Reverend William Melton (vegan) – Fostering Spiritual Growth and Veganism, Part 1 of 2

We are delighted you are joining us today in meeting the compassionate visionary, Reverend William Melton from the United States, an ordained interfaith minister who also provides chaplaincy services for animal-people. As we go through our existence, a tapestry woven with thoughts, words, and actions, many questions will arise. “Are we living fully? Is the life we live generating peace and fulfillment for all beings?” Such a quest led Rev. Melton to find that spirituality, when further reinforced and enhanced by a vegan lifestyle, is the key to a world of peace and harmony.

Several documentaries about meat consumption and animal-people farming available today inform us about their impact on humans’ health, the environment, and the unjust suffering inflicted upon the animal-people. “A Prayer for Compassion,” the film co-produced by his wife Victoria Moran, dared however to chart new territories. The film ventured the question: What do scriptures from various religions establish as the relationship humans are to maintain with animal-people? Could a cognitive disconnect expressed in many faiths actually cause upheavals in health, the environment and society?

“This film just directly takes a look at major religions, and obviously compassion is a fundamental aspect of all major religions. Yet this film asks the question, why is this compassion not extended to non-human animals? And as a result of that, I woke up one morning and I decided to quit my law practice. And I enrolled in the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary with the two-year program. I completed the program and then became ordained as an interfaith minister. And that led to the formation of the Compassionate Consortium, together with Victoria, Reverend Sarah Bowen and Reverend Ericka Ellison.”

“This is a statement of our dreams for the Compassion Consortium, but in the short form, our dream is to spread the message that there is a moral parity between humans and non-human animals, and that all living beings are deserving of compassion and are to be treated with non-violence and non-cruelty.”