Their
God Is Their Belly
These words, attributed to St. Paul and found in his Letter to the
Philippians, 3:19, may sound somewhat crude to our ears but they certainly can
stick in your mind. I have been thinking about them lately with respect to the
place of food in our culture.
There was a time when food was, in a sense, highly prized. It was
something our hunter-gatherer ancestors may have spent much of their waking
days trying to obtain just so they could subsist. Then came the dawn of
agriculture and it was not long before people were growing more of a particular
crop than they needed, and so dawned the age of commerce.
In some ways, food is also highly prized in our contemporary Western
culture, but in altogether different ways. Now it is a topic of conversation, a
subject of TV shows, chef and would-be chef competitions, columns in papers and
magazines, online and in books. We can take courses about food and food
preparation in high school and college, or as evening classes. In our modern
concern for health, which is another preoccupation of our society, we have gone
from where everyone could contribute food to a public gathering to where
facilities have to be inspected by the government, those that work therein have
to take "food safe" courses and food that is consumed outside of the
home has to be prepared in such facilities. This has created untold and
probably mostly unnecessary expense for cultural centers, community centers and
churches as they upgrade their kitchens and have staff trained. Needless to
say, this greatly limits the social connection possibilities we used to so
spontaneously enjoy. We have gone from a society where meeting around the
kitchen table was a regular occurrence, and on special occasions the dining
room table. Going out to eat was something special. Now, many go out to eat
more than they eat at home. If they do eat at home, it is too often on the run,
food prepared in advance, like as not bought that way, and too commonly not
eaten together as a family. Or, we pay others to prepare our food, whether it
is catering to large functions or even to come and prepare fancy meals in our
own homes for our guests and us.
Our preoccupation with food as something to experience in all the
ways that one can sensually, including visual, taste and texture, as well as
atmosphere and context in which it is consumed, is a far cry from the way
things were not even a century ago. Our conversation is frequently about food
and how to prepare foods and what the best restaurants are. We even have, in
our electronic age, on-line recipes to cook and bake from, let alone computer
“apps” to find restaurants from wherever we are; complete with reviews to help
us make our choices.
With our modern preoccupation with things visual and images thereof,
we even take and share pictures of food we eat and it's presentation. Who is
not guilty of that? I believe some have rightfully put their finger on
something that some of us may sense is wrong with this excess by labeling it
"food porn."
It all reminds me of the stories of Roman citizens lounging
indulgently and decadently around their heavily laden banquet tables prior to
the fall of the Empire. Is there a parallel here? As a Christian, familiar with
The Bible, it also reminds me of God's warnings to his people when they became
indulgent, one of the more striking of which is founded in Amos 6:4-7:
“Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to
the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music; who
drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not
grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first to go
into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away."
We who are the church believe that we are also the people of God.
So, does this warning not apply to us? Who is the Joseph of today? Is it the
homeless hungry man down on the street corner, the family subsisting on welfare
in another neighborhood or the starving refugee across the ocean? Do we spend
more time thinking about and occupied with food and dining then we do about the
needs of the widows, the orphans, the aliens and the poor, to use the
frequently repeated terms which God used when he first gave The Law to his
people, and later when he used The Prophets to remind them of where they were
failing to keep the law?
We're also beginning to reap the rewards of our indulgence with
food. How many of us are not overweight. Obesity is a new health epidemic that
receives a lot of attention. Diabetes and disorders related to excessive fat
consumption are on the rise. On the other hand, we have those who turn away
from food and develop Eating Disorders.
So what did Paul say?
"Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those
who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of
the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even
with tears, There and is destruction; their God is the belly; and their glory
is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship
is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of humiliation that it may be conformed
to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things
subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long
for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved"
(Philippians 3:17-4:1).
Just as almost an aside, I noticed here in verse 21 something that
could even be a comfort to someone with an Eating Disorder, which I mentioned
above. Too many with eating disorders are ashamed or humiliated by their
bodies. Would that they could take comfort in the thought that our Lord has an
altogether different view of their bodies - and a better plan.
All of this emphasis on food is only possible because we have become
so affluent that for many of us, food is no longer first on our list of needs.
Maybe we should even be concerned about this from another angle. Our cheap food
comes to often because of our exploitation of many who grow and process the
food and are less well off than we. We import foods that we now see as regular
parts of our diet that a mere half-century ago some of us had never heard
about. Furthermore, much of this occurs at the expense of local food producers
who can no longer afford to hire staff to make things work. They close their
farms and orchards and sell them to developers who irreversibly replace them
with concrete and pavement. Thus, we are not only harming ourselves physically
and psychologically but are also rapidly destroying the parts of our
environment on which we depend for producing food. Some of this is deliberate
on the part of our sometimes greedy developers. Some of it is not exactly
intentional, but just as destructive. I refer to the clearing of land that
results in erosion and loss of soil, particularly aided by the increasingly
unpredictable weather of the climate change our world is not experiencing. This
leads to the frequent mudslides and floods that we hear about ever more
regularly.
Is it time for us to refocus?
As the Apostle Paul says, Who are we imitating? What might be the
outcome if we decided to ethically and responsibly change our whole attitude to
food? Individuals in the mental health field have begun to recognize the importance for the development of individuals and families of the regular meeting around the table for meals. One of our local agencies even has an annual event focused on trying to revive this custom. Maybe we should focus a little more on getting food on everyone's tables in a home, rather than where our focus is now.
