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When Barbara Rusk recently got together with the small group of Forbearance members responsible for organizing the church’s traditional Christmas potluck dinner, she brought with her a newfound zeal for culinary reform. She no longer viewed food as simply fuel for the body’s journey, but rather as a key element of corporeal and spiritual perfection—overeating was out, abstinence was in. Barbara was, in short, a diet junkie whose stack of bedside reading consisted of a pile of self-help books promising the nirvana of eternal slimness, a state of bliss that, while temporarily out of her grasp, was nevertheless her determined goal. Her enthusiasm for fat reform had led her through discipleship to various diet techniques—Atkins, low carbohydrate, no sugar, herbal supplements, veganism, obsessive exercise, all fiber, fruitarian—and finally to what she now considered the holy grail of reducing wisdom, religious weight-loss programs based loosely on the precepts found in Leviticus. Leviticus was not, however, exactly light reading for Barbara and, when she emerged from a somewhat cursory perusal of its prohibitions and prescriptions, she gleaned only that animal fat was out, some birds were in, burnt offerings were good, animals that walk on their paws were bad, grains were fine, camels and vultures were not, finned fish with scales were good, swarming creatures were not. Those nuggets, together with all the assorted dietary advice from other sources still lurking in her head, formed the basis for her determination to radically alter Forbearance’s Christmas dinner menu. She was on a mission, but it was a mission destined to butt heads with the small group assembled before her. “Fish? You want to serve fish? For Christmas dinner?” they protested.
Charlotte Johnstone is a member of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She (and the cast of Forbearance Presbyterian Church) welcomes comments. Write to her at Horizons, 100 Witherspoon St., Louisville, KY 40202-1396, or email wjohns4949@aol.com. Call 800/524-2612 |
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