Why can't I eat meat on Fridays?
As good Christian boys and girls we are taught that we cannot eat meat on fridays during Lent. When we ask why?, the simple answer is because that is the way it has always been...yep the second most popular answer to why? The first being, "Because I said so!!!!". I can't wait to use that answer on my kids (if I ever have any) just to see the dumbfounded expression on their face.
Is meat that bad... I mean does eating meat or fasting on Fridays bring us that much closer to God? I know that if I even accidently eat meat on a Fridays during Lent I feel guilty for the rest of the day, BTW Jewish guilt has nothing on Roman Catholic guilt, I can still hear my sixth grade teacher Sister Julia Marie Presley (name changed just in case she ever reads this) telling me that when you masturbate all your dead ancestors are watching you, which is why I do it under the covers with the lights off.
Dietary restrictions in all religions serve one purpose and one purpose only; to keep us healthy so that we can keep giving money to the churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, whatever and keep them healthy, financially anyway.
Back in the middle ages (before television) poeple ate meat because it was cheap and available, refrigeration was even a thought in George Washington Carver's brain yet. The population ate meat that was unrefrigerated, air dryed or salt cured. I would also think that sanitary conditions weren't the best either. Guess what, people ate meat, got sick and died. Political rulers at the time saw this happening and saw their population numbers dwindling, meaning the tax coffers were dwindling as well, knowing full well that politicians can't decide what people should or should not eat, decided to go to religious leaders, pleading them to come up with a reason for people to stop eating so much meat in their diets. So the church came up with the no meat on Friday rule, why? because Jesus died on a Friday. Hell sounds like a good enough reason for me to push away from my cheeseburger.
