The ignored sin of gluttony. Isn’t that a great way to get your attention? I need to start this off by saying I know there exist certain medical conditions that make it hard for some people to control weight. I get that, and I am not writing this to harp on obesity, I am writing this to harp on over the consumption of food, but you can’t talk about that without mentioning obesity.
Statistics are a good way for us to gauge how we do as a society as a whole, but not on the individual level. The stats I am going to provide will hopefully challenge and enlighten you to not be a part of them.
Here’s some stats according to the public health agency of Canada.
“Approximately one in four Canadian adults are obese, according to measured height and weight data from 2007-2009. Of children and youth aged six to 17, 8.6% are obese.”
“The economic costs of obesity are estimated at $4.6 billion in 2008, up about 19% from $3.9 billion in 2000, based on costs associated with the eight chronic diseases most consistently linked to obesity. Estimates rise to close to $7.1 billion when based on the costs associated with 18 chronic diseases linked to obesity. “
“Between 1981 and 2007/09, obesity rates roughly doubled among both males and females in most age groups in the adult and youth categories.”
As well an American stat from The Economist.
“They found that the average American wastes 1,400 kilocalories a day. That amounts to 150 trillion kilocalories a year for the country as a whole—about 40% of its food supply, up from 28% in 1974. Producing these wasted calories accounts for more than one-quarter of America’s consumption of freshwater, and also uses about 300m barrels of oil a year. On top of that, a lot of methane (a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) emerges when all this food rots.”
We obviously have a problem with how we eat in this country, and I think most people recognize that. But does the church see it as a problem they need to deal with? I once heard of a Christian talk radio host that asked the question, “Can you trust a fat pastor?” He was obviously being tongue in cheek, but his point was valid. We would expect a pastor with a pornography problem to be forthright about it. We may even expect him to step down from his pulpit depending on the depth of the problem. However, we wouldn’t expect an overweight pastor to admit an over eating problem.
The church today has decided we can choose what parts of scripture we want to follow and what parts of scripture we want to ignore. Biblical authority is a hot topic these days with Evangelicals accusing Liberals of ignoring it and Liberals accusing Evangelicals of not understanding scripture. The truth is we all do it, and no one group is better than the other. When it comes to over eating, or gluttony my issue is less so with the sin of the matter than the fact that it is just plain idol worship. A friend of mine once wisely said, “we worship that which we sacrifice for.” We of course give money for food, you have to in order to eat, but what we really sacrifice is ourselves. We gave our bodies over to the God of good eats a long time ago.We indulge until we can barely hold it in. But it also goes further, in the above stats we waste almost 40% of our food annually. That is sickening, where is taking care of the poor and oppressed in that? The very fact that we have homeless shelters that struggle to put food on the plates of those in great need within our own cities should speak volumes to us about our eating problems. One of the times I have felt closest to God in my life was in India feeding the homeless. I had to be reminded to eat food myself because I got so caught up in serving those without food. I say this not put myself on a pedestal, but when you have seen real hunger it gets a lot harder to fill your plate to overfull.
As well we have a deeper spiritual problem when it comes to discipline.We have a problem of disciplining our minds and stomachs. We also have a problem following the spiritual disciplines, in particular the discipline of fasting. The New Testament specifically assumes we fast on a semi-regular basis. I know personally this is a struggle, we have food all around us, and we have trained ourselves to eat on fairly regular schedules. After six hours I might say, “I’m starving!” When in reality I could go days before even approaching starving. Going without food as a discipline helps to make us realize how dependent on God we are for life, food, the basic necessities. As well fasting is proven to be medically healthy as well, I found this from a secular doctor in an article on whether or not fasting is healthy “”The excess calories Americans eat shorten their lives,” says [Doctor] Fuhrman.If you want to live longer, Fuhrman’s best advice is to “eat healthy and fast periodically.”" Disciplines help to form the whole person, not just the spirit.
I feel I need to admit that I am slightly overweight and I know I need to stop eating as much as I do. I have decided that in 2012 I will begin to spend less on food, and also begin to eat smarter. It doesn’t mean I’ll never eat at McDonald’s or waste food, but it needs to start somewhere. Portion control, and spending money wisely, and giving to those in need are far more important to me now and I hope to continue to grow in that. As well I am determined to make fasting a regular part of my faith, and it might only be for a day here and there to begin with, but again it needs to start somewhere.
The church needs to realize its place in the world is to help people love God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind. We’re good at the heart one but we seem to have lost focus of the other ones. Loving God with our physical bodies needs to be just as important as loving him with creation care, biblical learning, acts of service, and how we treat one another. Maybe it means churches begin to have aerobics classes, or community nutrition plans, or promoting local farmers. It also means our churches need to emphasize the things we are lacking, like self-discipline, and this goes far beyond food. I don’t know what will work, I just know doing nothing is worse than doing something. Let’s stop letting our culture of over consumption invade the church. Instead of trying to be counter cultural by refusing those we should be loving, let’s be inviting, caring and concerned with the whole person.
We also need to give back, that which we have in excess and some. Not every person can get out there and feed the homeless, but you can support those who do. If you live in the Toronto area and want to support local food ministries check out these websites.
Yonge Street Mission
Scott Mission
Daily Bread Food Bank
North York Harvest Food Bank
Good Shepherd Ministries
Salvation Army
“…but when you’ve seen real hunger it gets a lot harder to fill your plate to overfull.” The temptations of churches–especially affluent churches– is to stop seeing. May we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
why that above reply posted under Cathryn, I do not know why. So rather than put words in her mouth, that was me.
It’s interesting that the English use a word ‘galore’ to mean more than you could ever use. It is a derivative of the Scot’s Gaelic ‘gu lore’ which means ‘just enough’. We have a mind set in the west that just enough isn’t really enough, we always want more. Perhaps we need to go back to the root words and be satisfied with the necessary.
What defines gluttony? Is it the number of calories in my meal? The amount of food on my plate?
What defines obesity? What does overweight mean?
I think that it’s incredibly ironic that our society struggles so much with obesity yet that same society causes so many people to obsess with being thinner and beating their bodies up over it.
I don’t think it is a matter of drawing a line of what is too much food or what is overweight. Not all people who are over weight are that way as a result of over eating. Many people have medical or genetic conditions that make it difficult for them to control their weight regardless of how much they exercise or how they eat.
Being reasonable and rational with how much we eat and not over doing it is a start. We eat to live, not live to eat. Portions at restaurants are ridiculously huge these days. Eat half, take the rest home. There are so many ways and things we can do to reduce the temptation and amount we eat. It’s a matter of will power and prayer.