Question by John Norton Loughborough

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Aug 8, 1878

Question.

By John Norton Loughborough

The question is asked by J. J. if it is right for Seventh-day Adventists to keep hogs after receiving light on the subject of swine-eating. We would say in reply that there are some sections in Illinois and Iowa where people raise hogs and sell them to factories where they are manufactured directly into lard oil, used for lubricating purposes. While we do not esteem pork or lard wholesome articles of food, it may be used for above purposes. I do not know of any ground on which the hog could be sold to those who desire to use it as food unless on the principle contained in the sanitary regulations of the Jews, which permitted them to sell certain things to aliens which they themselves were forbidden to eat. Of course aliens would not buy such articles of diet unless their appetite craved it. In regard to raising swine we do not wish to be conscience for others, but if any suppose they must raise the animal, we advise them, as they wish to shun fevers and other evil diseases, to keep the pig sty as far as possible from the house. J. N. L.