Fasting is an important part of many faith traditions, a personal and community symbol of sacrifice, discipline, and purification. It involves a commitment to a goal, and serves as a test of will. At the Buxton event, Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, Islamic Society of North America, reflected that the annual Ramadan fast is an essential element in the Muslim sense of community. He was moved once when, during an interfaith meeting that took place during Ramadan, the participants, from different faith traditions, ate and drank nothing out of a sense of solidarity. Josh Protas linked food and fasting to the core of Jewish teachings.
Tony Hall stressed the personal dimension of a fast and the inner reflection that it encourages. The problems that face the poor and the hungry (50 million Americans, he said, including 17 million children, do not have enough to eat) are so vast and so complex that he turned to the fast as an appeal to God for guidance. The Americans he loves and believes in have lost their sense of who they are, their core values. But deep down, he said, they know what is right. The fast was not about demands. It was about God, and about poor people. In the words of Isaiah 58, “if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day.” Leaning a little closer to God, living for 26 days on water and juice, was, he said, a marvelous experience.
Fasting can also have political goals. Mahatma Gandhi fasted often to force attention to uncomfortable issues and provoke a blend of shame and fear among the British colonial government that would inspire action. Recently Indian social activist Anna Hazare launched a “fast to the death” seeking government action to curb corruption. Enough promises were made that he ended the fast after several days. Hunger strikes are a classic tool of non violent protest and action, harming no one except the person who denies food to themselves.
The leaders of the 2011 hunger fast take satisfaction both in the support that they received (36,000 “known” co-fasters) and in its impact. This was most certainly not, they said, a partisan political effort. Its inspiration was anguish at a raft of proposed budget cuts that would hurt the poor, both in America and in other countries. Their appeal was to conscience across the political aisles. Their faith was that both the people of the United States and their elected representatives share a belief in the “golden rule”, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In Congress, 28 members joined the fast, all Democrats to be sure but Tony Hall found much sympathy among Republicans also. And the fasters believe that the most egregious proposed slashes to the budget were, at least for now, averted.
And I share their faith. A society, we believe, is judged in the present and will be in the future by the way it cares for its most vulnerable members. Cutting the budget on the backs of the poor is simply wrong. It is also, to employ a different argument, harmful to the sense of balance and cohesion that can make a robust society where members believe they are welcome and that is fair and just.
So the hunger fast has come to a close. And what comes next? The battles during this season of Lent will look like a sandbox compared with those that lie ahead, the fasters acknowledge. The fast’s end is thus more a beginning than an end. So, a group of (so far) Christian leaders has launched a Circle of Protection, with a commitment, again, to protect and defend programs for the needy. Their message is one of concern, but it also embeds a pugnacious message: it your actions hurt the poor, you need first to break through the protective circle.
I joined the fast and also found it inspirational. The pangs of hunger, during my weekly day with water only, are a reminder of what truly matters but also of what so many feel each day. I plan to continue, not to prove anything, or with any illusion that anyone cares except myself. It touches, rather, on a central imperative, so well expressed in the New Testament (Matthew 25.40): “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”.
