Gluttony

“Eat and drink…for tomorrow they die!”(the third in a series of articles on each of the seven deadly sins* to be published on each Friday until Labour Day), by Geoff Ryan

“Wise temperance of the stomach is a door to all virtues. Restrain the stomach, and you will enter Paradise. But if you please and pamper your stomach, you will hurl yourself over the precipice of bodily impurity, into the fire of wrath and fury, you will coarsen and darken your mind, and in this way you will ruin your powers of attention and self-control.” (Ignatius Brianchanov - 19th century, Russian Bishop)

I

recently watched the film Super Size Me. It is one of a recent spate of first-person socially conscious documentaries. The hero of the film, producer and director, Morgan Spurlock, tackles obesity in America through the paradigm of fast-food culture, specifically the McDonald’s corporation. After a check up by doctors (who continue to monitor him throughout the experiment) Morgan embarks on a month-long ‘study’ in which he exercises as little as possible and eats all his meals - three times a day - at McDonald’s. Interspersed with interesting facts and statistics, humorous tangents and speculative conclusions, this essentially is the plot. Morgan inevitably gains weight (over 24 pounds) and sustains damage to his kidneys as well as his relationship with his girlfriend, a vegan chef. Before watching “Super Size Me” I had eaten a huge meal. As the end credits rolled and I made my way out of the theatre, I admittedly felt rather queasy. So I guess you can say that it was an effective documentary. Then again maybe I just have a weak and susceptible mind. Consider some of Morgan’s facts though:

- Each day 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast-food restaurant.
- In 1972 Americans spent 3 billion dollars a year on fast food - today they annually spend 110 billion dollars a year.
- In order to burn off a super-sized coke, fries and Big Mac, you need to walk for seven hours straight.
- In the US more than 1,000,000 animals per hour are eaten.
- Obesity will soon surpass smoking as the leading cause of premature death in America.
- The World Health Organization has declared obesity a global epidemic.

But these are American stats, you say. True enough. As always, however, Canada trails proportionately. I recently heard a talk by the former Minister of Health for Ontario. She stated that the number one health concern in Canada at the moment is obesity among children. Macleans magazine recently did a cover story on this problem (as did Time magazine). Diabetes is on the upswing as are a number of other weight-related conditions. Experts are blaming sedentary lifestyles, inordinate amounts of TV viewing and computer usage, and lousy diets. In short, it seems that our children are under exercising and overeating. If the health experts are worried, should not the rest of us be?

No surprises here, really, though. North Americans by and large are overweight. Does this mean we are gluttons though? The word glutton comes from the Latin gluttire meaning to “swallow or gulp down”, and can be applied to overindulgence in anything. Although used to refer to various situations (as in, “he is a glutton for punishment” - a familiar refrain from my own childhood) and like many matters in the (evangelical) church often over-spiritualised, the word continues to be primarily associated with excessive eating.

As a sin, gluttony is described as “an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires” or more simply, “to overindulge”. The main issue here is that it goes against reason, “darkening the mind” and “acting against the powers of attention and self-control” (Brianchanov). Thomas Aquinas said of gluttony: “Gluttony denotes, not only desire of eating or drinking, but an inordinate desire…leaving the order of reason, wherein the good of moral virtue consists.” (Summa Theologiae 2,148, ad 1). The issue is the defiance of reason and the willful disregard for necessity in order to slake one’s appetites. Gluttony is a sin of the flesh that reduces people to the level of animals (though to be honest, few animals will overeat in the way many humans will).

The issue is the defiance of reason and the willful disregard for necessity in order to slake one’s appetites.

As an interesting aside, according to the Catholic encyclopedia, it can also be applied to spiritual matters. Citing St. John of the Cross’s classic work The Dark Night of the Soul there is a brief examination of something termed ‘spiritual gluttony’. “The disposition of those who, in prayer and other acts of religion, are always in search of sensible sweetness; they are those who will feel and taste God, as if he were palpable and accessible to them not only in Communition but in all their other acts of devotion. This, he declares, is a very great imperfection and productive of great evils.” I wonder what St. John would have made of the Toronto Christian Airport Fellowship or many of the other charismatic-tinged, emotionally charged, experientially focused worship contexts that I increasingly find myself a part of in these post-modern times? But, I digress.

There is little to be gained by discussing general concepts. It is more productive to charge away at specific targets. So we’ll stay with the definition of gluttony as excessive eating. Caution needs to be exercised here and a lesson taken from Tony Campolo, who, in his 1987 book Seven Deadly Sins starts off his chapter on gluttony by dealing with the arrogant insensitivity of those who harangue overweight Christians ignoring the fact that there are often complex factors contributing to the problem of obesity ranging from chemical imbalances to matters of metabolism. It is not always simple indiscipline or sinful gluttony binges that is to blame. Overweight people are often plagued by guilt, depression and self-image problems. They would prefer not to be overweight.

I am certainly not the one to stand in judgment or condemn those who are overweight. By nature I am chronically undisciplined and wired with an addictive obsessive/compulsive temperament. If it weren’t for the fortune of having been born into a Salvationist family (read: totally tee-totalling), there is every possibility that I would have been a hopeless alcoholic and/or a profligate drug user. As far as my metabolism goes, I lucked out there too. Running to fat has never been an issue. If I were prone to putting on weight due to poor eating habits, I would likely be obese. In each case, my relative trimness has little to do with any personal virtues. In my eating habits, I am often a glutton. In my predilection to indulge my physical wants over my reasoning of what is necessary and needed, I sin as much as anyone. In his book, Freedom of Simplicity, Richard Foster suggests that the only way to counter the militant gluttony and consumerism of Western culture (for what is materialism and consumerism but gluttony?) is by nurturing a “theology of enough”.

Richard Foster suggests that the only way to counter the militant gluttony and consumerism of Western culture (for what is materialism and consumerism but gluttony?) is by nurturing a “theology of enough”.

I know many overweight people. I also know some really overweight people. And true enough, among the latter are those whose condition is largely a result of a chemical imbalance or other medical factors beyond their control and little to do with a lack of discipline. For many of my overweight acquaintances, however, there actually might be some sin involved. The blanket assertion that “most people can’t help it” is actually not true. Most can help it. But the issue here, at the end of the day is not really about how overweight (ie obviously gluttonous) is. The result of gluttony may be more apparent in some people than in others, but both persons, fat and thin, may sin on the same way.

The result of gluttony may be more apparent in some people than in others, but both persons, fat and thin, may sin on the same way.

The extant situation is really rather simple. Six million children under the age of five die every year as a result of hunger (to break it down this means over 115,000 every week, over 16,000 every day, almost 700 children every hour). Add to this those who die from hunger related illnesses and diseases (diarrhoea most prevalent) and the number goes up to about 30,000 a day for children (that is just over 1000 children who die in the time it takes you to eat a Big Mac). Add to that teenagers and adults and the situation becomes truly ridiculous. However, this terrible stuff mostly happens over there.

Meanwhile, over here (and this is where it gets really weird), there are people who spend hundreds of dollars monthly on health clubs in order to stay slim. Weight clinics and courses are ubiquitous. Every year a new revolutionary diet is invented – at present it is the Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet. With yawning regularity, movie stars check themselves into medical centres in order to deal with various eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia (gluttony of a different type). Obesity and weight-related conditions such as diabetes are skyrocketing in the general population. As God looks on our world he must conclude that the whole lot of us are schizophrenic or suffering from multiple personalities.

The reasons why so many people die because of a lack of food are complex. To understand it well would involve a grasp of geo-politics and foreign policy, security issues, weather cycles, migration patterns and a host of other factors. If it were as easy as every overweight person in the West eating only what he/she needs and then sending the money saved to the Sudan or wherever, then this would be one thing. Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Having said that, as the saying goes, “Because you can’t do everything, is no reason to do nothing”. Gluttony is a sin that in many ways has become socially acceptable, tolerated and accommodated and even encouraged within the church. When it is juxtaposed with the scandal of world hunger, then it becomes a sin. I believe some sins make God sad and some make him angry. I reckon this is one of the “angry” ones.

Gluttony is a sin that in many ways has become socially acceptable, tolerated and accommodated and even encouraged within the church. When it is juxtaposed with the scandal of world hunger, then it becomes a sin.

We evangelicals tend to belabour certain sins and completely ignore others. Gluttony is one that we ignore. We eat and drink and often make merry, while people are dying. Are they dying because of our gluttony? Not directly, maybe. But indirectly, yes. I believe it is called being an ‘accessory to a crime’ “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is as poor a defence in today as it was when Cain first used it.

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” is as poor a defence in today as it was when Cain first used it.

Co-Founder and Co-Editor of theRubicon and Co-Ordinator of the 614 Network, Geoff and his wife Sandra minister to Regent Park, a social housing project in Downtown Toronto.

*First published in Horizons, September/October 2004.

2 Comments to Gluttony

1. Geoff:

   A working definition for gluttony:

   failure to share

   This has got to be one of the more isolating vices so it is about relationships.

   In North America today obesity cuts across all socio-economic strata, but modern irony, it is especially prevalent among the poor.

   If it were all about being at banquets, or fancy ice cream parlours celebrating it wouldn’t be as bad as it is, but really most of it has to do with grotesquely indented couches and easy chairs and empty containers of junk food with the tv blaring in the foreground, background, all-the-ground. It’s about not caring enough about others to even envy them.

   It’s about the physical and spiritual hardening of the heart.

   Nothing is gained by not sharing.

   Thanks for your thoughts!
Andrea Demchuk on August 6th, 2006

2. This is such an important subject, and I’m glad whenever anyone makes me reflect on it.

   Here’s one thing I’ve noticed. I’m an American, and people (not you, not this article) always make fun of Americans for being fat. When people move here from other countries, they like to remark at length about how much Americans eat. And yet, oddly, within a few months, these new residents have usually packed on quite a few pounds themselves. Point is, Americans aren’t any less virtuous than others when it comes to food. Most people, when given the opportunity, will do exactly what we Americans do: gorge. It’s all about discipline, of course. That’s a struggle for those of us in rich countries. It is especially hard for those of us who have never had the opportunity to visit a place where people are really starving. I try to live with a global consciousness, but sometimes it is hard when you haven’t seen much of the globe. I try to teach my children, but they spend more time comparing their situation to their neighbors’, rather than comparing their situation to that of children in foreign lands. God help us.
Amy Reardon on August 13th, 2006

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