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Thoughts on religion, politics, life and death. And other banned topics.

Free Food, Not Sex


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The New York Times had an article today about fears today’s children have about eating ‘bad’ food. It seems that parents’ concerns about eating healthy are making their children food-obsessed and fearful. Kids are worrying about eating too much sodium and refined sugar, too many trans fats and carbohydrates. Nutritionists tell us that what kids (and most of the rest of us) need is variety and balance. Rather than avoiding particular nutrients—and let’s face it, sodium, sugar, fat, and carbs are all essential nutrients—we just need to eat a good, balanced variety. Our kids are learning that some foods are ‘good’ and some ‘bad,’ but the truth is that all food is good in appropriate amounts. The health risks from not eating or from eating obsessively are much greater than from just eating what you like.

Jesus declared all foods clean. So when it comes to the pleasures of eating, we have complete freedom. No one has to stick to a diet of carrots and fish sticks or liver and broccoli. Christians can eat pork, calamari, mushrooms, and McDonald’s cheeseburgers without fear of displeasing God—as long as they give him thanks. It seems odd that an area so full of freedom biblically should be so full of strictures and rules culturally.

It’s equally odd that in another area biblically restricted, there is so much cultural freedom. Of course, I mean  sex. We worry endlessly about the health effects of what we eat but pretend that the health risks of sexual adventuring are worth taking. If everyone suddenly began to live with the kind of sexual purity recommended in the New Testament, sexually transmitted disease would disappear in two generations. The benefits of sexual purity are obvious and would be immediate. Yet hardly anyone touts them or tries to make a public health case for encouraging sexual purity. Instead, we focus on passing laws to ban trans fats in restaurants. Our efforts to protect against the well-known risks of sexual adventuring are relatively feeble. We encourage condom use and advise people to get regular check-ups. We spend millions to find cures for diseases whose root cause is well-known and preventable. All it takes is a little change in behavior. Yet for some reason it is easier to become a vegetarian than a celibate, and though we treat vegans with bewildered awe, we think there must be something wrong with someone who is voluntarily celibate.

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