Vegetablearians?

Were Early Christians “vegetablearians”?
       I know, it is a funny neologism. Many Sundays ago it was used by a six-year-old during the children’s time in church. I loved it, and have occasionally used it ever since. (This year that child is graduating from high school.)
       The wording of the question might be playful, but the question has  real meaning and substance and the answer might surprise you.
       It is not that widely known, that the pre-Christian ancient world did not know what we would call “secular” meat. All the meat from larger animals came from the temples. Meat might be sold by local butchers, but ancient cultures did not have secular slaughterhouses. In one way or another, all or almost all meat came from religious sacrifices. Ancient Jews in diaspora (away from their own temple) did not want to eat meat sacrificed to pagan gods and so they developed a ritual slaughter called Shechita. But with growing tension between Christianity and Judaism, early Christians almost certainly became vegetarians by default and of necessity, or until they developed their own non-religious slaughterhouses.
       But is our contemporary “meat-making” really secular? Non religious? Haven’t we eventually, little by little, replaced one set of pagan gods with another, even nastier set of modern idols of mass production, greed, industrially generated HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) obesity, unbridled consumerism and gluttony with few ethical considerations? And I am not even mentioning the homophobic chicken biscuits (of Chick-fil-A) and many similar situations!
       I have no doubts that what we eat, where we eat and how we eat have manifold consequences for our own health, for our spiritual life, for the broader community, for farmers and growers, for producers, for animals, and for global environment.
       This Sunday the Apostle Paul and early Christians will lead us and inspire us in our search for a healthier lifestyle, physical, spiritual, societal and environmental.