Christianity.caca
Check out this little gem on Christianity.ca, in which it is postulated (make that pustulated) that God doesn't want us to be thin (or attractive)! Oh, but first—you guessed it—comes the “science”:
Before embracing solutions, listen carefully: Much that we hear on the subject of obesity is myth—often a dangerous myth. For example, the claim that obesity kills 400 000 Americans per year has been debunked; careful research offers 25,815 as a realistic death rate.
“Listen carefully!” Well, I'm reading, but I don't hear a thing. Uh, so were those other 374,185 not dead, then, or what? If they're dead, what did they die of? Being so fat that they accidentally got in the way of all of the bullets? (But that's another American problem.)
As our society abandons a Christian worldview, it replaces the classic issues of Christian moral teaching (like gluttony, sloth, and giving way to anxiety) with materialistic obsessions, such as slimness.
“Giving way to anxiety?” Oh, right—we're not supposed to worry about anything, since God is in charge, so don't work on your appearance (as opposed to just your health), because it's a sin to give anyone a charge. Look, I don't have a problem with happy overweight people, but if they're unhappy, and they change their appearance (not just their health), what's the problem? I was unhappy about my appearance, once. This sort of mentality smacks of the “who do you think you are” techniques used against scientists by creationists.
http://www.christianity.ca/faith/weblog/2005/8.24.html
Well, I would “embrace the solution” if I could get my damn arms around it. So, okay—assuming that active overweight people are in all cases as healthy as active thin people, I have to ask, active doing what? Oh, no, no—not that!
Before embracing solutions, listen carefully: Much that we hear on the subject of obesity is myth—often a dangerous myth. For example, the claim that obesity kills 400 000 Americans per year has been debunked; careful research offers 25,815 as a realistic death rate.
“Listen carefully!” Well, I'm reading, but I don't hear a thing. Uh, so were those other 374,185 not dead, then, or what? If they're dead, what did they die of? Being so fat that they accidentally got in the way of all of the bullets? (But that's another American problem.)
As our society abandons a Christian worldview, it replaces the classic issues of Christian moral teaching (like gluttony, sloth, and giving way to anxiety) with materialistic obsessions, such as slimness.
“Giving way to anxiety?” Oh, right—we're not supposed to worry about anything, since God is in charge, so don't work on your appearance (as opposed to just your health), because it's a sin to give anyone a charge. Look, I don't have a problem with happy overweight people, but if they're unhappy, and they change their appearance (not just their health), what's the problem? I was unhappy about my appearance, once. This sort of mentality smacks of the “who do you think you are” techniques used against scientists by creationists.
http://www.christianity.ca/faith/weblog/2005/8.24.html
Well, I would “embrace the solution” if I could get my damn arms around it. So, okay—assuming that active overweight people are in all cases as healthy as active thin people, I have to ask, active doing what? Oh, no, no—not that!
posted by Kristine at 6:17 PM
3 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Boo boo. Let's try that again.
You're welcome, and thanks for commenting on my blog. Always nice to know when someone is reading. Good stuff here, and you are welcome to link to me. I in turn would like to link to any or all of your blogs that you think are appropriate to the venue.
This particular post reminds me of one of CS Lewis' gripes in "That Hideous Strength". It went something like "Be independent, but not too independent." and similar "advice" from the antagonists. Gluttony is a sin, but so is being slim??? Let's just make everyone nervous wrecks, shall we? It is, after all, what the clergy does best.
I always did think that CS Lewis didn't really know how to recognize what side he was on. He also couldn't see that "the devil" was not behind "science", it was the conceptual obverse of the god coin, nothing more.
With all due respect, the writer of the article was not as crazy as you made her out to be.
It seems like she was warning people about the dangers of all of the modern fad diets. The idea that obesity is not unhealthy is pretty wack. But I agree with the notion that a slightly overweight person who embraces a healthy lifestyle (eating right, exercising right) will be more healthy than a girl who is super thin and is constantly worried about her weight and is always on some unhealthy fad diet.
In any case, I think it is safe to say that the author doesn't speak for all Christians, and that Christianity ought not be evaluated on the basis of what she has written.
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