Food Nazis

Noth­ing robs life so much as an obses­sion. Obses­sions are fear based. They are a form of worry. Most of all, they are dis­trac­tions from things that are far more impor­tant. They keep peo­ple from address­ing the more needed sub­jects (like the ele­phant in the liv­ing room). As fears increase, so do the obses­sions that dis­tract us. We “whis­tle in the dark” as a sub­sti­tute for real con­fi­dence and pro­duc­tive actions.

We Amer­i­cans are the “Arabs of Food.” We have more than most, if not all other, nations. Food is a weird sort of thing about which we obsess. We eat, then we obsess on what we think we should not have eaten. It is also the pri­mary sub­ject of con­trollers. They like to manip­u­late oth­ers with neu­rotic food reg­u­la­tions. A friend of mine calls them “Food Nazis.” No mat­ter what you are eat­ing, they tell you what you should have eaten instead. They tell you the pos­si­ble side effects, the addi­tives, what the food might do neg­a­tively for your heart, liver, skin, toe nails, hair…ad nau­sea. It is annoy­ing. It is also a passive-aggressive form of hostility.

Jesus also lived in a cul­ture filled with food reg­u­la­tions. Orig­i­nally, the reg­u­la­tions were more than mere cer­e­mony. They were designed to help peo­ple keep healthy. Over a period of time, they came to define ulti­mate right­eous­ness — kind of like today. A per­son can be a lazy thief, but but he or she does not eat meat. There­fore, he or she stands jus­ti­fied. They cheat on their taxes, but they are veg­e­tar­i­ans and they recy­cle. Behold! They are neigh­bor­hood exam­ples of model cit­i­zens! Food Nazis are a bit schiz­o­phrenic. No mat­ter what you are eat­ing, you should be eat­ing some­thing else. It is a power game done in the guise of con­cern. Jesus, cut through this bull with phrases like, “It is not what goes into a per­son (foods), but what comes out of a per­son (words and actions) that deter­mine whether he or she is a right­eous (right liv­ing) person.”

As fears increase, so do obses­sions and their self-righteous ever-changing schiz­o­phrenic rules. The game pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less: eco-obsession, cloth­ing obses­sion, it was made in which coun­try obses­sion, who is get­ting rich over this obses­sion, what about that politi­cian obses­sion, news obses­sion, local gos­sip obses­sion, what kind of car do you drive obses­sion, what about those polit­i­cally incor­rect peo­ple obses­sion… The pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less, so are the life impov­er­ish­ing effects.

No mat­ter what you eat, you will even­tu­ally phys­i­cally die. Sooner than later, or later than sooner is really not an ulti­mate issue. The real avoided issues include: Are you con­scious of God? How do you treat oth­ers? Do you have eter­nal respect for all — includ­ing yourself?