Pierce Brown interviews filmmakers Kip Anderson and Cameron Waters about their documentary Christspiracy, which claims Jesus was a vegetarian crucified for his beliefs. While Anderson and Waters argue traditional translations are misleading and cite the Gospel of the Ebionites, Brown counters with biblical passages detailing Jesus eating fish and meat, labeling the film's premise spurious and financially motivated. The discussion shifts to veganism ethics, where Anderson accuses agriculture of mass bee murder via pesticides; Brown highlights their hypocrisy for eating factory-farmed meat, a point they concede regarding unnecessary killing but dispute on agricultural necessity. Ultimately, Brown rejects their views despite their invitation to see what they call overwhelming scriptural evidence. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Was Jesus a Vegetarian00:02:46
Give me one piece of evidence that proves that Jesus was a vegetarian.
Do you think Jesus would kill an animal?
Because at the time, back in the day, he would be the one who killed it.
Matthew 14, and he calls the fisherman's nets to be filled on two different occasions.
The forerunner of the movement, John the Baptist, was known in multiple historical sources to eat only plant-based foods.
What sat on eating Jesus?
Pierce, what was served at the Last Supper?
Do you remember?
Well, why don't you tell me what you think was served?
Veggie burgers?
They say this is massively, massively groundbreaking, and it's going to really be a new chapter for Christianity.
You guys want him to be a vegetarian so badly, but now prepared to twist the actual Bible to do this.
Pierce, there's an ethical way to eat an avocado.
You are party to mass murder.
Mass murder.
Well, Kip Anderson and Cameron Waters are filmmakers whose hit documentaries have brought the apparent horrors of eating meat and fish to millions of viewers around the world.
Now, cowspiracy took aim at the farming industry.
C-Spiracy was, well, you guessed it, all about fish.
Now Kip and his team are back with a provocative, to say the least, new movie, which threatens to blow the lid off veganism and religion.
Is there any threat or danger making a film like this?
Yeah, you just wait and see.
You just wait and see.
They will stop at nothing to keep this troop from getting off.
Is there a spiritual way to kill an animal?
I'll put it this way.
How would Jesus kill an animal?
Is there a peaceful way to kill an animal?
Well, Christ Spiracy, which just launched two, I have to say, truly diabolical reviews, claims to be an exclusive story about Jesus Christ that's never been told before.
I would dare to suggest there's a reason for that.
Well, Kip and Cameron, join me now.
Gentlemen, thank you for joining Uncensored.
Is this all a bit of a joke, this one?
Is this like literally you're laughing at people?
No, definitely not a joke, that's for sure.
But your pretext is that Jesus was a vegetarian and might have been crucified because of his vegetarianism.
I mean, on what possible planet do you base that on?
The film doesn't say that he was crucified to be in vegetarianism, but there is a massive thing in the film that happened four days before he got crucified, which is a cleansing of the temple that's historically documented.
Biblical Scholarship Joke or Fact00:09:38
And the film explores what happened at that and what were the intentions of not only Jesus, but the Nazarene movement at that time and giving it complete context.
It's been mistranslated.
It's a powerful, powerful reveal that will really transform Christianity and people who everyone from scholars, theologians, archaeologists, early Christian historians who know about this, who have seen this and explored this with an open mind, they say this is massively, massively groundbreaking and it's going to really be a new chapter for Christianity.
Okay, here's what I don't get.
I've done a bit of research myself with my team.
This is, you may call it biblical scholarship, I guess.
Luke 24, 41 to 43.
Jesus ate fish.
Jesus also served fish to his followers.
Matthew 14.
And he calls the fisherman's nets to be filled on two different occasions, Luke 5 and John 21.
The purpose of catching the fish was to sell them so they could be eaten.
Jesus also cooked fish for his disciples.
John 21, 9.
So he clearly ate a lot of fish.
Yeah, well, Pierce, let me say I'm a Christian myself.
I was baptized in the church, and I've learned and read those stories my whole life.
In fact, it led me to be a fisherman myself for many, many years, hunter, all the things.
I'm the least likely person to go on this journey and start to ask some of these questions.
But what I will say is when you look deep enough into some of those stories, which we do in this film, and I highly encourage you to see it, these fish stories start to become quite a bit fishy and certainly raise a lot of questions.
Namely, that the word translated as fish is three different Greek words, two of which just simply mean to relish something just eaten on bread.
And in Jesus' own retelling of the feeding of the 5,000 with the fish, he himself in Matthew 16, verse 9 says, Don't you remember when I multiplied the loaves?
And doesn't mention the fish at all?
And that's Jesus's own words.
Multiple times throughout the scripture, the same thing occurs, as well as the first early church fathers who have the original documents in front of them.
They don't mention the fish in these stories.
So at minimum, we're not saying anything.
We're just asking questions.
Why is there this discrepancy?
Well, you are saying he was a vegetarian, but you've got no actual evidence that you didn't eat fish, have you?
In fact, all the evidence in the Bible points to the opposite.
Well, even, Pierce, before even going into that, that's only really scratching the surface of what this film actually is, as Kip was saying.
This film has a deeply historical context.
What we go into is that traditional domestication.
It doesn't have any historical context if it's a load of old bologna, does it?
I mean, you go on to talk about meat, for example.
No, no, no.
I mean, Jesus attended Passover in John 2:13, John 5, 1, and Matthew 26, 17 to 30.
Jesus would have been in disobedience of the law if he'd not eaten the Passover meal, which included meat.
So the truth is, he not only ate fish, Pierce, he ate meat.
Yeah, Pierce, I've read the Bible front to back myself.
I've obsessed over this for the last 10 years.
And my entire life was based on scripture.
And I wear WWJD on my wrist.
I asked what would Jesus do about every moral and ethical dilemma.
And this was just a carry-on from my natural inclination in my life to understand what Jesus would do about certain scenarios and certain situations.
And what I can say is that the Passover meal, if you read in the scripture, it says nothing about him eating a lamb.
It's not mentioned in the scripture.
And in fact, what it does say is that he went to join everyone for his Last Supper.
And Pierce, what was served at the Last Supper?
Do you remember?
Well, why don't you tell me what you think was served?
Veggie burgers?
Well, it says in the scripture, bread.
Bread.
Bread and the juice of grapes, bread.
And so that was in its own way a very interesting telling.
Again, it raises a lot of questions.
Why is the Passover originally called the Passover?
Well, you think Jesus only lived off bread?
Well, Jesus said man does not live on bread alone.
But he clearly did.
He lived on bread, fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, like everybody else.
There's absolutely zero evidence that you produced, which has been historically proven to be correct that he was anything but a fish and meat-loving normal eater.
You guys want him, because of your history, you guys want him to be a vegetarian so badly, you're now prepared to twist the actual Bible to do that.
Pierce, let me actually correct that.
That's not true.
My entire life was based, again, on not only scripture, and I was a gospel musician, but also I was a deeply meat eater.
I worked at a barbecue restaurant in my teens.
I was a hunter and a fisherman.
I'm the least likely person to get on this road.
And in fact, the more I read the scripture, the more I didn't want to believe it.
Much like you, there were many times that I became very, very uncomfortable with this conversation and questioned it deeply.
But it became so overwhelming, the evidence that we have, not only in the scripture themselves, when you get to the original Hebrew translations, in the Greek translations, which is what we go into the film in this film.
We talk about how the literal words of Jesus, when he said den of thieves, when he went into the temple, which at the time was a massive slaughterhouse for animal sacrifice, he said something else about what was going on there than the den of thieves, something much more condemning, which we reveal in the film.
And I highly recommend that you see it.
It's completely transformed my perspective.
And overall, I'll tell you this: that it's so undeniable when you see the scriptural evidence along with this.
It's really not.
I found it very easy personally.
I think the people in denial, with respect to the people.
Did you see the film?
Yeah, of course.
The people in denial are YouTube, aren't you?
I mean, you're the ones in denial.
You want this to suit your narrative that we should all be vegans and vegetarians.
And yet, by trying to pull Jesus Christ into this and twisting the actual words of scripture from the Bible, I think you're doing yourselves a disservice.
Where have we twisted the words of Scripture?
Can you provide an idea?
I've literally read passages where it's quite clear he ate fish and meat.
Well, no, so you mentioned Luke, right?
Well, how come in multiple translations of that Luke verse that you mentioned, it says he ate honeycomb and fish.
The honeycomb is admitted multiple times throughout all translations.
There's so many translations where that's admitted.
Why is that admitted?
Also, the early church fathers that quote that verse, they don't mention the fish.
There's many, many of the early church fathers that don't mention that he had fish.
And in fact, that word that's used for fish there.
Give me one piece of evidence that he was a give me one piece of evidence.
You say it's an historically important film.
Give me one piece of evidence that proves that Jesus was a vegetarian.
Well, again, we're not here to prove that Jesus is here to raise really important questions that haven't suggested.
Give me one fact that establishes he was a vegetarian.
Well, here, yeah, here's something that suggests something worth considering, which is that Jesus's own brother, James the Just, that everyone knows, in multiple historical documents, in the first paragraph that describes him, it describes that he never ate flesh.
From the time of his birth, he never ate flesh.
So his brother was his own brother.
Sorry, so just to be clear.
His brother was a vegetarian, you're saying.
So that means Jesus was.
Who took on the movement after Jesus got crucified, who carried on the same movement that Jesus was part of?
He carried on.
Right, but if I said, if you guys did a movie, if you guys did a movie and the pretext was, I'm a murderer, and when I got you on to talk about where's your evidence, you went, well, your brother murdered someone.
That's not great evidence.
Well, it's not just James either.
The forerunner of the movement, John the Baptist, was known in multiple historical sources to eat only plant-based foods.
What's that?
And he also wasn't.
Well, because Jesus carried on the movement of John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was out in the wilderness giving a replacement.
Where is a single quote from Jesus?
Through ritual criticism.
That suggests he was a practicing vegetarian.
You don't have one.
The whole movie is based on a completely spurious pretext for which you have zero evidence.
You've done it to make money and to capitalize on the big Christian market.
As a Christian myself, I find that quite offensive.
You need to watch the film first off, and you'll see there's overwhelming evidence in there proving not just vegetarian of what he was about in the movie.
I just asked you to give me one piece.
I just asked you to give me one bit of evidence which proves he was a vegetarian.
You couldn't give me one.
Well, I'll say this.
In the movie, we bring up the gospel of the Ebionites, which scholars, there's a consensus that this was an original document, the original Hebrew document of the Gospel of Matthew that the Ebionite tribe used, the Ebionite movement.
And these are the people that follow James the Just, Jesus' brother.
And they have an original statement from Jesus that says, I do not want to eat this Passover lamb with you.
This is a document that we don't have anymore.
Again, your peers uncensored.
I would suggest, and many scholars suggest, that this document was censored a long time ago, 2,000 years ago.
We've lost this episode.
So there's been a global historical 2,000-year conspiracy to prevent your version of events being proven.
It's terrible.
Well, it's not our version, Pierce.
I would say it's Christ's own words.
He said, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, in Matthew when he's quoting Hosea 6, 6.
And he says, go and learn what this means.
And I encourage every Christian to really take the time and go and learn what this means.
Okay, let me ask you.
I'm asking the same questions as you.
Okay.
I mean, I suppose the obvious question is, why does it matter anyway?
Putting aside whether it is true or not, why does it matter?
Well, I have a question for you, Piers.
Ethical Eating and Mercy00:07:12
Do you feel that Jesus, how would Jesus kill an animal?
Do you think Jesus would kill an animal?
Because at the time, back in the day, he would be the one who killed it, the animal.
I've no idea.
How would Jesus kill an animal?
I've no idea, but given most humans.
Just think about it.
Visualize how that would be.
I'm about to ask you.
Let me ask you the question.
Let me ask the question.
I think given that most human beings of that time probably would have killed animals to eat them at some stage, I wouldn't see it as completely fanciful that Jesus may have killed an animal.
But how?
What would he do?
Can you give us a visual of what Jesus would do?
He would do what everybody else did at the time.
Which is what?
Would Jesus use a knife?
Would he break the break?
Possible?
Yeah, I don't know.
It wasn't there, but it's quite possible.
Yeah, why wouldn't he?
You can imagine Jesus, Jesus holding the lamb, the beautiful picture.
You can imagine that.
Well, let me ask you to a question.
All right, let me ask you to a question back.
Are you both practicing vegans or what are you?
Yes.
One of the many things.
I am now because of what I love.
Okay, you're both vegans.
Okay.
So do you eat avocados or almonds or both?
We're ready for this one.
I was doing a documentary for about a year and a half on glyphosate and pesticides, specifically glyphosate.
I just asked you a question.
To do your research, it's like being against astronomers.
I'm not against strippers.
I'm sure you've done lots of stuff.
I'm against the glyphosate.
It's a very simple question.
Do you eat avocados and almonds?
Piers, I actually don't eat avocados.
I don't enjoy, I'm sorry, almonds.
I don't enjoy almonds.
I do enjoy avocados.
And in fact, because of the question that you're asking.
For many years, I live in California.
I hand-pick my own avocados because of the atrocities that happen to the bees that you're going to mention.
But what you got to remember, Pierce, what you got to remember, Piers, is the bees are actually for the honey industry and they're rented out to the avocados.
I'm just supposed to show you that plants.
I'm just telling you, but agriculture isn't perfect.
The reason I ask you is plant agriculture.
Let me explain.
The reason I go on about this with vegans is vegans are the most self-righteous people on God's earth.
And whenever I ask them, do you eat almonds and avocados, invariably they eat one or the other or both.
And they don't like to be confronted with the reality that in the production of their favorite foodstuffs, billions, literally billions of bees, the little guys, get exterminated.
Billions.
Right?
And so you are party.
Hang on.
You are party to mass murder.
Mass murder.
And I just wonder how you feel about that.
Pierce, plant agriculture is not perfect, and it's because it's the agricultural dominated by it.
Veganism is a perfection.
It's been dominated by...
Yeah, but you see, this is the trouble.
You make a whole movie trying to prove something you can't prove about Jesus being vegetarian.
Pierce, Pierce.
Here I have you.
Pierce, you're doing a woman.
A pair of you.
You're doing cornered as mass murderers.
No, it's not.
There's the real movie.
Hey, Pierce, Pierce, Pierce, there's an ethical way to eat an avocado.
There's a way to do it right.
No, but I mean, it's hard to do it right now.
Because there's only 0.04.
64% of the public funding goes to animal agriculture.
We don't have the money to do the innovation to properly raise avocados.
But guess what?
You can't ethically...
Pierce, can you ethically, can you, is there any ethical way to kill 90 billion animals per year to eat them?
There is an ethical way to eat an avocado.
Why don't you stop?
Is there an ethical way to eat it?
Why don't you stop feeding the mass murder of bees culture?
That's all I'm asking you.
Ask the honey industry.
I'll tell you who would have looked after the bees.
I tell you who would have looked after the little guys.
I'll tell you who looked after the little guys.
Jesus.
He would have looked after little guys.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Including against Glyphos, Satan pesticides.
And he looks after the little lamb that you see he'll slit his throat and kill him.
You should invoke the spirit of Jesus Christ and stop eating avocados and almonds.
And you should stop encouraging the mass extermination of the little guys.
Do you agree?
We do.
We do.
And we would love to see that.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
This is a big moment.
This is a big moment.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I've got you to admit that we're committing mass murder and you're going to stop.
No, I know.
No, no, no, no.
We haven't been.
No, no, no, that's not what we're saying, Pierce.
We're saying that there's unnecessary killing that's happening in all stages of agriculture.
So you can eat avocados if it's necessary.
The majority of it is 90 billion.
No, no, no.
Pierce, there is an ethical way to eat an avocado.
You're not killing any bees.
Bees die when they sting you, Pierce.
The point is, is there's no ethical way around killing an animal to eat it.
The animal has to die and it has to go through suffering.
99% of all animals are factory farmed, Pierce.
How much meat do you eat, Pierce?
You know what, guys?
Do you eat factory farms?
As a Christian, wait a minute.
As a Christian, I forgive you both.
Well, Pierce, Pierce, you're a very, very sweet guy, and I actually honor that.
And I think you're an awesome person.
I know you love your cats, and I think that it's in your heart.
I know you're against factory farming, yet you still eat factory-farmed animals.
Why do you do that?
I like meat.
What can I tell you?
And I'm not a hypocrite.
I'm not a sanctimonious hypocrite.
I'm not a sanctimonious hypocrite who preaches to people that you've got to leave animals alone, but quietly takes part, actively participating in the mass slaughter of bees.
So was Jesus Christ, as a Christian, was Jesus a sanctimonious hypocrite when he went into the temples and disrupted the entire animal sacrifice system because they were murdering animals in the temple?
Absolutely not.
Because he wasn't preaching like you two do about being a vegetarian because he wasn't a vegetarian.
So unfortunately, your attempt to bring him into your own sanctum and hypocrisy doesn't work.
Pierce, this film goes, Pierce, this film goes so much deeper than that.
You're only scratching the surface.
We're talking about historical events where Jesus, Cameron, it's been very interesting talking to you.
You haven't persuaded me.
We need to watch the film.
We're called uncensored.
Once you watch the film, let's do it.
I was about to give you a plug.
People can watch it themselves.
It's a free world.
This show is called uncensored.
I've given you the platform.
You've expressed yourselves forcefully.
I disagree with your pretext completely.
And I think there is a whiff of sanctimony and hypocrisy about the way that you take part in the slaughter of bees.
But we will agree to disagree.
And I wish you a very happy day.
Pierce, one last thing.
From the beginning of the Bible to the end, it's very, very clear.
Genesis 1.29, God gave us plants to eat.
In the future coming of the prophetic kingdom of heaven, the lion will lay with the lamb.
And it's the same thing.
We're right in the middle of that time.
So you as a Christian should be able to ask these questions without shutting them down.
I promise you it's not as hypocritical as you think.
You know what?
It's a very, very good question to ask.
And it goes so much deeper than whether or not Jesus was a vegetarian.
I will watch my way home on my way home tonight as I'm eating a Big Mac with large fries.