I grew up in the Church, and after I turned eight I was expected to fast. This did not go well. I have a very high metabolism, was a skinny little kid, and got quite sick when I fasted. I would feel very weak, to the point that when we could eat after Church, I was too weak, and my stomach hurt too bad to eat much. As I look back, it was probably low blood sugar and dehydration that caused my problems.
My parents thought I was just being a kid and didn’t want to fast, so I learned to sneak food during the day to keep my energy up. I would drink water from the bathroom sink, and then eat a piece of bread or anything else I could find in the morning or I hid the day before in my bedroom. It wasn’t until I was in my 30’s and my metabolism slowed enough that I could fast with any regularity.
From the LDS website, the reason we fast is: “Latter-day Saints believe that fasting combined with sincere prayer can provide spiritual strength, closeness to God and preparation to receive His blessings.” I don’t know about you guys, but I NEVER felt closer to God when I was fasting.
Then there is the Fast Offering part of it. This I can get behind, as it is one sacrificing food and feeling the discomfort, and then giving that money to those in need. The amount given equal to the amount one would have spent on the food might have made sense 100 years ago, when the offering was made in goods from ones farm. Today the amount one spends on a few meals is probably not a whole lot, and I have seen some bishops recommend that the members give much more if they can, with one saying to give 10 times the price of the meals.
The Gospel Topic Essay also says the blessing associated with the “Law of the Fast” include “temporal well-being”, giving a prosperity gospel angle. It seems the Church is having a hard time shedding the prosperity gospel as has been discussed here on Wheat and Tares in the past.
What has been your experience with fasting? Have you felt the spirit during your fast, or closer to God? Have you felt help from God using fasting to get an answer to a question, or the healing of a loved one?
Wheat & Tares 
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Like you, I never had success fasting. I also suffered from low blood sugar and the result of trying to fast was headaches, hunger, obsession with eating, and a general state of being hangry – the opposite of feeling spiritual. As a child, I too learned to hide food in my room before the fast so I could survive. As an adult, I really tried but never found success. After a time I tried modifying my fast, kind of like those that participate in Lent. I would avoid certain things, like sweets or favorite foods but still eat modestly. It made no difference, I still didn’t have any of the promised experiences. Eventually I just stopped trying and like probably more people than I realized, just pretended. For a while the guilt weighed on me, but as I matured I realized that I had to listen to my body and my needs. Sadly, there are too many forms of guilt associated with church (for those of us who are way too literal) and it eventually stops being effective.
I’ve never really understood the transactional aspect of fasting. IF you fast, God will answer your earnest prayer or you’ll feel more spiritual. If He won’t answer it otherwise, then why pray the rest of the time? Don’t people have spiritual experiences outside of fasting? I’m sure for some people fasting has been a tremendous experience. For me, never. If fasting is really just for gathering money for people in need, then just say that and don’t make everyone jump through hoops.
The problem in the original post, and no doubt in much of the Mormon world, is the parents requiring children to fast at age 8. Fasting should come voluntarily and not by compulsion. We never compelled our children to fast. Sometimes we cooked for them, and sometimes we told them, “there’s the kitchen.” They knew that we were fasting. We also ate a little later on Saturday, 6 or 7 vice 5 or 6, and had dinner at 3 or 4 on Sunday. Yes, we violated the 24 hour rule, but guess what, Mormon Pharisees? There is no 24 hour rule. Two meals is adequate. Some people fast noon Saturday so they can eat immediately upon return home from church, but we never did that. Our children, now grown, have no issues fasting, perhaps because we brought them to it by invitation and not by punishment.
I appreciate fasting. It helps me pause and reflect. I might pray a little better some fast Sundays.
I suppose the principal is of giving what we can and restraining our appetites in the process. Maybe not a bad practise for an adult using agency on a constructive process.
I remember walking 3.5 miles each way to church whilst fasting as a child including no water. There was no food to steal.
Never made my kids fast though and certainly never would think of keeping liquids from a child, potentially dangerous and not to be enforced in any way shape or form.
Have rarely been able to fast due to migraines, possible triggered by these earlier experiences, but still like the idea of a dedicated fast in order to grow closer to the will of God but not to change His will, which is probably an exercise in futility.
I think it would be logical that our forebears had periods of involuntary fasting and we would possibly have evolved to deal with that, some of us at least might have our health improved by it. I guess we have to find out, with caution.
Actually, on reflection, it is shocking that any child be forced to fast by a parent or carer. Wow, times change. Just never felt ok about forcing this on my kids at the time, glad I let myself listen to that in retrospect.
When I would try to fast as a teenager I would be cranky and rude to family members. My mother told me not to fast unless it helped me be more Christ like.
On my mission I tried again but the change in me was so great my district leader noticed and told me not to fast. I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia at one point.
Now, as an older woman I use intermittent fasting to maintain my weight. When I am avoiding sweets and carbohydrates, it’s often not hard to do. In fact, I think my brain is clearer.
I have never fasted from water. I had a kidney stone once from not drinking enough water when I was nursing. Sufficient water is essential to prevent kidney stones. They are very painful. No thank you.
Wayfarer, yes! Three miles in my case, as a child. I was constantly leaving the chapel to drink water during the meeting. My parents didn’t compel us though. A slice of bread was available. My father used to find it difficult and fainted one time at least. And actually when we started fasting from lunch time to lunchtime that meant my mother got us arrowroot biscuits to nibble at on the way home.
My own kids we started with just basic meals on a fast day, that didn’t require too much preparation. Simple plain breakfast (wheatabix and milk), and rice cakes and banana for lunch. When they felt ready they started to fast just one meal before moving on to two.
lws, yes I have to drink water, as does my daughter
My parents did not enforce fasting, and often forgot to do it themselves. And when they did, they mitigated the effect by having a large, heavy dinner on Saturday night, followed by a feast on Sunday afternoon (the number of calories consumed during that 24-hour period was probably the same as it would have been with 3 moderate meals, somewhat defeating the sacrificial purpose). Even so, our occasional attempts at fasting mostly resulted in crankiness, headaches and a generally sour outlook by the end of church, which is the opposite of what church is supposed to do for us.
Generally, I avoid fasting now, as I am given to migranes and short-tempered behavior when my blood sugar gets too low. If I do, I never abstain from water (dehydration compounds the problems). And I certainly don’t enforce it on my kids, one of whom has health problems for whom fasting is absolutely out of the question.
Once, a Muslim colleague explained his Ramadan fasting to me as being primarily an exercise in building empathy for the poor and needy around the world who don’t have enough to eat; to literally feel the pain of their hunger to be mindful of their deprivation. I was a little surprised by this, because I’ve never heard LDS once-monthly fasting taught this way growing up, but really wish I had. If I did, I would probably be less resentful about the practice. Teaching it that way also dovetails nicely into the concept of donating the cost of the missed meals, but again, another missed opportunity. Instead, we teach all this abstract transactional nonsense about non-specific “blessings” that come from self-imposed starvation, which never resonated with me and still doesn’t.
I can’t help but suspect the motives of the Church when it come to the fasting requirement. If they encouraged members to make this sacrifice and contribute the cost of the food to a charity of their (the members) choice, I’d be a lot less suspicious. But of course, they want the money. It is often said that in order to really understand an organization, follow the money. When you apply that to the COJCOLDS you get some very insightful perspectives.
The way my parents encouraged fasting when we were kids was to make it optional, but you only got Sunday dinner dessert if you fasted. That was always the best dessert of the week. Motivational, but voluntary. I thought that was a good compromise.
I’ve had some profound spiritual experiences while fasting. I used to fast a lot more often than required because I felt so … um, trying to think of a word here … otherworldly. Like supernaturally calm and like nothing could bother me (possibly the lassitude of not having enough calories for fuel). Those experiences alternated with the weeks when I was hangry and got a migraine.
I quit fasting when I had little kids. There was zero advantage to fasting when I couldn’t sit quietly and contemplate scripture. Toddlers don’t allow for that. After several years of not fasting, I had no desire to try it again.
Everything in the church, including fasting, is supposed to be done voluntarily — we are not supposed to use dominion or control or shame in any way; but rather, patience, persuasion, long-suffering, brotherly kindness, and so forth.
Growing up, I remember the Fast Sunday after Halloween. Many kids, especially the young men would have candy stashed in their suit pockets and elsewhere. Not only we were taught to hide not fasting but to learning to hide “things” from leadership.
I also would not feel well during fasting, but was told to “suck it up, and part of the sacrifice”. “Christ suffered more and you can go 24 hours without”. some years we would not fast 24 hours, and stop fasting when church meetings were over. So, if we had early church, it was more doable, but late church was not fair. We also had to do fast offerings and call backs 2x/month walking and going door to door for the funds.
Another breaking point of my Hitler mission experience was fasting. First working the in the tropics and fasting does not work ! Then if you broke the fast, as missionary, you had to break the Sabbath day just to buy a Fanta to avoid dehydration and collapsing. The hypocrisy of it all was the MP and office missionaries had cars, air conditioning and such, along with eating the day before. We were walking or on bikes in 90-100+F weather. My dedicated mission president decided we needed to sacrifice more and implemented a 36 hour fast. Some of us tried to push back, stating the white bible tells us not to do such. But his mandate superseded the White Bible rules. (The living MP has greater revelation, than corporate church, always follow your MP) (??)
I lost all faith in fasting and the whole system, even as a TBM.
As noted above, the idea of fasting could be a good concept, but like so many items in the LDS church, the program/ rules superseded people’s needs.
My parents were mostly inactive, although they “encouraged” us to attend by forcing unpleasant tasks on any child that stayed home, so they didn’t fast themselves.
As an adult, I quickly found that I had blood sugar problems and fasting caused bodily havoc for a few days after. It just plain made me sick. This eventually developed into diabetes, where, if I go too low, then my body goes into panic mode and raises all the fight or flight alarms to get the blood sugar back up, then that wears off and I crash again. So, while fasting, my body goes through this cycle where blood sugar drops, then the hormones that try to keep the blood sugar up cause shakiness, brain fog, and other symptoms, then my body over compensates by bringing the blood sugar too high, causing an insulin dump as if I had just eaten a huge meal, only there was no meal, so my blood sugar crashes again. Repeated until I eat.
No, I can’t fast.
But as with everything the church advises, there is general advice that seemed to work for our top leaders as if everyone of us is a healthy, white, straight, cis, male. They can’t even see that what works for them might not work for everyone, but give out advice as commandments then when someone complains that the advice didn’t work for them, they say how they teach the ideal and it is our responsibility through inspiration to know when we are an exception, while they still teach that if we get inspiration the contradicts their “inspiration” that we must have misunderstood because God will never tell any of us anything that contradicts what he tells them. So, we are wrong if we disagree with them, but it’s our own fault if we don’t know when we are an exception to their ideal, and we are still unrighteous for not fitting into the ideal.
As a kid living in Arizona (heat!) and with strict parents we weren’t permitted to eat breakfast and were discouraged from drinking water. I always drank heavily out of the church fountains in Sundays to stay hydrated and because it took the edge off the hunger. As a teenager I figured out how to sneak food and didn’t fast. Once on my mission I tried a full 24 hour fast in summertime Guatemala and it was a disaster. No energy to even function. Our investigator didn’t get baptized, I guess I didn’t have enough faith. As an adult vegetarian runner it seems like I’m always eating and didn’t even try to fast.
I can get behind the $ donation aspect of it, but I now make an annual contribution to Helping Hands for Single Moms, not affiliated with the LDS church. They use the money to put single moms through college. And I suppose since I just announced my charity I will no longer receive any blessings for it. 😏
I was taught a prosperity gospel and that fasting was sort of the equivalent of saying “Pretty Please”, it increased the chances of your request being granted. I always thought it was kind of weird, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get them blessings.
Since I stopped believing in a prosperity gospel, and stopped praying for God to intervene or for certain outcomes to occur, I’ve stopped fasting. I haven’t noticed a difference in outcomes in my life.
With that being said, one of the ways I go about finding eternal truths is to see what things are taught across religions. It is well known that fasting is not specific to Mormonism and is found throughout many religions, big and small, throughout the world. That makes me think that there must be something to it, I just haven’t internalized it and benefitted from it yet. I do pay fast offerings and I’m supportive of that program.
Somehow as a youth, I missed the memo that fasting without a specific purpose was just going hungry, so I went hungry one full day each month for many years. Throughout that time, I was not consciously aware of any blessings from doing so other than exercising self-control. As I got older, I experienced increasing physical distress during and after a fast (stubborn headache and flu-like symptoms that lasted 1-2 days following). I modified, then ultimately ceased, fasting, although I continued to donate to the fast-offering fund.
There was one time, however, that my adult five siblings and I fasted on behalf of our mother who had developed Lewy-body dementia, and who only sometimes recognized us. Shortly thereafter, she was granted a brief respite, and we were able to communicate with our familiar mom, an answer to our prayers. The window immediately closed again. At least that is how I choose to remember that experience.
Am I wrong to suggest that our congregations each have several people simultaneously in need of a branch/ward fast? This is the latest trend in my ward but unfortunately it feels like a popularity contest.
Aporetic1 noted that fasting is something done by several religions, and there is a reason. Low blood sugar sends your body into the same chemical mix as the fight or flight response. This has an effect of amplifying whatever emotion you are feeling. If there is something going on that might irritate you, you will have an angry response, if someone tells a joke, it will seem more funny than when your body is in a normal state, if there is something “spiritual” going on, you will “feel the spirit.” So, the idea is to put the person in a spiritual situation (like hearing someone else say they know the church is true, and let their fasting hormone flooded body go, “Wow! I just know whatever they just said is supper important.”
But not everybody is feeling it, because some of our bodies react quicker and you just feel weak and tired by Fast meeting. We peeked too soon on the fast. Or we just don’t react the same way, and so fasting does nothing spiritual for us. If you have ever sat in F&T meeting behind a fussing child, or had your own child spill Cheerios, what you feel may not be spiritual, but heightened irritation. Or your migraine might block happy or spiritual feelings and just leave you feeling sick and claustrophobic and wanting to escape church.
So, fasting works for some people to make them feel the Holy Spook is telling them “the church is twooo.” For others, it just leaves us feeling like “sister Smiths tells the same stupid story every month.” Or, “why can’t parents control their kids?” Or, “I’m taking my brat out to the car.” There is a reason so many of us hate fast meeting. We get supper irritated because our brains are on drugs.
I married into a family where everyone is expected to fast the whole Sunday until 6pm beginning at the age of 8. My daughter actually refused to get baptized until almost her 9th birthday because she was so terrified of that expectation after she watched her little cousin get sick and throw up on nearly every fast Sunday. Watching the expectation and shaming has made fast Sunday very uncomfortable for me. I often sneak little snacks during fast Sunday when my husband is not around to feel disappointed in me. I never seem to feel the Spirit on these days.
I was an adult before I realized that some people actually find fasting painful, especially in the stomach area. That’s never been the case with me. Around hour eight, it’s as if my body says “might as well get used to this” and my appetite plateaus or even decreases. I don’t experience any pain, but just grow weaker.
The physical benefits of fasting have always been fascinating to me, especially with regards to the resetting of amino acids. Relatively more recently, I’ve read that autophagy can start as early as hour 16. That alone is enough to motivate me to fast monthly, but I sympathize with those who can’t or don’t.
As far as the spiritual side, I do find the brain fog often associated with no food generally clears up between hours 16 and 20. You could call that simple physical clarity of mind, but I do feel I’ve also had some great spiritual experiences during those times.
I love the concept and process of fast offerings. It’s one of the few things about our Church that I’ve heard other Christians express a desire to mimic.
As far as fasting with a purpose, I haven’t always seen the desired outcome come to pass, but I’ve almost always felt at peace with whatever the actual outcome was.
My hangry was so bad when trying to fast that many years ago my husband asked me to stop fasting so that I could instead be kind to him and our children. That was a lightbulb moment for me that God probably cared more about how I treated others than whether I fasted or not. I was incapable of obeying both commandments at the same time, so I chose one.
When I was little my parents went through an extremely orthodox period, even bordering on adopting fundamental attitudes and practices.
After turning 8, I was expected to fast from water and food after dinner on Saturday until dinner on Sunday, which was never before 4pm and often around 5 or 5:30pm. I’ll be honest, I hated it. I felt sick all day. I would get headaches, had terrible cottonmouth and low energy. Almost immediately, I started to think about how I could keep a food horde in my bedroom a secret. When my parents were out of the house on Saturdays, I would make one or two PB&Js to hide in my bedroom. I would eat one sandwich in the morning and one when we got home from church. I tried putting potato chips in a sandwich bag, but they smelled too strong (especially Doritos), and I had to supplement with crackers instead. My mom always had a large quantity of saltines in the cupboard. I would stash saltines in my room. Sometimes I would put butter on them to make little, mini butter/cracker finger sandwiches. I would fake going to the bathroom and drink water from the bathroom sink water facet. Psychologically this was bruising. My parents look at fasting with unmoving seriousness and shamed us about it. I literally felt like I would be cut off for not fasting. I kept my tactics well hidden, and worked to bury the self-loathing I felt for being weak.
There was an escalation in righteousness signaling going on in my ward during that time between several of the alpha families. I think that is what pulled my parents into an era of taking such a hardline view on everything we were supposed to be doing to practice perfect obedience. By the time I was about 13-years-old, some difficult events in our family (an older sibling outright rejected the church), served as a catalyst for change, and my parents softened on everything (and changed their entire parenting style…for the better). Their mandates on fasting stopped, along with a number of other requirements.
What’s so interesting as I look back is how much the high demands of our religion disincentivized honestly and incentivized keeping behaviors hidden, even lying. I’ve seen this so many times throughout my church service. Many practices and behaviors associated with purity cultures perpetuates incentives for not being open and honest. Our church suffers from this, terribly.
My wife and I never required our children to fast. We taught them how it could be useful, as has been mentioned, to develop empathy for those who go without as matter of daily, lived experience.We discouraged them from fasting until they were at least 14. One of our children, who needed and still needs medication daily, with food, has never fasted and we actively encouraged him not to.
When the church made changes to donations and how were accounted for and assigned (all to the institutional church), I stopped paying fast offerings. Donations to the ward mission fund no longer necessarily went to ward missionaries. Fast offerings no longer necessarily went to needs in the stake. When I asked my stake president what amount was spent in our stake, he said he couldn’t share that with me. So I stopped contributing to fast offerings and instead donated to local food banks.
When Elder Neuenschwander gave a conference talk in the early nineties he said something that triggered me (before “triggers” were talked about and understood more broadly). It made me freeze and it took me a few moments to understand why my heart rate skyrocketed and breathing quickened. His talk was premised on his son serving a mission, and directed to all young men preparing for a mission. Regarding obedience, he said this [emphasis added]:
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Be Obedient
Mission rules are important in the same way commandments are important. We all need to keep them, understanding that they give us strength, direction, and limits. The smart missionary will learn the intent of the rules and make them work for him. Your mission is a time of discipline and single-minded focus. You will be required to go without some things common to your current life-style: music, TV, videos, novels, even girls. There is nothing wrong with any of these things, ****but then again, there is nothing wrong with food either, unless you are fasting, in which case even a teaspoon of water is improper.****
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I’m so glad my parents took a better approach to fasting as I entered my teens, but looking back, the requirement to fast may be one of the most traumatic parts of my childhood, and it certainly didn’t bring me closer to God. It made me dislike the religious of which I was a part, and made me distrusting of church authorities and their counsel on the topic, like Elder Neuenschwander and his words on fasting, arguing “even a teaspoon of water” was immoral.
Big Sky,
It’s stories like this that give religion a bad name, and you are right, the first casualty is honesty. Far better to be honest.
I had a pretty relaxed home growing up. I don’t recall fasting much or it was very minimal. When we did fast it was just breakfast. I learned we were supposed to fast for two meals when I was an adult. I’d never heard that and it still doesn’t make sense to me. It was fairly recently that I heard about not drinking water either. That just seems a little bit extreme. No water? Plus it seems if you’re going to fast it should have some kind of purpose to it.
I don’t fast now and haven’t in 35 years with the rare exception of having a specific purpose to it. I get migraines and it just wasn’t worth the risk of triggering one.