1 00:00:02,640 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hey, friend, Heather Creek Moore, Here, when's the 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:11,479 Speaker 1: last time you said you were being bad because you 3 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: ate a piece of cake? We throw that word around constantly. 4 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:21,680 Speaker 1: We're bad, we're guilty, we're sinning, we're tempted. We use 5 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:25,640 Speaker 1: all these words around food. But does anyone ever stop 6 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 1: and ask why are we using the vocabulary of confession 7 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:39,160 Speaker 1: and scripture to describe eating sweets? Hey, we are starting 8 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:41,960 Speaker 1: a new series. It's called The Gospel of Good Bodies, 9 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:48,519 Speaker 1: listening for the religious language indicting wellness and even in fashion. 10 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 1: In today's episode, I don't know it's gonna call it 11 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,960 Speaker 1: sinners in the hands of an angry salad. But today 12 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: we're talking about the sacred language we use around food 13 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:04,960 Speaker 1: and guilt. Friend, your eyes are going to be open 14 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:09,040 Speaker 1: to things maybe you've never seen or wanted to see before. 15 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:12,000 Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're here for it. Let's dig it, 16 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,200 Speaker 1: okay there, So if you hang out with women enough, 17 00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 1: here are some of the things you are going to hear. 18 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: I was so bad this weekend. Oh don't tent me 19 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:36,119 Speaker 1: with those cookies. I totally send and ate the rest 20 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:40,399 Speaker 1: of the ice cream. This is my guilty pleasure. Or 21 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:42,800 Speaker 1: maybe it's I need to be good today. You don't 22 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:45,959 Speaker 1: know what I did last weekend. I mean, you don't 23 00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:49,400 Speaker 1: even have to say that out loud. You can read 24 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:51,760 Speaker 1: them on our foods, like the can of La Croix 25 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: I'm holding says it's guilt free. Listen just for a 26 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:02,640 Speaker 1: second to this list of expressions and hear how they 27 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:08,120 Speaker 1: all borrow from moral or religious language. Why because it 28 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 1: makes eating feel virtuous or naughty, clean, or redemptive. But 29 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:19,639 Speaker 1: think about how often you hear our food choices framed 30 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: with words like sin, guilt, pure, indulgence, temptation, even words 31 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:34,040 Speaker 1: like salvation or worthy. So here's just a few. Okay, 32 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: there's the sin and temptation language. Maybe you've heard this 33 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: sinfully delicious. Oh it's so good. It's sinful devil's food 34 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 1: cake right, Well, that sounds like it's straight from the 35 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:49,560 Speaker 1: pit of hell, but delicious, right Those warm brownies are tempting. 36 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 1: Or maybe you're having a forbidden fruit dessert or smoothie. 37 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 1: Maybe you've heard chocolate called heavenly. I think that's what 38 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:05,200 Speaker 1: those chocolate little rappers say. Our food is decadent, indulgent, 39 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,920 Speaker 1: or maybe wicked good. If you're in the northeast. And 40 00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:12,399 Speaker 1: then think about the guilt and shame language we used too. 41 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: Like I said, my Lacroix says, it's guilt free. You 42 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,919 Speaker 1: see that labeled everywhere, or you see the words zero 43 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:26,959 Speaker 1: gilt stamped on a package of high protein, low carb whatever. 44 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:30,239 Speaker 1: Or you can eat this with quote unquote no regrets, 45 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:35,360 Speaker 1: or maybe it's the opposite. You deserve this, you deserve 46 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 1: to have it your way at burger King, or think 47 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:43,840 Speaker 1: about this. The whole cheat meal or cheat day concept 48 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:49,200 Speaker 1: sounds like you're committing adultery on your regular diet. Right 49 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:53,560 Speaker 1: that sounds pretty bad, pretty sinful. Or maybe you've heard 50 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: something marketed as a better for you indulgence, giving it 51 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:03,080 Speaker 1: moral superiority. So here's the question. If an alien landed 52 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 1: and only had our food language to work from, what 53 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:16,040 Speaker 1: religion would they construct? What would they believe the most 54 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:21,320 Speaker 1: important values and principles of our culture are? You See, 55 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:25,240 Speaker 1: the thing is, diet culture is not just like a religion. 56 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: It literally operates like one, complete with sin and temptation 57 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: and confession and atonement and a promise of salvation. If 58 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:40,719 Speaker 1: you can just get all the food and exercise rules 59 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:45,240 Speaker 1: right and the place this is most visible is in 60 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:50,000 Speaker 1: the ordinary words we use every single day. Now, let 61 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:54,720 Speaker 1: me be clear, I am not recording this to shame 62 00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:58,719 Speaker 1: anyone who's on a diet or has been on a diet. 63 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:03,520 Speaker 1: I've been on many. This is really just about examining 64 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: the cultural system that's quietly colonized our spiritual vocabulary. And 65 00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:14,440 Speaker 1: it's so so subtle we don't even notice it. But 66 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:18,479 Speaker 1: as Christians, I think it's time we stop and recognize 67 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:23,960 Speaker 1: the difference. Cheating on my food plan is not the 68 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:28,920 Speaker 1: same as the sin of adultery or even idolatry, where 69 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:33,000 Speaker 1: I'm cheating on God. And yet it's really easy to 70 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:38,120 Speaker 1: confuse the two, And candidly, my real concern is it's 71 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:41,840 Speaker 1: so easy for us to confuse that we become so 72 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:45,040 Speaker 1: distracted trying to get the religion of food and body 73 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: right that we back burner true faith. We back burner 74 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: what God actually asks of us to do. And this 75 00:05:56,680 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: hurts a little to say, but we aren't as well 76 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: worried about the ways we're actually sinning against God as 77 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: we are perhaps about the ways we are sinning in 78 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:13,719 Speaker 1: the religion of food and body. And I think, friends, 79 00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:17,479 Speaker 1: that's the enemy. That's the enemy confusing us into believing 80 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:22,040 Speaker 1: that my biggest sins are really related to cookies and 81 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: cake instead of pride, unforgiveness, selfish, ambition, being unloving towards others. Yikes. Okay, 82 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,840 Speaker 1: So this whole series, and we're gonna do three episodes 83 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:41,000 Speaker 1: in this series has inspired by one of the days 84 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,560 Speaker 1: of my book, the forty Day Body Image Workbook. And 85 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:46,600 Speaker 1: in that book, I actually I take a few days 86 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:50,320 Speaker 1: and talk about just food and kind of what we've 87 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:55,240 Speaker 1: bought into culturally, and like, what does scripture actually say? 88 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:58,719 Speaker 1: I mean, do you know that there's a good chance 89 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:02,279 Speaker 1: your food rules are in the Bible, and yet maybe 90 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,080 Speaker 1: you've heard them taught at church? Like seriously, my friend, 91 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 1: that's why it's so confusing. I would have almost been 92 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,160 Speaker 1: sure that they were there, but they're not. And so 93 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:17,040 Speaker 1: through the series, we're gonna examine this irony. The actual Bible, 94 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 1: the actual Word of God, is the source text for 95 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:28,880 Speaker 1: all of this language, and yet scripture has a completely 96 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:35,000 Speaker 1: different tone, maybe a surprisingly relaxed and even celebratory tone 97 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 1: and relationship with food and body. But diet culture has 98 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:47,040 Speaker 1: taken this church language, this Bible language, and ignored God's 99 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:52,240 Speaker 1: actual words and commands and given us this alternate religion 100 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:55,840 Speaker 1: that we kind of feel obliged to follow because most 101 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:58,640 Speaker 1: of the people we know are following it, and y'all, 102 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: it's just confusing. So we're going to try to just 103 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:04,960 Speaker 1: set the record straight. If you're interested in the forty 104 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:07,600 Speaker 1: Day Body Image workbook, it's available wherever books are sold, 105 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,720 Speaker 1: and we also walk women through this book. It's six 106 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:13,960 Speaker 1: weeks of zoom calls super affordable, less than ten bucks 107 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:16,200 Speaker 1: a week. And we're going to start the next forty 108 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:19,200 Speaker 1: Day Journey on Wednesday, June third. It's going to be 109 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:23,640 Speaker 1: a daytime event, so our friends in the other half 110 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:25,920 Speaker 1: of the world can join us if the time works 111 00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:27,800 Speaker 1: out for you. It's going to be Wednesdays at twelve 112 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:31,560 Speaker 1: thirty Eastern eleven thirty am Central. If you'd like to 113 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:33,640 Speaker 1: join us on the forty Day Journey, you can go 114 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:36,040 Speaker 1: to improve body Image dot com and look for the 115 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:41,280 Speaker 1: forty Day Journey tab. So let's start this adventure by 116 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 1: looking at a couple words. We're going to look at 117 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:46,160 Speaker 1: the word guilty and the word temptation because we know 118 00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:48,360 Speaker 1: that they're both Bible words, but what do they really mean? 119 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:52,559 Speaker 1: So guilt is a legal and moral term. It implies 120 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:58,840 Speaker 1: transgression against a law, a judge, or a standard right. 121 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:01,480 Speaker 1: And so that's why one one goes to court. They're 122 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:07,439 Speaker 1: either rendered guilty or innocent. But when we say guilty pleasure, 123 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:13,400 Speaker 1: we're implicitly saying that there is some law I have broken. 124 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:18,559 Speaker 1: I knew better than to break that law, So perhaps 125 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:22,160 Speaker 1: I am guilty. Now the question is, though, who is 126 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:27,400 Speaker 1: the judge, Like, really, who is the judge that set 127 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:32,120 Speaker 1: that standard, that law, that rule. And sometimes the judge 128 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:35,200 Speaker 1: is really easy to identify. It's a diet plan, right, like, 129 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:38,080 Speaker 1: this is the program I signed up to follow. I'm 130 00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:41,720 Speaker 1: paying for this, these are its rules, and if I 131 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,880 Speaker 1: break its rules, I am guilty. That follows logically, right. 132 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:51,800 Speaker 1: But then sometimes this is like vague cultural norm, maybe 133 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:57,400 Speaker 1: even something a doctor said. Sometimes it's our own internalized 134 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:01,959 Speaker 1: quote unquote best self, Like I'm the woman who doesn't 135 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:06,040 Speaker 1: eat these things. I'm the woman who knows how to 136 00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:08,240 Speaker 1: eat clean or eat well, and we're gonna talk about 137 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 1: that a little bit later in this episode. And so 138 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:14,800 Speaker 1: I am breaking the laws of being my best self, 139 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:19,000 Speaker 1: and I'm guilty of that. The word temptation is even 140 00:10:19,160 --> 00:10:26,880 Speaker 1: richer in Christian theology, temptation is a solicitation toward sin. Right, 141 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:35,920 Speaker 1: the enemy tempts you towards sin against God, something that 142 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:40,640 Speaker 1: seems good, maybe even something just from the world. Right, 143 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:43,920 Speaker 1: doesn't always have to be the enemy. There's the flesh, 144 00:10:44,559 --> 00:10:49,000 Speaker 1: the enemy, and the world. Something good could pull you 145 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:53,480 Speaker 1: away from the righteous path, the path of following God. 146 00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:58,000 Speaker 1: And so when you say, don't tut me with that 147 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:04,400 Speaker 1: delicious cheeseplate, you're making cheese like it's the enemy of 148 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:09,040 Speaker 1: your soul. Like cheese becomes the serpent in the garden 149 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:13,600 Speaker 1: trying to tempt Eve. Not tempt Eve to eat a 150 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:16,640 Speaker 1: piece of fruit. That's not what it's about. It's about 151 00:11:16,679 --> 00:11:21,480 Speaker 1: tempting Eve to disobey God. Because Eve, of course, was 152 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:24,080 Speaker 1: specifically told not to eat of the fruit of that 153 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 1: specific tree. And so the sin was not in the eating. 154 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 1: The sin was in the disobedience. And so here's a 155 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:35,960 Speaker 1: scriptural irony. If we're gonna borrow the language of sin 156 00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:40,120 Speaker 1: and temptation from the Bible, it's worth asking what does 157 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:46,040 Speaker 1: the Bible actually say about food? Because the answer may 158 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:49,280 Speaker 1: surprise you. The answer isn't what diet culture tells us. 159 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,880 Speaker 1: It is go to Ecclesiastes ninety seven ever, reads like this, 160 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:56,720 Speaker 1: go eat your food with gladness and drink your wine 161 00:11:56,760 --> 00:12:00,360 Speaker 1: with a joyful heart. For God has already a proved 162 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:03,080 Speaker 1: what you do. Nowt's say with that phrase, God has 163 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:07,480 Speaker 1: already approved. Not God will approve if you choose the 164 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:11,720 Speaker 1: right macros in each meal, or if you only eat clean, 165 00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:18,120 Speaker 1: or if you avoid preservatives. Not God approves in moderation. 166 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:25,640 Speaker 1: The approval is prior given. It's unconditional. Ecclesias, he Solomon 167 00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:30,600 Speaker 1: is telling his readers that eating with gladness, enjoying what 168 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:34,080 Speaker 1: you eat is not a guilty pleasure, but it's a 169 00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:39,480 Speaker 1: received one. The guilt, according to Solomon, is not in 170 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:42,640 Speaker 1: the eating or what you are eating. The guilt would 171 00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:48,080 Speaker 1: actually be in being joyless about it. So there's an 172 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:53,959 Speaker 1: episcopal priest named Robert for our capone and y'all. After 173 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:58,160 Speaker 1: I wrote my chapter about the religion of diet culture, 174 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:01,640 Speaker 1: kind of exposing some of this language, I stumbled upon 175 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:03,839 Speaker 1: this book. I don't even know how, but my book 176 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:06,960 Speaker 1: was already published, and I was just blown away that 177 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:10,280 Speaker 1: this book from the early seventies. I believe it is 178 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:15,600 Speaker 1: called Health, Money, and Love, Like he outlined all of 179 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:18,680 Speaker 1: the same points. I was like, WHOA, I wish I 180 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:21,920 Speaker 1: had had this book to quote from. But Capone was 181 00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:25,400 Speaker 1: an episcopal priest, and actually I think he had a 182 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:29,400 Speaker 1: fall from grace. But he was passionate about cooking. I 183 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:32,160 Speaker 1: think he even had a segment on a morning show 184 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:35,240 Speaker 1: at some point. But his argument is that the pleasure 185 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:40,679 Speaker 1: of food is itself theological, like delight in eating is 186 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:43,800 Speaker 1: for us to be a participant in God's good creation, 187 00:13:44,559 --> 00:13:47,679 Speaker 1: and this is the spirit of that verse and Ecclesiastes right. 188 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:51,400 Speaker 1: His argument is that if we reduce food to its 189 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:56,400 Speaker 1: nutritional utility or its moral danger to us, it strips 190 00:13:56,400 --> 00:14:02,120 Speaker 1: it of its proper meaning. For Capone to frame food 191 00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:07,200 Speaker 1: as like guilty or tempting wasn't ingratitude. It was a 192 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:12,120 Speaker 1: failure to receive the good gift of food that God 193 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:17,920 Speaker 1: gives us. And then there's this whole word pleasure, right, Poy. 194 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:24,240 Speaker 1: We're uncomfortable with that word, and yet God delights in 195 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:29,840 Speaker 1: giving his children good gifts. There's a lot of pleasure 196 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:36,040 Speaker 1: that God delights in us partaking of. And yet somewhere 197 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:38,760 Speaker 1: along the line, I don't know, maybe it was the 198 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:44,320 Speaker 1: Puritans or something, we adopted this ascticism, This like, if 199 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:48,560 Speaker 1: we're serving God, we should not enjoy pleasure kind of theology, 200 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:51,720 Speaker 1: which actually isn't in the Bible. Right. There are times 201 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,040 Speaker 1: when we should fast, not if you've had an eating disorder, 202 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:58,760 Speaker 1: but that's a different episode. There are times when you 203 00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:04,600 Speaker 1: should stain from sex inside of marriage. But there's all 204 00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:07,720 Speaker 1: kinds of things like I created our body to experience pleasure. 205 00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:09,320 Speaker 1: We got a lot of taste buds, so we can 206 00:15:09,680 --> 00:15:13,720 Speaker 1: enjoy taste. And yet how many of us have felt 207 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:19,120 Speaker 1: guilt or shame for taking pleasure and eating, for enjoying 208 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:24,680 Speaker 1: the taste of something. Why did we decide that enjoying 209 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:29,680 Speaker 1: food was sinful or needed to be earned, or perhaps 210 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:32,480 Speaker 1: even something we need to confess and repent of and 211 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:38,240 Speaker 1: apologize for now. I think it's worth noting that women 212 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:41,480 Speaker 1: may have a bigger struggle with this than men. Right. 213 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:46,920 Speaker 1: The guilty pleasures, the marketing around that is more applied 214 00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:52,920 Speaker 1: to women and things that women enjoy. It's also more 215 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:57,440 Speaker 1: applied to like cheap comfort foods rather than expensive and 216 00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:03,400 Speaker 1: refined foods. A man eating a steak would rarely say 217 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,360 Speaker 1: he's being bad, but a woman eating a cupcake almost 218 00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:10,720 Speaker 1: always is those are the diet culture rules. Okay, So 219 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:12,200 Speaker 1: let's stick in a little bit more to this whole 220 00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:15,240 Speaker 1: being good versus being bad thing, and our core concept 221 00:16:15,280 --> 00:16:20,640 Speaker 1: here is moral identity has not happen through what we 222 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:24,440 Speaker 1: consume through our mouth. Okay. So somewhere along the way, 223 00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:29,600 Speaker 1: I was good today became synonymous with I didn't eat 224 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:34,400 Speaker 1: very much or I ate clean, right, Like, think about that. 225 00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:37,760 Speaker 1: If someone says I was good today, you rarely think, oh, 226 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:41,200 Speaker 1: you must have been loving to all your neighbors and 227 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:45,120 Speaker 1: patient and kind and filled with the fruit of the spirit. No, 228 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,840 Speaker 1: you know, she's talking about food. And this is a 229 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:55,960 Speaker 1: stunning collapse because moral virtue is no longer as important 230 00:16:56,680 --> 00:17:02,400 Speaker 1: as caloric restraint. Like again, you weren't confused as to 231 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:04,359 Speaker 1: what the woman who said she was good today was 232 00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:09,160 Speaker 1: talking about. That should scares us a little bit. Now. 233 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:13,520 Speaker 1: Of course, this isn't brand new, right like you talked about, 234 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:17,159 Speaker 1: like the Puritan traditions have been suspect of bodily pleasure. 235 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:23,520 Speaker 1: But here's the problem. This secular version of what virtue 236 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:31,120 Speaker 1: is like strips away God, Jesus, the Gospel, like true 237 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:35,919 Speaker 1: faith theology, like the richness of the Word of God, 238 00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:40,600 Speaker 1: and it just reduces it down to whether or not 239 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:48,879 Speaker 1: you ate sugar today. Friend, that's not the gospel. David 240 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:53,359 Speaker 1: Zaal incredible author. He wrote this book called Seculosity, and 241 00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:56,199 Speaker 1: it's really fascinating and in it this was another one 242 00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:58,639 Speaker 1: of those books that I discovered after I wrote my book. 243 00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:01,879 Speaker 1: But he's making some of the same points that I 244 00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: made in the Forty Day Bodymage Work book. He's arguing 245 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:10,720 Speaker 1: that modern secular people haven't abandoned a need for righteousness right, Like, 246 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:14,560 Speaker 1: we all internally know there's something not right with us 247 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,280 Speaker 1: and we need to do something to make ourselves right. 248 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:23,679 Speaker 1: It's a thirst for righteousness. But instead of going to 249 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:28,879 Speaker 1: God and finding our righteousness through Jesus, we've just relocated 250 00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:33,639 Speaker 1: our search for righteousness. The anxiety that used to be 251 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:38,720 Speaker 1: am I right with God? Now sounds like am I 252 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:43,840 Speaker 1: doing enough? Am I enough? And food and body are 253 00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:46,720 Speaker 1: one of the primary areas where we see this play out. 254 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:53,720 Speaker 1: We seek righteous eating as a path to listen to 255 00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:59,240 Speaker 1: this to self justification. Right. So, Jesus's death on the 256 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:02,960 Speaker 1: cross has reus direction. What he sacrificed for us is 257 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:09,479 Speaker 1: what justifies us, renders us not guilty before God, and 258 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:15,040 Speaker 1: now we seek to be not guilty before the God 259 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:20,399 Speaker 1: of our current diet food exercise plan by eating in 260 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:24,879 Speaker 1: a righteous way. We seek righteous eating as a path 261 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:30,919 Speaker 1: to self justification. Do you hear the difference? So Zaul 262 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:37,800 Speaker 1: talks about how seculosity. Basically, seculosity is his way of 263 00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:40,680 Speaker 1: looking at the all the different religions we've made, not 264 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:43,119 Speaker 1: just food and body, but he talks about like the 265 00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:47,880 Speaker 1: religion of work and in several areas, but he talks 266 00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:52,120 Speaker 1: about how seculosity, these religions thrive where you can measure them, 267 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:58,200 Speaker 1: where there's measurability. Y'all, we love to measure things, and 268 00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:02,800 Speaker 1: in the dieting religion, you can count calories, you can 269 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:08,760 Speaker 1: track macros, you can log miles, and we love measurability 270 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:11,800 Speaker 1: because then we know whether or not we are righteous. 271 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:16,359 Speaker 1: And it creates this illusion that you can work for 272 00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:19,840 Speaker 1: your own righteousness, that your own righteousness, your own self justification, 273 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: is attainable and achievable through your efforts. Have you ever 274 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:31,679 Speaker 1: said I'm staying on track, friend, Think about what a 275 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:37,399 Speaker 1: deeply moral phrase that is. You are staying on a path. 276 00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:41,760 Speaker 1: But what is that path? Is that the narrow path 277 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:46,960 Speaker 1: that Scripture talks about avoiding sin, following Jesus like his 278 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:52,359 Speaker 1: slave to your Lord Jesus with abandonment, or are you 279 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,919 Speaker 1: staying on track, meaning you are following the God of 280 00:20:55,960 --> 00:21:01,959 Speaker 1: your diet plan and staying true to that God's rules. Friends, 281 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:06,440 Speaker 1: this is tough stuff. Here's another one. Have you ever 282 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:08,520 Speaker 1: had someone say, oh, I totally fell off the wagon 283 00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:14,520 Speaker 1: this weekend? Well, what does fell off the wagon really mean? Again? 284 00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:20,200 Speaker 1: That wagon is the righteous path. Falling off of it 285 00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:25,200 Speaker 1: would be a moral failure. And so when someone says this, 286 00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:30,000 Speaker 1: they're actually like structuring a confession to you, like I 287 00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:38,480 Speaker 1: have sinned and I need repentance, restoration, reconciliation. Maybe another 288 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:42,479 Speaker 1: way to say that is absolution. And you respond, well, 289 00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:47,000 Speaker 1: that's okay, you can start again on Monday. Monday is 290 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:52,680 Speaker 1: a day of renewal. Monday is the secular sabbath rest 291 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:57,240 Speaker 1: Monday you get grace for your fresh start. Who do 292 00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:00,840 Speaker 1: you get that grace from? Well, not from God, right, 293 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:04,000 Speaker 1: His grace is new every morning. But in this case, 294 00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:08,000 Speaker 1: you're looking for grace from the diet and exercise gods 295 00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:13,480 Speaker 1: to restore you back to the plan, back to the 296 00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:18,159 Speaker 1: path of righteousness. Friend, you see how insidious this is? 297 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:22,600 Speaker 1: Let's go back to that phrase, cheat day. You can 298 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:27,720 Speaker 1: only cheat if there are rules, and rules imply that 299 00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:35,280 Speaker 1: there's a rule giver who gave you those rules? Was 300 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:39,040 Speaker 1: it God? Well, let's look. Let's look at what scripture says. 301 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:42,520 Speaker 1: Let's look at Romans fourteen two through four. It speaks 302 00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:48,160 Speaker 1: directly to judging others around their food choices. And here's 303 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:51,760 Speaker 1: what Paul says. One person's faith allows them to eat anything, 304 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:56,280 Speaker 1: but another whose faith is weak only eats vegetables. The 305 00:22:56,320 --> 00:23:00,280 Speaker 1: one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the 306 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:02,560 Speaker 1: one who does not. And the one who does not 307 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:05,399 Speaker 1: eat everything must not judge the one who does. For 308 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:08,679 Speaker 1: God has accepted them. And Paul is writing to an 309 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:12,040 Speaker 1: actual community that's divided over their food rules, and his 310 00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:16,600 Speaker 1: answer is striking. He says, judging other people's eating is 311 00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: not your job. God has accepted them. The dinner table 312 00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:26,520 Speaker 1: is not a courtroom. You are not the judge. And 313 00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:29,320 Speaker 1: yet die culture has made the dinner table into exactly that. 314 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:36,880 Speaker 1: It's a place of constant, mutual and self judgment. Right. 315 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 1: You might not be saying it out loud to anyone else, 316 00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,159 Speaker 1: but are you saying it in your head? Are you 317 00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:44,679 Speaker 1: really gonna eat that. You shouldn't eat that. Did you 318 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,720 Speaker 1: really eat that much? Why are you eating that? Oh? 319 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:50,840 Speaker 1: What are you doing? Oh you're so bad for eating that. 320 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:56,640 Speaker 1: Shame on you. And that's what Paul's forbidding here. We're 321 00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:58,560 Speaker 1: gonna look at some other scriptures around this in just 322 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:01,119 Speaker 1: a second, especially as we talk about our next topic, 323 00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:04,639 Speaker 1: which is clean and unclean eating. You see, we think 324 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:11,960 Speaker 1: we've disguised purity purity of food as nutrition, clean eating, 325 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,639 Speaker 1: how goodness? Friends? Like that is the most theologically loaded 326 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:19,119 Speaker 1: phrase in all of die culture, because clean and unclean 327 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 1: is this really ancient concept, right, Like we had this 328 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,359 Speaker 1: in our Bible in Leviticus, but like the Hindu purity 329 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:33,720 Speaker 1: traditions exists, Like every religious system has its purity rules, 330 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:41,359 Speaker 1: and to eat clean is to be ritually pure. But 331 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:47,520 Speaker 1: clean in diet culture is almost never consistently defined, which 332 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:52,720 Speaker 1: makes it confusing. But a lot of times these rules 333 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:57,359 Speaker 1: around purity codes are about identity and belonging. They're not 334 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:04,479 Speaker 1: actually about hygiene or what's good for one. Unclean food 335 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:09,000 Speaker 1: would ruin a clean meal, it was I think they 336 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:12,760 Speaker 1: call that the contamination logic. But like this is magical 337 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:17,880 Speaker 1: thinking inside a religious structure. Anthropologist Mary Douglas noted that 338 00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:23,120 Speaker 1: purity rules are always about ordering the world into categories 339 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:29,560 Speaker 1: clean versus unclean, and she called dirt matter out of place. 340 00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:36,520 Speaker 1: But this is where scripture man. It has to be 341 00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:42,960 Speaker 1: what we live by because the Bible makes explicit, direct 342 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:48,680 Speaker 1: like really a remarkable statement about clean and unclean foods, 343 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:53,200 Speaker 1: and it cuts directly against the logic of clean eating 344 00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:56,240 Speaker 1: is the biblical way to eat. This is the way 345 00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:58,879 Speaker 1: to be most acceptable as a Christian is eating clean 346 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:03,760 Speaker 1: Matthew fifteen eleven. Jesus speaking to the Pharisees here who've 347 00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:07,600 Speaker 1: criticized his disciples because they're not following the ritual hand 348 00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:10,399 Speaker 1: washing laws. And here's what he says. He says, what 349 00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:14,199 Speaker 1: goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what 350 00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:17,640 Speaker 1: comes out of their mouth that is what defiles them. 351 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:20,480 Speaker 1: And this is a radical statement for the time in 352 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:24,400 Speaker 1: its original context, because Jesus is directly challenging their purity 353 00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:29,760 Speaker 1: code around food, saying that moral contamination is not a 354 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:32,920 Speaker 1: matter of what you eat, but of what you say, 355 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:36,399 Speaker 1: your intentions, what you actually do. And the logic of 356 00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:38,960 Speaker 1: clean eating is that there are certain foods that are 357 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:43,439 Speaker 1: morally contaminating that eating these foods makes you somehow less 358 00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:47,520 Speaker 1: pure or less good, and that is exactly the logic 359 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:54,280 Speaker 1: that Jesus is pushing back against. Romans fourteen twenty drives 360 00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:57,400 Speaker 1: home the point even more. Paul says, do not destroy 361 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:01,399 Speaker 1: the work of God for the sake of food. All 362 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:06,520 Speaker 1: food is clean, All food is clean. This is not nuanced. 363 00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,879 Speaker 1: Paul is not saying most food is fine in moderation. 364 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:15,240 Speaker 1: He's making a categorical claim that the clean and unclean 365 00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:20,520 Speaker 1: distinction as applied to food has been abolished. Those rules 366 00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:25,440 Speaker 1: from the Old Testament are no more. And yet diet 367 00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:31,199 Speaker 1: culture has resurrected that framework, but the New Testament explicitly 368 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:35,440 Speaker 1: dismantles it from the irony here is almost too rich. 369 00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:41,080 Speaker 1: Clean eating has borrowed its central metaphor cleanliness, from a 370 00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:47,520 Speaker 1: religious tradition that even in our own scriptures there's argument 371 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:51,320 Speaker 1: that food cannot make you clean or unclean. The moral 372 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:58,600 Speaker 1: logic that kale salad is superior like predates the New Testament. 373 00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:02,440 Speaker 1: The New test has moved on. It's not living by 374 00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:08,199 Speaker 1: those rules anymore. But instead of leaning on Jesus in 375 00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:12,880 Speaker 1: God's word and scripture, we have a new priest class, 376 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:18,760 Speaker 1: nutrition ess wellness influencers, the diet gurus, any influencer you 377 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:21,119 Speaker 1: see on Instagram which tells you how to eat and 378 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:25,160 Speaker 1: what's clean and what's unclean like, they function as priests 379 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:29,720 Speaker 1: who interpret our purity code, tell us our religion and 380 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,959 Speaker 1: offer us guidance on how to navigate it well so 381 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:40,080 Speaker 1: that we can find righteousness, so that we can justify ourselves. Friend, 382 00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:44,360 Speaker 1: I'm not saying that any influencer online that tells you 383 00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:48,760 Speaker 1: how to eat is trying to deceive you or lead 384 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:52,080 Speaker 1: you astray. I'm not saying that eating foods that make 385 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,800 Speaker 1: your body feel good is a bad thing. Don't be 386 00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:58,760 Speaker 1: black and white thinkers with me around this. I just 387 00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,080 Speaker 1: want you to hear the link which I just want 388 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:07,320 Speaker 1: you to be clear in what God asks of us 389 00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:11,800 Speaker 1: versus what this alternate religion asks of us, so you 390 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:17,960 Speaker 1: don't confuse the two. Robert Capone, the former episcopal priests 391 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:21,640 Speaker 1: I quoted a minute ago, says this Christianity is not 392 00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:26,080 Speaker 1: a religion, but rather the proclamation that God has gone 393 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:31,680 Speaker 1: ahead on his own and ended religion by accomplishing in 394 00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:37,440 Speaker 1: Jesus free of charge, whatever our religions were trying to do. 395 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:41,600 Speaker 1: Capone says he has closed the religion shop for good. 396 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,640 Speaker 1: And what we have to see is that a culture 397 00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:48,560 Speaker 1: that's really only maybe one hundred hundred and fifty years old, 398 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:55,120 Speaker 1: a culture of dieting and wellness, has reopened the religion 399 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:59,480 Speaker 1: shop and given us, like David Zahl said, an opportunity 400 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:03,880 Speaker 1: to find righteousness, to track our morality, to be good 401 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:08,480 Speaker 1: enough through an alternate religion for a god that's not 402 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:12,560 Speaker 1: the god of the universe. Capone also says this. He says, 403 00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:18,120 Speaker 1: the table is a place of grace, abundance, pleasure, community, 404 00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,880 Speaker 1: and the moment you turn it into a moral battlefield, 405 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:28,520 Speaker 1: you've lost something profound about what eating together means. And 406 00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:31,400 Speaker 1: isn't that what Jesus exemplified for us and the way 407 00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:35,760 Speaker 1: he lived and how he wasn't afraid to eat listeners, 408 00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,200 Speaker 1: he was accused of being a glutton, and we know 409 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:43,600 Speaker 1: he wasn't interesting, right, But here's what I wanted to notice. 410 00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:50,280 Speaker 1: Language shapes our experience. When we habitually describe eating as 411 00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:57,080 Speaker 1: something moral, we are creating real psychological suffering for ourselves 412 00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,880 Speaker 1: and for others like friends, your kids are hearing this. 413 00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:06,280 Speaker 1: We create guilt, we create shame, we create anxiety around 414 00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:11,280 Speaker 1: a basic human need that could and should also give 415 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,960 Speaker 1: us pleasure. And this isn't just semantics. Studies on the 416 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:20,520 Speaker 1: psychology of forbidden foods show that the guilt and restraint 417 00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:26,000 Speaker 1: cycle get this actually increases consumption. You eat more of 418 00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:29,480 Speaker 1: it if you feel guilty about it, and it decreases 419 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:33,160 Speaker 1: satisfaction because you feel so much shame that you're eating 420 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,040 Speaker 1: the good thing that you told yourself you weren't going 421 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:38,680 Speaker 1: to eat. Friend, like, we do this to ourselves in 422 00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:42,680 Speaker 1: our heads, and it's just completely not necessary according to 423 00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:47,200 Speaker 1: what God asks from us. The religious framing here makes 424 00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:49,600 Speaker 1: the problem so much worse. In fact, I talk to 425 00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:53,120 Speaker 1: women every week who are sure God is mad at 426 00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:57,520 Speaker 1: them because they ate dessert, and they are sure that 427 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:01,760 Speaker 1: those condemning, shaming voices that they're hearing in their head, 428 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:04,200 Speaker 1: I can't believe you ate that. Why did you eat 429 00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:07,160 Speaker 1: that you didn't need to eat that? They're sure that's God, 430 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:10,960 Speaker 1: and friend, that's not him. That is the God, little 431 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:16,640 Speaker 1: g God of the religion of diety. The great irony 432 00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:20,360 Speaker 1: of die culture is that it has stolen the vocabulary 433 00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:25,920 Speaker 1: of sin and purity from religious tradition, while ignoring what 434 00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:33,280 Speaker 1: our religious tradition actually says and teaches about food. Friend. 435 00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:36,240 Speaker 1: The Bible says, eat with gladness. God has already proved. 436 00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:39,480 Speaker 1: The Bible says all foods are clean. The Bible says, 437 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:42,680 Speaker 1: stop judging each other's eating. The Bible says, what you 438 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,960 Speaker 1: put in your mouth does not defile you, but die. 439 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:51,200 Speaker 1: Culture has taken a form of religious seriousness around food, 440 00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:54,520 Speaker 1: the guilt, the rules, the judgments, the purity codes, while 441 00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:59,920 Speaker 1: discarding the actual content of scripture, which is largely free 442 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:06,040 Speaker 1: nereid them pleasure and non judgment. It has kept the 443 00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:13,480 Speaker 1: law and thrown away the grace. Back to David Zaouls seculosity, 444 00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:16,560 Speaker 1: Zaul says, the tragedy of seculosity is that it takes 445 00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:21,680 Speaker 1: real human needs, needs for meaning, for belonging, for goodness, 446 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:25,840 Speaker 1: and it attaches them to things that cannot ultimately deliver. 447 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:32,400 Speaker 1: Food cannot make you righteous. A good body, a better body, 448 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:38,480 Speaker 1: A thin body cannot save you. The law of the 449 00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:44,480 Speaker 1: diet is, like all law, better at producing guilt than 450 00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:48,120 Speaker 1: it is at producing transformation. As we close up today, 451 00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:50,560 Speaker 1: I want to read to you just a little snippet 452 00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:53,200 Speaker 1: from this Health, Money, and Love and Why we Don't 453 00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,880 Speaker 1: Enjoy Them book, by Robert Capone. I said it was 454 00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:00,680 Speaker 1: from the seventies, and I'm wrong. It was copyright Night ninety. 455 00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:03,800 Speaker 1: The seventies book is a book called Never Satisfied by 456 00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:07,760 Speaker 1: Hillel Schwartz, which is a cultural history of diets, fantasies, 457 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:10,520 Speaker 1: and fat which has a lot of interesting things about 458 00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:15,680 Speaker 1: where these food rules, diet rules conceptions came from just culturally. 459 00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:18,800 Speaker 1: But let me read to you from Capone's book, because 460 00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:22,319 Speaker 1: I think it's going to shock you so again. This 461 00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:26,320 Speaker 1: was written by a episcopal priests in the late eighties, 462 00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:30,160 Speaker 1: came out nineteen ninety, which brings us, naturally enough to 463 00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:33,200 Speaker 1: the supremely silly religions of food that are now more 464 00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:37,120 Speaker 1: popular than almost any others, not that they haven't always enjoyed. 465 00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: Greade Vogue. One of the oldest beliefs of the human race, 466 00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:43,319 Speaker 1: despite the plain hard fact that people need food to 467 00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:48,960 Speaker 1: live and can in reasonable health digest almost anything that grows, walks, flies, 468 00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:52,960 Speaker 1: or swims is that food will kill you unless it 469 00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:58,160 Speaker 1: is carefully religionized. Cucumbers, it was once believed, had to 470 00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:02,959 Speaker 1: have their baleful qualities exorcised off by slicing a heel 471 00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:08,160 Speaker 1: and rubbing the cut ends together until they foamed. Eggplants 472 00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:10,760 Speaker 1: had to be soaked in brine to remove their poison, 473 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:13,680 Speaker 1: while vegetables were bad for you and raw meat was 474 00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:16,960 Speaker 1: certain death. In our days, though, that list has grown 475 00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:21,080 Speaker 1: beyond belief, or more correctly, beyond anything that could be 476 00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:28,560 Speaker 1: accounted for except by belief. Salt, refined sugar, animal fats, 477 00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:31,719 Speaker 1: red meat, all meat, hard liquor but not wine. Hard 478 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:36,240 Speaker 1: liquor and wine all have come under the interdict, along 479 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:41,320 Speaker 1: with a host of demons with names like calories, cholesterol, 480 00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:46,120 Speaker 1: and nitro semens. People used to say grace before meals 481 00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:49,719 Speaker 1: and dig in. Now they must sit down and recite 482 00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:55,000 Speaker 1: the whole nutritional Catechism before nibbling at the unsalted, undercooked 483 00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:59,280 Speaker 1: veggies that are the only doctrinally correct items on the table. 484 00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:03,080 Speaker 1: And what is this secret that lurks behind all the 485 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:08,920 Speaker 1: flannel mouth religiosity? What is the mystery that these devotees 486 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:13,399 Speaker 1: of Orthodox eating are guarding? It is that there will 487 00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:17,160 Speaker 1: be a new mystery along next week, and that the 488 00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:21,520 Speaker 1: adepts of the cult of nutrition will mindlessly, but just 489 00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:25,640 Speaker 1: as noisily, embrace it as the final article of faith. 490 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:29,320 Speaker 1: Olive oil was once as bad for you as bacon 491 00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:32,960 Speaker 1: Greece because it was demon possessed by just as many calories. 492 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:36,800 Speaker 1: But then it was discovered to be harboring angels called 493 00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:42,960 Speaker 1: mono unsaturated fats, and promptly granted admission into the nutritional pantheon. 494 00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:47,640 Speaker 1: By and by some food. Theologian will probably prove that 495 00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:51,040 Speaker 1: those angels have fallen and turned into demons again. But 496 00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:54,960 Speaker 1: through all the revisions of the Catechism, the true believers 497 00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:59,880 Speaker 1: will never once doubt the newest revelation, even if it 498 00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:05,120 Speaker 1: tells them to eat today what would have killed them yesterday. 499 00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:08,320 Speaker 1: And remember our friend he wrote this in nineteen ninety 500 00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:13,120 Speaker 1: when everyone would have been fat free, and just twenty 501 00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:16,600 Speaker 1: years later everyone was told to eat only fat. So 502 00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:18,799 Speaker 1: it actually happened. I don't know if he lived long 503 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:22,520 Speaker 1: enough to see it, but it happened. The nutritional gods 504 00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:29,880 Speaker 1: did declare fat from being demon possessed to being angelic. Ah, 505 00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:32,239 Speaker 1: But let me continue reading because I think this is 506 00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:34,799 Speaker 1: going to really drive it home for us today. But 507 00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:38,080 Speaker 1: you say, isn't it true that the eating habits of 508 00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:41,960 Speaker 1: most Americans are killing them again? This was nineteen ninety. 509 00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,680 Speaker 1: My answer is, no, people die because the human race 510 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,160 Speaker 1: is mortal. What they eat may cause them to die sooner, 511 00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:54,719 Speaker 1: much sooner if they eat strict geen, less soon perhaps 512 00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:59,200 Speaker 1: bearing a plane crash, if they eat hollandaise sauce. But 513 00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:02,000 Speaker 1: in any case, sometime before they reach the age of 514 00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:05,400 Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty, they will die. And no religion 515 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:09,480 Speaker 1: of eating, however perfectly obeyed, will make the slightest difference 516 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,240 Speaker 1: in that. Therefore, the last secret of the cult of nutrition, 517 00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:17,000 Speaker 1: the mystery to be guarded at all costs, is that 518 00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:21,880 Speaker 1: the implicit promise of immortality, which is the principal selling 519 00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:26,840 Speaker 1: point of the whole religion, is bunk, oh friend, oh 520 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:31,160 Speaker 1: heavy words that I hope you'll drink them in. You know. 521 00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:35,000 Speaker 1: Capone's real theme is that food, pleasure, or the table 522 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,960 Speaker 1: are not moral tests that you pass or fail when 523 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:41,960 Speaker 1: you give in to temptation, or that you sin when 524 00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:45,520 Speaker 1: you eat, but that food is a gift to be 525 00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:50,080 Speaker 1: received and enjoyed. Eat with gladness, for God has already 526 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:54,000 Speaker 1: approved the gladness is the point. There is nothing for 527 00:38:54,120 --> 00:39:00,560 Speaker 1: you to earn in terms of your actual salvation with 528 00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:04,560 Speaker 1: how you eat. And so again, my point, friend, is 529 00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:09,640 Speaker 1: not sit on the couch and eat cheetos, My point is, 530 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:14,560 Speaker 1: where have you put your real faith? Where are you 531 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:19,880 Speaker 1: really trying to find righteousness in the eyes of God? 532 00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:24,000 Speaker 1: Is it through the way you eat or don't eat? 533 00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:29,520 Speaker 1: Or is it through what scripture commands? Have you added 534 00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:34,719 Speaker 1: rules to His word that just aren't there? And my 535 00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:36,839 Speaker 1: question for you as we close is this, what would 536 00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:41,280 Speaker 1: it feel like to eat dinner, eat lunch with co workers, 537 00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:45,120 Speaker 1: eat breakfast without any of that vocabulary? What would it 538 00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:50,120 Speaker 1: mean to just eat? Because food is just food. It's 539 00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:53,799 Speaker 1: not a moral ball of yarn that we have to 540 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:57,719 Speaker 1: spend every day untangling and we have to ride this 541 00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:01,000 Speaker 1: wild roller coaster of fat is good, fat is bad, 542 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:04,000 Speaker 1: carbs are good, carbs are bad. I mean, I'm telling 543 00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:06,799 Speaker 1: you a friend, carps are back. We're calling it fiber now, 544 00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:10,000 Speaker 1: but carbs are back, and I have a feeling fat's 545 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,799 Speaker 1: going to go out of style again. So eat your 546 00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:17,359 Speaker 1: bacon now. What would it be like to just ask 547 00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:21,759 Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit for wisdom and direction around how to 548 00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:25,640 Speaker 1: care for your body and just eat to not make 549 00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:29,719 Speaker 1: it such a big deal. Friend, I'm so glad you're here. Hey, 550 00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:32,680 Speaker 1: next time we're going to continue this series, We're actually 551 00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,560 Speaker 1: going to look at religious language used in specific diet 552 00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:42,439 Speaker 1: programs like Ugh Optavia, Gwen Chamblin's Way Down Workshop, which 553 00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:46,200 Speaker 1: was in churches all over the world and had a 554 00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:52,600 Speaker 1: huge impact in the religious architecture around like how we've 555 00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:57,400 Speaker 1: woven dieting into scripture and Christianity and what we believe 556 00:40:58,160 --> 00:41:02,359 Speaker 1: and the results are illuminating and very very troubling too. 557 00:41:02,719 --> 00:41:05,640 Speaker 1: And then in episode three, in two weeks, we're gonna 558 00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,919 Speaker 1: talk about why do we expect our clothes to forgive us? 559 00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:12,719 Speaker 1: Maybe you've said it, I'm wearing this because it's very forgiving. 560 00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,120 Speaker 1: Does that dress actually have the power to forgive you? 561 00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:19,280 Speaker 1: Why do we phrase it like that? That's for going 562 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:21,759 Speaker 1: in this series. I hope you'll come back for more, 563 00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:23,719 Speaker 1: and hey, go to improved budymansh dot com if you 564 00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:26,600 Speaker 1: need more help. We've got great resources for you there. 565 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,560 Speaker 1: We want to help you untangle this. Thanks for listening today. 566 00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:31,799 Speaker 1: I hope something today is help you stop comparing and 567 00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:34,759 Speaker 1: start living. Bye bye. The Compared to You podcast is 568 00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:36,800 Speaker 1: proud to be part of the Life Audio Podcast Network 569 00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:39,280 Speaker 1: for more great Chustian podcasts. A lot of Life Audio 570 00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:47,080 Speaker 1: dot Com