“The life is more than meat, and the  body is more than raiment.” Luke 12 v 23

I guess this stands in opposition to the mainstream conception of how one finds love and value within the gay community in particular.

Of course, it is not unique to the gay community at all – this issue of body image and obsession with appearance –  but it has been a concern for ages. Almost all cultures have had their own versions  of attractive body image and aesthetics, and how to place value on people based on their looks.

It is not a charge to abandon our appearance and health, but I think it simply is a liberating passage that  says that we can find a lot more of worth,  experience more of life beyond our concerns with how we look and what we eat. There is so much more to life than these things . And where we happen to find people that do not conform to the standard, perhaps it does not matter that much. Their value, as ours, comes not from what they wear but rather who they are beneath the surface. What a liberating perspective!