User:MaynardClark/Frank L. Hoffman

Frank Louis Hoffman is a thought leader in Christian vegetarianism in the United States and North America, a retired Christian minister who had previously served as a prison chaplain, the owner of F. L. Hoffman Corporation, which builds and operates nursing homes, and  a philanthropist supporting humane faith-based work involving animals and principled thinking concerning them. He is president and trustee of the Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation, which funds communications media supporting animal advocacy and vegan living and values.

Hoffman was born to a Jewish family. He converted to Christianity, acknowledging Jesus Christ as Messiah, and began to work in Evangelical Christianity and studied for the Protestant ministry in both Methodist and nondenominational seminaries. He tells the story of his religious conversion while flying an airplane. Now he is a Christian vegetarian leader and educator, having retired as a Methodist minister living in Athens, New York, where he heads The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation as its President and Trustee. He and Mary, a retired medical technologist and artist and his wife of several decades until she passed away August 25, 2018, met for decades with Christian vegetarians around North America.

The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation runs the All-Creatures.org website, which hosts nearly 50 other websites for vegetarian and animal rights organizations. The foundation also helps fund pro-animal vegetarian video production. He is a retired CEO of a medical construction management firm and a licensed instrument-rated aircraft private pilot, which assisted the Hoffmans in their many travels.

Methodist ministry
While Frank Hoffman formally retired from his prison chaplaincy and his church pastorates, he continues his nondenominational Biblical ministry on the internet. He studied at New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) (nondenominational, evening classes) and the Drew University Graduate Division of Religion (GDR), which is historically Methodist, including both face-to-face classes and remote classes. He and his wife were ethical vegetarians during this period, during which he served for six years in a prison ministry of the United Methodist Church, where he ministered to around 500 inmates in the Coxsackie Correctional Facility maximum security prison. In 1987, he and his wife, already vegetarian for ethical reasons, became vegan, and reportedly, his prison ministry colleagues during this time noted a character change in him. He also served on Methodist Prison Ministry staff in Westchester County, New York.

Hoffman served as minister from 1987 to 1998 for the Federated Church of Athens, New York, in the Hudson District North District of the Connecticut-New York Conference, and The High Hill United Methodist Church, which became an independent congregation in 1993. The Federated Church of Athens (the united church) was a Methodist-Baptist federated church.

After his wife of 57 years, Mary T. Hoffman, with whom he founded All-Creatures.org in 1998, passed away unexpectedly in August 2018, Frank grieved quietly, then remarried in 2022. He and his second wife, Heidi, are living in Wisconsin.

Having written a new vegan sermon each week for over 24 years (stored om an online written sermon directory at all-creatures.org), he now produces weekly Popcorn Sermons crafted to be inspiring through brief.

Faith-based controversy around memorializing nonhumans
Hoffman's offering memorial services and funerals for companion animals who had died either through accidents or naturally - causing controversy among neighbors and local clergy - and also within his congregation - and in several denominations, though Biblical texts from Ecclesiastes are often cited at human funerals. Anthropologists have noted the human practice of memorializing nonhuman companions (and noncompanions). Doctrinally, Hoffman explicitly teaches that (a)"The Bible really isn't silent (about animals), except in the translations" and (b) "the Greek (Revelation 4) says that there are myriads upon myriads of animals in heaven" and (c) "in the Hebrew (Genesis 1, 2)...both humans and other animals were created as 'nephesh' or 'living souls', meaning that we all have souls and spirits. So, if we go to heaven, then so do animals." . This universalistic belief in universal salvation is not universal in Christendom, but it recurs sporadically, and Hoffman alludes to it. Mere sentience is not a Biblical guarantee of immortality, even if humans and nonhumans share a characteristic - of sentience.

Frank Hoffman's prayers on behalf of animals (both dead and living animal companions, and wildlife, and victims of human uses, such as laboratory research subjects) have been included in several compendia of prayers. The Cherry Hill (NJ) Courier-Post featured a book review (October 16, 2004, F-1) of Bless the Beasts (2004):

From increasing frequency of animal blessing ceremonies to congregationally-sanctioned animal activism, religious groups are acknowledging the spirituality of animals and their importance as God's creations. Christians, Jews and Muslims believe God appointed humans as caretakers of the animals.

The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation
"The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation and the http://www.all-creatures.org website are dedicated to cruelty-free living through a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle according to Judeo-Christian ethics."

Founded in December 1997, the Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation describes itself as Biblically-based, using the canon of the King James Bible. However, they maintain relationships with Catholic and Orthodox Christian groups and with non-Christian vegetarian groups. This is complementary with Frank Hoffman's membership in the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV). The Foundation endorses a vegan plant-based diet, responsible stewardship of the world as creation, and care and respect for other-than-human persons. They advocate the elimination of animal testing, the elimination of animal models in scientific research, the elimination of the use of animals for food, the elimination of commercial use of animals, and the protection of the environment from polluting and destructive practices. The foundation promotes a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle and Judeo-Christian ethics.

The Foundation promotes through education the elimination of the use of animals in biomedical research and testing, their use as food, or their use for any and all commercial purposes; and to protect the environment so that no living beings suffer from its destruction or pollution."

Hosting the all-creatures.org with its animal advocacy and related dietary, environmental, spiritual/ethical/religious issues is the role of the Foundation. The library includes over 75,000 documents with pro-animal pro-vegan essays, animal-friendly photography and photos of animal abuse and exploitation, educational materials, other literature, and vegan recipes. On this website, which draws large amounts of web traffic through hosting large numbers of related sites whose traffic complement one another in search engines, the foundation provides a library of educational materials for teachers and students on cruelty free living.

The Family Foundation also supports a grass roots and nonprofit vegetarian, vegan, animal rights and pro-animal, and environmental organizations by publishing, maintaining and hosting these organizations' websites without cost to them. Organizations hosted by the Hoffman Family foundation include: Creation's Cry Christian Animal Rights and Environmental Ministry, God's Creatures Ministry (Christian Animal Rights Ministry), The Compassionate Writings of Vasu Murti, Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN), and the Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA). Frank Hoffman describes the All-Creatures.org website as the majority of his current work.

Frank Hoffman produces and electronically distributes a weekly sermon and eNewsletter that promotes compassion towards all sentient beings and a fully vegan lifestyle and teaches that church silence on the oppression of other-than-human sentient beings is a form of promoting violence - systemic violence. The weekly electronic newsletter tracks issues related to animal welfare and rights and includes action alerts for news and pro-animal campaigns. The All-Creatures.org website and efforts is reportedly led by Tams Nichols, a Catholic from a Southern state.

The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation has funded several pro-animal pro-vegan educational videos. Titles include:
 * Peaceable Kingdom
 * A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values To Help Heal The World
 * The Witness
 * Mad Cowboy: The Documentary
 * Honoring God’s Creation
 * Christian Concern for All God's Animals by God’s Creatures Ministry

Hoffman's message
Frank Hoffman's theology can be characterized as Wesleyan Methodism (from Greek: μέθοδος - methodos, "pursuit of knowledge" ), which includes the Methodist doctrines of sanctification, which led to the Christian temperance movement. Methodist beliefs in 'moral preconditions to (religious and other) knowing' can trace their position through Augustine of Hippo and into the Middle Ages.


 * The proper focus of human attention is on God’s Divine Character and in manifesting God’s character through loving service to others. We thereby become more nearly perfect, in harmony with the teaching of Matthew 5:48.
 * Believers should realize this unconditional love by loving every other person unconditionally. Service to others is preaching the Gospel to every creature, as St. Francis taught.
 * All persons should be vegan,that is, to neither eat animal products, nor consume, wear, or endorse the production of anything that involves the suffering or involuntary use of another person, particularly nonhumans.
 * Ideas are far less important (in one's relationship with God) than is effective love. Doctrinal issues are existentially positional, seen best by understanding the position or life context in which they are held.  God is not concerned about our doctrine but is concerned with our heart, our lives, our devotion, and our service.  Right thinking has a place in one's personal, practical, and intellectual life, but for Hoffman's Wesleyan Methodism, it is morally and religiously irrelevant, unlike the higher role of 'right thinking' in classical Ch'an Buddhism.  Hoffman's God is a Person, not a transcendent state, an Absolute, or an impersonal ultimate reality.

Recognition by evangelical Christian groups
Frank Hoffman was ordained a Methodist minister after seminary training. He has stood with a conservative but loving reading of Christian Scripture. He was called by the Federated Church of Athens, a federated Methodist and Baptist local congregation united denominationally at the local level. A number of online websites carry some of Frank Hoffman's more Evangelical-sounding sermons.

Jewish vegetarian recognition
Dr. Richard Schwartz of the Jewish Vegetarian Society of North America is involved closely with Frank Hoffman in The Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians, and The Frank and Mary Hoffman Family Foundation has helped fund Dr. Schwartz's "A Sacred Duty" DVD, which is distributed free on the Internet and as a mailed-out DVD. Rev. Hoffman frequently cites both his Jewish heritage and his role as a believing Jew in affirming under God the personhood of all sentient beings.

Ecumenical recognition
Frank Hoffman is active in the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV), which focuses its networking and advocacy work on advancing vegan diets and promoting the recognition of human stewardship responsibilities towards animals  At the annual NAVS Vegetarian Summerfest, Rev. Frank Hoffman has led a nondenominational interfaith worship service early on Sunday mornings before breakfast and has delivered several talks on Christian vegetarianism.

Vegetarian movement

 * Frank conceptualized a Christian strategy for understanding the vegetarian life mandate Biblically.
 * He helped found and has been active in the Christian Vegetarian Association and the more ecumenical Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV).
 * He has been a regular speaker at the annual NAVS Vegetarian Summerfest, often held in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. Hoffman is also a speaker at local vegetarian society meetings that are within a day's drive or flight.
 * Frank through his family foundation personally funded a number of Biblical and general (humane) educational videos on vegan diet as visionary and inspiring and morally necessary (including the Jewish educational video, which is now distributed for free)
 * Frank was a Methodist prison chaplain and served a number of United Methodist Church (UMC) congregations AND a united parish (local congregation united across several nominally protestant - lowercase - denominations in the spirit of ecumenism)
 * Most of the larger animal rights groups have All-Creatures.org listed as a useful humane vegetarian resource, and the All-Creatures.org sit has been mentioned in several books and several newspapers that attempt to catalog pro-animal and vegetarian resources.
 * Putatively, or arguably, the rise of the Christian Vegetarian Association was enabled by the usability of the Internet because, until that time, no clear non-local vehicle was available to it outside the organizational structure of Protestant denominations and some Orthodox and some Catholic religious orders. Christian vegetarianism may have been an intermittent practices for days or weeks or Lenten periods, but as a full-time community practice, the communication mechanisms may have been restricted to word of mouth in preaching and community discourse, then writing and post-publication distribution, then radio and later television broadcasting by Seventh-Day Adventists, whose mid-19th century organizational founder, Ellen G. White, was vegetarian or vegan, according to her book Diet and Health.  Some Protestant sectarians claim Millerite heritage.  The historical emergence of vegetarian Seventh-day Adventists ensued after the Millerites), but the idea of Christian vegetarianism was largely dismissed until the rise of the Christian Vegetarian Association, and that followed Frank Hoffman's development of the All-Creatures.org web portal.

Creature advocacy
{to be completed}


 * Foundation funding for videos
 * Theological work
 * Books on creature rites - ceremonies dignifying the lives of animals
 * Public speaking

Media appearances
Frank Hoffman has appeared as an interviewee on vegetarian radio shows across the United States and on SMTV in Europe and Asia to address the "hardness of heart" of actual Christian practice, and to explore his role in founding the Christian Vegetarian Association and the consistent philosophy of nonviolence that underlies CVA. A number of these radio interviews have been archived and are available for later listening by wider audiences. His 2012 appearance is on Veganpalooza (11–15 July 2012) provides interesting content.

Mary T. Hoffman
Until her death in late 2018, Mary T. Hoffman was the vegan homemaker influence in the All-Creatures.org web portal. Frank and Mary met while in college at the University of Pittsburgh. Both have worked with science and healthcare backgrounds. Mary worked in the labs as a medical technologist, while Frank, trained professionally as a chemist, then spent six years as a medic in the U.S. Air Force. Frank was Jewish, and Mary was Greek Orthodox. They believed they were brought together by God to help restore forgotten elements in Christian faith, so they married July 7, 1961, and had been Christian vegan animal activists together since 1986, promoting both human rights and animal rights for 32 years.

They encouraged discovery of the health, compassion, and environmental blessings - or benefits - of a vegan lifestyle. Mary's hobbies were vegan cooking, rollerblading and other energetic outdoor sports, and painting of animals and vegan food. Mary was an accomplished professional watercolor artist, and some of her paintings have been posted on the All-Creatures.org website page entitled "God's Creation in Art". The All-Creatures.org web portal is filled with thousands of vegan food dishes.

Tammy "Tams" Nichols
The All-Creatures.org website and efforts is reportedly led by Tammy Nichols, a Catholic from a Southern state.

Tammy Nichols at All-Creatures.org

Tammy Nichols is the Executive Director of All-Creatures.org, an organization dedicated to promoting animal rights and veganism. As Executive Director, she oversees the activities and initiatives of the organization, which aims to create a peaceful world for all beings, both human and non-human. The organization emphasizes unconditional love and compassion as the foundation of their mission.

Role at the Hoffman Family Foundation

The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation, which is closely associated with All-Creatures.org, shares a similar mission focused on animal rights, veganism, and environmental stewardship. Tams Nichols has been actively involved with the foundation, contributing to its various projects and goals. The foundation's philosophy revolves around peaceful means of achieving a better world for all creatures.

Background Before Engagement

Before her tenure at All-Creatures.org, Tammy Nichols volunteered with multiple animal rights grassroots organizations. Her extensive experience in the animal rights field includes a significant period working for AnimalsVoice.com, where she honed her advocacy and leadership skills. Her background and commitment to animal welfare made her a valuable asset to the Hoffman Family Foundation and All-Creatures.org when she joined them.

Publications

 * Sermons, fully archived; Scriptural index of sermons
 * Weekly eNewsletters, fully archived
 * "Bless the Beasts" (2004) - Memorial services for animals, since God appointed humans as caretakers for animals.
 * Virtue and Values for the Twenty-first Century: Renewing America's Character and Spirit, Hoffman Family Foundation, 2001, 340 pages. Editor: J. Nelson Hoffman.

Intellectual influences
Frank Hoffman had studied chemistry and other natural sciences and had served on the US Air Force as a medic. He also had studied the Bible and the Hebrew language, or Biblical Hebrew, prior to his adoption of Christianity by recognizing Jesus as Yeshua Messiah, the Messiah of Israel, and of all nations. His studies in two well-known seminaries had nondenominational influences. Drew, though Methodist, was the intellectual home of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, yet has a nonsectarian influence, as does New York Theological Seminary, with a tradition for thinking outside the box theologically. Today, he cites the influence of Rabbi Schmuel Asher, a Karaite scholar, who taught "that most Judeo-Christians are deeply misinformed on all levels of Hebrew history and experience, and needed help." The vegetarian Adventists used the calendar of the Karaite Jews. Curiously, the majority of Subbotniks belonged to Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism, and the minority to Christianity

Karaite articles
A contemporary of Maimonides, the 12th-century Karaite scholar and liturgist Judah ben Elijah Hadassi in his Eshkol ha-Kofer formulated non-Rabbinic articles of faith: "(1) God is the Creator of all created beings; (2) He is premundane and has no peer or associate; (3) the whole universe is created; (4) God called Moses and the other Prophets of the Biblical canon; (5) the Law of Moses alone is true; (6) to know the language of the Bible is a religious duty; (7) the Temple at Jerusalem is the palace of the world's Ruler; (8) belief in Resurrection contemporaneous with the advent of the Messiah; (9) final judgment; (10) retribution." Frank Hoffman promises, as a Messianic Jews, to exegete Christian-Greek and Hebraic texts in continuity with 12th-century Karaites.

Criticisms
The Hoffman Family Foundation, like many spiritual and religious organizations, is criticized for reflecting subjective human opinion, albeit with a humanitarian focus, rather than adhering strictly to textual exegesis. Despite Rev. Frank Hoffman's ongoing Scriptural study, some argue that his interpretations lack the depth of careful scholarship associated with traditional hermeneutics. Critics question why Karaite Judaism, dating back to the 12th century, serves as the historical anchor for Hoffman's biblical readings in the 21st century, particularly if his aim is to derive a message of generalized compassion from the scriptures. Frank Hoffman does occasionally refer to critical questions in Biblical hermeneutics, the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (were there two, three, or even four letters to the New Testament church at Corinth).

Contrary views on biblical vegetarianism within the vegetarian movement

 * Christian Vegetarianism - an archive: Highlights from British publications since the 1800s
 * "Biblical Vegetarianism" by Henry S. Salt

Category:American Methodist clergy Category:Animal rights activists Category:New York Theological Seminary alumni Category:People from New York Category:Living people Category:American activists