About this site
The
chief spiritual focus of this web site is the religion of Jesus, but Buddhism and other religions are touched on as well. My hope is
to bring together people who are interested in a variety of issues related
to urgently needed social and cultural reforms.
I'm
concerned about . . .
 | Simple Living and Nonviolence |
| Vegetarianism / Veganism |
| Jesus and the Ebionites |
| Social and political implications of environmental destruction and
resource depletion |
You can --
| Read articles on these subjects, including bibliographies of literature
not usually referenced on the web (or elsewhere) |
| Find out about (and order, if you wish) books by Keith Akers and others on
these subjects |
| Find links to other web sites of interest |
| Contact Keith Akers |
Simple Living and Nonviolence -- why are we interested?
| Because we live in a materialistic culture which emphasizes consumption |
| Because this consumption is rapidly destroying the environment which supports
life |
| Because our culture makes it difficult to live simply -- because simple
living is so "complex" |
| Because environmental destruction and resource depletion will become a major social issue within
the next few decades |
| Because the twentieth century had more violence between humans than any
other century in history |
| Because we face a highly divided, heavily armed world with increasingly
contentious environmental issues coming to the forefront |
Vegetarianism / Veganism -- why are we concerned?
| Because a vegetarian or vegan diet is much healthier; vegetarians and especially vegans
have dramatically reduced risk for heart
disease, cancer and other degenerative diseases -- diseases which have led
to medical expenses which are spiraling out of control in the U. S. A. |
| Because a vegetarian, and especially a vegan diet, requires only a
fraction of land resources such as soil, water, forests, and energy, which
are now being devastated by the world's meat-eating habits |
| Because nine billion animals are needlessly killed each year in the U. S.
A. alone |
| Because these animals, killed for food, do not live easy lives, often cooped up in
"factory farms," nor do they die easy deaths |
Jesus and the Ebionites -- why are we interested?
| Because Jesus preached a message of simple living and nonviolence, a
message which the world needs, and which the "Christian" countries
which are responsible for most of the cars, consumerism, meat-eating, fossil
fuel usage, and
environmental devastation in the world need especially urgently |
| Because too much of Christianity is silent about, or actually rejects,
Jesus' message of simple
living and nonviolence |
| Because the message of simple living and nonviolence was preserved best by
those early Christians who were Jewish -- the "Ebionites," or
"the poor," who practiced simple living, pacifism, and
vegetarianism |
| Because disillusionment with Christianity is increasing by leaps and
bounds |
Social and political implications of environmental destruction -- why are we
interested?
| Because we need a U-turn in environmental policy, including
difficult-to-implement and fundamental social changes, which need to happen
at the individual, local, national, and international levels |
| Because we are within 5 years of the peak of world oil production,
if we have not already passed it, and our leaders and most of the
public are completely oblivious to the catastrophic economic
consequences this will have |
| Because we are now experiencing the
greatest mass extinction of plant and animal species since the mass
extinction of the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago, this time due to human
activity |
| Because deforestation, soil erosion, habitat destruction, pollution, global
warming are ripping apart the ecosystem, and this cannot fail to affect human
beings at some point |
-- Keith Akers |
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