Doug Wilson decided to publish a video on Canon Press last week discussing the topic of gluttony, and Wilson’a definition of gluttony was so convenient that it drew much attention. Throughout Christian tradition, gluttony has been viewed as an inordinate desire for food or habitual excess. This is contrasted with the virtue of self-control.
Doug Wilson narrows his definition of gluttony to “riotous eating.” Wilson insists that gluttony is more about a food orgy, akin to drunkenness, than it is about habitual excess. Wilson relies on the extreme example of binging and purging from antiquity. This Roman excess is then compared to substance abuse. But substance abuse falls under drunkenness, not gluttony, because gluttony is a perversion of appetite and drunkenness is a sin about the senses being inhibited. Both incorporate a lack of self-control, but for different reasons.
The Elephant In The Room
Doug Wilson insists that gluttony is not self-evident in someone’s life by appearance alone. Fair enough. There is a difference between overweight and obese. And in the case of Doug Wilson, he trends towards the latter. Doug Wilson credits his stature to having the “metabolism of a large flat garden rock.” But in reality, his caloric burn should be higher just because regular bodily functions require more energy to undergo. Obese individuals intake a copious amount of calories just to maintain their weight, whereas a 2000 calorie diet would be a deficit.
Wilson’s excuse falls flat, and so does his definition. As an aside, the only cut in the video where Wilson is shown below the shoulders comes at the end, and it is blurred. Wilson explains that gluttony makes someone unqualified to be a pastor, but insists that it is not an obvious sin in someone’s life. And much of the video is a cope about how he is not one of those pastors. The comment section similarly recognizes the convenience of Wilson’s framing.
A Counterexample
Men typically have no problem acknowledging that they are fat, and often without excuse. Wilson does not exemplify this pattern, instead having a hermaphroditic cope. In sharp contrast is Keith Foskey, who, being a fat pastor, has gone on a viral weight loss journey through a calorie-deficit diet and exercise. It would be far more becoming for Doug Wilson to go and do likewise than to make lame excuses and redefine gluttony to cope with personal failings.
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One Response
You lose all credibility when you begin by having no understanding of the actual medical science, definitions, and the etiology of “obesity.” Condemning any person based on their size demonstrates ignorance and prejudice, certainly not Christianity. And nowhere is Biblical “gluttony” accurately translated.