This was interesting. I went back and followed the links. The story here came from a Christian blog, Father Hollywood. It was an Ayn Rand Sighting because the article does referenence Rand and Atlas Shrugged. We do cut religionists some slack when they being rational. It goes on to say: And the Christian Church serves her Lord and her neighbor in this very same self-centered, oversensitive culture. This is indeed a difficult culture to minister in.
We pastors, we holders of the "Preaching Office" are called to proclaim the whole counsel of God. While we are not called to preach a gospel of physical fitness, we pastors, when proclaiming Law and Gospel, routinely run up against the same self-defeating and lashing-out attitudes as has Maria Kang.
As Luther is reputed to have said, "When you throw a stick into a pack of dogs, the one that yelps is the one that got hit."
I followed Father Hollywood back to his source of The Daily News here http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/mom-3-called-bully-excuse-fitness-photo-article-1.1487278 From there, I noted Maria Kang's appearance on Good Morning America and I eventually tracked back to her website/blog: http://www.mariakang.com/ And it is still active. So, that's good. For myself, I worked out more consistently, sometimes twice a day, when I was employed directly in a military unit. Now, my schedule changes and other excuses underscore the fact that all I ask of my body is to carry my brain around. A woman my age asked me, "If you do not work out, how long will your body actually be able to carry your brain around?" The current cultural state is abysmal, but it is not unique to us. The last time that Laurel and I watched a Thin Man movie, I was dismayed at how degenerated all of the men were, pot-bellied S-shapes. Obesity is a problem in our culture, but only because nothing else will kill you sooner. I attended an art history lecture on Women and the speaker pointed out that in the Middle Ages, when starvation was real, drinking beer was universal and being fat was attractive. In the Renaissance, the rise of coffee and tea were factors in a new view of beauty. Consider the English yeoman farmer on whom Frodo and Samwise were modeled. Good thing they carried that "survival muscle" because getting into Mordor shed some pounds. As for the animosity directed at Maria Kang, she certainly capitalized on the episode and that is commendable. If there is a "cultural" problem, it is not so much obesity, but the anonymity of online communication that empowers people to attack others. But, again, if you know the newspapers of 19th century, it is nothing new.
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