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Life is Not a Health Spa Visit
I suspect many Americans feel bombarded by messages strongly admonishing all of us to:
• eat the proper foods
• avoid the wrong foods
• get plenty of exercise
• remain buoyant and optimistic
• do not smoke
• drink only moderate amounts of alcohol
• floss every day
• avoid environmental hazards.
“Do all of these things if you wish to be healthy and live to a ripe old age.”
Most such directives are supported by advocates who promulgate their message with missionary zeal. The tenor and volume of these pronouncements, narratives, and instructions is nicely captured by a New Yorker cartoon picturing a mother reading a “new age” fairy tale to her frightened looking daughter in these words: “Then the Evil Witch tried to lure the children into a house made of onion rings, barbecued potato chips, and bacon cheeseburgers.” So insistent and numerous are such messages and so costly is medical care, poor health has become a moral issue. The not so subtle subtext has become – “If you get sick you have probably done something wrong. Avoid temptation, live right and you will live long and well.” Inevitably the implication arises that illness is a punishment for moral wrong doing. This message has been around for quite a while.
Read Deuteronomy 30, verse 20 which tells us that cleaving to god “means life to you and length of days.” Proverbs 8:vs. 35-36 informs us that those who do not cleave to God injure themselves and find death. II Samuel 12:13-14 is where Nathan gives David the news that his scorn of the Lord means “the child that is born to you shall die.”
“Religious faith” and “healthy living” are both matters which require careful thought and definition before jumping to cautionary fairy tales and prescriptive teachings. For instance, my experience is that many persons understand “faith” as a noun, an understanding which brings to mind a set of doctrines or beliefs, the system of religious propositions which define a particular religious tradition. Hence to have faith is to subscribe to those propositions. I regard this understanding of faith as a timid and utterly misleading approach to the pilgrimage of faith.
I find attempting to live a life of faithfulness is a far more helpful approach to the meaning of the phrase, “to have faith.” Faithfulness to the last words of the risen Christ directing Peter to “feed my sheep” render the question regarding the impact of faith on health a little silly. A serious devotion to Paul’s summation of the entire Judeo-Christian message, “Love your neighbor and you can do no wrong. For love is what fulfills the Law.” (Rom 13:8-10) is likely to be as dangerous to one’s health as much as it might, at times, be beneficial and energizing. During the course of my life, I have witnessed too much selfless devotion to helping others (from people of many beliefs) to think that this level of love stemmed from a judgment about the health benefits derived from their religious faith. Life is not meant to be a long-term sojourn in a health spa.
By
James Anderson
|
June 16, 2008; 7:29 AM ET
| Category:
Personal Religion
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Posted by: E Favorite | June 17, 2008 8:12 AM
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Thank you. I really appreciate your insight on this question. Faith does not seem to be about how long we will live, rather, as you say--faith has more to do with how we will live. And--how we will live has less to do with eating our fruits and veggies as it does sharing our fruits and veggies (and other gifts, including our physical strength). I needed this reminder very much.
Posted by: Julie King Murphy | June 16, 2008 4:30 PM
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Rev Anderson - thank you for this essay. I wonder, when you say, "During the course of my life, I have witnessed too much selfless devotion to helping others (FROM PEOPLE OF MANY BELIEFS)[caps added] to think that this level of love stemmed from a judgment about the health benefits derived from their religious faith." - Would you also include people without religious beliefs?
Would you consider that this "level of love" may not be not related to judgments about that health benefits of religious faith, but from a humanistic source unrelated to religion?
I think so, because otherwise it seems like you're saying that only people of faith can be selflessly devoted to others and I bet in your lifetime, you're fully aware of people without belief in invisible supernatural beings and events who have been just as devoted. I wish you would make a point of clarifying that in your essays.