Homosexuality and Eating Disorders

Last week, just as we were tucking into Sunday lunch, a woman eye-balled me across the table and said with real venom:  ”I will spit on anyone who calls homosexuality a sin.”  I believed her!  She’s probably the most forthright woman I’ve ever met.  She knew I was a minister (as did everyone else at [...]

Read Full Post »

Rights language sounds a lot like anorexia

Emma blogs about the dilemmas involved in force-feeding an anorexic. A rights-based culture finds these issues almost impossible.  Can we really violate a person’s sovereign sphere and force them to eat against their own free will!? It made me think of John Stuart Mill’s account of freedom in On Liberty: In the part [of the [...]

Read Full Post »

Those who worship them will become like them…

…and those who want to become like them will worship them. Here’s a gob-smacking ‘prayer to Ana’ from Emma’s blog Dear Ana: I offer you my soul, my heart and my bodily functions. I give you all my earthly possessions. I seek your wisdom, your faith and your feather weight… Read the whole chilling prayer… [...]

Read Full Post »

Learning to live

From Emma’s new article When trying to overcome harmful behaviours, people are taught how not to die.  But in truth, the challenge is learning how to live. Often techniques are given for beating eating disorders or drinking or overspending or whatever.  But the solution is not found in ratcheting up my will power.  In fact, [...]

Read Full Post »

Good with food

Apparently 50% of anorexics go on to become bulimics. That’s only counting those who admit to bulimia.  And it doesn’t include all the other eating disorders “not otherwise specified” (which are the majority of eating disorders).  My guess is that disordered eating remains a problem for the recovered ‘anorexic’ in the great majority of cases. [...]

Read Full Post »

Feminine Self-Control or Christianized Joy-Killing

Time and again Emma and I see passionate Christian women who take to hating their passions.   And they can find any number of pastel-coloured women’s devotional books to bash these feelings back down. From Emma’s blog… “A few weeks ago I was looking with a friend at some photos of her as a young [...]

Read Full Post »