More specifically, I direct this to those of you who place any dietary restrictions on your followers, (the rest of you can go about your business, I’m sure I’ll get to talking to you at another point, but you’re off the hook as of right now.) Ok, so while I find the whole ” you can’t eat this!” thing kind of silly, on an intellectual level I understand that it’s not so much about what foods you can and cannot eat, but about how these restrictions force you to interrupt daily life to remind yourself that you are a follower of X religion and that you have Y values. While I suppose that has some value, I propose a challenge to you. If you’re going to insist on such banal earthly matters like telling your faithful what to/not to eat could we at least make them useful?
This idea came to mind when my youngest sister when offered bottled water waved it away, pointed to her reusable water bottle and said (sort of jokingly) “No, that’s against my religion.” This got me thinking, what if that actually were the tenant of some religion, not just something uttered by my granola-hippie sister (who, incidentally, is actually far more into real organized religion than I am. Ok while we’re talking about incidentals I should point out that I agree with her on many environmental things, including this one and I do avoid bottled water as well, but she plays ultimate frisbee for goodness sake, what am I supposed to do, not call her a granola hippie?). So then I started thinking, what if religions required that people drink tap water, that their food be locally grown/sourced, that they eat organic food, sustainable food, mostly meatless, unprocessed foods… etc etc. Or, to go in a different direction, what if religions came out and said you had to eat healthy? Whole grains! Fruits and veggies, antioxidants, omega-3… etc
Does it really help anyone if I can’t eat a bacon cheeseburger on a Friday because my religion says I can’t? Probably not. Sure, as I salivate over that burger and realize I can’t have it I’ll be thinking about my religion and values and identity and practicing restraint and self-denial and all that stuff, but couldn’t you get all those benefits and help the greater good if the food restrictions were more in line with what I’m suggesting? Oh yes, you totally could. Your move, major world religions, your move.
Irreverently yours,
AGSC
