Cannibalism in Jesus' teaching

Cannibalism has been practised by men for various reasons.
Sometimes, men eat men out of insanity. Some psychotic killers are reported to have cut up the corpses of their victims, put them in the freezer and eat them when they feel like to. This is disgusting.
Under extreme conditions such as famines, plane crashes, siege etc., men are known to have eaten the corpses of other fellow men in order to survive. During the Chun Qiu 春秋 period, the army of Chu 楚 laid siege to Song 宋 such that people exchanged their children to eat 「易子而食」. This is tragic but understandable.
Sometimes, men eat the flesh of the enemies they have defeated to vent their anger or patriotism. For example, In North Song Dynasty, General Yue Fei 岳飛 wrote the following verse. 「壯志饑餐胡虜肉，笑談渴飲匈奴血。」We do not know whether he had actually eaten his enemies. To be sure, the Sung army wanted very much to drive out those invaders from the west. Such noble patriotism was unfortunately expressed in cannibalistic sentiment. But we do not condemn patriotism, do we?
Sometimes, men eat men for magical/mythical reasons. The flesh of the Tang monk, Xuanzang 玄奘 in the classical novel Journey to the West 【西遊記】 is believed to have mythical power so that whoever eats his flesh would become immortal. Of course, in the novel, no demon succeeded in eating his flesh. In real life, belief in sympathetic magic might have led primitive peoples to eat up the corpses of their enemies in order to assimilate their power. More organized primitive religions practised human sacrifices. Eating up the sacrifice might not be the exclusive privilege of the priests. The whole tribe might share the eating as a sign of communion, a sort of mutual bonding. There were also myths surrounding the human sacrifice in which the human victims were instantiations of their god. Therefore, eating the human victims was eating their god and becoming god. The last two points bear some similarity with Christianity and they will be dealt with more thoroughly later.
Lastly, cannibalism can be a political libel, a smear campaign. People discriminated by the majority are usually accused of gruesome practices such as cannibalism. Slave traders could rationalize slavery with a smear campaign. African natives had been captured and sold as slaves in the New World so as to redeem them from cannibalism practised way back in the Dark Continent. 
Such are the many faces of cannibalism. But does Jesus encourage cannibalism in John?

I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh (John 6:51)
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;
he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him (John 6:53-54).
Quite a number of atheist web sites attack Christianity because it practises cannibalism and vampirism. Bread and wine are simply socially acceptable ways of cannibalism and vampirism. Christians have long been indoctrinated to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus, making cannibalism subconsciously acceptable to them. That is why we find so many pervert psychotic cannibalistic killers in Christian countries!

The problem with these atheists again is to read the Scripture out of context and refuse to interpret it figuratively. In the gospel of John, Jesus has claimed himself to be the bread of life (John 6), the light of the world (John 8), the door (John 10), the good shepherd (John 10), the resurrection and life (John 11), the way, the truth and the life (John 14) and the true vine (John 15).
Was Jesus a shepherd rather than a carpenter? Can you make a door into a piece of bread or change a piece of bread into a beam of light? If Jesus were a door, which part of his body would we open? Therefore, it is stupid to insist on reading the words of Jesus literally.

Then, why does Jesus want us to eat his flesh? I remember a historical incident which may explain why.
Again during Chun Qiu period, a rebellion broke out in Jin 晉. The crown prince Chong Er 重耳 ran into exile with 9 followers. When Chong Er was starving, he worried about his subjects in Jin. Overhearing this, one of his followers Jie Zhi Tui 介之推 respected him and believed that this crown prince had the potential to be a good king. So, Jie cut out a piece of meat from his thigh, cooked it to feed the starving prince After nineteen years, Chong Er returned and became the famous Jin Wen Gong 晉文公, one of the five warlords in the Chun Qiu period.
If Jie could do it, Jesus could do it better. Jesus also sees the potential in each and everyone of us to be good citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. In order to help us actualize this potential, Jesus feeds us with his own flesh. I think it is beneficial for those atheists who smear Christianity to study a little Chinese history to broaden their mind.

To wrap up cannibalism, let me give a little warning to the interpretations of religious cannibalism by Western anthropologists. We have to be wary of their interpretations because their theory may be contaminated by their Christian background. These anthropologists might read into the religious cannibalism they have observed in the field a Christian meaning which the indigenous people do not have. It is universally true that eating together indicates the membership of a group, a community. It is a sign of communion. But it may not follow that eating the sacrificial flesh together would make one become god. The indigenous people might not think along such a line. The wish of finding the root of Christianity in primitive religions may prove to be circular. Anthropologists find the root of Christianity in primitive religions because they have put the root there.

Dear Lord, I praise You for You are a king maker. I thank You for feeding us with Your precious flesh and blood so that we may partake Your eternal life. May we be worthy to receive You. Amen.