Prevailing Winds "For the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom . . ." 2 Cor. 3:17, TNIV

August 25, 2008

Feasts and Freegans

Filed under: Uncategorized — keelyem @ 3:30 pm

May we all acknowledge, first of all, that butter does, indeed, make for a richer, more flavorful sauce?

That seems to have been worth a post on Blog and Mablog last week as part of the Bishop of Moscow’s recent treatises on “father hunger” and food caution, body image and food origins, feasting and all things both gustatorial and ecclesiastic. Sumptuous Sabbath feasts, with rich sauces, hearty wines, and decadent chocolates, are an important part of Wilson’s theology of covenant and right living, an embrace of pleasure and plenty that extends to his assertion that Christmas presents are absolutely good and necessary for the proper celebration of our Savior’s birth. (I presume this rules out gift-giving through, say, the Heifer Project, since Heifer doesn’t provide for ribbons, wrapping, and fudge). I can’t imagine being a vegetarian, vegan, or food-allergy sufferer whose pastor equates concern over healthy diet with father hunger, and who calls for The Eating Of Big Food as a spiritual discipline. Even as a non-congregant, I struggled with how to respond to his theology of cholesterol-as-divine-unction.

But then I read about Aaron Weiss.

Aaron is the lead singer of an alternative band called Me Without You. He identifies as a Christ-follower. And he has a “theology of food” radically different from the prevailing notion that no Sabbath fellowship is complete without kitchen frenzy, tables full of calorie-laden pot roasts and fricasees, and happy, hungry Christians loosening their belt buckles as preparation for celebration. Aaron Weiss is a “freegan,” or someone who, usually for economic or political reasons, chooses to procure his food from dumpsters, discarded restaurant meals, and other sources off the economic grid. Freegans generally believe that food is a necessity and not merely an economic commodity; opting out of the retail purchasing system is viewed as a statement against food’s existence merely as a market commodity that restricts its availability to the poor.

Now, I haven’t ever Dumpster-dived for my meals, and I buy food just like everyone else, although like most of you I try to buy and eat responsibly. But it’s refreshing to see these young Christian ascetics battling against the bloated affluence and misguided embrace of the material as their statement of solidarity with the poor. I don’t know to what degree Aaron Weiss suffers from “father hunger” — I suspect he’s just fine, really — but I applaud the fervor with which he strives to identify with the have-nots in a world, a Church, full of well-fed, unexamined fat souls. Poor kid. He may grow out of his radicalism, or not, but he’s likely to not proclaim the balm of Gilead as a butter-based salve for his soul and tummy.

I applaud brothers like Aaron Weiss, and I lament that he’ll never have the pulpit of a big, far-reaching web of ministry to stir the Church to a more reflective, responsible, Christ-honoring view of food and feasting. Christian liberty is not a license to mindlessly consume food and disregard common sense in diet and common decency in procurement, and Moscow’s Governors of Gluttony should see in Aaron Weiss a corrective straight from the Spirit.

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