Hermenuetics

Comments

You make a good point about the perception of health advocation and self-acceptance as mutually exclusive. I think the struggle to live in the tension between these two extremes quite well mirrors the concept of balancing sin and grace.

Also, the idea of associating thinness with mural purity makes me think of lookism in general - attributing positive qualities to the the people we perceive and beautiful and treating them preferentially as a result. I think that we do this often without even realizing it. I wonder if that subconscious mechanism is a result of "media brainwashing," or whether it's something that is more inherent (simply associating beauty with goodness...we permittedly do this with "things," do we not?), or both.

Posted By: Drew | May 15, 2009 6:07 PM

As an overweight woman, i definitely feel the tension you talk about. Depending on how fat i look or feel on any given day i alternate between "its fine" and "i am horribly fat and ugly so must do something drastic about it". Finding an appropriate middle point can be hard

Posted By: Joanna | May 15, 2009 10:20 PM

Excellent article Laura. I try to remind myself daily that exercise is not for my looks, which can only be marginally shaped, but in respect for the temple I must handle with due stewardship. Now I'm off to lunch at a seminary, buffet-style cafeteria.... with hopes that I have a renewed mindset.

Posted By: Eric | May 16, 2009 10:41 AM

"as thinness becomes associated with moral purity"

--CT should be ashamed of itself for perpetuating this anti-science, anti-Biblical, garbage.

Posted By: Christian Lawyer | May 16, 2009 5:51 PM

Christian Lawyer, I completely agree with you that thinness is not at all an indicator of moral purity. That sentence is meant to reflect the confused messages that women receive regarding the spiritual implications of something that is so essential to who they are. For many, but certainly not all, the real underlying issue is food addiction, which is a spiritual issue, and that is what the rest of the post addresses.

Posted By: Laura | May 16, 2009 9:52 PM

Laura: "For many, but certainly not all, the real underlying issue is food addiction, which is a spiritual issue, and that is what the rest of the post addresses."

You call out the media for perpetuating unhealthy beauty standards, but you don't call out the out-dated Charlie Shedd-types who equate obesity with sin and thinness with moral purity. That's the anti-Biblical problem with the article. So, the article makes it sound like MOST (not just "many") weight issues are spiritual and are the result of living in sin. No mention is made of ANY of the physical, medical, nutritional, cultural and sometimes psychological issues that go into any one person's weight, or even how one might determine whether they have an "addiction" to food or just need more exercise or need to eat different food, or any of the zillion other factors that might be the issue. That's the anti-science part.

And, for the very few who truly have a food addiction problem, that's a psychological issue that can't just be prayed away. More anti-science. The notion that it needs to be preached against as "sin" comes across as uncaring and, more importantly, is almost certain to be unhelpful.

Churches should celebrate and encourage general good health. Good health can come in many shapes and sizes. Of course there's a happy medium to be found between encouraging a healthy self-image and promoting health, but it's certainly not in the condemnation the article offered.

Posted By: Christian Lawyer | May 17, 2009 12:34 PM

Christian Lawyer,
Although you deserve no attention for your reply, I must disagree with you. Laura zoned in on this important issue. That doesn't mean there are not other issues out there. My Bible study talked about this very issue a few weeks ago. There are several verses on Gluttony. It is a sin. I am addicted to food and have had a terrible time losing weight. I have realized I need to rely on God to heal this addiction over time. Food addiction, contrary to your anti-science (actually anti-scientific if you're going to sound educated) statement, is very common. Not sure what rock you are living under. As Laura wrote about, I wish that the church would address this more often, and I don't think this would be too insensitive coming from the pulpit. All sorts of sin issues preached about in church make people a little uncomfortable. Church shouldn't be all about puppies and butterflies. Sometimes the unpleasant sides need to be brought up... It is a very important subject. Obesity should not be celebrated. I definitely don't think you have to be a size 2 to be healthy...but there are a lot of very overweight people that have a problem with being gluttons.

Posted By: Liz | May 17, 2009 7:49 PM

Christian Lawyer:
First, I pulled my Black's Law Dictionary and found no entry for the word "zillion"
More importantly though, in the last paragraph of your most recent comment that you reaffirmed the crux of Laura's post but then referred to some phantom condemnation - there was none. I found it particularly disturbing that you put quotes around the word sin as if gluttony were not so. Your statement indicates that if a Biblical truth might make someone uncomfortable it should not be preached. If you think this is true I suggest reading Galatians 5.

Posted By: Christian Law Student | May 17, 2009 8:27 PM

Christian Law Student -- Black's is a law dictionary. There are all sorts of words that aren't in it.

Of course gluttony is a sin. But the gluttony the Bible talks about has an "intent" component. It's a specific intent sin. While obesity can be the result of pure gluttony, it is more often the result of a complicated set of factors, many of which have nothing to do with intent. The church can preach against the sin of gluttony all it wants, but if sin is not really the problem, it won't do much good. That's why it shouldn't be preached against -- not because it will make people uncomfortable. There are all sorts of things that make people uncomfortable that should be preached, but this isn't one of them.

Liz, you've been brainwashed with a guilt trip. Just for you, I crawled out from under my rock to give you the definition of anti-science you couldn't find. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiscience#Right-wing_antiscience

Actual science teaches that it may not be the amount of food a person consumes that causes weight gain. Two bodies who eat the same number of calories in a day may respond differently to those calories depending on when the food was eaten, what type of food contained the calories, how much exercise was engaged in, the age of the bodies, the bodies' metabolic rate, the gender of the bodies, how much sleep they got the night before, and many other factors. Science requires a wholistic approach to the problem. Wholistic approaches include a spiritual component, but to call out the spiritual component and place all blame on it for any failure is to deny the reality of biology, which would be a prime example of anti-science.

Posted By: Christian Lawyer | May 18, 2009 1:09 AM

Laura said, "But overeating is a spiritual issue, and it demands a spiritual response."

I disagree. I think, for most people, overeating is simply a habit that is hard to break. The food is there, so you eat it. Portion sizes have increased to where most people don't know what a true portion looks like. I don't think there are really *that* many people who are TRULY addicted to food, as diagnosed by a mental health professional. Most overweight people just tend to overeat and are sedentary. It's not a spiritual issue, necessarily. It's a lifestyle issue. A health issue, if you will. A matter of habits. Injecting overeating/weight with spiritual significance is weird and unnecessary, to me.

Which doesn't mean that, as believers, we can't ask God to help us change our habits, to give us self-discipline and strength. Nothing wrong with that. But to place overeating so firmly in the area of a "sin" that demands confrontation, I disagree with that. Most Christians don't consider smoking cigarettes to be "sinful," but overeating is and should be preached against? That doesn't make sense.

In any case, the focus should be HEALTH, not APPEARANCE.

I agree with Christian Lawyer.

Posted By: Robyn | May 18, 2009 10:00 AM

Thanks to all of you for your contributions to the subject. I do want to clarify a few things that I think may be stalling discussion. First, the term "food addiction." I use that term first in order to denote what I see as the seriousness of the issue, and second because it is one that is used elsewhere to represent the cycle of abusing food that involves physical, mental, emotional, and psychological elements. There is absolutely a "practical" element to overcoming this cycle, but I do not see why it must be devoid of spiritual meaning. If someone truly has a medical condition in which they are eating healthy portions and varieties of food, exercising regularly, and are still gaining weight, then they would not fall into this category. That is why the post refers to the spiritual implications of food addiction, rather than overweightness or obesity. A thin person could also suffer from a food addiction, and this would be equally problematic.

I cannot judge the hearts or minds (or stomachs, for that matter) of anyone but myself. At least for me, overeating is a spiritual issue, in the way that EVERYTHING in my life is a spiritual issue; it's all about giving glory to God in everything I do. I believe that everything is subject to Him. For me, "food addiction" is knowing that I should not eat something, and that it does not glorify God to do so, but doing it anyway. Yes, it is physical. Yes, it is emotional. And yes, it is very psychological. I would say that anything we know we should not do, and does not glorify God, but do anyway, can and should be placed in the category of sin, as we have made that thing a god in defiance of the first commandment.

I believe God takes gluttony very seriously; Ezekiel 16:49 lists gluttony, along with laziness, as one of the reasons God destroyed Sodom! It is the lack of attention paid to passages like this to which the post responds.

Posted By: Laura | May 18, 2009 11:20 AM

General Comments:
This is a very thoughtful article. As a male who struggles with overeating, I can completely relate to the conflicting messages of "get thin" and "self-love". I too oftentimes wish that I would pay more attention to the "get thin" side to stir me from my complacency. But that is just the side that I struggle with. There are many people who are too focused on thinness and need to find more "self-love". As you correctly pointed out, there's a delicate balance to achieve.

Perhaps one of the reasons that this is not addressed in churches is that there are a good number of over-weight pastors and church leaders. As people like Rick Warren or the late Jerry Falwell also seem/ed to struggle with weight issues, they may not feel comfortable preaching against them from the pulpit. But this is the exact reason they should address this issue. Overweight pastors are in a position to address this issue because they live the struggle and could go through it with us. There would be less condemnation and more understanding.

Christian Lawyer:
I see nowhere in Laura's post the "anti-intellectualism" you are accusing her of. It is not she that is separating spiritual issues from biological, psychological, and social issues, but you and your interpretation of her words. You claim that "for the very few who truly have a food addiction problem, that's a psychological issue that can't just be prayed away. More anti-science." The fact that Laura uses the word "addiction" connotes the reality of science in the issue, as it is a scientific word. And no where is she advocating a "pray and your problems will go away" prosperity gospel. She is simply arguing FOR the inclusion of the spiritual in the issues of food and gluttony. Laura is not arguing for one against the other, but rather pointing out the often neglected spiritual aspect of food addiction. You also said that "no mention is made of ANY of the physical, medical, nutritional, cultural and sometimes psychological issues that go into any one person's weight." However, Laura addressed both the CULTURAL bombardment of images of thin women and the PSYCHOLOGICAL self-realization that "the cycle of food addiction is deeply emotional and linked to my most essential understanding of self." Perhaps you agree on more than you realize?

Finally, you argue that Laura should have included a way of determining whether one has a food addiction or not. As the DSM-IV-TR does not even contain the disorder or a diagnostic criterion, it is unrealistic to expect an article to address that issue.

Posted By: Adam | May 18, 2009 12:25 PM

There is nothing wrong with preaching against gluttony - it is a sin and should be preached against, and my pastor does so, in a very gracious way. The problem is when people tie gluttony with being overweight, and preach against the combined issue. Overweight people are not necessarily gluttons - there are plenty of other medical and hormonal reasons, etc., that can cause that - as well as simply not being able to afford better quality food; and plenty of thin people ARE gluttons - their bodies simply don't put weight on like heavy people's do.

Posted By: Lisa | May 18, 2009 12:48 PM

I think one of the main points we need to consider is that gluttony normally results in being overweight. Yes, there are many very thin, in-shape people who eat a lot (ie Michael Phelps!), as well as some people who may look overweight, but actually just have a thyroid problem or something like that. And yes, two different people could eat and exercise the same way and look different. However, the fact is, if you eat sensibly and exercise regulary (which is, I believe, what God calls us to do - taking good care of ourselves - although I do not claim to be a Biblical scholar), you will most likely not be obese. And, many people in the Church body fall into this category. Certainly I agree that there are other factors to consider - like the cheapest food is typically the least healthy (thus making it difficult for people from low income brackets to eat healthy foods), and yes, obviously some people do have medical issues that make losing weight extremely difficult. However, to say these are the main reasons people in the US are overweight or obese is delusional, in my opinion. There are so many sins the Church in the US will not tolerate - it's about time we start calling attention to sins (pride, greed, materialism, gluttony) that we often let slide, b/c to preach against them would call us to drastically change our comfortable lifestyles.

Posted By: Lauren | May 18, 2009 1:25 PM

What a shocker to see "overweight" written on my medical record after my yearly physical. The past year has been quite stressful for me. Is it an "addiction" to food that has caused me to gain weight? I don't know what you call finding yourself at the cupboard every night at 9:30 pm rummaging around for something sweet to eat to soothe my soul -- but I tend to think I'm hooked on something that is truly not filling me up.

As I sat in a WeightWatchers meeting recently, an epiphany hit me -- I chose to be fat. Now, I'm choosing not to be. There are no victims here...

Posted By: Cindy | May 19, 2009 10:29 AM

Laura: "For me, "food addiction" is knowing that I should not eat something, and that it does not glorify God to do so, but doing it anyway."

-- That's just twisted. That's not "food addiction." It's a guilt trip laid on you by someone who doesn't understand either the Bible or science. (Adam, that "food addiction" is not in the DSM-IV-TR actually proves my point that using that term is "anti-science." Borrowing a scientific word doesn't actually make it good science!)

No single food choice can either glorify or dishonor God. That notion -- I'll be sinning if I eat that ice cream because ice cream isn't on my diet -- is the equivalent of thinness = moral purity. Resisting the ice cream = moral purity. Eating the ice cream = sin. That's just nonsense.

Believing your bad choices are "sin" hasn't, by your own account, stopped you, so if that tactic hasn't actually worked for you, why do you want preachers to inflict it on everyone else?

Science teaches us that healthy eating includes a variety of foods and that a treat like ice cream can be incorporated into a healthy eating plan even for those on a diet as long as it's balanced out with alot of fruits and vegetables and exercise. It's not like adultery vs faithfulness, where one single act can constitute sin. Health is not a binary state like pregnancy where you either are or you aren't. It's a matter of balancing out a series of choices and on any given day it's a matter of degree.

Obsessing over each single food choice (no ice cream, no ice cream, no ice cream) causes the very cravings you're trying to resist. Science teaches that it's the guilt trip that causes the cravings, not any moral failing. Just read the studies on anti-smoking and other "anti" campaigns. They report a "boomerang" effect in which the more one hears "don't," the more one's brain triggers a craving for that very thing. That's not "sin." It's brain chemistry.

Yes, a series of choices is just that, but ascribing EACH decision with such consequence distorts the balance. So, have a little bit of ice cream once in awhile, but while you're in the kitchen, pack a healthy lunch for tomorrow so you know that will be an easy choice then. Look at your decisions every few days or so. Pray for heightened senses to feel true hunger and satiety. Pray for peace of mind to see the bigger picture of how you're doing rather than obsessing to make each choice "righteous."

Posted By: Christian Lawyer | May 20, 2009 1:55 AM

Christian Lawyer,

From your most recent comment, it sounds like you and Laura probably agree more than you think. I don't think she's trying to say that people are sinning every single time they eat ice cream; rather, I think she's saying that these small decisions can create habits, and habits create a lifestyle - and living an indulgent life is sinful. I think we can all agree that to indulge in junk food sometimes is perfectly OK. I have a sweet tooth so I HOPE that's OK! However, when you end up indulging in junk all the time, you are neglecting God's command of stewardship for your body.

Also, you seem to have a very pragmatic approach to eating - ie your suggestion to eat a healthy meal if you indulge in ice cream. However, if everyone lived that way, we wouldn't live in a country where so many people are overweight or obese. In one sense, it's very easy - just eat less and exercise more! However, there are lots of reasons that make following those "easy" rules very difficult - which is, I think, the precise reason the Church needs to start addressing it.

Posted By: Lauren | May 20, 2009 10:09 AM

Laura, I don't know how I missed this article when you originally posted it, but I really like it. I think you make several very relevant points (as do others in the comments section). As someone who struggles with the same issues, I am glad that you addressed this!

Posted By: Amanda | July 28, 2009 6:22 PM

Sin or addiction, whatever one chooses to call it , when you get right down to it , it is Bondage!!! I know this because it is a struggle that I deal with everyday, I used to go to a church where it was preached very heavily against overeating and being fat!I dieted and lost about 80 pounds because I did not want to displease the Lord but then I found myself starting to eat things I wasn't supposed to and the whole "God is your stomach" thing overwelmed me because I knew I had a problem I could not control and I did not know how to appropriate God's strength to help me , when dealing with this besetting sin I feel it is very important to be surrounded by people who are truly trying to help you get free not just judging you for the sin, other wise you end up like me , leaving church and running from the Lord full of guilt and shame feeling like an outcast with no hope of ever returning back to God's favor , so yes it needs to be preached in the church but there needs to be some praying brothers and sisters who love and support you and offer prayers for you in your weakness until God makes you strong and brings freedom, not all things change because we utter some promise that we will never do something again but some thing only are achieved through fasting and prayer ! The sin of overeating is a stronghold in many people's lives and alot of people do see this and they are sufferring much guilt and shame over the failure to conquer this monster and much heartbreak over failing the Lord, so please pray for us!

Posted By: summertime | November 4, 2009 10:50 AM

All women have fat days, and most women struggle with their weight at one time or another. Additionally, there is a great deal of societal pressure on women to be as thin as possible, whether it's healthy or not. Despite its flaws, BMI is still a reasonably good way to determine a healthy weight range for most women, but it is not a hard and fast rule. If you are above the normal BMI range but you are not over-fat and you are happy with the way you look, don't sweat it. For health purposes, it is far more important to maintain a reasonable body fat percentage and hip-to-waist ratio.

Posted By: cartucho r4i | December 1, 2009 11:29 PM