ExC-blog --A non-Theological Rant: Yet another reason for leaving the church

[webmdave]

By Lorena

 

I have multiple food intolerances, which include wheat and milk. Now, think of a church potluck and try to come up with stuff that doesn?t have either milk or wheat. I also have problems with sugar, not only because I am overweight, but because I have a problem with my pancreas that, if I am not careful, may cause me to end up a diabetic.

 

I came across this article titled, Is religion making us fat? My answer before actually reading the article was, YES.

 

The article explains what all ex-christians know: Christians are bored because most activities are a sin, so they eat, continually. ?They gather around food.?

 

In the churches I attended, the people who knew me better were aware of my dietary difficulties. I never did try to make them adhere to my strict requirements. Most times, I just stayed away from the food.

 

That didn?t go well with my fellow Christians, however, as they were always encouraging me to have ?Just a little piece, just this time.?

 

I tried to explain over and over again that eating pastries is addictive. ?It is like alcohol for alcoholics,? I used to say. ?If you give in for a little bit, then you can?t stop.? (That?s why I occasionally go to Overeaters Anonymous.)

 

At the next gathering, they would have a cake out, and again the battle would start. The part I couldn?t and, still can?t understand, was that they would encourage me to eat something that would hurt my body. Didn?t they have a shred of compassion in them? Or are they just down right stupid.

 

In contrast, my non-christian friends were always watching me and encouraging me to not eat damaging stuff. They would even change restaurants for outings so that I could find something to eat.

 

It seems like an innocent issue, but it isn?t. There were times when I had gone without eating the offending foods for weeks until I went to a church function and caved in for, say, a luscious coffee cake.

 

I stopped going to church potlucks the time when all the food had cheese in it. I had to drive to a near-by restaurant to grab a bite. Given that so many people have food allergies, you?d think they would start serving fruits and vegetables. But no, that would be too progressive.

 

Instead of going to church functions, I started to enjoy the free time I had by staying home or by doing an alternate activity, like hitting the hot tub at my local gym.

 

Now I spend days by myself. Nobody is making me eat anything while I watch professional tennis on ESPN or USA. I also have time for walking and have shed a few pounds.

 

http://exchristian.net/exchristian/2006/09...et-another.html

[bluewizard]

Yes churches really have fattening buffet style lunches and dinners. This past summer I went to my sister's VBS program because she was an assistant there and they had a buffet style dinner of cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chips, and cookies, And fudge brownie sundaes for desert where the VBS old woman were pressuring people to try it. I watch my weight but I decided to pig out that night which I do a couple times a week. I ate 2 cheeseburgers, a serving of chips, and the brownie fudge sundae with ice cream but I didnt like the brownie or fudge much at all, I'm not a chocolate addict, mostly ice cream, cake, and cookie type of man.

[All Gods Fail]

That is very true, but recently my mom asked me to take her to a Ojibwa Methodist church and they actually had pretty good food afterwards. One dish was a clear soup made out of garden grown veggies and venison. Tasty, lo-fat and loaded with vitamins and such.

 

Of course, they also had home-made macaroni and cheese. It was delicious, but not exactly healthy...

 

Damn...they had some excellent food there, come to think of it. But it was the first one I'd ever seen that actually had some good grub.