I'm only posting the image I put together, not the body of the post that went with it. New text for this.

This was one of the funnier moments at that other site for me because it was a broader message about focusing on the wrong thing and not seeing the forest for the trees. Instead, someone took offense at my lighthearted post and some of the comments that were made under the presumption it was about her personally.

As I noted at the time, the early church dealt with the issue of gluttony to a much greater extent than homosexuality. To them, the Romans' obsession with eating was obscene. Gluttony made its way into Gregory the Great's list of seven deadly sins. Right alongside lust.



Today, the church in America looks the other way at some behaviors while narrowly focusing on only a few. The old rules about temperance and modesty are out, obsessing about gay "agendas" and abortion are in. Lust is still evil, but gluttony is okay. That's very apparent at church potluck dinners and meetings held at the aptly named Golden Corral (the only more fitting name would be Golden Feeding Trough).

Many Christians have worked tirelessly in the political arena trying to control others when, in fact, they have very little control over themselves. They engage in gluttony at home, in public, even right in their churches. It's a wonder they have time to make laws against other sinful behaviors while they gorge themselves into early graves. They see HIV/AIDS as being about behavior and worked to prevent funding of research and prevention programs while arguing for more money for diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease which affect gluttons disproportionately.

Like a lot of other problems with fundamentalism, literal reading of certain passages leads to serious heresy. No need to worry about being "left behind." There is no rapture.