Promiscuous Disgust<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Richard Beck points out in Unclean that disgust is “promiscuous”: It “has a degree of plasticity; it is molded to fit a given\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Promiscuous Disgust\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Richard Beck points out in Unclean that disgust is “promiscuous”: It “has a degree of plasticity; it is molded to fit a given\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leithart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-28T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PLeithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/\",\"name\":\"Promiscuous Disgust\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-28T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-28T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\"},\"description\":\"Richard Beck points out in Unclean that disgust is “promiscuous”: It “has a degree of plasticity; it is molded to fit a given\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Promiscuous Disgust\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\",\"name\":\"Leithart\",\"description\":\"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\",\"name\":\"Peter Leithart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Peter Leithart\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Promiscuous Disgust","description":"Richard Beck points out in Unclean that disgust is “promiscuous”: It “has a degree of plasticity; it is molded to fit a given","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Promiscuous Disgust","og_description":"Richard Beck points out in Unclean that disgust is “promiscuous”: It “has a degree of plasticity; it is molded to fit a given","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/","og_site_name":"Leithart","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","article_published_time":"2014-10-28T00:00:00+00:00","author":"Peter Leithart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@PLeithart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Leithart","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/","name":"Promiscuous Disgust","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-28T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-28T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d"},"description":"Richard Beck points out in Unclean that disgust is “promiscuous”: It “has a degree of plasticity; it is molded to fit a given","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Promiscuous Disgust"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/","name":"Leithart","description":"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d","name":"Peter Leithart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Peter Leithart"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":16758,"date":"2014-10-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1590"},"modified":"2014-10-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T00:00:00","slug":"promiscuous-disgust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/10\/promiscuous-disgust\/","title":{"rendered":"Promiscuous Disgust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

Richard Beck points out in\u00a0Unclean\u00a0<\/a>that disgust is \u201cpromiscuous\u201d: It \u201chas a degree of plasticity; it is molded to fit a given culture.\u201d In this, disgust differs from other emotions: \u201cThe core triggers for happiness, fear, sadness, or anger appear to be fairly stable and consistent across cultures. But disgust stimuli can be highly variable from culture to culture\u201d (18).<\/p>\n

The reason, he suggests, is that disgust has a \u201csensitive period.\u201d Very young children don\u2019t have much of a disgust response. Taste not, touch not is not part of their vocabulary. Over time, they learn to find things disgusting, including things that, in themselves, are perfectly healthy and nutritious \u2013 \u201cbugs, worm, dogs, animal brains\u201d (17). Beck notes that \u201cthe delayed onset of disgust allows us to acquire food preferences across a diversity of ecosystems, fitting taste to environment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this way, disgust acquisition is somewhat like language-learning: \u201cAs with an openness to all foodstuffs, a child is born with the facility to learn any human language,\u201d but that facility is \u201clocked in\u201d on the \u00a0mother tongue over time. After that initial acquisition, people can learn new languages and new food preferences, but \u201cthis has to be done in a more effortful and deliberate manner\u201d (17).<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t seem to me that Beck is consistent on this point. He writes regularly in the book about the \u201ctoxicity\u201d of disgust psychology, and the need to keep it in check and regulate it. He also recognizes that there have to be boundaries in any community, and that fosters the possibility of disgust. Unless he thinks that the existence of boundaries in the church is an unfortunate necessity, it seems that he must affirm some sort of proper use of disgust: Some things should be expelled, it would seem. If disgust is plastic, though, it can be retrained; it would seem that the issue is not regulating disgust but finding ways to mold it. That is a huge practical difficulty, but on his own terms it seems possible to diminish the \u201ctoxicity\u201d of disgust psychology.<\/p>\n

In any case, the promiscuity and plasticity of disgust has important theological and pastoral implications. On the one hand, it heightens the importance of early discipleship for children. On the other hand, it highlights the challenge of training older people to adjust their acquired psychology of disgust, which is as difficult as Jews of the first century learning to eat unclean foods.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"