Why Hunger Strikes Don't Impress Me

Bolivia's presdent, Evo Morales, is on a hunger strike to gain more representation for his country's indigenous peoples, though some charge he only wants to increase his personal power.

Be that as it may, I've never been impressed or moved by hunger strikes. In 2006, I wrote a post occasioned by another person's hunger strike. Here's why:

From a Biblical perspective, it should be said, our bodies are precious gifts from God. Starving one's self is an act of contempt toward one's creator.

But the value of the gift of our bodies is compounded for Christians. Paul asks in First Corinthians 6:19: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?"

I confess that I don't take adequate care of my body. I should exercise more. I should eat less and eat more healthfully. But there is no cause so great as to incite me to deliberately abuse God's gift by starving myself to death. God will never call someone to commit suicide, irrespective of how noble their cause.