Competitive Eating & World Hunger

Two days ago we looked at Competitive Eating and its popularity.  Yesterday we looked at what the Bible had to say about it.  Today I want to look at the 2nd question that I have about Competitive Eating.  Something much more serious.  How are we to feel about it in relation to world hunger?

With the looming debt crisis here in the U. S. and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hunger doesn’t get too much press.  Why should it?  We’re not the ones going hungry.  We’re not the ones starving to death.  It’s not our children who are dying before our eyes.  So the fact that famine has made the national news recently really says something.  Something very disturbing.  Something of tragic proportions.

On July 20, 2011, a famine was officially declared in two regions of southern Somalia.  The famine is bad.  Very bad.  Consider the following facts: 37 million Somalians are now facing starvation.  That amounts to 1 out of 9 Americans.  6 people a day are dying of starvation.  It is estimated that over half of all children in the country are malnourished.  A similar drought 20 years ago claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Somalians.  Hundreds of thousands.  Let that sink in for a while.

Worldwide, it doesn’t get any better.  Current estimates are that 925 million people in the world are hungry.  That amounts to 1 out of 7.  Furthermore it is estimated that 5 million children die each year due to malnutrition.  Not enough food.  In some cases, no food.  Now think about Competitive Eating contests.  One contestant eating 70 hot dogs.  In 10 minutes.  For what?  To win money.  To become famous.  It sounds sort of hollow to me.

Granted, there is no guarantee that if those same hot dogs were not eaten in competition that they would get into the hands (mouths would be better) of those who are starving.  My point is this - what do these kinds of competitions say to the rest of the world?  To starving Somalians?  Don’t you think they hear stories about how much food we have?  And how we even have eating competitions?  It must be unfathomable to them.  Do you think that they would like to watch a video clip of such an event - while their child is dying in their arms?

Again, not to be too critical or judgmental, but am I the only one upset about this?  I can’t help but see Competitive Eating as yet another example of our self-absorbed culture that has so much we don’t know what to do with it.  So we waste it!  Now I know that we, as Americans, are a very generous people.  Each year we donate billions of dollars of food to people around the world.  So we do our part.  As best as we can under the circumstances.  It’s just that Competitive Eating seems awfully tacky to me.  In very poor taste.  Pun intended.

So, how would Jesus feel about Competitive Eating in relation to hunger?  I don’t know.  But I have a hunch.  In Matthew 14, Jesus fed 5,000 men (not counting women & children) who were hungry.  Who might have fainted on the way home otherwise.  Fainted.  Not died.  Then in Mark 8 we have Jesus feeding 4,000 men (plus women & children).  Then there are His stern words of rebuke in Matthew 25 about those who call Him ‘Lord’ but who didn’t feed the hungry.  Clearly, Jesus was concerned about the fact that hungry people be fed.  He considered it a high priority.

The Early Church also took hungry people seriously.  In Acts 11, Paul & Barnabas took a love offering from the church in Antioch to the church in Jerusalem which was being adversely affected by a famine.  10 years later Paul took up another collection from Gentile churches for the poor in the church at Jerusalem.

As a result of these passages, and others like them, we know that we are responsible to make sure that hungry people get fed.  I am glad that our church has a feeding program to the hungry.  And that it’s expanding to other sites.  On other nights.  Over the years a number of unbelievers have given our church credit for doing something tangible to help people’s needs - in this case, their hunger.

Well, I don’t know if I have made anything clear.  Or just muddied the waters.  This all started because I wonder about Competitive Eating.  Is it Biblical?  How would Jesus feel about it?  What should my response be toward it?  Embrace it?  Ignore it?  Condemn it?  The bottom line is that each Christian needs to determine how they feel about it.  If you determine that it's OK, that's fine with me.  All I ask is that you at least consider how it fits into your Biblical worldview.

So, if you want to watch Competitive Eating, or even engage in it, I won’t stop you.  Nor will I judge you.  But I won’t join you either.  I just don’t think that I have the stomach for that kind of thing.

Lord, I thank you that, by Your Providence, I live in a land of plenty.  I could just have easily have been born into poverty in some Third World country.  I could be starving to death in Somalia.  Help me to remember the poor.  Help me to have compassion on them.  Help me not to waste.  Direct me in how I can best glorify You with my life.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.