tfl: The Flatiron Life

Returning home from church today, Jos and I heard the end of this week’s “Speaking of Faith”. The host, Krista Tippett, can sound a little hippy-dippy, but I always learn something when I listen, although I am not a regular listener.

Today’s show was about the faith of the Founders and how it is co-opted by different groups. The guest was Steven Waldman, the author of “Founding Faith.” In the segment we heard Mr. Tippett quoted Mr. Waldman quoting Pres Washington. We were both moved by it and so I share it.

In politics as in religion, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.

It is from a letter he wrote on Christmas 1795. I cannot find a source for the letter other then Mr. Waldman’s book, so I cannot link to it.

Walter E. Williams reports it will soon be pontificated that tax avoidance is a sin.

Prof. Williams asks the Bishop of Rome

 Should the Roman Catholic Church support the welfare state? Or, put more plainly, should the Church support the use of the coercive powers of government to enable one person to live at the expense of another? Put even more plainly, should the Church support the government’s taking the property of one person and giving it to another to whom it doesn’t belong?

Catholics may be in the spotlight here, but all to often when I am at the Temple or read the Social Principles I wonder the same thing about the UMC.

Today I was surfing the TV at lunch, when I spotted Gwen Shamblin on The Tyra Banks Show. I know, The Tyra Banks Show is the most ridiculous show on television, what was I thinking? But my mother was on Gwen’s diet a good 10 years ago and I couldn’t pass up a chance to re-explore a forgotten childhood memory. As a know-it-all teenager, I thought this diet was a totally wack, holy-roller plan. Gwen comes with a Southern accent, big hair, and a flamboyant worship style: all the trademarks of the televangelist that you’re not supposed to take seriously; but as I listened to Gwen today, I thought she was on to something. The plan is really no more than AA for overeating, urging people to pay attention to their bodies’ needs, eat small portions slowly, and rely on a healthy dose of faith to get them through times of temptation. The Weighdown Workshop is sort of French Women Don’t Get Fat, which I also like, plus Bible study.

On the slightly wack side, Gwen and some of the Workshop participants seemed to suggest that, when on the verge of succumbing to temptation, God would cause something to happen to the food they were about to eat: cakes falling to the floor, chips flying out of the bag when opened, etc. Since I believe that God allows temptation so that we might exercise our free will, I think you have to expect the outcome of prayer to be a change in perspective rather than circumstances.

I have the utmost respect for people who overcome eating disorders (and I use the term broadly). Most treatment programs for other addictions teach total abstinence, with food that is just not a possibility. I think, in many ways, it takes much more strength to deal with temptations in life through moderation rather than by eliminating them altogether.