Log In

Reset Password
BERMUDA | RSS PODCAST

Sins and sensibility

You know that kids say the darndest things, right?Yesterday I discovered the age-old saying had some cause and relevance too.My wife and I were in the car with our three kids when my 12-year-old son asked, "Dad, it's a sin to commit suicide isn't it?""Yes,” I replied. “God said in His commandments that we shalt not kill. So killing yourself is a sin."My boy pondered this for a moment. He's bright, with an intriguing mind...which you about to find out."Dad, if suicide is a sin, then are Christians sinning every time they eat junk food?"What a question. And what a train of thought to get there. I asked him where did that come from? He said, "Well if eating junk food is slowly killing you, and if a Christian knows about it, aren't they deliberately killing themselves to get to meet Jesus sooner?"I don’t know the answer to that.If you eat nothing but junk food, your chances of contracting some cancer-related or diabetes-related illness is magnified astronomically. That's a proven fact. So if it's known, and Christians want to meet their maker sooner, are some of them consuming garbage on such a scale as to impoverish their health?"I think sugar should be called a weapon of mass destruction," my boy Zac then added as the theme of the conversation took on a walk down the crazy side."Perhaps it should," I agreed. "It is certainly, when consumed heavily, a toxic explosion in your mouth."But the Christian question did not leave me long after the conversation turned to beaches and Xbox etc.I actually laid in bed last night thinking it through. Is eating loads of junk food a slow but deliberate way to terminate one's life earlier than perhaps it should?And are Christians, who are in receipt of such diet-related knowledge, treating their bodies, known in scripture as their temples, with such disdain as to actually be sinning supposing they are eating junk food all the time?If God truly created all of us in His manner, and if He created sin so as to provide us all with free choice, then He created men to make food into death traps too. And should those men who knowingly make foods that are cancer accelerators and life-shortening, also be thrust before the throne of judgment?The answer probably is....yes.And if the answer is yes, then everyone consenting to eat food that is riddled with sugar and high fructose corn syrup and salt and MSG and wheat.....and who know all of that stuff is horrendous on a body, shouldn't they be brought to judgment too to explain why they deliberately hurt their temples?Again....yes is the answer.The greater allegation or question made by my son re some Christians wanting to get to heaven faster by deliberately eating too much and continued junk food, is far more reaching in its complexity.It is the ultimate attraction of the model Christian person to constantly improve their personal relationship with God and finally, gloriously, live a life eternal in His presence. This is to be coveted and is coveted by devout Christians. If not, those other Christians do need to look at their motives for the relationship.But to add a sinister twist to the tail speeding up the process that gets you before God, deliberately, is something surely only the darndest minds of 12 year olds can contemplate. Surely!And I do wonder what God will say when faced with believers who deliberately defiled their temples by the consumption of foods they ate.It's a fascinating thought and one I welcome robust comment about.No-one really knows when their time will be up and for good reason.To hasten it along is a personal choice....but God will be there waiting to judge.Which begs the final question to all this posturing. Those who choose fitness and health and yoga and calmness etc, who deliberately choose to ward off death by their actions, are they annoying God's wondrous plan too?I dont know that either.Seems we are damned if we do and damned if we don't.I told my son I'd write about his thoughts in this week's column and I would read the best response to his question to him.So let me know your thoughts please. You can get me at songopoly@gmail.com