elevates man to the highest standard of excellence and yet in the eating of a slaughtered animal you are an accessory to the crime of murder—a crime that is far more morally wrong and horrible than any so-called venial sin. ”

“ You may erect your massive temples and dedicate them to Jehovah; you may pray to your heart's content and sing psalms until doomsday, yet the earthquake, the cyclone, the tornado, the volcano overthrows the synagogue, the cathedral, the church, the brothel and the saloon without distinction. Evidently the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not omnipresent to protect an institution that stands for inhumanity. ”

“ I merely aimed to prove the inhuman Mosaical law giving man the idea to kill is not a law of a kind and loving God. I also aimed to prove that the flesh-eating religionist is an accessory to a crime more bestial in the sight of God than any other sin known to the human family. ”

“ His life is his own and he may do as he pleases; his sin of self-destruction is between himself and his God, and yet we grieve at such a sad exit. The very same man who shudders at the uncanny thought of another's self-murder will uphold the killing of a dumb brute to satiate the "human" palate. The animal does not want to die yet the intelligent man who has a "merciful loving God" makes murder permissible taking his authority from the book he calls "The Sacred Bible." ”

“ Now if dancing, theater-going, rag-time music, etc., and the immoralities of life are sins of venial proportion, of what colossal magnitude must be the sin of taking life we cannot restore and how immeasurably hellish are the churches that uphold the killing in the name of a merciful God!
The dumb animals were created by Nature same as man (except that we are a little above the animal in intellect) , and have a divine right to live out their respective allotted time same as man (minister, church-goer or layman.) ”

“ Animals instinctively flee from danger, and suffer pain, which proves the brute creation has a right to an appointed time upon the earth. When man slaughters these helpless creatures under the selfish idea that they were created for that purpose, he is destitute of divine principle.
The almighty dollar is the god of the civilized people—mankind takes the sacred life blood of God's creatures and barters the carcass in exchange for money. Nearly all clergymen and the laity eat of the murdered animal. ”

“ Do not think of the savory beef and mutton as it hangs in the market place, but turn your mind and heart to the abattoirs and see the horror of slaughter and then acknowledge that if God is not in the slaughter house to hinder the killing of a dumb brute he is surely not in the churches reserving crowns and halos for a sanctimonious element whose palate takes precedence of principle. ”

“ Knowing that all humanity feels the horrors of taking the life blood of defenseless animals, you are compelled to condemn every religious institution that does not embody within its creed the vegetarian diet. ”

“ The huntsman, who wounds the wild game, goes to his couch and rests peacefully while the poor dumb, wounded animal is dying in the forest, suffering most excruciating pain.
The deer, the dove, the quail and all of Nature's blood creation must suffer with horrifying wounds at the hands of the thoughtless, cruel hunter; upheld by so-called religious people who contend that such inhumanity is permissible in God's sight. ”

“ The man who "believes" and has "faith" solely for his soul's safety through fear rather than through love; the man who affiliates with the church with mercenary motive; the man who testifies with lying tongue to the virtue of his carnivorous unfeeling religion; the man who shifts the blame of his cussedness to the mythical Satan; the man who is weak and bent toward religious emotionalism; the man who sees the mote in every eye but his own ”

“ Does it not hurt the innocent lamb when you cut its little throat? Does it not hurt the little calf when you take its tender life? Does it not hurt the cow when you wield the axe with tremendous force against its forehead? ”

“ If your religion sanctions the killing of innocent animals, well then, in the name of all that is pure and good, lay aside your religion and get your soul in tune with the Infinite, and then use your faculties of reason to develop up to the highest ideal. ”

“ The Bible has caused more bloodshed, more hatred; made more hypocrites and caused more suffering than all else combined. It is a book containing some lofty ideas and moral laws by good men, but the many inconsistencies therein have caused superstition, imagination, insanity, contemptibility and horrible cruelty that haunts the brain of the honorable thinking masses.
It is proper to impress indelibly in the minds of the pretenders of the several creeds "Thou shalt not kill;" neither shalt thou be accessory in the killing by encouraging the slaughter through patronage. ”

“ Of course men like yourself, who are afraid of being crowded off the earth, have a special self-given right to raise and cruelly slaughter any living creature for eating.
Meat eating will continue until the end of the world, no doubt, but the Humanitarian will not eat it; it will be devoured by ungodly church people and outsiders who like the flavor of flesh food, regardless of the wrong of premeditated killing. ”

“ We justify almost any sort of life by the Holy Bible, but we cannot pull the blinds over the eyes of conscience.
The Women's Christian Temperance Union cannot influence towards reformation effectively; the women of this religious order are trying to defeat liquor and cigarette traffic, yet loth to realize under their profession of Christianity, they are sinners greater than either the unfortunate cigarette fiend or the drunkard, because they all admit the horror of killing, at the same time relishing a mess of carrion, thereby virtually encouraging the killer to kill more. ”

“ If a criminal under excitement or cool premeditation takes the life of a human being, the cool, considerate jurors, responsible for the death penalty, are just as guilty of murder as the prisoner.
The butcher is rejected as a juror on a murder trial on the ground that his business has hardened his heart, and yet the Judge of the Superior Court, the sheriff and his deputies and the eligible jurors all eat of the beef the butcher slaughters. ”

“ Read the memorable Sermon on the Mount, supposed to have been delivered by Christ Jesus, and note the humility, the tenderness, the love and all therein that is grand and noble—then decide that such a meek and lowly Nazarene could have eaten of the fleshpots or even have sanctioned the killing of any living creature, and you deprive that character of the very essence of divinity.
Flesh eating man's religion cannot emanate from a kindly heart because with all his intellectuality and knowledge of right and wrong, his animalistic tendencies are in excess. ”

“ I can see the devil has a powerful influence over you as it had over Voltaire, Paine, Ingersoll, Edison, Hubbard and other non-believers. You infidels preach against God's Bible and will be burned in the everlasting fires of hell for it. You will be glad to have a drop of cold water in your suffering, but god will not have mercy—it will be too late then. ”

“ The God I worship is not very likely to materialize in a selfish fanatical subject, but always comes to the surface in the heart and soul of honorable, conscientious thinking men—men who either profess nothing and live according to custom or in men who profess religion and uphold their God as kind, loving and merciful. ”

“ If man wishes to disregard spirituality and remain an agnostic, infidel or an atheist, that is his privilege and he may continue eating carrion and encouraging slaughter, from the lower animal plane, but when he steps over the threshold into religion and affiliates with the churches and talks of man's pre-eminence above the beast he must of necessity be in sympathy with his dumb fellow creatures and abstain from flesh-eating to discourage all things not in harmony with God. ”

“ Above all things the minister of the Gospel and the church attendant should be kind and considerate toward all animal creation and should construe the Scriptures and preach to prove the sacredness of their Holy Bible. They should do God's will one earth as it is in Heaven, absolutely abstaining from the fleshpots of Egypt, thereby discouraging the blotting out of animal life, proving conclusively by their lives that their God is just and kind and merciful.
The man who opposes the spilling of life blood of Nature's creatures is on the higher plane of life. ”

“ Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them, which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving ”

“ It is not in favor of the Holy Bible and it says it is wrong to kill animals. This is crossing God's word. You say it says swine meat is forbidden. That is the only true statement in your book but that is the law for the Jews only. You say it says thou shalt not kill; of course it does, and that has references to the human family only. You say the religious man that does not shudder at the works of a butcher is heartless and godless. You tell a falsehood there. I have been a believer fifteen years and I know all animals were made for man. ”

“ After searching for a mode of living through which we might find perfect peace on earth and good will toward our fellow-men, we become partially interested in the different religions, but we cannot conscientiously close our eyes and believe a meat-eating, gormandizing religionist is undefiled and passing on to spiritual perfection to ultimately, at dissolution, burst into a glorious immortality. ”

“ My letter to the Herald, if you please, was for those who profess to be godly and "in the kingdom." Religious people must be strictly humane or they are minus the God character and their profession is either a phantom or hypocrisy. ”

“ Condemn the killing of innocent, defenseless animals, and do away with the fleshpots of Egypt, and praise Deity for endowing you with reason sufficient to realize the wrong of shedding life blood, and then sing hosannas for the nobility of living according to the promptings of higher conscience. ”

“ You convince me that God is not in the slaughter-house, neither in the midst of those who patronize the butcher any more than He is in the heart of the wild beast of prey.
I do believe in a personal God as I could not live without hope for a blissful future life beyond the grave. This pilgrimage, to me, without religion would make this world a very dreary and lonesome place.
Heretofore I lived a carnivorous life, always wondering why God created poor sentient things for human food but now, thank God, I realize, without humanitarianism spirituality is not a reality and I applaud such men as Mr. ”

“ If perchance a fellow human becomes tired and weary of the vicissitudes of this world and cancels his own captivity (suicide) , we frantically throw up our hands realizing the enormity of such a crime. ”

“ The scientist who upholds painful experimental surgery in the interest of science should give over his own body for experiment instead of encouraging the cruelties of vivisection. It hurts being "cut to pieces," consequently the heartless scientific fellow, instead of offering his own body for the dissecting table, tortures a poor friendless dog or other animal. ”