Religious Fasting Part 3
You are enough, you are not too much
Today is the 3rd and final installment of my series on religious fasting. You can catch part one here and part two here.
Again, I want to clarify that I’m talking about religious fasting in the Christian tradition, because that is what I’m familiar with. For those interested in a Jewish perspective, I would check out A Mitzvah to Eat. If you know of a resource from a Muslim perspective, please let me know; I would love to include it here!
Religious fasting part 3, eh? Where were we? In part 1, I gave my history with religious fasting, wherein I describe my foray into extended fasting which resulted in a mental breakdown. In part 2, I shared the experiences of friends and acquaintances, and their experiences were a mixed bag.
Before I reach my conclusions about religious fasting, I want to share some Scripture that was really clarifying for me.
If you’re so inclined, read Colossians 2:16, 20-23 with me. (link to the passage at Biblegateway.com)
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day…20 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
First of all, St. Paul says, don’t let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink! If you decide not to fast when others around you are, you can be confident in pursuing peace for your own body.
The rules of the world (aka diet culture) are “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” and they aren’t worth following. Note that Paul says these have an “appearance of wisdom”—as does diet culture—and “harsh treatment of the body”—diet culture again—"but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
Basically, to me, Paul is saying that the harsh message of food observance rituals (including fasting) doesn’t actually accomplish self-control. It doesn’t make you a better person to observe or not observe the religious food rules.
These verses have been really key for me in letting go of religious food rules in my journey toward healing.
Now, I want to share my conclusions about religious fasting.
Religious fasting is dangerous.
That’s it. That’s my conclusion.
When I started thinking about this series, my initial take was this: I don’t think it’s possible for Americans (specifically) to fast without it being tainted by diet culture, and so I don’t think it is possible to do fasting well and in a healthy way.
However, I’m trying to go less hard in the paint for things in generalizations when there are specifics I don’t know about. So, at the risk of being too easy on religious fasting, I won’t say that it’s impossible or wrong to undertake a healthy religious fast in our thinness-obsessed culture.
But I will say—definitively—that it’s dangerous.
There are so many lives—yes, literal lives—at stake when it comes to religious fasting and eating disorders. I want to share some striking details about eating disorders, taken from the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) website: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/statistics/.
An estimated 8.6% of women and 4.07% of men have an eating disorder.
Eating disorders are the deadliest mental illnesses, behind only one other: opioid addiction.
Every 52 minutes, one person in the United States dies as a direct result of an eating disorder.
Those are just some facts about these deadly diseases.
With these statistics, do we really need to risk it with religious fasting from food? I don’t think we do.
Do you or does someone you know have an eating disorder? If you need resources for help and healing, please reach out to me via email.
What do you think? Can you relate to that passage from Colossians? Have you experienced the dangers of religious fasting?
Peace,
Amanda Martinez Beck