fasting

From vegetarianism to fasting

Dec 05, 2012 by Steve Thorngate

I found this incident at Vermont College very sad. The sustainable-farming-oriented school planned to slaughter two oxen it's had for years and serve them at the dining hall. Faced with protests from animal rights activists—who successfully prevented the college from finding a willing slaughterhouse—the college ended up having to euthanize one of the animals, who had a bad injury and declining quality of life.

As planned, the ox was killed. But nobody got to eat him.

More on fasting and self-help

Mar 29, 2011 by Amy Frykholm

I cringed when I read Jeffrey MacDonald's accusation, quoted here by Steve Thorngate, that Americans have turned Lent into a spiritual self-help event "whose effectiveness is measured by how well it entertains us and affirms what we already believe."

Cover Story

Go fast and live

Hunger as spiritual discipline

Feb 28, 2001 by Mark Buchanan

Recently some huge billboards along British Columbia’s major roadways showed black-and-white photos of car wrecks—gashed and mangled metal, clouds of steam and smoke—all illumined under the luridness of fire, flares, searchlights and siren lights. The caption beneath the ads was as stark and grim as the photos: “Speed is killing us. Slow down and live.”

News

PCUSA fasting monthly to identify with poor

First Friday of every month

Oct 21, 2008

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is inviting its members to participate in a monthly churchwide fast for “repentance, reflection, and coordinated actions” to empathize with those suffering from hunger and famine around the world.

Cover Story

Soul food

Why fasting makes sense

Mar 08, 2005 by Amy Frykholm

My first encounter with Christian fasting was in a Russian kitchen in the provincial city of Krasnodar in 1991. It was November and my host, a university professor, was preparing the evening meal at the beginning of the Orthodox fast called Little Lent, which is a bit like what Catholics and Protestants call Advent.