F I T N E S S
For those of you who have worked re- wrong motives. One commentator notes ill. Most sadly, self-satisfaction complete- wisdom: humans must not reduce God’s tail, you are familiar with the petty jabs that this “Herculean effort to appear ef- ly hinges on whether or not that person prescriptions to arbitrary maxims. The employees tend to hurl secretly at cus- fortless” in our body maintenance only had a “good” workout. Pharisees undermined the purpose of tomers. Work any job long enough and “keeps us silent or nonchalant about the Not surprisingly, compulsive exer- rest by being so uptight about something you will unfortunately secure a hyper- pain we’re in.” Because our culture so cel- cising is often intertwined with eating as basic as gathering food. And Christ’s awareness of customer “flaws”. I remem- ebrates fitness, it is difficult for some to disorders, which 10 million Americans underpinning logic remains the same in ber a specific day when my boss relayed consider the reality of this pain or discuss struggle with today. According to eating the case of physical fitness: we must not to me what irked him about a customer it with others. In Christian circles specifi- disorder specialist Brenda Woods, many exploit something as beneficial as physihe had interacted with earlier. The cus- cally, we tend to delegate accountability people struggling with eating disorders cal exercise to the point that we undertomer’s faults included: “creepily” inquir- to more “black and white” spiritual con- choose exercise as a form of purging be- mine both enjoyment and purpose of it. ing about my absence, possessing an un- cerns, like whether I’ve spent enough time cause “it is more socially acceptable.” ExIf Christ is to showcase His redemptive warranted snarky tone, and, worst of all, in Scripture or have consistently kept up ercise becomes “penance for eating too power through His people, if “rivers of transgressing rules of physical propriety with my prayer life. But when it comes to much”; and the equipment screen that living water” (John 7:38) are to overflow by being “out of shape.” a suffocating, high-priority exercise rou- gauges “calories burned” installs itself in out of the church into a world parched for Now, being an English major means I tine, it’s easier to assume that something this exerciser’s mind as a 24-7 measure of Truth, our priorities and behavior must mentally chew on even the most flippant is wrong with me—that I must approach shame, monitoring that person’s every ac- radically deviate from the world’s norms. insults and this one was no exception. my workout more energetically or with a tivity or meal so the calories burned from Paul’s exerts us in Roman’s 12:2, “do not Eventually I concluded his last phrase better attitude—if I am feeling any kind an earlier workout were not a waste. conform to the pattern of this world, but choice struck me because it was so spe- of “maintenance burden.” It should not come as any surprise by be transformed by the renewing of your cific. It wasn’t the generic (but equally inThe subtly overbearing nature of fit- now that, according to one study, more mind.” Only once we recognize where we excusable) dismissal of someone as “fat,” ness today spawns two ironic negative than half of American women between do conform can we start to eradicate the but jargon that more specifically critiqued effects. For one, such incessant attention the ages of eighteen and twenty-five lies and prejudices that dictate such consomeone’s lack of physical exercise. to body sculpting often generates more would prefer to be run over by a truck or formity. Perhaps Christians must, as one In this one condescending phrase I dislike toward our bodies than less when die young than be fat, and more than two- author articulates, put “our society on couldn’t help but see a microcosm of a we can’t whip them into the exact shape thirds would rather be mean or stupid. the scales” so we will see “the fatness of much more large-scale and unhealthy atIn such a society where “diet and fit- our prejudices, the fitness of our norms, titude toward bodily fitness today. I beness information are everywhere,” but and the thinness of our tolerance.” If we lieve American culture’s fitness obsession “messages of wellness and authentic health as Christians consistently allow Scripture has become such a pervasive ideology are nowhere” (29), have we arrived at a and prayer to saturate our minds, we can that it nearly renders lack of exercise a point where it is impossible to distin- eradicate lies that distort the idea of selfkind of vice and, conversely, exalts physiguish the difference between the two? worth. By instead digging into what it cal fitness as a virtue. But I specifically I think this issue is especially rel- means to have our worth rooted in Christ want to explore how this flawed mentalevant to students on our campus for two and not appearance, we can compensate ity impacts Christians today—particularreasons. First, many experts agree that for the damage that has been caused by ly, Christian college students. exercise addiction is most prevalent on emphasis on bodily value and cultivate a No doubt the media both fuels and college campuses. It’s no surprise that gentle understanding toward un-believfeeds on today’s “aerobic fitness craze author Courtney E. Martin deems the ers or brothers or sisters in Christ who du jour” as a way to propagate distorted college years as “body obsession boot struggle with body image pressure or standards of beauty. Hollywood manucamp.” When students first arrive to exercise addiction. The counselors at CU factures one celebrity after the other, like college— “fresh and clean, and totally, counseling services desire to help anyone commodities in high demand, to fit (quite completely freaked out” (215) — they struggling with these pressures, and they literally) the prototype of “buff ” or “thin.” plunge into a sea of insecurity in which have already helped many students here Constance Rhodes, author of Life Inside everyone is clamoring for attention and on campus let go of unhealthy eating and the Thin Cage, recognizes that for womacceptance from each other. A student’s exercise habits by consistently speaking en specifically, “Television programming intense need to be accepted, combined truth to them. continues to project images that glorify a we want. Indeed, “an era of exercise has with high-stress academic lifestyle, leaves When we do engage in physical exerbarely-there body” (134). brought more obsession and self-hatred physical exercise quite an attractive cop- cise, we can do so in a way that welcomes It may be easy for the rest of us (Chris- rather than less” (71). And it is often this ing mechanism. Exercise becomes an community and emanates genuine enjoytians especially) to “villainize” the celeb- judgment of oneself that becomes the outlet for stress and a method of control ment that is free from any kind of expecrity lifestyle and dismiss it as foreign to engine accelerating the impulse to judge over weight, which becomes an illusion tations or unrealistic standards. Then we our own; but these distorted values and others, even with such seemingly minor of control over what feels like a destabi- can be the “fragrance” of Christ (2 Cor behaviors have so diffused within society insults as “out of shape.” A kind of air- lized life. The other reason I believe this 2:15), dispelling the odor of desperate that the pressure to achieve an ultra- thin borne condescension can loom through- issue pertains to students on our cam- maintenance, constant comparison, and or muscular body is tangible to believers out the fitness center, and feelings of in- pus is because Christians can especially secret shame that often surrounds the and unbelievers alike—no matter how adequacy linger with a contagious nature fall prey to equating fitness with virtue. high priority of fitness. distanced either group claims to be from that rubs off on others as easily as the I can’t help but think that the religious Exercise can be a wonderful thing, the media. Indeed, the importance that germs that linger on the elliptical. word used earlier—“penance”— oper- and our infinite variety of physical acour culture allots to body upkeep has beBut perhaps more ironic is the fact ates for Christians, to varying degrees, in tivities reflects the creativity that God come disturbingly normalized and rarely that the centrality of fitness in the priori- the area of exercise. The Christian logic endowed us with. It is lovely to be able challenged; one expert even suggests that ties of believers and non-believers alike that we must be “good stewards” of our relish a jog in the morning or bike ride in this “increased tolerance for thinness actually undermines the original intent bodies is fragile and often misinterpreted, the evening, to get caught up in a game of and ambivalence about excessive exercise” of health. People become so “corseted un- becoming an easy way to augment guilt basketball with friends, or to coordinate has become one of “the biggest changes der tight external constraints… through at not working out or to justify exercise your bike pedaling to the beat of the muin our collective consciousness.” diets and exercises” that they comply routines that are more spiritually de- sic in spin class. Creativity should lead To think instinctively that this change with the “social prescriptions of specific structive than physically beneficial. Also, to beauty and enjoyment, not captivity. in society’s tolerance is a good thing, be- body sculpture to the point of jeopardiz- the idea of perfection can too easily in- 1Timothy 4:8 says, “For the training of cause exercise is a good thing, would only ing their own health”. Essayist Mark Greif tertwine with the idea of sanctification in the body has some benefit, but godliness affirm the aforesaid argument. This toler- also pinpoints this irony, saying that “ex- the Christian’s life; Christians often be- is beneficial in every way, since it holds ance of excessive exercise has spawned ercise flirts with a will to annihilate the come overwhelmed with a sense of hav- promise for the present life and also for thoughts and behaviors that are far from unattractive body rather than to preserve ing to perfect every area of their life as an the life to come.” Here God does not nebeneficial. There is no way around it: for its longevity” (69). And a full-blown love attestation to their spiritual progress, and gate the benefit of exercise; He recognizes one to maintain what he or she perceives affair between this will and exercise can body becomes an easy, tangible target for it but at the same time subordinates it to as the “perfect” body takes great time, result in compulsive exercise, or exercise perfection. the cultivation of a healthy spiritual life. great energy, and a great toll on mental addiction. In Scripture, Jesus pinpoints a hu- When we as Christians make an effort to and spiritual well-being. As a person’s Over-exercising will yield not only a man tendency to which we will always be exercise our minds as Paul advises in Roworkout intensifies from 4 to 5 days a slew of physical “overuse syndromes”— susceptible—the tendency to so uphold mans 12:2, reevaluating our motives in week, from 25 minutes of running to 35 including stress fractures, low heart rate, rules and regulations that we miss the every practical pursuit, then we harness minutes of running, to having to burn amenorrhea, and osteoporosis—but point of them. A Christian’s understand- fitness toward its original purpose, which 100 calories more than yesterday, one emotional and relational problems as ing of bodily stewardship is not exempt Puritan Richard Sibbes says well: “This motive slowly becomes the slave driver well. Compulsive exercisers will let exer- from this blunder. I can’t help but think is a sign of man’s victory over himself, of that person’s exercise regiment: main- cise dictate social life to the extent they of Mark 2:27, when Jesus tells the Phari- when he loves health and peace of body tenance. will turn down social events so as not sees, after they scorn Him for picking and mind… chiefly for this end, that he Yet many gym-goers today neglect miss a scheduled workout, exercise alone grain in the fields, that “The Sabbath was may with freedom of spirit serve God in the possibility that exercise can become to maximize the intensity of their work- made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” doing good to others.” a kind of bondage when governed by the outs, and even exercise when injured or Here Christ gives us simple but profound
“exercise flirts with a will to annihilate the unattractive body rather than to preserve its longevity”
Cammy Sray
Criminal continued choosing whether to “like” someone on Facebook or not have made obvious by the public reactions over the acquittals of Anthony and Knox. Two questions: how many Americans have, with no bias, examined the evidence in the trials to make a personal decision about either woman’s guilt? Yet, how many of those same people have an immovable opinion on both trials? As Americans, we need to examine whether the death of “innocent until proven guilty” will harm the country. The answer needs to be more complex than yes or no. Further, as Cedarville students, we need to go against the grain- not follow the herd instinct instilled in us through our extreme exposure to visual arguments. But the newly empowered
individual voice- that is something we can use to our advantage. Whether on social media sites, through the printed word, or anywhere else, our knowledge of this problem gives us an obligation to share it with our fellow men and women not just in America, but around the world. Perhaps we could raise a new generation of culturally aware Americans and leave the stain of ignorance behind us. That would be a step towards true social justice. John Michael Mumme