to wonder why Lent fasting has become so diluted?

[Wonderingwhyyy]

I was talking to a Christian who told me she fasts the traditional way in Lent. No food or water from sunrise to sunset. She was the first I had met who actually abstains from food and drink for a significant period of time.

Other Christians I know choose to give up one food e.g. chocolate, wine, tea, coffee. One Christian told me she gave up Facebook for Lent.

The Christian who said she fasted the traditional way told me she gained many benefits such as spiritual closeness to God, self discipline, greater self control.

It did make sense. Giving up Facebook doesn't seem likely to bring many benefits although may it did for that one person.

I wonder why it became diluted and whether Christianity has lost its followers by allowing most things it did not used to.

I've just asked my granny (92). She says she's never heard of people doing sunrise-sunset fasting for lent. She's a Presbyterian. She has always given something up though.

Round here we've had a couple of new churches open up. They don't seem to have issues attracting folk, cant say I'm seeing a dilution of christianity here. lThey're different denominations I guess (one is pentecostal unsure about the other) but as an atheist my feeling about them is "meh" and also "oh handy, they might have a hall I can book for my kids birthday party"

Not taking water or food from sunrise to sunset is not traditional Lent fasting, and pretty well impossible to do for forty days in a country in Northern Europe (the days are too long). Jesus called the Christ did such a fast in the desert but there is no indication that regime is to be followed. Traditional fasting is to give up meat and other foods such as eggs, cheese, fat, milk etc and to eat simple meals - this is the point of Shrove (to shrive) Tuesday aka Pancake Day, as you use up all the eggs, fats etc in the house before Lent begins. Sunday is not fast (and must not be as it is a day of celebration) but otherwise a simple regime is followed with fish substituting for meat. Some people choose to give one thing up (one year I decided I would stop being so judgemental which certainly had an effect on my later behaviour!) but otherwise one gives up one item and eats simply. Prayer and contemplation of the Bible are also a part of the fast. Lent is not the only Christian fast, btw, Advent (the forty days before Christmas) is also a fast, though not so strict, and if you go into a church either in Lent or in Advent you will see that altar cloths are purple and that there are no floral decorations, and in the week before Easter there are no bells, either.

Christianity is the largest religious grouping in the world. It is also the persecuted.

I’m Catholic but over the years I’ve adapted a bit to more modern ways and now use lent as an excuse to do nicer things/ help/ see people or the like. I don’t think Christianity followed that kind of thing through like eg they do for Ramadan

Afaik it is not diluted as far as living simply goes. The Medieval Church did not require - except among the religious e.g. priests, monks, friars, nuns - a whole day fast, but that simple food be eaten and that luxuries such as meat, fat, eggs, cream etc not be consumed. We have access to those things all the time now so they do not seem like luxuries and I, for example, do not give up either eggs or meat. I try instead, to be prayerful.

I get what you mean OP

It’s also very common now for people to have ‘days off’ during lent to eat what they’re trying to abstain from. Or at least it is amongst people I know. Which I find so odd. If you choose to have no chocolate for example during lent, in my opinion you can’t just say you’re having a day off and feast on chocolate? But that’s exactly what I’ve heard people doing this year!

That is an utter insult to the religion that has been the bedrock of Western civilization, including its art and music, its espousal of monogamy, justice and eventually democracy.
No sky fairies. A God who intervenes in history and is revealed through the natural world, so that the pursuit of science is an act of faith.

I agree. The OP has described Ramadan, not Lent (or Advent either).

@Glitterybee Sunday has always been a feast day. So fast Monday- Saturday, east your forbidden food on Sunday.

have you got a link to your research? I am in my 70's and both my mother and grandmother were churchgoers. Neither of them fasted. I went to a church grammar school that was founded in the 17th century. Fasting for Lent was not a thing or mentioned in the history of the school.

I think Catholic priests do a no food fast Good Friday to Holy Saturday, but they do drink water. Your post is a very succinct and accurate summary.

Lent was a period of fasting in terms of not eating meat of indulgent food, hence using the last of your eggs and flour on a shrove tuesday

I think maybe people are moving away from the established Church of England, as the CofE moves further away from sound Biblical teaching, but Christianity is certainly not dying out in the UK. However, your second sentence could come true as the 'state' and our current Monarch moves away from our established Christian heritage and culture.

Your friend has to belong to a very fundamentalist sect because this has never - at least not since the early Middle Ages - been a requirement for Lent. Avoidance of some foods and some actions is what is required, not dawn till dusk fasting without water.

Christians don’t traditionally fast through the 40 days of lent, even orthodox Christians don’t as has been explained up thread

Oh yes, the bedrock of hypocrisy, child abuse, taking money from parishioners who can least afford it, wife beating, excusing breaking the law by the phrase 'Hate the sin, love the sinner', ....
The list is endless

I’m a Christian and often give things up for Lent but I’ve never heard of anyone doing this extreme fasting. I’m in my fifties. I think for most people it’s about self discipline, which it’s good to practise. Sometimes people take something up for Lent, perhaps reading a passage of scripture every day.

Incidentally tomorrow is refreshment Sunday, when you are allowed the thing you have given up, just for one day 😊

Yes, as I said, very occasional ones. Christianity wasn't even made legal until around 312 so it didn't have "rules" as such.

It's not the traditional way of observing Lent. You have been told so by members of various Christian denominations that it's not for Western Christians i.e. most of those in the UK and most of the rest of Europe or the US. Unless your friend is Orthodox? There are different views on fasting in the various orthodox denominations compared with Roman Christianity (which includes all the Protestant churches which are in schism from Roman Catholicism). The Roman/Orthodox schism (Great Schism) took place c.1000 AD at which point both churches begin to diverge on spiritual matters including fasting.

I don’t really notice Christians doing anything different to anyone else really. Perhaps they are just being discreet about it. Apart from going to church each week when their child is around 10 years old they don’t seem to do much differently to me as a non-believer.

Apprently sone Christians do a couple of full day fasts ( ask Wednesday and Good Friday according to wiki ). Much more traditional is to essentially go vegan for lent

Never heard of anyone fasting sunrise to sunset other than Muslims. I suspect far from being traditional it’s a new fundamentalist movement

I've never seen the point but then I have no time for patriarchal nonsense.

Eat or don't eat, nobody actually cares.

how can that be? what did those traditional people who went vegan do with the milk and eggs?

yes but a modern fast consists of only eating one full meal plus 2 smaller ones which, together, do not total one full meal!! Seriously go and google!