St.Thomas Aquinas defines gluttony as excessive indulgence in food and drink and gives five ways such excess may occur: “too soon, too expensively, too much, too eagerly, too daintily.” CS Lewis says much the same thing in his Mere Christianity.

St.John of the Cross also talks about a spiritual glutton, someone who is constantly seeking new religious experiences and more intense sensations. How many “praise bands” are guilty of this?

1) Why do you assume obese people are gluttons? I’m overweight, and I’m not a glutton. I’m not active enough. Many overweight people eat too much. Others have complex metabolical and nutritional issues. Women have different weight issues than men.

2) In The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis makes the point that gluttony is the insistence on gratifying the senses and has little to do with excess. It can be just as much a manifestation of control, so the skinny person who insists their salad be perfect and terrorizes the restaurant staff is a glutton by Lewis’s measurement.

3) What’s the break point for being too big? I have girls at my school who weigh 120 and believe they are overwieight. Where does the “too thin” component of this come in?

4) Where is the weight issue per se addressed in scripture?

5) If you are on the right track, you’ve just emptied the pulpits of 90% of the Baptist Churches I know!

6) Can a compulsive concern for personal appearance be a sin?

peace

ms

Patrick, this sentence bothers me profoundly. My initial response is, “Have you excused yourself, then?” The judgment and control evident in it are troubling. As the Man Himself said, only the sick need a doctor.

As a praise band we have not kicked anyone out because of their weight (we have 2 people that would fit into this category, and possibly 3 if I fit into the category), and I do not have any plans to do so. But as I think about this issue, as well as the church disciple issues you have written about recently, I wonder if we should be doing more to help these people get out of this life of sin, rather than praising them because they don’t fit a specific stereotype that we are getting tired of.

Church Worship is about enhancing the worship experience with God – what you look like should not matter because it matters not to the one who is getting the attention – (i.e God) – for that matter, skill should weigh a little less then devotion to the task but I digress.

CCM is a business – it is marketed, targeted, and prepackaged for human consumption, and in that regard, you are going to see it and the participants treated as a commodity where looks are important. It’s in Nashville, and that’s the way the town is, and the labels that generally own the CCM labels are usually owned be Secular record companies who see the music as a niche like Americana, Hip-hop, and Top 40.

I used to play in CCM bands and work at CCM radio stations – that’s just business, folks – and it never changes, whether secular or Christian. That is how business operates.

RB

I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in what I would describe as an urban area, although the city itself is only about 26,000 or so.

I grew up in a major city in the middle of South Louisiana Cajun country.

Taking stats about the acceptance of facially deformed people in churches? :O)