The Great Starvation Experiment
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week
"The Great Starvation Experiment" by Frank Ramirez
"Miss Annie" by Larry Winebrenner
* * * * * * * * *
The Great Starvation Experiment
Frank Ramirez
(Jesus said), "Peace I give, not as the world gives…"
-- John 14:23-29
About midway between VE Day (May 8) and VJ Day (August 14) in the summer of 1945 Life magazine published an issue that included photographs of a starlet, the full text of the Surrender document signed by the Germans, and an editorial that warned that Russia was becoming the number one problem for Americans. Oh, and there were photographs of young Americans that might have been taken at a concentration camp. Though they were smiling at the camera they were gaunt, with their ribs sticking out, all bone and flesh with no fat.
The four-page photo spread in the July 30, 1945 issue, had the heading "Men Starve in Minnesota." It showed 36 volunteers who had voluntarily signed up to be starved nearly to death in order to teach scientists the effects of hunger and strategies for restoring starving people. These individuals were conscientious objectors who had been filtered through a rigorous screening program, before being accepted. They were mostly Mennonites, Quakers, and Brethren who, because of their understanding of the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and their church's stance against war, could not take another person's life. However all were already serving their nation in alternative service. They were anxious to demonstrate that they were as willing to take risks as those in the front line. Also, they were idealistic and looking for a way to help humanity through their service to the nation.
The rules were strict. The men were given jobs to perform and were expected to be very active, even as they received fewer and fewer calories every day. In addition to their time on the treadmill they were required to walk 22 miles outdoors, every week, regardless of the weather. Minnesota winters could be cruel.
Participants discovered that they no longer cared about literature, sports, music, and most especially women. These healthy young men lost interest in everything but food. They eagerly consumed every scrap that was given them, licking their plates clean. Their body weight dropped dramatically until they were literally skin and bones.
The program was not designed by a mad scientist, but a respected researcher who wanted to learn more about the physiology of starvation to better help those who would be rehabilitating the population of Europe when the war ended. Dr. Ancel Keys had established his reputation in medicine and nutrition with his invention of the K Ration, which provided a healthy balanced diet to soldiers in the field. Following the war he was the researcher who established the link between diet, cholesterol, and heart disease. The massive two-volume study that resulted from the Starvation Experiment, The Biology of Human Starvation, is the only sanctioned study of its kind. It would no longer be ethical to produce such a study, and it has proven priceless not only for the rehabilitation of starving people, but also has provided data essential to the study of eating disorders such as anorexia.
Meanwhile the participants were gradually restored to full health. They went on to live normal lives after the war, and recovered from the experiment without any long-term health problems. They continued to serve in their churches, satisfied they had shown that the way of peace is also the way of service in the name of Jesus.
Jesus taught his apostles the way of peace, but as he said in the gospel of John, "Peace I give, not as the world gives…." The Conscientious Objectors believed that following the way of peace in the name of Jesus meant to be even more actively engaged in the world than before.
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, and three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids.
Miss Annie
Larry Winebrenner
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
-- Revelation 21:22
Miss Annie lived in a world of her own. She could not move her limbs, nor even swallow food.
Sometimes Miss Annie would wonder why God did not just take her. She was a financial burden on her son. And he didn't even live near her. Maybe that was good. If he were nearby she would rob him of his time also.
But Miss Annie never questioned God the way Job did. In one sense God was providing the way for people to obey Jesus -- care for the sick, visit the imprisoned. Yes. She certainly was imprisoned. Didn't Jesus chastise the Pharisees for condemning his sabbath healing by saying, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the sabbath day from what bound her?" (Luke 13.15-16).
She smiled -- in her mind she smiled. Her lips no longer responded to her desires. But, how many times had she thought these things -- bound for eighteen years. Was that her sentence? Eighteen years? How many more then?
A shadow fell over her. It was Bruce. Bruce had come to visit. To talk. He had been her charge from the time he was a baby. Even when he started to school, he had come to her house when the students were let out until his mother came home from work.
Let out?
Was school also a prison?
"Miss Annie," said Bruce. "I love you."
"I love you, too, Bruce," she said to herself.
How long had he kept coming to her house? Long after his mother had stopped paying her.
"I know you do," said Bruce, as if he had heard her.
She smiled.
"Your lips don't move," said Bruce as he gently kissed them. "But your eyes twinkle and I know you're smiling inside."
She felt her eyes moisten as he pulled the big recliner over near her bed. He took her hand in his.
"I'm so glad you love me," he said. "Sometimes I wonder if you are the only person in the world that does. You're the only one that listens to me. I'd wonder if it were only the prison of paralysis that made you do it. Only, you always listened to me. When the bully beat me up at school. My first kiss and other things."
Miss Annie remembered. She may not be able to tell him. She couldn't even nod her head. But she knew he knew.
"Yes, I know," he said as if he heard her. "You know what Mom said when I told her about that kiss?"
"You call that a kiss?" thought Miss Annie.
"She said, 'You call that a kiss?' It was embarrassing. That's why I never told her about the other things."
Miss Annie had heard it all before. It was a preface to another challenge that had emerged in his life. She had never deigned to advise his mother on the need for a more receiving relationship. She should have. Now she couldn't.
Bruce squeezed her hand. She couldn't feel it, but she knew from the intensity in his eyes. The way he shifted position in his chair. The more erect posture. It had been his way since childhood.
When he had to confess or tell of a problem or express delight in some great experience, the procedure was the same. Only the prefatory memory differed. This time it was a problem.
"I have to go to court."
"Oh dear," she thought. "What has he done now?"
"Don't be distressed, Miss Annie," he said. "I'm not guilty. I simply took my girlfriend's car and filled it with gas. She was feeling bad and asked me to. She even gave me the money. She goes to work early in the morning and wanted to be sure she made it. She was right. I almost ran out going to the station."
Miss Annie waited.
"Coming back to her house, I drove very slowly. You remember, I was arrested for DUI last month. I hadn't gotten my license back, yet. I didn't want to call attention to myself. I should have driven like a maniac like the rest of the drivers on the expressway. I got pulled over for driving too slow!"
Miss Annie might have smiled if she could. But driving with an expired license could be serious. Bruce wasn't finished with his story.
"The troopers had me get out of the car. First they asked for my license. I lied and said I'd forgotten and left it at my girlfriend's house when I took her car to gas it up.
"Then they asked if I'd been drinking and made me close my eyes and touch the tip of my nose with the tip of my finger.
"Then they asked me if I'd been smoking dope, only they didn't call it dope."
Miss Annie knew the street language term he was referring to.
"Then they asked for the car title. When I opened the glove compartment to look for it, one of them saw a couple of joints I didn't know my girlfriend had in there. They booked me for possession, for driving without a license, and grand theft auto."
But, didn't your girlfriend...
"I know what you're thinking. My girlfriend knew I had the car, had asked me to gas it up. Well, when she realized they had found the marijuana, she denied knowing me or that her car was missing."
"Some girlfriend," thought Miss Annie.
Bruce looked at his watch.
"Miss Annie, I've gotta go," he said. "Will you pray for me?"
"Of course I will," she thought. "You know I will."
"I know you will," said Bruce as he laid his head against her breast.
After she prayed, Bruce left. He said, "I always feel so much better after talking to you."
She thought, I guess that's one answer to why I'm here. Then she prayed.
Well, Lord, I do wish I could go to church, but it seems like we've just had church here -- counseling, strengthening, loving, praying. What is it you told us in Revelation? Something like the "temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb."
I wish everyone could learn that truth -- the church isn't brick and mortar and stained-glass windows. The church is the body of Christ at work in the world; the temple is the LORD God the Almighty.
But LORD, I wouldn't want them to have to be like me to learn it.
Larry Winebrenner is now retired and living in Miami Gardens, Florida. He taught for 33 years at Miami-Dade Community College, and served as pastor of churches in Georgia, Florida, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Larry is currently active at First United Methodist Church in downtown Miami, where he leads discussion in an adult fellowship group on Sunday mornings and preaches occasionally. He has authored two college textbooks, written four novels, served as an editor for three newspapers and an academic journal, and contributed articles to several magazines.
**************
StoryShare, May 9, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
What's Up This Week
"The Great Starvation Experiment" by Frank Ramirez
"Miss Annie" by Larry Winebrenner
* * * * * * * * *
The Great Starvation Experiment
Frank Ramirez
(Jesus said), "Peace I give, not as the world gives…"
-- John 14:23-29
About midway between VE Day (May 8) and VJ Day (August 14) in the summer of 1945 Life magazine published an issue that included photographs of a starlet, the full text of the Surrender document signed by the Germans, and an editorial that warned that Russia was becoming the number one problem for Americans. Oh, and there were photographs of young Americans that might have been taken at a concentration camp. Though they were smiling at the camera they were gaunt, with their ribs sticking out, all bone and flesh with no fat.
The four-page photo spread in the July 30, 1945 issue, had the heading "Men Starve in Minnesota." It showed 36 volunteers who had voluntarily signed up to be starved nearly to death in order to teach scientists the effects of hunger and strategies for restoring starving people. These individuals were conscientious objectors who had been filtered through a rigorous screening program, before being accepted. They were mostly Mennonites, Quakers, and Brethren who, because of their understanding of the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and their church's stance against war, could not take another person's life. However all were already serving their nation in alternative service. They were anxious to demonstrate that they were as willing to take risks as those in the front line. Also, they were idealistic and looking for a way to help humanity through their service to the nation.
The rules were strict. The men were given jobs to perform and were expected to be very active, even as they received fewer and fewer calories every day. In addition to their time on the treadmill they were required to walk 22 miles outdoors, every week, regardless of the weather. Minnesota winters could be cruel.
Participants discovered that they no longer cared about literature, sports, music, and most especially women. These healthy young men lost interest in everything but food. They eagerly consumed every scrap that was given them, licking their plates clean. Their body weight dropped dramatically until they were literally skin and bones.
The program was not designed by a mad scientist, but a respected researcher who wanted to learn more about the physiology of starvation to better help those who would be rehabilitating the population of Europe when the war ended. Dr. Ancel Keys had established his reputation in medicine and nutrition with his invention of the K Ration, which provided a healthy balanced diet to soldiers in the field. Following the war he was the researcher who established the link between diet, cholesterol, and heart disease. The massive two-volume study that resulted from the Starvation Experiment, The Biology of Human Starvation, is the only sanctioned study of its kind. It would no longer be ethical to produce such a study, and it has proven priceless not only for the rehabilitation of starving people, but also has provided data essential to the study of eating disorders such as anorexia.
Meanwhile the participants were gradually restored to full health. They went on to live normal lives after the war, and recovered from the experiment without any long-term health problems. They continued to serve in their churches, satisfied they had shown that the way of peace is also the way of service in the name of Jesus.
Jesus taught his apostles the way of peace, but as he said in the gospel of John, "Peace I give, not as the world gives…." The Conscientious Objectors believed that following the way of peace in the name of Jesus meant to be even more actively engaged in the world than before.
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, and three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids.
Miss Annie
Larry Winebrenner
Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
-- Revelation 21:22
Miss Annie lived in a world of her own. She could not move her limbs, nor even swallow food.
Sometimes Miss Annie would wonder why God did not just take her. She was a financial burden on her son. And he didn't even live near her. Maybe that was good. If he were nearby she would rob him of his time also.
But Miss Annie never questioned God the way Job did. In one sense God was providing the way for people to obey Jesus -- care for the sick, visit the imprisoned. Yes. She certainly was imprisoned. Didn't Jesus chastise the Pharisees for condemning his sabbath healing by saying, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the sabbath day from what bound her?" (Luke 13.15-16).
She smiled -- in her mind she smiled. Her lips no longer responded to her desires. But, how many times had she thought these things -- bound for eighteen years. Was that her sentence? Eighteen years? How many more then?
A shadow fell over her. It was Bruce. Bruce had come to visit. To talk. He had been her charge from the time he was a baby. Even when he started to school, he had come to her house when the students were let out until his mother came home from work.
Let out?
Was school also a prison?
"Miss Annie," said Bruce. "I love you."
"I love you, too, Bruce," she said to herself.
How long had he kept coming to her house? Long after his mother had stopped paying her.
"I know you do," said Bruce, as if he had heard her.
She smiled.
"Your lips don't move," said Bruce as he gently kissed them. "But your eyes twinkle and I know you're smiling inside."
She felt her eyes moisten as he pulled the big recliner over near her bed. He took her hand in his.
"I'm so glad you love me," he said. "Sometimes I wonder if you are the only person in the world that does. You're the only one that listens to me. I'd wonder if it were only the prison of paralysis that made you do it. Only, you always listened to me. When the bully beat me up at school. My first kiss and other things."
Miss Annie remembered. She may not be able to tell him. She couldn't even nod her head. But she knew he knew.
"Yes, I know," he said as if he heard her. "You know what Mom said when I told her about that kiss?"
"You call that a kiss?" thought Miss Annie.
"She said, 'You call that a kiss?' It was embarrassing. That's why I never told her about the other things."
Miss Annie had heard it all before. It was a preface to another challenge that had emerged in his life. She had never deigned to advise his mother on the need for a more receiving relationship. She should have. Now she couldn't.
Bruce squeezed her hand. She couldn't feel it, but she knew from the intensity in his eyes. The way he shifted position in his chair. The more erect posture. It had been his way since childhood.
When he had to confess or tell of a problem or express delight in some great experience, the procedure was the same. Only the prefatory memory differed. This time it was a problem.
"I have to go to court."
"Oh dear," she thought. "What has he done now?"
"Don't be distressed, Miss Annie," he said. "I'm not guilty. I simply took my girlfriend's car and filled it with gas. She was feeling bad and asked me to. She even gave me the money. She goes to work early in the morning and wanted to be sure she made it. She was right. I almost ran out going to the station."
Miss Annie waited.
"Coming back to her house, I drove very slowly. You remember, I was arrested for DUI last month. I hadn't gotten my license back, yet. I didn't want to call attention to myself. I should have driven like a maniac like the rest of the drivers on the expressway. I got pulled over for driving too slow!"
Miss Annie might have smiled if she could. But driving with an expired license could be serious. Bruce wasn't finished with his story.
"The troopers had me get out of the car. First they asked for my license. I lied and said I'd forgotten and left it at my girlfriend's house when I took her car to gas it up.
"Then they asked if I'd been drinking and made me close my eyes and touch the tip of my nose with the tip of my finger.
"Then they asked me if I'd been smoking dope, only they didn't call it dope."
Miss Annie knew the street language term he was referring to.
"Then they asked for the car title. When I opened the glove compartment to look for it, one of them saw a couple of joints I didn't know my girlfriend had in there. They booked me for possession, for driving without a license, and grand theft auto."
But, didn't your girlfriend...
"I know what you're thinking. My girlfriend knew I had the car, had asked me to gas it up. Well, when she realized they had found the marijuana, she denied knowing me or that her car was missing."
"Some girlfriend," thought Miss Annie.
Bruce looked at his watch.
"Miss Annie, I've gotta go," he said. "Will you pray for me?"
"Of course I will," she thought. "You know I will."
"I know you will," said Bruce as he laid his head against her breast.
After she prayed, Bruce left. He said, "I always feel so much better after talking to you."
She thought, I guess that's one answer to why I'm here. Then she prayed.
Well, Lord, I do wish I could go to church, but it seems like we've just had church here -- counseling, strengthening, loving, praying. What is it you told us in Revelation? Something like the "temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb."
I wish everyone could learn that truth -- the church isn't brick and mortar and stained-glass windows. The church is the body of Christ at work in the world; the temple is the LORD God the Almighty.
But LORD, I wouldn't want them to have to be like me to learn it.
Larry Winebrenner is now retired and living in Miami Gardens, Florida. He taught for 33 years at Miami-Dade Community College, and served as pastor of churches in Georgia, Florida, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Larry is currently active at First United Methodist Church in downtown Miami, where he leads discussion in an adult fellowship group on Sunday mornings and preaches occasionally. He has authored two college textbooks, written four novels, served as an editor for three newspapers and an academic journal, and contributed articles to several magazines.
**************
StoryShare, May 9, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
