Recent status update from one of my Facebook friends:
One week into Daniel Fast with church…Focus is on prayer but added benefit: I’ve lost 8 pounds so far.
Not that it matters, but this guy is in a very appearance-focused field and does not “need” to lose 8 pounds even if you buy that weight loss should be a goal of everyone who falls above the “normal” BMI range. It just goes to illustrate how weight loss is now considered a positive for everyone (thus paving the way for things like workplace “Biggest Loser”-style weight loss competitions where everyone is supposed to participate regardless of whether they are thin or fat).
Religiously-based methods of dieting where you feel like you’re doing something morally worthwhile by going to Weight Watchers or the gym are also a pet peeve of mine. I am not really of the opinion that it particularly warms God’s heart to see you make it in under 1,200 calories a day, or log an hour on the treadmill as you stare at yourself in the mirror. I am definitely not into telling people how they must spend their time, and I firmly believe that exercise is an important part of my own mental and physical health and valuable for that reason, so I am certainly not minimizing the value of healthy choices–but I think this comes into focus when you ask yourself whether you think God would prefer you spend that hour planning low-carb meals or doing the elliptical (even taking into account the “self-discipline” angle that most people would cite as justification) vs. playing with your kids, volunteering, or visiting shut-ins, for example. People make personal choices, and that is totally fine with me even if those choices “only” benefit themselves, but I am highly skeptical of the idea that something like giving up chocolate for Lent is actually usually “for” Jesus and not just for the benefit of the person making the change. All I would like is to see religious people be able to be realistic and honest about why they really prioritize various goals related to dietary changes, weight loss, or exercise.
So I have no problem with fasting disciplines undertaken for religious reasons, but when you mix something like that up with weight loss or obesity or “health,” it automatically crosses the line to creepy and offputting for me. My FB friend (from what I know of him, anyway… I haven’t spoken to him since high school and didn’t know him well then) is quite devout, and I’m sure he is doing this fast for the “right” reasons, and in any case it’s none of my business if he’s not. But I still wish all the self-righteous weight loss crap–from which it is just a short step to “fatties are consuming all the resources, destroying our environment, and driving up the cost of health care with their immoral gluttony”–weren’t so common a part of this type of undertaking.
It sort of sucks, because although the Daniel chapters referenced by the fast seem often to be used (like so many Bible passages) to advance the agenda of whoever is citing them–to promote vegetarianism, environmentalism, low-calorie diets, or what have you, generally in contrast with the supposed gluttony of royalty, the rich, or present-day society–there is a lot of apparently very healthy food on the Daniel Fast food list (which, since it is a list of “acceptable” foods and a lot of the links associated with it are going to include diet talk, might be triggering, so approach with caution). It’s too bad we can’t all just pursue our goal of good health joyfully–or our goal of religious discipline, as the case may be, deliberately and meditatively–without weight-loss dieting, which in my opinion is antithetical to both goals (because it tends to take the focus off health and onto weight loss for its own sake in the first case, and off God and onto the self in the second) creeping in and ruining everything. As usual.
April 21, 2009 at 6:09 am
Hey spacecowgirl, I just wanted to say that I completely agree with you. I also would like to point out that I’ve been in many “devout” circles growing up (I’m not at the present time), and none of those circles (congregationalist, methodist, catholic, jewish) ever held a fast, or suggested individuals should diet and exercise in order to be somehow closer to God. That is to say, in the intervening 10 years, suddenly these “biggest loser”-reminiscent fasts are apparently popping up all over the place. I heard about them primarily in Christian venues – my dad’s methodist church, my old congregational church, etc.
I think this has much less to do with morality and the words of the Bible – which adherents would agree are timeless – and much more to do with our very specific time and the whole obesity epi-panic. I think the philosophic passages of any holy text have a lot left up to interpretation, and that means they can be abused to a certain degree in order to “support” some behavior or another that would go against the passages normally (like staring at oneself in the mirror on the treadmill for an hour rather than spending that extra hour helping one’s children with their homework).
Anyway, thanks for the post, it was very interesting! π
April 21, 2009 at 7:45 am
If god didn’t “care” enough to stop, oh, the Holocaust, Rwanda, Hurricane Katrina… why the hell would he care if you can fit into a size 8 again? It’s like football teams who pray before the game… do they really think god really cares if they win a trophy?
And religious-based diet programs are especially heinous because if you don’t lose the weight, it implies that you just aren’t faithful enough.
April 21, 2009 at 8:48 am
I’ve never understood people who do horrible things to their body in the name of religion. Fasting for one day? Alright, maybe. But fasting fora week? Absolutely not.
Of course, I also have trouble believing that God (if there is a God…I’m a confirmed agnostic) would want humans to deny any of our basic instincts. I have trouble with permanent celibacy, too.
April 21, 2009 at 8:56 am
Excellent analysis, both of you.
April 21, 2009 at 9:45 am
Links in this post appear to be broken.
April 21, 2009 at 10:48 am
I always thought it was amusing when churches get in the diet business, since Jesus was always about multiplying food.
April 21, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Think what you want (or don’t) about God and religion.
I am not familiar with the fast mentioned above. I am, however, familiar with the season of Lent. Lent is not a weightloss or quit smoking plan. It is a period of 40 days during which Catholics are to reflect on the Lords suffering and passion. It is not simply giving things up, although that is what it has become in modern times. Lent is about sacrifice through fasting, alms giving (charitable donations)and other ways that mean something to the person practicing. If I love chocolate (and I do) and choose to give that up in addition to fasting on fast days,and participating in days of obligation, I do that to to make myself just slightly uncomfortable (or any other word you want to use to describe the denial of instant gratification), not to loose weight. That is not what God or the church wants. Fasting rules actually do not apply to the very young and the elderly.
Also, on the topic of God stopping disasters, genocide, and the like. There are two things at work in these situations, the first is evil, the second is free will.
I also agree that God is not watching every sports event going on at every moment waiting to smite those that do not pray, or reward those that do. Most likely these prayers aren’t of the “please let us win” variety, but of the “grant us the fortitude to play at our best” kind of prayers. And again, free will enters into the situation everytime, so praying obviously won’t guarantee you win ballgames.
Didn’t mean to get all preachy… I agree with the message of the original post.
April 21, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Whoa… you are totally right about the links, Amy. Thanks for the heads up. They all seem to have lost their URL somehow. I have to run to band rehearsal, but will fix them and respond to comments when I get back. Thanks to everyone for some interesting commentary.
April 22, 2009 at 9:33 pm
OK, I finally fixed the links…
BigLiberty–I totally agree with you that I think this is a recent phenomenon. I think the Free to Be Thin diet I linked to in the post is a fairly old book, but these types of diets did not become anywhere near this ubiquitous until the “obesity epidemic” really hit full-on freakout mode.
Rachel–ITA that the “your faith must not be strong enough” aspect is particularly pernicious. I had a brief run-in with the Weigh Down Diet, and I do remember thinking that I must really be hopeless if I couldn’t stick to a diet based on prayer.
Meems–I can understand the motivation of fasting, even though I don’t feel the need to do it myself… but when it turns into dieting but gets all jumbled up in the person’s head to where they can’t tell the difference between the “good” of fasting and the “good” of weight loss, then I don’t like it.
liz–Thanks! π
Mary Sue–ha! So true.
Catgal–I totally agree with you about what is (or should be) the purpose of Lent. And I actually think my FB friend is probably approaching the Daniel fast in this spirit–when he reaches for his food, the unusual contents of the meal remind him to pray or meditate… something like that. It’s just that I worry that people (not you) are starting to get confused about that because weight loss is considered such a ubiquitous good in our society. It’s like the line is blurring in people’s minds between fasting being a moral positive and weight loss being a moral positive, therefore both are moral reasons to do a fast or biblical diet or whatever. (I know for a while, a well-meaning woman at our church was hosting a weight-loss group that sounded like it was sort of based on the Daniel food list idea.) It gets sort of creepy. As far as Rachel’s comment, I know it is considered a positive to pray continuously for all kinds of things, so I can’t totally fault kids for praying to win their game, etc. But it’s when people don’t realize that they should also be looking outward and trying to pray for and help others on a regular basis that it becomes a problem for me. And unfortunately, weight loss is one of the worst things you can pray for from that perspective, because the whole act of dieting and exercising for weight loss is so time-consuming and self-centered. I can’t stop anyone from praying for weight loss if they feel they must, but I think it is self-defeating and such a suck of time and energy that it is a problematic thing to be focusing on both from a self-care standpoint and from the standpoint of trying to be more giving and selfless. If it’s something someone wants for themselves… fine. But if they are convincing themselves that working toward it is somehow a greater good or a noble goal, then maybe not so great.
I know we probably agree on all that. I just can’t stop expounding once I get started. π
April 22, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Yes, I do believe we can agree on that… Couldn’t have said it better myself.