Movie blurb: Christspiracy: The Spirituality Secret is a groundbreaking and censored documentary revealing the biggest cover-up in 2,000 years. Co-directed by award-winning filmmaker Kip Andersen (Netflix: Cowspiracy 2014, What the Health 2017, Seaspiracy 2021) and Kameron Waters.
I will start this by saying that I am not a religious person. I do not believe in any god, from any denomination, nor do I believe in any mystical deity controlling the world around us. This is based on my own interpretation of the world, my own experiences, and also my own understanding of religious teachings. I am also not someone who was ever raised in a religious household, so I never had the ideas of a religion engrained in me from an early age. Personally I think this is best, as I have been exposed to many different religions and ideologies throughout my life – from what I was taught at school, what family friends preached, and what I have learnt through media and my own curiosities – but it also means that I have never been someone to question my faith. I therefore do not think I am the main target of this documentary movie.
The movie very much does try to explain the links between eating meat, killing animals and religious teachings. Whilst the large focus is on Christianity, it does also explore the teachings of most other western religions, such as Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. I for one very much liked this approach, as it was critical of all religions rather than just the one. That being said, I think because it was so wide in scope a lot of the information given felt very surface level, as they simply didn’t have the time to really dive deep into very nuanced issued.
The main takeaway I had from this movie was that every thing comes down to interpretation. The film makes did speak to a lot of religious individuals and almost every one of them had a different way to interpret and thus justify why eating meat was allowed. As someone who has never had a religious upbringing, a lot of the information in this movie just helped to reaffirm for me why I don’t follow religion now as an adult and why I have never really been able to come to grips with a religion – trust me there were times when I was growing up when the community that came with belonging to a religion really appealed to me, but even when I attended congregations I could never accept what I was being told to believe. The words of all holy scriptures, to me, are just way too broad and therefore are completely open to interpretation. How I would read scripture may teach me something very different to what you may take from the same scripture. I think this is something that is very much highlighted throughout this movie.
At one point the film makers meet with a free range farmer who states that the animals on his farm don’t have cages they have shelters. He also states that he ‘harvests’ his animals (in this context he was talking about the pigs on his farm) rather than slaughters them. Which I find so interesting, because again it is that cognitive dissonance, where harvesting sounds better than slaughtering, therefore it is ok to kill the animal. Especially since he then goes on to state that he harvests his pigs when they are 6 months old, as after that they get ‘old and tough’ and it is implied that they are harder to slaughter at that point. He also made it clear that all of his animals (aside from the chickens and rabbits) were sent off site to be slaughtered by an actual slaughterhouse, which again raises the question of whether the animals really are treated better if they are still slaughtered in the same manner that a factory farmed animal would be.
I feel that the whole movie moved away from the main point of the movie and did become very much another scathing review of the animal agriculture industry. I did appreciate (as horrible as it is to see) that they did talk about the dog meat industry within Asia, which is an aspect of animal agriculture that is not really spoken about. There is a lot of footage of animals in farms and within slaughterhouses, so a heads up if you are sensitive. I did have to skip a small segment that showed slaughter of a rabbit so again want to make you guys aware of what this film shows. I do think it is important to show these images though as it really does bring home the issues within the agriculture industry, but I also know how hard it is to see such footage, especially if you are someone already involved in the movement and see this footage a lot.
I thought an interest topic that was raised was around the patriarchal tones of the meat industry – how eating meat makes you a man, how hunting makes you a better man. The whole idea that is very much on the rise in today’s society that ‘real men eat meat’. I feel this would be a really interesting topic to really dive into and could be given more insight, but I also appreciate that this wasn’t what the film was meant to focus on. Maybe an idea for a future investigation? It was one of the many examples in the film where the initial conversation was started, but nothing deeper was discussed due to the time constraints they were under. Not necessarily a complaint, but just something to be aware of. It definitely raised an interesting point and it is something that I hadn’t really thought about before.
One aspect I did really enjoy was the analysis of the words used within the Bible and the origin of where those words came from and how, over the years of interpretation, the true meaning may have gotten lost. Again though I feel this in itself could be an entire movie separate to this one, as it relies so heavily on interpretation. Whilst it was interesting to see so many academics discuss the meaning and the history of the words used within the Bible, these were again all theories or opinions. Yes the words could have been misinterpreted over the years, but at the same time, what if they weren’t? I think these are the types of questions that the film should of dove into, but at the same time I know that this film was made to highlight hypocrisy within religions rather then to find a definitive answer to the questions raised. I did find the history of religion – the focus was largely on Christianity – very interesting, and I personally think that the movie could have been a very interesting deep dive into the full history of the links between religion and animals, but again I do appreciate that this is not really what the movie makers wanted to do. Again, I think it is very clear from the outset that this movie is about animal liberation and so that is where the focus is. As someone who fully supports animal liberation and exposing the horrors of the animal industries, I am fully behind this sort of film, but I do also fully understand why someone who is not involved in this movement would find this film problematic.
I did also find it an interesting angle to include the connection between religion and government. The movie focused on this more whilst in India, with regards to the large scale animal sacrifice festival that happens, where an activist is trying to stop the festival going ahead by lobbying the government and the courts, but is unfortunately denied. Again this raises an interesting question, no matter where you live, about how much influence (if any) do you think religion should have on how your country is run? I am quite lucky in that England is very multicultural and I am able to celebrate all sorts of religious events if I choose to, but at the same time England is still a Christian country – the year is planned around Christian celebrations, not Islamic or Jewish celebrations for example. Again, this seems to be a topic that could become a whole movie on its own, but I do like that the movie was able to touch on this idea at times.
I did find it to be a little bit too heavy with the ‘conspiracy’ as well. A little bit too ‘skull and crossbones’. There are moments where the film makers are being followed by people outside of their home, they have drones outside their windows, and they are thrown out of many buildings for asking certain questions. At one point one of the film maker returns home to find that his house has been ransacked and that memory cards had been stolen. I appreciate that such events must be quite scary, but I think the way it is shown came across as a little dramatic. But then it was also interesting to see them discussing how the films they make are a threat to the animal agricultural industry. The animal agricultural industry is an incredibly rich and powerful industry that obviously wants to protect its assets. I did also find it interesting how the same argument could be made (and was made towards the end of the movie) that religious organisations also want to protect their beliefs and to stop anyone who may try to challenge those, which is what this movie aims to do. The film did raise the very interesting conversation about how people do not like to have their beliefs questioned or challenged, and since this film aims to challenge both our views towards animals as well as our views towards religious teachings, it is clear why such a film could be quite controversial.
The overall ending of the movie is one of hope. It ends on the note that interpretations can change, and that people can make different choices. Yes, it is very much pro-vegan, but that sort of message is expected as it is from the same people who made Cowspiracy and Seaspiracy. The movie ends but talking to different people about how spirituality has changed them, with the implication being that they have moved away from their traditional religion: They may still identify as Christian, but not the same interpretation of Christianity as their local church. It also highlights that the entire movement is not a one person movement, that it will take all of us doing what we can to make the world a better place for humans and animals. It is a very inspiring ending and definitely left me feeling very much inspired and ready to do my part. But again, I am not a religious person. My beliefs were not questioned by this movie. For me, this simply highlighted how deep rooted animal exploitation is within our cultures and within our societies, and added another layer which needs to be further explored and researched.
I would recommend you watch this film if you are even a little bit curious about religion and the links with animal exploitation. There are some important moments within the film, and I do think it raises a lot of very interesting questions. Obviously, with it being a movie, it is obviously limited by how much it is able to cover in only 100 minutes, but I do think it is a very interesting starting point for further research and exploration to be done. I do not think it answers the questions that it set out to answer at the beginning – if anything I think the movie kind of forgot about those questions the longer it went on – but I do not think that makes it a bad documentary. As I say, it is a very interesting starting point and I would very much recommend you watch this so you can decide where you wish to research further. If you want to watch it, you can find the link here.
Taylor Talks Vegan 