Ready to have your world turned upside down and your mind blown? The next instalment in the conspiracy documentaries that brought you Seaspiracy is out now (March 20th) , and it's called Christspiracy.
It's the latest documentary in the series of zeitgeist-defining titles such as Seaspiracy, Cowspiracy – the sustainability project exec produced by Leonardo DiCaprio – and What the Health, exec produced by Joaquin Phoenix.
Joaquin Phoenix himself has stated that Christspiracy “exposes unforgiving truths about animal cruelty in the name of religion”. It, and the filmmakers who made it, explore how “influential religious leaders of all faiths, have overlooked or even promoted animal exploitation”.
It's also been described as the “biggest and boldest” chapter in the series so far.
And having seen it, we can confirm this to be true. The documentary is one that takes you on a wild, whistlestop tour of every major religion and their treatment of the slaughter of animals…all in an attempt to seemingly convince the viewer that a.) Jesus was a vegetarian and b.) the only solution to lead a happy and spiritually fulfilled life is to become a vegetarian or even better, a vegan.
The summary for the documentary is as follows: “Christspiracy is an investigative documentary following daring American filmmakers Kip Andersen and Kameron Waters. The duo set off around the globe, exploring the historical connection between all religions and animals.
"The pair expose how influential religious leaders of all faiths, have overlooked or even promoted animal exploitation. The Americans discover a 2,000 year-old cover up - a mistranslation that is going to transform the world. This is plausibly the most significant new discovery about Jesus Christ, in the last 2,000 years.”
Andersen and Walters interview University of Oxford theology professors, priests and other religious leaders as well as doctors, holocaust survivors and community leaders about humanity's relationship with animals and how all religions have informed it. They will also look at veganism's connection to spirituality.
They refer to a “two-thousand-year-old cover up” as "deeply embedded in the fabric of our society, and the film’s revelation just might redefine what it truly means to be human(e)."
It's hyperbolic and sensationalised rhetoric for a show that really goes to some far and tenuous extremes to promote the vegan lifestyle. It's shocking at times; violent and distressing and will certainly make carnivores think long and hard about their next burger and - if applicable - their religon.
Or, as The Guardian newspaper describes it, it is “entertaining tosh” with "unsupported assertions and gormless naivety drive this mishmash of pseudoscience and manipulated religious doctrine”.
Harsh perhaps, and while there are certainly some extreme - and also quite niche - assertions in the film, there are also some fascinating elements that will leave you thinking for a long time afterwards…here are our five main takeaways from the film:
1.) Is there a spiritual way to kill an animal? This is the philosophical/ethical investigation of the film and the question that drives the filmmakers forward. It turns out - spoiler alert - that even when they investigate Kosher and Halal practices, there really is no spiritual way to kill an animal.
2.) Speciesism - the philosophical belief held by humans that animals are lesser species - is explored and presented as a compelling factor in contributing to racism and sexism amongst humans. Many experts - including Holocaust survivor - appear on Christspiracy to argue that discrimination amongst humans is perpetuated by speciesism. In essence they argue that animal oppression is linked to human oppression and has contributed to the Holocaust and slavery. “You look at slavery and you look at indentured servants as children in the past and you look at a lot of things that used to be normal and now we would look at and say ‘oh that’s terrible' as we evolve, certain things that we used to do, they fall away,' says the author Rev. Michael Beckwith. ”You know [the justification] ‘oh we can eat them and do whatever we like with them because they’re just animals' well that was the same rationalisation that people used to use for slavery."
4.) Experts argue that the way we speak about animals body is directly linked to the degradation of women - and it's intensifying it. “Anyone who says ‘no we’ve got to deal with human's issues first' doesn't understand how animal oppression is informing human oppression and the oppression of animals is intensifying the oppression of women,” says Carol Adams, the author of The Sexual Politics of Meat. “In objectification we no longer are in possession of our own bodies. And we see that in meat eating…we say chicken wings, not a chicken's wing. It's like leg of lamb, no, it's a lamb's leg, reinforcing the idea that someone is only an assemblage of body parts."
5.) Jesus - and Noah pre-Ark apparently - was most probably a vegetarian. And this is the radical 2,000 year-old cover up that Kip and Kameron uncover. They make a compelling argument that due to all faiths - Muslim, Hindu, Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity - all have the same commandment: “Do not kill” yet all are hypocritical when it comes to killing animals. And this is the hypocrisy at the heart of all religions and one that has been used to control and commodify animals for thousands of years.
Where can I watch Christspiracy?
The documentary has been released in a limited amount of cinemas on 20 March.
Noticeably, the other titles in the series were released on Netflix, but Anderson said in an interview with Plant Based News that the streaming service wanted to redact certain elements of their discoveries, so they decided to release the documentary on their own because the subject matter was so “bold and controversial”. Whether Netflix will add it to their platform remains to be seen…
