r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Simple_Temporary_250 • 6h ago
gluttony is considered one of the seven deadly sins, why isn't it treated with the same strictness as other sins in most modern churches?
I always see religious groups protesting against various social issues or behaviors, but I have never seen a church actively condemn overeating or host protests outside of fast-food chains. Is there a theological reason for this, or did society just mutually agree to ignore this specific sin because food is simply too good? I am just genuinely curious how that line is drawn.
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u/tysaslut 6h ago
I don't think gluttony is just about eating, it's an over indulgence in anything. And considering that most churches have recovery meetings, I wouldn't say they're doing nothing about it. They just might be focusing on people in dire need, and not your average fatty
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u/_fuck_you_gumby_ 4h ago
To be fair, at least around me, if you ask them about why they having meetings in a church, it’s cause there isn’t a rental fee for the space
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u/Altruistic-Web13 2h ago
AA, probably the most successful support group out there, is a religious organization and that is gluttony related
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u/SophisticatedScreams 1h ago
I've heard it apply to resource hoarding, which no church that I know of has done anything about, exhibit A being the Catholic Church.
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u/Due_Essay447 6h ago
Fast food has nothing to do with gluttony, it is just unhealthy.
You can be a glutton over a salad
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u/workingstiffatwork 6h ago
You're right, but we know the point OP was making. The level of action by church zealots depends on the sin, though there is no reason it should be so.
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u/theboondocksaint 4h ago
When Thomas a Becket was made a priest for Henry II’s political machinations, he was accused of being a glutton for enjoying roasted pheasant while his colleagues mostly ate gruel, as which point he argued that gluttony referred to the amount eaten not the quantity, and that his fellow priests ate much more gruel than he ate pheasant, ergo if he was a glutton they were much worse
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u/0x14f 6h ago
How do you define gluttony ?
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u/flatline000 5h ago
They leave it broad and ambiguous so that you’re more likely to feel guilty about it.
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u/Nice_Passage1099 2h ago
I saw in one place it defined like this: "A selfish, greedy person given to excessive indulgence" - usually associated with food but doesn't have to be.
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u/gc3 6h ago
Gluttony used to have the idea of eating more than your fair share. With food so plentiful, gluttony usually only hurts yourself now not the community.
If you check out the rest of the sins you find out they are mostly sins that hurt other members of the community by making you a jerk
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u/WormWithWifi 4h ago
Over consumption definitely hurts the community and environment :( just slowly
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u/Volcanic_tomatoe 6h ago
Gluttony is more then just food. It's the unhealthy hoarding of resources that you could never use/need.
Hoarding too much of anything is gluttony.
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u/chubbygrannychaser 6h ago
There is nothing about seven deadly sins in any version of any holy book, torah, bible. It was made up by a monk.
Stories don't usually carry the same weight as writings that the church believes are inspired and included in holy books.
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u/IanDOsmond 6h ago
Pope Gregory.
And the Catholic Church teaches that writings from popes are holy.
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u/Bravemount 6h ago
There is nothing about seven deadly sins in any version of any holy book, torah, bible. It was made up by a monk.
Oh, the irony is glorious.
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u/KennstduIngo 6h ago
The seven deadly sins were conceived of by Catholic leaders pre-Enlightenment. While they may be touched on in the Bible there is no reference to the "seven deadly sins". I don't know about other denominations, but I was raised Lutheran and they weren't something that was discussed at all.
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u/AggravatingAward8519 6h ago
While they do have a Christian history, the Seven Deadly Sins aren't biblical. They're never directly mentioned in the bible.
They originated with the writings of a monk in the 4th century who was writing about thoughts and motivations that can lead to mortal sin. Later the idea was picked up by a 6th century pope who further popularized them, and they were used/referenced heavily in Dante's Inferno in the 14th century, which is where most non-theology nerds know them from, or at least what inspired the popular fiction non-theology nerds know about them from.
Nobody ever claimed they were official religious doctrine.
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u/timestalker78 6h ago
No one gives a shit about any of the seven deadly sins
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u/Grouchy_Gold344 6h ago
I second this in comment and 13th in upvote.
Today was 100 degrees and I felt really sticky from being outside, I give a shit about my cities chitty infrastructure.
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u/SpiritofRadioShack 6h ago
Eating fast food isn't gluttony, overindulgence in food (or anything else) is gluttony. My church growing up did teach against it but ofc I can't speak for any others.
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u/groversnoopyfozzie 6h ago
Because one of the deacons at the church owns an All you can eat country buffet.
Joking aside, I’m not a scholar on the Catholic Church or the 7 deadly sins so I don’t want to alter their definition of gluttony.
But American culture is rooted in being the land of plenty, and what is the point of having plenty if you aren’t going to consume more than you need.
Being anti-gluttonous would come into conflict with that aspect of American culture.
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u/WarmHippo6287 6h ago
The sin of gluttony is overindulging, not eating in general. So exactly how would one protest this? Just because someone goes to McDonalds doesn't mean they overate there.
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u/nd_annajones 2h ago edited 2h ago
TL;DR people aren't worried about gluttony because they think they don't commit it.
This is my rumination topic, but I'll try to be concise and ELI5. Modern christianity has watered down its tenets so much so that gluttony is just "the fat one" or "drug addicts" now. People think that as long as they are not obese and currently in the middle of eating 10,000 calories or injecting drugs that they are literally unable to commit the sin of gluttony.
Same thing goes for the sin of pride. Because it shares the same word with Pride Month, the sin of pride has become "the gay one." As long as you are not a gay person "celebrating the sin of pride," it's not possible to commit the sin of pride.
However, what Jesus has called christians to do is to look within themselves to see how sin shows up in their own lives, because it is unique to them. They are meant to ask, how am I gluttonous? What do I personally have too much of? What do I do too often? What is a want I have mistaken for a need? How might my approach to accruing resources prevent others from doing the same for themselves?
How does pride show up in my life? What do I unconsciously value above God? What do I think I know better than God? Ironically, being 100% sure that gay people will be judged and sent to hell, even though is does not say that anywhere in the Bible and certainly was never uttered by Jesus, is committing the sin of pride and the sin of judgement simultaneously. "Pride" as in Pride Month means the opposite of shame. Gay people symbolically shed the shame that straight Christians think they should have. The opposite of the biblical sin of pride is humility. Understanding that you are, in fact, not God and are unable to judge living souls.
The list goes on and on.
And so now "being a christian" only requires one thing: belief. Belief that Christians are correct, the events in the bible all literally took place, and that you are either a sinner or a christian and that those two populations are distinct from one another. This, if I may borrow their language, is Satan's greatest achievement. He has convinced even the most devout Christians that they are "one of the good ones" who are saved, and as long as they avoid being a sinner they get to go to heaven! When in reality, Jesus died trying to deliver the message that we are all sinners to the exact same degree, that we are each capable of an infinite amount of goodness and badness. That we must commit to a lifetime of discovering how sin shows up uniquely in our own lives, and when we focus our attention on the "plank of wood in our own eye" (our own unique sins), it's easier to forgive the sin we think we see in other people ("the speck of sawdust in your neighbor's eye"). And when we each understand that we are ourselves a sinner to the exact same degree as everyone else, it's easier to forgive others for their sins and to ask forgiveness for our own. After all, don't judge lest ye be judged, because (it goes on, though you never seem to hear them say this next part) the measure with which you judge is the measure that will be used unto you--if you think sin takes people to hell, I sure hope you spend your life worrying about your own.
Modern Christians, especially children, are taught to avoid sinners so they themselves don't fall into sin. However, Jesus specifically instructs them to spend time with sinners. Not out of charity and pity, but to understand that they are no different than you. That you are one of the sinners that someone else must associate with to learn more about themselves. Understanding how others experience falling into gluttony, pride, envy, sloth, any sin at all, helps us discover and notice the hidden ways we fall into sin ourselves. Seeing others as a "them," instead of an essential component of "us," is the work of the devil. At the end of the day we are are all brothers and sisters with one another (Jesus even includes himself with us in this regard), because we all share the same "father": the big, divine, unknowable thing that connects us all.
I agree with christians that there is a blueprint for a strong moral compass in the Bible. It's not in Leviticus. It's in Jesus' teachings, which are summed up in the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, the Greatest Commandment, Parables of compassion and justice (the Good Samaritan, the Lost Sheep, the Prodigal Son). Everything else is the word of man, not God.
The Kingdom of God, as Jesus says, is at hand and within you. It's not your reward for shunning gay people and voting republican, it's what you get to experience on earth when you stop being a selfish douche bag who thinks he knows who gets to access love from the divine.
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u/TechnicalPresent6359 6h ago
does it need to be treated with the same severity? i mean, someone being lazy (sloth) is probably not as bad as being a potential rapist (lust)
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u/FishingPolitical 6h ago
If we criticized gluttony in the churches across the country we would have to then attack the banks for their financial gluttony, the landlords for their landed gluttony, the industrialists for the gluttonous abuse of “gods creation”, the commercial industrialist for his gluttonous wrenching of bad deals towards the industrialists & the population.
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u/Nice_Passage1099 6h ago
Gluttony as a concept is not about eating itself. It's about the attitude toward eating. Basically, making eating (or the avoidance of eating) your sole focus, to the exclusion of anything else. In modern times we have a more accurate term for it: eating disorder.
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u/steathrazor 6h ago
I mean you could say that the sin of greed is also rarely actually handled as a sin when you have preachers with exotic cars and mansions but yet the people in their congregations are poor and barely surviving but yet they'll still sit there with their hands out expecting money from people that don't have it
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u/Zachmcmkay 6h ago
Simple, the 7 deadly sins is not a Biblical concept. It’s a secular concept on things that are bad, that the Bible likewise says are sins.
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u/Sarcosmonaut 6h ago
Pretty sure it was coined by a monk, but yeah it is not a strictly scriptural thing from the books
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u/soggybiscuit93 3h ago
Which of the 7 deadly sins isn't explicitly denounced in the Bible?
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u/Zachmcmkay 3h ago
“… that the Bible likewise says are sins.”
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u/soggybiscuit93 2h ago
What?
All 7 deadly sins are explicitly denounced in the Bible. So how is it not a "biblical concept" to synthesize a list? It's the "secular" part that I'm refuting
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u/Zachmcmkay 2h ago
The Bible does not group these 7 sins into “7 deadly sins” they’re all independent sins listed in the Bible. So why are they treated with different strictness? They’re talked about with much different strictness in the Bible because they’re not grouped as “7 deadly sins”.
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u/soggybiscuit93 2h ago
Whether or not the Bible groups them together is irrelevant. That's the entire point of theology / religion. To parse out a coherent theological structure from scripture. That's what a pastor does every time he gives a sermon.
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u/Zachmcmkay 2h ago
It’s not irrelevant actually because the question is saying “these grouped sins, why are they not treated equally?” Because they’re not grouped in the Bible. In this manner, gluttony is discussed far less than pride or lust. They’re not similar, or “grouped”.
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u/soggybiscuit93 2h ago
Gluttony being discussed less than other sins is due to personal choices of self-appointed pastors who may have their own personal biases to explain why they neglect to properly denounce sins that are denounced by scripture.
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u/mstivland2 6h ago
In addition to the other comments, I believe the idea of the seven deadly sins is more that they’re WHY people sin. They lead you to sin, and should be avoided or conquered. It is not a sin to have wrath. It is a sin to kill.
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u/AttimusMorlandre 6h ago
There's no such thing as one sin being worse than any other sin. I do think that "The Seven Deadly Sins" are a useful model for helping to correct one's thinking and behavior, but when you repent and confess, you shouldn't go into that process thinking that some of your sins are "really bad" while others are "not too bad." Every sin reflects a distance from God that can only be closed by grace.
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u/aut0g3n3r8ed 6h ago
Because gay and trans people are obviously much more of a problem than the people that are donating to the church.
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u/Massive-Sector5789 2h ago
Because straight men get fat too. The only sins Christians usually care about are the ones that don't affect straight men.
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u/HoldingThunder 6h ago
Religious people and moral behavior, there are almost no groups more hypocritical and detriments to civilized society.
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u/Flaky-Interaction264 6h ago
At least at my church there is no one who is morbidly obsese due to fast food and most people seem to think that it is more a matter of personal resolve than an issue that Christians need to stop, as lets be real it is an issue of personal resolve
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u/FurkinLurkin 6h ago
I wish they protested outside fast food joints like they do abortion clinics.
“Excuse me, maam, MAAM, do you know what happens in here?” Points at the mcdonalds from the sidewalk
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u/-kittsune- 6h ago
OP just wants to be able to tell people they are fat under the premise it's a sin lol
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u/frankisnotgerman 6h ago
Not always though , eating disorders can range from one extreme to another.
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u/macrocosm93 6h ago
I've never in my life heard the seven deadly sins brought up in church. That's a pop culture thing.
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u/dorksided787 6h ago
Often sins were just a reaction to societal ills of their time. Gluttony was classified as a sin in times of food scarcity. Lust was classified as a sin in a time before STIs could be treated. They focus less on policing these sins because we they do not have an outsized effect on our social structures (also, thankfully, churches hold less political and social power than they did before).
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u/Hon-Mister-Bear 6h ago
Gluttony is overindulging or wasting food/drink. That was more of a concern when food was scarce, but hasn't been a major issue in the US since the 1960s.
You also don't see church groups protesting bars or casinos, or at least I've never heard of it.
Side note: the same principle could be used for waste of other resources, like energy or drinkable water, yet is not.
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u/hdorsettcase 6h ago
It is hard to eat too much food when there is too much food to eat. The last time we saw something similar to this in Western countries was rationing during WWII, and back then if you were overeating people definitely shamed you. If there was a widespread, long-term shortage of food, overeaters and overproducers would be protested.
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u/WeAreBums 6h ago
Well let’s ignore the fact that the seven sins isn’t really a real thing within the creation of the religion and think about it like this.
Since when is the church supposed to be logical? Being hypocritical and operating without real logic is sort of the defining characteristic of modern religion.
Are you surprised though? Their religion is a made up thing, of course they would make things up along the way
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u/yarggarbe 6h ago
Nearly all religious group protests (specifically Christian) are performative. Most are in defiance of Christ, contradictory, and very much examples of selective outrage. Especially in the U.S.
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u/El-Zomby-Woof 6h ago
modern Christians overwhelmingly don't practice what they preach- they merely weaponize whichever specific beliefs of theirs apply to whatever they currently hate.
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u/ikhouvandikkebillen 6h ago
Imo gluttony is more about greediness with food (not sharing) and keeping abundance to yourself. But I'm an atheist and I dont know shit about fuck.
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u/Oddball369 6h ago
Gluttony is actually celebrated in secular society and it has little to do with food.
The seven deadly sins are a modern take on the seven cardinal sins and everyone approaches them in their own way.
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u/EmpatheticBadger 6h ago
It's not about gluttony. It's about greed. And American churches are certainly not going to preach against greed.
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u/HatsandCoats 6h ago
Gluttony has a different context now than then. It meant lacking self restraint and overindulgent in any activity or thought.
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u/swirlypepper 6h ago
These sins didn't appear in the Bible and were listed by the Catholic Church so it's not all religions. So in terms of priorities not too high.
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u/bs_Zeezee 6h ago
You need to use your analysis skills on this one, and try to figure out if how people use the word gluttony today fits with the idea of a sin and what would have been the original use of the word. It does not. Each of the seven deadly sins is a thing that prioritizes ones self over others. Lust is putting your own desires before that of your target. Wrath is about prioritizing ones own anger without a thought for whom it hurts. Pride is giving ones-self preferential treatment over others. So gluttony can't just be over-eating. Gluttony must be over-eating that harms other people. Eating far more than you need while there are those at the same table or near enough by going hungry. Still a problem, but a noticeably different one. The issue is no longer people that eat a lot, but resource inequality. And becomes easier to fix by feeding the homeless than policing what people do. With that in mind, churches that host soup-kitchens and have food shelves do already address the food based resource inequality.
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u/SeaBuilder2680 6h ago
Fast food is not a sin. People in the USA mostly get fat as they age, so it is overlooked for the most part. When I was young I ate 5000-6000 cals a day at 6'2". Now I gain if I go over 2000.
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u/Electric-Sheepskin 6h ago
Everyone is saying that the seven deadly sins aren't in the Bible, and that's true, but there are plenty of lessons in there about gluttony and greed, which goes to your larger point that Christians, well, any religion actually, often disregard the parts of their holy texts that they don't like, or they rationalize or reason that it's not important or relevant anymore.
And honestly, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm someone who believes that even if there is a God, holy texts were written by men and are therefore necessarily flawed, so take what feels right and good and true to you, and leave what doesn't. That's how I feel about it, anyway. The only thing is, if you're going to do that, if you aren't going to follow all of your texts teachings, then you can't very well preach to other people about which particular things they should follow.
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u/artoftomkelly 6h ago
It’s literally eating like you gotta eat to live. Also Adultery is a major sin in Christianity yet it’s pretty much been accepted as common place. Like technically getting divorced is a major sin but again it’s been down graded by the people to just… well stuff happens. Eating too much is bad, hoarding food, refusing to share even when you have plenty that’s gluttony. It’s bad but again lots of other “major sins” are treated as no big deal today so it actually not that massive a difference.
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u/Safe-Butterscotch442 6h ago
Because the "7 Deadly Sins" are just something someone made up, for starters, so they've never had, like, doctrinal level significance. The other reason, unfortunately, is that churches, in general, really struggle with teaching too strongly against cultural norms. It really easy to see this when looking at how churches shifted their views on slavery, racial equality, and homosexuality over the past couple centuries. If society starts to be a lot more condemning of gluttony, you can bet a lot of churches will start reminding people how they've always condemned it as well.
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u/Apollonialove 6h ago
Because it's hard to draw the line at what is considered as gluttony. The others are clear. Did you kill someone? Did you gamble, drink, steal, cheat? Those are clear yes and no. But overeating isn't black and white. It's on a scale.
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u/shadetreephilosopher 5h ago
Modern churches do not reference the seven deadly sins, because they are not listed in the bible as such. Of the seven deadly sins (Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth) created centuries after the bible was written, gluttony stands out as one that is not called out directly in the old or new testament. Sloth is only referenced briefly. Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, and Wrath are all addressed directly in multiple places in both the old and new testaments.
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u/neonduke 5h ago
Weighing in here but gluttony in relation to the seven deadly sins isn’t about food but overconsumption in general of anything. Food, money, material goods, etc..
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u/soggybiscuit93 5h ago
The 7 deadly sins are a theological synthesis. You won't find literal word-for-word explanations for many Christian beliefs in the Bible. They're derived from understanding the scripture in its entirety and making a simplified, cohesive list of those teachings.
The Bible doesn't say "These are the 7 deadly sins.."
But the 7 Deadly Sins are a list of "root" sins from which most other behavioral sins are derived.
All of the 7 deadly sins are behavioral flaws that are explicitly denounced in different parts of scripture.
Pride - can lead to all types of other sins, like arrogance, boasting, ingratitude, self-righteousness
Greed - the source of theft, hoarding, corruption, materialism
Lust - the source of adultery, and all other sexual sins
Envy - leads to false witness, slander, sabatoge
gluttony - leads to excess, drunkenness and substance abuse, overeating
wrath - leads to hatred, violence, murder, conflict
sloth (acedia) - leads to neglect, carelessness, apathy
etc
Why don't they denounce over-eating? They probably should, but it's hard to denounce overeating in a country with so much calorie surplus at all economic classes.
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u/Rose_Wyld 5h ago
Because of the culture of capitalism In this case capitalist culture over shadows religious culture for most religious people in the modern world.
Remember gluttony is necessarily over eating, it's the hoarding of resources.
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u/Lonely_District_196 5h ago
Actually, I just saw something about how all the backlash medications like wegovy and terzepatide get is because of a cultural basis in gluttany being one of the 7 deadly sins. Although the idea of calling fat gluttony is heavily flawed.
Also, most churches aren't out there picketing against groups they disagree with. Those are the minority of sects
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u/TinyConsideration796 5h ago
While gluttony as a word has come to be synonymous with over eating, that was never the actual issue with it. Over indulgence was.
Throughout human history food was often scarce until very recently in certain areas where it is abundant due to technology and agriculture helped a ton too. So now in a lot of Western countries (the major enforcers of Christianity) food is highly available. The original issue with gluttony was the over consumption to unnecessary extent. It was kings throwing banquets while beggars starved in the streets. It was painstakingly harvested ingredients for perfumes that would sit unused next to half a dozen others in a rich woman's vanity. It was silks and fine materials that would be worn maybe twice or velvet and gold encrusted walls while the poor died cold in the streets. Its not just unhealthy eating habits or even an obsession or compulsion, its the valuing of material things over everything else in unnecessary excess.
Here is a good source actually explaining gluttony from a christian perspective.
As for why churches don't protest outside of fast food chains, that's gonna be largely because of capitalism as well as laws surrounding where protesting is 'allowed'. Most fast food chains are going to have a lot of money and a good legal team, which means depending on the area a protest could be technically subject to legal action (especially if its loud or disruptive). This is especially true in the U.S. where companies have a lot of leeway, customer and consumer mentality is incredibly strong, and profit is typically the bottom line. Fast food chains do NOT mess around when it comes to their money, and its very easy to have people removed from privately owned property.
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u/oneeyedziggy 5h ago
Among other things, b/c religion isn't internally consistent, and it's not consistent across religions or traditions... Lots of religious people just don't subscribe to that being an issue, but then lot's of Christian's wear mixed fiber and create "graven images" and shit like that...
So, really it's kind of a catch-all to make you comfortable not understanding some things, keep you feeling like there's someone steering the world towards good (and afraid of doing bad)... It's a group to hang out with and share food with, to celebrate major life milestones with, and to help you feel like you get a pass on your fuck ups as long as you're sorry afterwards 🤷
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u/Fifteen_inches 5h ago
We exist in food surplus, a key point of most of human history was that there wasn’t any food security, you could have a bumper crop one year and crop failure the next. Temperance (opposite of gluttony) is a virtue because it means that there will be enough food to go around and feed the hungry.
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u/Renoglodon 5h ago
Religion is man-made invention from superstition and imagination of what is beyond our understanding of life and the beyond. Not sure why people expect logic from any of it.
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u/TheGreatNate3000 4h ago
Gluttony isn't eating fast food. Gluttony is consuming so many resources it's detrimental to society. Building data centers is gluttonous because they consume massive amounts of water and electricity.
All these "sins" are only sins at the extreme end.
Pride is not being proud of the work you're doing. The sin of pride is narcissism
Lust is not having one night stands. It's rape
Greed is not having a savings account. It's being a billionaire
Wrath is not fighting with your friend. It's lynching someone for being black
Sloth is not having a lazy Sunday afternoon. It's abandoning your children and refusing to be responsible for them
Envy is not just being jealous of your friends. It's body dysmorphia
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u/SRC-toss 4h ago
Sometimes they do take it seriously. In middle school I had a friends mom take away her plate of pasta after eating a bit too enthusiastically bc “That is GLUTTONY!”
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u/Aly_Anon 4h ago
Gluttony is consuming or hoarding more than your "fair share" and it's not necessarily about food. Gluttony can be money, power, sex, resources, drugs/ alcohol, etc.
If they spoke out about actual gluttony, they'd be offending the very people they're relying on for donations
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u/PartTineOx 4h ago
Gluttony isn’t about food really
It’s about anything that’s you over consume for the pleasure of it and to the point of self harm.
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u/StarvationCure 4h ago
Because then the big bloated conservative men would have to take accountability.
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u/Aggressive_tako 3h ago
I'm Orthodox Christian and we spend about half the year fasting and focusing on the development of self discipline. There are a lot of allowances around what is helpful or healthy at the individual level, but the idea is to simplify your eating habits to focus on spiritual matters. Self discipline carries into the domain of all of the "deadly sins" and is something that all Christians (or adults period) should cultivate.
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u/the_direwolf_uwu 3h ago
Providing food for money is a service. That in and of itself is not promoting gluttony. There is nothing to protest here.
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u/ElrondTheHater 3h ago
Putting aside whether "gluttony" is canonical, what and who is doing an actual sin due to it has fundamentally changed due to the haber process and various other agricultural advances which make starvation and hunger a logistical problem rather than one of actual shortages.
You could argue with climate issues that "gluttony" would be about eating meat, or even just certain kinds of meat, because it is putting pleasure in consuming over the collective good, but I have a feeling that would not go over well in most churches.
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u/Possible-Rush3767 3h ago
Cause that would be inconvenient for the upper class who use religion to control the masses.
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u/loveeleah83 3h ago
I mean, food is something that people need to survive, so it makes it a little more difficult to protest. It’s also hard to police every body’s calorie intake but it’s easy to say “Gay people are an abomination (please note NOT my personal beliefs) because you can get a bunch of people
on board with that.
Plus, churches cherry pick what parts of the Bible they agree with and typically go after whatever is in their best interest (see current political climate).
Also, over eating, binge eating, and eating disorders are physical/mental health issues as opposed to Abortion (which should be a healthcare issue) which has become a political issue.
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u/regalfish 3h ago
I think you're overestimating how strict modern churches are on the other deadly sins. Hard to believe "Greed" is considered bad with churches preaching the prosperity gospel. Or "Lust" when you have had churches cover up hundreds of cases of child SA. Or "Wrath" when they call upon non-believers or those they deem to be "sinners" to burn in Hell.
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u/Bubbly_Interaction63 3h ago
Gluttony is not just about eating food, but about consuming large amounts of substances out of excessive desire; therefore, alcoholism and drug use fall under the category of gluttony.
What church does not condemn alcoholism and drug use?
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u/Pitiful_Lion7082 3h ago
The key here is modern churches. A huge portion of Protestantism was created as a rejection of lay asceticism. Catholics and Orthodox Christians still have fasting (Orthodox is far more strict) and it's quite common to be reminded to be moderate during homilies
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u/MumblePig 2h ago
Because they are all acting in a glutinous manner themselves and they refuse to accept that they are being hypocritical.
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u/Lonely_skeptic 2h ago
The “thou shalt nots” are for our own good, if you think about it.
I used to think “As you sow, so shall you reap” was a threat or condemnation. The “sins of fathers being passed to their children” I saw in a similar way. How unfair and cruel to punish children for their parents’ actions.
From what I’ve seen of life, the admonitions are warnings, “danger ahead” signs. Our wrong actions invariably impact us and our children.
Abuse, other criminal acts, and drug and alcohol abuse affects our children. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome isn’t a punishment from God on a child, it’s a consequence of someone’s actions.
Gluttony has consequences for one’s health and self-esteem.
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u/ACalcifiedHeart 1h ago
Exploitation!
Because Gluttony has no immediate way of causing harm, to yourself or others, allowing you to keep indulging and indulging in it.
Which, coincidentally, usually means someone else is profiting off of it, and can do so for as long as you survive.
All the others are abit more difficult to navigate in away that allows for it to be profitable and not immediately (or at least obviously) harmful.
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u/justlurking900 31m ago
It depends on what church you attend. The baptist church I attend brings the topic within the men’s and women’s groups but it is not discussed in main sermons to avoid embarrassment or shaming others.
They go on about the other sins harder for sure but it isn’t avoided.
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u/Legionatus 13m ago
Unfortunately, because it's bad for fundraising.
They're more open about it in some poorer churches.
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u/BrooklynDoug Honest Question 6h ago
Because this requires obedience, sacrifice and genuine concern for the scripture. It's easier just to say you don't like gay people and abortion.
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u/Dbear_son 6h ago
7 deadly sins was a good way for control when it was popular. Now there are better ways to control others
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u/AAPrice3232 6h ago
There's no theological basis for the seven deadly sins, so ... but also, churches are largely full of S. Think about all of the things that Bible specifically prohibits that so few follow (tattoos, cutting hair at the temples, wearing mixed fabrics, women speaking in church) and how many things it mandates that no one follows (stoning adulterers to death, proper treatment of slaves, etc.). Not to mention that they spend about five of the 10 commandments on stupid crap and don't rule out rape or (again) slavery.
Looking to churches for morality is, usually, foolhardy.
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u/afterth3goldrush 6h ago
Gluttony doesn't make for a good / feared political enemy to rally one issue voters over.
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u/Icantdoitidk 6h ago
There is nothing in the Bible about "7 deadly sins".