Monday, January 24, 2011

Lies Women Believe

Here is a big one. Some women believe that women are more overweight than men. Some women feel that being overweight is a feminine problem. And some women are attributing this to the Bible.

Does the Bible really tell us that the sin of Eve is overeating? Nancy Leigh DeMoss, in Lies Women Believe, And the Truth that sets them Free, page 56, writes,
I have often wondered why food is such an issue with so many women. I'm convinced it has something to do with Genesis 3. After all, what was the very first sin? It was the sin of overeating.
Got that? It happens that this book is being used across North America in women's Bible studies to bring the truth to women.

In fact, it is a lie that women overeat more than men. It is a lie that being a Christian will make you less likely to be overweight than being a non-Christian. It is a lie that not being under male headship will make you more likely to be overweight. Can we put this one to rest?

Here are a few trends that people with more time than I have are welcome to google. Although there are more women than men among the extremely obese, on average, more men than women are overweight and obese. Men with a conservative Christian affiliation are more overweight than other men, and male clergy are more overweight again.

(Who ever thought up weight as a measure of spirituality anyway, and then aimed that gun at women? Probably some self-congratulatory klatch of super skinny and over spiritual men and women.)

14 comments:

Amanda B. said...

From my observation, although our culture as a whole is casting off as many set moral values as possible, it seems to have grabbed onto the weight issue as an actual moral outrage. Food is beginning to be seen as virtuous (e.g. a light salad) or malicious and evil (e.g. McDonald's) or sinfully indulgent (anything chocolate). We hear it all over the place in how people talk to each other: "I was so good, I only had half a plate of food at that buffet!" or "Oh, I was so bad yesterday, I ate an entire bowl of Ben & Jerry's. WITH fudge sauce."

To the world, being skinny is really seen as a mark of a good person, and being fat is seen as being morally, or at least intellectually, suspect. Society could hardly care less about scores of very serious moral issues, but the entire force of media is willing to rally in shock and outrage at the "obesity epidemic", i.e., "Would someone please think of the children?!" Skinniness is not seen as a matter of personal appearance, or even health; it is seen as an obligation to society as a whole--particularly for women.

In a culture that still values women mostly by what they look like, this adversely affects them in an disproportionate way. If our looks are one of the most important things about us, then it is a travesty when we fail "morally" in that area. It's not just a small personal flaw, it is a grotesque and utter failure as a human being. And because men are not as often primarily valued for their looks, they can usually afford to be substantially heavier before anyone starts hurling weight-related slurs at them. Men don't usually get flak about their weight until they are clearly obese, if then. Women get mocked and join in the self-deprecation when they are even a single dress size above where they "should" be.

I have been grieved to see this spreading through Christian women's literature as if it's helpful biblical truth. It's not. It's blindly receiving what the world calls morality and finding a few extremely tenuous proof-texts to try and make it a Christian ideal. This weight-focused obsession only sends countless women into depression, eating disorders, health problems, and self-hatred. There is nothing remotely redemptive about it. There is nothing about "looking as good as you feel" that furthers the work of Christ in our hearts individually, or furthers the gospel in the world. Proudly fitting into those size 4 jeans does nothing to glorify Jesus in our own eyes or in anyone else's. Our time, energy, and money are being poured into the idol of the perfect body, leaving us greatly crippled and depleted when it comes to the actual work of the Kingdom.

Food is not a moral issue. Weight is not a moral issue. It's a good idea to stay healthy, but it is emphatically NOT our Christian duty to be skinny and conventionally attractive (though of course, neither is it our Christian duty to avoid being so). In the end, one's exact weight really just doesn't matter that much in the eternal scheme of things.

The fact that thinness is being played as a motivation for women to be under male headship, and even to be Christian, shows how grossly misplaced our priorities have become.

Mara Reid said...

Are you serious?

The first sin was the sin of overeating?

Who thought that woman had enough moral authority to write a book?

Donald Johnson said...

The first sin in Gen was disobeying God and was when the man did not obey the charge from God to guard/protect the garden.

EricW said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
EricW said...

Some things are too stupid to merit comment.

Anonymous said...

I agree with E. Nancy Demoss is nutcase. Anything to heap more sin upon women. Her TW conference is full of silly stuff for women. Anything to get their minds off Christ and onto themselves!

So Eve ATE because she was a greedy glutton. It was not about being more like God, after all? And Adam ate because he was lured by Eve. But the garden was perfect and she never had to want for anything like food! What nonsense.


In fact, women were made to carry more fat for childbearing reasons and one reason it is harder for them to lose. Think of the abornally skinny women who cannot menustrate. There is a reason.

I once attened an SBC convention and was stunned to see thousands of fat male pastors.

Paula said...

I once attened an SBC convention and was stunned to see thousands of fat male pastors.
It's women's fault for all those potluck dinners, dontcha know. But if our place is in the kitchen...

Eric's right, there is nothing to say to such stupidity. It's as bad as the FBC Jax report of a pastor who says we must tithe because the ancient pagans always brought something to their gods to appease them.

The Christian world has lost its marbles along with its witness.

Natasha said...

Wow. Have we entered the christian twilight zone?

"I have often wondered why food is such an issue with so many women. I'm convinced it has something to do with Genesis 3. After all, what was the very first sin? It was the sin of overeating."

How does someone actually have the hubris to make such a baldfaced... okay, I'll say it... lie? o_O
That statement is so absurd it's almost funny- if you don't consider the fact that a lot of impressionable young women (and men) may believe the falsehood.

And never mind the absurd eisegesis (sp?), how is it gluttony to eat half of a piece of fruit??

Using that same sort of interpreting, I propose that Adam's first sin was laziness or sloth. After all he didn't get his own forbidden fruit but waited around for Eve to get it for him... ;)

Anonymous said...

I recommend everyone go over to amazon and leave a review on how this is false teaching about what happened in the garden and not to buy into such silliness.

Few people ever challenge these women because there are so few venues to question them in and tons of followers will buy the book and blindly follow.

Anonymous said...

Have you actually read the book or just that one paragraph? I've read it and that's not what I took away from it at all. Seems like you're taking NLD out of context.

JaneDoeThreads said...

Wow here lately it seems all the Ritual Abuse [iniquity in my family, going way back, secret society, Masons, Knight's Templar, Catholic, Government [born in D.C.] and religion-occult with gambling, yes, all true], and what God has shown me [about the occult in Christianity today/well it's been around since A.D.]

I'm seeing it all over the place in these blogs, Food was one of the ritual abuses done to me,

as child. It was one of the first actually, used to starve me into obedience, then used to control my brain [sugar was one of main ones] and well, without going into detail, I was taught to obsess over my body, you see in RA they train you through abuse to be the perfect sex slave-whore. Whore of Babylon, this goes back to ancients btw,

anyhow, the teachings along with the rod [without staff] child abuse/which is nothing more than MLK teachings/methods, what was used on me, the BDSM/pedophilia training in marriage ministries by many of these same ultra-patriarchs [it's sorcery folks, clear and cut, it's sorcery],

now the food, yea, I'm reliving a nightmare, seriously, I wish I could just write all this down somewhere and all read, because it's sorcery, no way around it, it's BAEL in church, might as well draw up the clay image of Ishtar and Inanna, and put her in the churches because this is Exactly where these food/being thin teachings of these women,

are coming from, through Electrical mean no less [that's part of it too, brain waves, electric Alpha and Theta controls], which goes back to Bael as well,

food, one thing that stood out to me was something King David said in Psalms about the 'worm' inside, our intestine is a worm like thing, that drives humans to madness when not fed, to control that you see, one can control what the brain/mind does in a person,

control that, you then have the perfect 'slave', you see this was the goal of the ancient cults, women especially, the temple prostitutes, the more Dead they are the better, [I believe the fgms of numerous nation including Peru where they pack the woman inside with clay is also related to the death love thing], making women into dead zombies, through starvation and rape,

the men into willing martyrs for war, this is All ancient Eastern cultism, sorcery [and Mayan], the perfect

sacrifices to Molech, passing children through fire, the dead will have no issue in doing this to children, on the high places, there is a lot to this, but food I know,

is one of the biggest tools they use, because we are so dependent on food to survive, it's also in the temptation of Jesus,

this is why extreme fasting is prevalent in the occult other gods worship, when the body is weak/starved the 'altars' are then free to work,

or demons.

I don't know how it all works, but I know enough, to know it's related, these increasing emphasis on thinness, on women, is directly occult, they utilize the guilt of having food [while numerous women in east are starved and their children die--they are perfect slave masses],

to manipulate into self hate and self starving,

the man who cut himself, at the tombs, filled with legion,

remember him? Self starving food, is same thing,

God says, to Israel, come out of her, come out of Babylon,

to those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying....they use food in excess to control, the lure, they use food then, to starve, to have access, inside, to control,

this is where the love-hate relationship with food comes into force.

Jane

JaneDoeThreads said...

[see top reply] I started to write something about the connection to RA [ritual abuse] temple prostitution and food, thought of the temples where Paul says not to eat food sacrificed to demons, but backed out [I get this fear that I'm treading on unknown, it's hell breaking free from what I'm dealing with]

anyway, so I was prompted to look up, food and ancient Mesopotamia, sure enough,

here you go, I am going to get the book, I KNEW I wasn't crazy, I always know when Jesus is delivering me [and I had dream last night so yea, this makes sense] and why so many posts today on either child abuse teachings or this food one Triggered me in huge way,

and I was right, it IS occult,

see: http://books.google.com/books?id=pr8-i1iFnIQC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=food+sacrifices+in+ancient+Mesopotamia+cults&source=bl&ots=328fTp1mhr&sig=8yiQ6WRa4TqPb7XwztI-Id-rqjw&hl=en&ei=-Y1ATaDQDoG2sAOdvvGHCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

sorry it's long but yea, here it is, for so long, so many have I think thought I was crazy, why I keep saying what is in church is Occult,

but I am finding more and more I am not insane, I knew and have sensed something very evil about so much, from what I've been shown in being delivered from the mind control and my main abuser I suspect [and her brother] were both victims of MLK and Occultism heavily in secret societies/gov/gambling-crime family and Catholic church back east. I just didn't know how far it went Back to B.C.,

until I looked up gambling, and saw it's divination, from B.C., dice, which is also in Mayan,

anyway....food, libations, it's part of the ancient sorcery-occult. Demon worship,

Jane

Dorcas (aka SingingOwl) said...

Oh my. New heights of nonsense from Nancy. Poor Eve...sure gets blamed for a LOT, doesn't she?

believer333 said...

Just a small defense for Nancy Leigh DeMoss ...... as a stalwart complementarian she was probably urged to write on that subject since stalwart gender hierarchalist men like to have their women slender. Remember that gender hierarchalist men tell the women what they can and cannot teach on. They are the boundary makers and keepers.