“There, then, is the role of the amateur: to look the world back to grace. There, too, is the necessity of his work: His tribe must be in short supply; his job has gone begging. The world looks as if it has been left in the custody of a pack of trolls. Indeed, the whole …
Health is Not Mechanical
“The key to health is obedience and faith, not mechanical observance of health techniques. Valuable as exercise, good diet, and the like may be, they are not delineated in God’s revealed law” (James Jordan, Pig Out? p. 58).
Infinite at the Top
I have already said that the position I am arguing for here is not food egalitarianism, or worse, food relativism. There is no neutrality anywhere, including in the kitchen and dining room, and this means that in principle we can say that “this food” is better than “that food.” But when we do, we are …
The Authority of the Table
The most important things about food are the companions, seated around the table. The second most important thing is the table itself, the fact of the gathering. The third most important thing would be the quality of the food consumed. We learn all of this from the First Table, the Lord’s Table, and we are …
The Constitution and Character of Rasputin
I need to continue a bit more on “how we know things about food.” In this post I am going to wax a bit autobiographical, and I hope that’s all right with everybody. This is not so that I can talk about me, but rather because I can’t talk about how I figure things without …
Hippie Mama Free-Range Macaroni
Okay, what causes what, and how can we know? Let’s talk a bit about stewardship, epistemology and food. One of the central problems in food debates is the conflicting nature of multiple claims made about food. And in order to sort through all of it, we have to address the question of knowledge. In a …
A Besetting Sin of Ours
“Fringe groups in American Christianity have for almost two centuries advocated dietary and hygienic practices designed to curb sin, and this is part of the mileu in which the current discussion must take place. It seems reasonable to many Americans to assume that God intended to teach Israel about diet, because diet and health are …
Let’s Fry Them Up in Crisco
Many years ago, when I was in a band, I came home one evening after a practice or a gig or something. I say this because I remember this incident vividly, and I was carrying my guitar. The kids were in bed, and Nancy met me at the door very worried about something. Our duplex …
Making the Spoon Taste Good
I have already noted that fussers over food are driven by father hunger. Other common motivations in this cluster of food confusions include guilt, fear, acceptance of manipulative doctrines, not to mention acceptance of slanders against the goodness of God. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the …
Omnivorous Christianity
“It is not a serious matter for a physician to advise abstaining from foods for medical reasons, based on human wisdom. It is, however a very serious thing when men advocate abstaining from foods for religious reasons” (James Jordan, Pig Out?, p. 8).