Through interviews with biblical scholars, religious officials, and other historical experts, they seek out clues as to whether Jesus was an advocate of eating meat and if he himself ever killed an animal for consumption. They have further interviews with those from religions aside from Christianity, like Islam and Buddhism, to gain a wider understanding of the topic. There are many documentaries that discuss the horrors of poor food practices. Several of which are funded by corporations and causes that have a stake in the film. Christspiracy, however, is fully funded through Kickstarter with over three thousand individual backers. To the film’s credit, this allows the doc to dodge the pitfall of choosing one side of an argument because of funding. I know I’ve seen two of Andersen’s previous films, Cowspiracy and What the Health. I recall both of those documentaries being compelling in their arguments, providing shocking footage and strong examples to support their point. However, when it comes to Christspiracy, I was not quite as convinced, though Andersen and Waters provided interesting insight.
Christspiracy is really addressing two questions simultaneously whether realized or not. First, of course, is the question regarding Jesus having eaten meat. But for this question to even be proposed, it relies on whether Jesus really existed, where his existence is “absolute zero” in the equation. Without Jesus’s existence as an accepted truth, the rest is superfluous. Let’s face it, evidentially proving if Jesus REALLY existed might be impossible, so I don’t knock the filmmakers on that, but it is inevitably working against them. Andersen and Waters trace the branches of evidence back to the root of the connection between the church and meat consumption effectively through expert testimony. Highlighting excerpts from the Bible and from the direct teachings of Jesus is paramount in their argument that he may not have been a meat eater. Once again, however, this requires the viewer to give some level of credibility to the Biblical source. The film is called Christspiracy, but I found too much of the run time was spent on discussing other religions and their spiritual leaders. While the additional interviews were interesting in painting a larger picture of the relationship between animals and humans through the lens of religion, I think more focus should have been on Christianity to really prove their point. Ultimately, this is a well-made documentary, but I would imagine a flurry of mixed reactions from viewers. The topic of religion and meat consumption separately each draw their own criticisms, but tackling both topics in tandem in under two hours is a mighty challenge. There is a lot more that could be thrashed out, but Christspiracy provides an adequate primer in the debate as to whether Jesus Christ was a carnivore.
