Within Mormonism, there are a number of things that are generally accepted as truths. It is accepted that this world and our time in it represents a temporary probation (Alma 12:24), from which we will all depart and return to some eternal world or worlds. It is accepted that the scriptures and the spirit are tools given us to help us make the most of our time here, helping us to learn the lessons this world has to offer so we can take that knowledge into the eternities (D&C 130:19). Within this world we accept that there is a smorgasbord of distractions, intended as opportunities to teach us lessons through facing temptation and opposition. I agree with these things, and it is within this framework that I want to explore the scriptures on the topic of physical health, specifically to address the idolatry that has been built around our physical bodies. For if the scriptures do not teach us to focus on improving our physical health as part of the gospel, how is it not idolatrous to serve the body over God? And to wrest the scriptures to support that behavior?
DISCLAIMERS
I’m sure some people will probably get pissed and absolutely disagree. This is your right, as much as it is my right to believe as I do and to share it as my beliefs. These are only my present thoughts and understanding, written on my own blog, and they are not claimed as the voice of God.
I don’t want to convey that God is entirely unconcerned with our physical health. He knows we need it to function and survive in this Telestial world, that we might actually fulfill our purposes here in the time allotted us, and He provides for us accordingly (even if we then redistribute it in ways that neglect or deprive our fellow man).
But this is a wholly different thing than claiming that the scriptures teach that physical health is important, or that we should focus any effort on trying to perfect or optimize this “corruption” (Alma 40:2; 41:4). Because it will ultimately be destroyed anyway, to make way for something new and hopefully better. We need what is sufficient, and I believe focusing on anything beyond that is to look beyond the mark.
IDOLATRY OF PHYSICAL HEALTH AND THE BODY
I have written about the concept of worship. When we worship God, we think of serving Him, placing His will before ours, sacrificing for Him, obeying Him, learning more of Him and becoming more in tune with Him and the messages He sends us.
All of these things can also be done with our bodies.
How much time is spent studying, discussing or arguing about articles concerning food and medicine and exercise that could be spent studying the scriptures? How much time is spent merely working out to hone the body, when that physical effort could be expended serving the needs of another, or set aside completely to study and pray, which amounts to a spiritual workout? How much pondering and thought is spent on physical health that could be spent on the gospel? How often do we tell ourselves and others to “listen” to our bodies? How many decisions about our bodies do we make based upon studies men do to listen to what the body says about what it wants? How many sacrifices do we make in our diet or in addressing illness or in the activities we will abstain from or engage in based upon our understanding of our bodies, or our fears of how our bodies will respond? Rather than our understanding of God and His words to us on the matter? How much of our time, thought, speaking and action in relation to our body is actually founded upon the body rather than God?
PHYSICAL HEALTH IS A TEMPORAL CONCERN, NOT AN ETERNAL ONE
I will die. When this happens, all concerns with physical health will become 100% moot. You know the deathbed regrets people discuss and concern themselves with? I think the post-deathbed regrets will be an entirely different matter, and deserve far more consideration and concern than even our deathbed reflections. Whether I vaccinated my kids, whether I used western or alternative medicine to address health problems, whether I ate organic antibiotic-free locally-farmed range-fed eggs with whole-mineral non-iodized unrefined sea salt or not, the results of all these concerns amount to exactly nothing in death, because I will be without a body, the sole beneficiary in these matters.
If we desire to “prolong our days,” we face a few important considerations. One, that blessing is never scripturally tied to physical health habits. It is tied to things like obedience to God (Deuteronomy 4:40), and honoring our parents (Deuteronomy 5:16). Two, all the references to this blessing that can be inferred as addressing us individually—rather than as peoples—are from the era of the Mosaic Law. If this blessing and its laws were part of the Mosaic Law, they may not apply the same to us today. Third, and perhaps most importantly, we are told that our days are numbered, that the bounds of our lives are set (Job 14:5; D&C 29:43). This is confirmed to Joseph Smith by the Lord (D&C 122:9). While we could perhaps use our agency to shorten our days, we cannot lengthen them beyond their established bounds. So seeking to lengthen our lives through our physical well-being is a wasted endeavor.
The word “probation” is used deliberately, because we must prove ourselves worthy and capable of something greater for when we get off probation. We are to use this time to pursue wise pursuits, accumulating knowledge that will be useful to us in the eternities. What lessons exactly can I bring into the eternities concerning the benefits or dangers of vaccinations that will have meaning in a place without disease? Or concerning dietary concerns, in a place where we don’t even need to eat to continue? When we die, do we get brownie points for having kept the body in premium condition up until expiration? Are we saving it for somebody else to inhabit after us? When we leave, will the decay and creeping things which will consume our bodies not want to eat a body that isn’t in prime condition and complain, and thereby rob us of eternal blessings? Since when is it wisdom to focus large amounts of time and energy to preserving and improving something which is scheduled for guaranteed destruction? Rather than focusing attention on that which will last, and carry over into the next experience?
ATTEMPTING TO ADDRESS THE SPIRITUAL THROUGH THE PHYSICAL
Some operate on the notion that they must focus on fixing the body, enhancing its workings, maintaining optimal performance, as a prerequisite to facilitating spiritual health. That spiritual health is somehow reliant upon physical. This is backwards. In the scriptures, how often are physical ailments rectified by the Lord because of faith? How often are the sick and lame and afflicted healed because of faith? (Mark 5:25-34) Conversely, how many spiritual ailments are rectified by the Lord through diet, medicine and exercise? By focusing on the things of the spirit, we can come to be renewed in our bodies (D&C 84:33). Where do the scriptures teach that our spirits can be renewed by our focus on the flesh? Does focus on cleansing the outer vessel ever cleanse the inner vessel? (Alma 60:23) This is an inversion of the proper way things are to be understood and done, which is a precise hallmark of success by the Adversary.
If physical health is necessary to spiritual health, then physical weakness necessarily reflects spiritual weakness. This would validate the assumption of Christ’s disciples that the blind man was blind due to some sin, whether of the man or his parents (John 9:1-3). The same goes for the obese, the bipolar, the schizophrenic, the depressed, the lame, etc. If your family has genetic and hereditary health issues, your family line must be cursed by God. And as your physical health deteriorates with age, so must your spiritual health I suppose. Certainly the aged and infirm are in lesser contact with God, right?
“HEALTHY” ATTEMPTS TO SAVE THE WORLD
Listening to or reading the words of those who exalt the importance of all physical health related issues, it is very clear—sometimes expressly so—that many believe the world could be saved if only people would take these matters seriously. If all of mankind were to engage in organic local farming, veganism, ending vaccines and western medicine in general, eliminating pesticides, yadda yadda yadda, the world would be saved. But this displaces the gospel. The world would still absolutely warrant destruction, because these things utterly fail to address the reasons for the destruction: sin and iniquity. People can do all of those things, and still hate their fellow man, and lie, and take advantage of one another, and engage in war and ignore poverty. The demise or success of Monsanto or McDonalds will cleanse no hearts. All these efforts are purely outward and temporal, and do nothing to cleanse the inward vessel. They do not constitute repentance.
HOLLYWOOOOOOD! WE WORSHIP THE BODY, WHY SHOULDN’T YOU?
No one is more diligent and devoted to worshipping the health and appearance and well-being of the physical body than the rich, famous and powerful. Hollywood is the pinnacle home of concerns about all things temporal. Raw, vegan, cold-pressed, range-fed, pasture-raised, organic, unprocessed and gluten-free are all the rage. You will never find a greater populace of sweating bodies burning calories to accomplish no other purpose than honing their physicality, or arguing the merits of various medical traditions, than you will among the Telestial elite, the kings and queens of Babylon. If they care about it so much, if they are so deeply invested in it, should that not be a red flag to those who are seeking to eschew Babylon and all her devices?
