The Swine Flu Given For You

This story is the perfect convergence of theology, food issues and what I believe to be the center of a theology of food – Eucharist. This blurb from Soulpancake sums up the story.

It looks like a handful of Catholic churches across the country are changing their sacred practices in reaction to the swine flu (pardon me… H1N1) outbreak. A Beliefnet story indicates that hundreds of churches in Mexico have temporarily closed. Meanwhile, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is encouraging priests to wash their hands with anti-bacterial soap before Mass. Many churches are taking it a step further: In Austin, Texas, Catholic churches are being encouraged to dispose of holy water at church entrances and suspend Communion. Similar advice is being offered in Chicago and Green Bay, Wis. Now, the country’s largest Catholic high school—St. Francis Prep in Manhattan—has also shut down in light of swine flu outbreaks. I’ve always thought it a little unsanitary to share a gilded cup with thousands of other people. Maybe this outbreak—and the rapidity with which many diseases are spread today—will cause us to rethink communal religious practices.

Okay, I completely understand the health concerns. I respect those issues and take them very seriously. (Even though I’ve admitted I don’t believe in germs and I’m a fan of the common cup. I want to be able to drink deeply at communion and I mean that.) However, I think this is actually a symptom of something deeper that is going on.

First, it points to the continued depersonalization and fragmentation of our communities. Part of what makes us so afraid of things like the swine flu is our lack of community. We don’t know our neighbors and fellow congregants. Fear breeds and grows in a petri dish of the unknown. This doesn’t mean that just by knowing each other better we will prevent disease, but it does mean that we would react differently.

Historically, faithful Christians have often been the ones to care for those ravaged by disease and plague. Rodney Stark claims that this is an essential element of what precipitated the growth of Christianity prior to Constantine. When we embody our doctrines in acts of compassion and mercy the kingdom becomes flesh and blood. What would this mean right now for the swine flu (or future outbreaks or the financial crisis)?

Second, this outbreak has been connected over and over again to the conditions created by factory farms. It is true that there has not been an actual link established yet, but it is clear that the conditions for swine flu to develop come from our industrial food system (New Scientist).

In this sense the food system has now infected the Eucharist. Our insanity in food production has made its way into the church’s central act of worship. We should certainly care for our members and take precautions. We should also be outraged that our disconnection from each other and our food has now infected our spiritual practices.

How could we practice Eucharist in a way that would protest this system and stand against the problems that it is creating? I don’t know. I’m really asking, because I think this is what the Eucharist should be.

The Long and Short of It

Tonight I am teaching at Meadow Oaks Baptist Church where I’ve been a member for about 4 years. I am teaching about my journey and calling toward agricultural missions and understanding the role food plays in our lives, globalization and justice. This is a pretty concise summation of why food is so important, my theology of mission and how food fits into God’s mission for the world. By concise I mean I had to cut a whole lot of important stuff out. Luckily I have a wife who listens to me ramble and tells me which parts to cut and which parts don’t make sense. So this is both very long for a blog post, but too short to say everything I wanted.

The full text after the jump.

Do I Have to Eat?

Sometimes I think, “Is eating really necessary?” I’ll confess I’m addicted to Raisin Bran. It’s somewhat of a mystery, but it’s partly due to the speed at which I try to live life. (Maybe I should open a Cereal Bar) I’m usually in too big a hurry to actually make food for breakfast or lunch. It’s this very attitude that I want to fight against.

Is there a middle ground between being obsessed with food and functioning in our modern world? The solution for many is to go with the flow and just not think about it. For others they retreat to the country where they can control the pace of life, places like the World Hunger Farm and Homestead Heritage. Maybe the latter option is still a form of control that is not entirely healthy.

What about the millions and billions of people for whom neither of these options is really helpful? If they ignore the food, or lack thereof, they eat they will suffer the consequences, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure, or hunger and starvation. However, they cannot choose to buy organic local produce or start their own farm. Their choices are limited.

Clearly those with the choices must be the ones to make change. Yet somehow I still choose Raisin Bran…Go figure!

image from jsynnott.

The Nutrient Stands Alone

Michael Pollan points to nutrition science as one of the problems with our food system. It’s both a feature and limitation of science to break things down into their component parts in order to understand them. This led to the current method of fertilizing crops using petroleum based fertilizer containing the “essential” nutrients Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorous. Unfortunately, this way of understanding soil and what makes things grow does not take into account the function of the nutrients within the context of soil. We have come to understand food the same way and it distorts our notion of health.

Eat. Drink. Better. has a helpful post explaining Why Nutrients Should Not Stand Alone which includes a quote from Marion Nestle on why it’s better to consume nutrients as part of whole foods:

(1) you get the full variety of nutrients—vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc–in that food, not just the one nutrient in the supplement; (2) the amounts of the various nutrients are balanced so they don’t interfere with each other’s digestion, absorption, or metabolism; and (3) there is no possibility of harm from taking nutrients from foods (OK. Polar bear liver is an exception; its level of vitamin A is toxic). In contrast, high doses of single nutrients not only fail to improve health but also can make things worse, as has been shown in some clinical trials of the effects of beta-carotene, vitamin E, and folic acid, for example, on heart disease or cancer. And foods taste a whole lot better, of course.

I walked into one of those Vitamin chain stores not too long ago and was floored by how many different bottles of pills they sell. Science Fiction often portrayed the food of the future as a pill we would take for each meal. It seems they weren’t so far off after all.

The Cookie Diet

Bonnie at the Ethicurean saw a kiosk for Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet at the Food and Society Conference. The cookies “controls your hunger so you can stick to your diet!” Seems wrong and oh-so American to combine weight loss with cookies. I don’t know how to begin explaining the levels of wrongness.
The website says: “Are Dr. Siegal’s cookies delicious? Are they magical? Do they perform miracles? No. They taste good but we wouldn’t call them delicious. Delicious cookies make people fat. As for magic and miracles… well… you probably know the answer.”