Sunday, January 28, 2007

Holier, and thinner, than thou!

As with most people, at some point I subscribed to a few websites that I no longer need or value. So every once and a while I open my hot male account (yes, I like to think of my email as being a little yummy treat, just like a hot male) to find mail from one of these websites, or their affiliates. I'm not sure where this one came from. In fact, maybe it wasn't sent from another website...maybe it was Divine intervention.

I mean fate really intercepted this one for me! I had even hit the 'trash' button to send it to never-never-until-you-scrub-my-computer-land. Then the subject of the email called out to me - 'The Maker's Diet'.

'The Maker?' - I asked.

'The Maker, as in the maker of the diet? - I questioned.

'Or could it be THE Maker' - I enthused!

Of course I had to yank that baby out of the trash and peruse it. Now I'm not a particularly religious person, but all of sudden I felt a stirring in my bosom. This feeling should not be confused with the intense feeling that many get after a wonderful sermon, or reading a striking passage from the Bible, or hearing the waves crash on the shore. Those are incredible experiences for people and I don't want to take away from them.

This feeling was more, well, it was similar to the woman whose anger and contention drives her man to live in the wilderness. This diet, according to the ad I received, will teach me in 40 days to live the way God intended. In the end, if I follow 'the plan', will I not only lose weight, but have a deepened spirituality, and feel happier. I find the reference to 40 days quite humorous - but other than that I am highly offended. And it would seem to me, that others who have deeper faith in religion than I, would be even more furious!

Did this guy have a chat with God and receive a diet plan?

Did God tell him that he shouldn't give the book away free, but only to those that sign-up?

Did God say, 'Wait, I'm going to stop trying to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and watch over the world to come with my new diet plan?'

There are a lot of things that I am unsure of and I'll be the first to admit that. I'm not sure what God is like. I'm not sure what I believe about the end of life. I agree with this author that there is a viable tie between our health, our esteem, and our happiness. His notion that this is God's new directive to us, well that doesn't fly with me.

I would prefer to believe, and cherish the belief, that God loves each one of us regardless of our size. That he would prefer we spent less time trying to diet and more time getting to know Him (or Her or Them). More than anything, I believe God wants us to find love for ourselves, and love for others.

And not for a $4.95 shipping fee.

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