>Baptists are obese!

This is the conclusion of a new report by Purdue University sociologist Ken Ferraro, the director of the Center on Aging and the Life Course at Purdue. The results of his study were published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. According to his study, churches are promoting gluttony and contributing to the obesity of their members.

According to an article published in the Chicago Tribune, Ferraro said: We’re not saying all religions are the same or all religions are hazardous to one’s health, but some elements of religious life are associated with higher levels of obesity.

The article in the Chicago Tribune says:

Baptists (including Southern Baptist, North American and fundamentalist) suffered from the highest rate of obesity, even after controlling for geography. One possible explanation is that alcohol and tobacco use is discouraged, so parishioners turn to the last acceptable vice: food.

Education and race are thought to be key parts of the explanation.

People with limited education are more likely to be obese and are more likely to be affiliated with Baptist or fundamentalist religious groups, according to the study.

Too, African-Americans are more likely to be obese and also more likely to be affiliated with those groups. But it doesn’t explain the whole picture. Ferraro said they found black and white women use religious media in similar ways. “You can’t just dismiss it solely due to class and race,” Ferraro said. “The same relationship exists for low- and higher-status women.”

In his report Ferraro studied the problem of obesity in different religious traditions and in different denominations in America. According to Ferraro’s study, this is how different religious traditions and denominations fared in percentage of members found to be obese:

Baptist, 30 percent

Fundamentalist Protestant (including Church of Christ, Pentecostal/Assembly of God, Church of God), 22 percent

Pietistic Protestant (including Methodist, Christian Church, African Methodist Episcopal), 19 percent

Catholic, 17 percent

Reformation-Era Protestant, 9 percent

No religion, 7 percent

Non-denominational Protestant, 5 percent

Non-traditionalist (including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormon, Seventh-day Adventists and Christian Scientist), 3 percent

Jewish, 1 percent

Other non-Christian (including Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists), 0.7 percent

Read the Chicago Tribune’s article in its entirety by clicking here.

These numbers are revealing. First, this study shows what most of us already know: that obesity is a growing concern in our society that has taken the characteristics of becoming an epidemic.

Second, since Christians believe that their body is the “temple of the Holy Spirit,” then the church can also teach about the healthy eating choices that members should make for themselves.

Pastors and church leaders have a role to play in helping congregations become communities that support and encourage members to make healthy choices for themselves and their families.

In an article titled “Slimming Down the Body of Christ,” published in ChristianityToday.com, Randy Robison wrote:

A new movement of Christian health experts says the church’s witness is compromised when it forgets the importance of physical fitness.

He also wrote:

One of the biggest health crises in the U.S. these days is what has been dubbed “the obesity epidemic.” According to the Center for Disease Control, two out of three American adults (about 65 percent) are overweight, and a quick inventory of the bodies in the pews and pulpits of America reveals that the church is far from exempt.

If churches are contributing to the obesity epidemic among its members, maybe it is time to curtail the amount of fried chicken and baked beans served at the church potluck, and stop serving doughnuts, pastries, and sweets after Sunday services.

The Bible says that Eglon, the king of Moab, was a very fat man (Judges 3:17). And so was the wicked, whose face is covered with fat and whose waist bulges with flesh (Job 15:27). But Christians don’t have to be that fat.

Dr. Cris Enriquez, medical director of the Rapha Health Institute in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, wrote:
As temples of the Holy Spirit, to neglect the health of our bodies is to disobey God. [God] desires us to care for our health-spirit, soul, and body.

Christians should teach and practice healthy living. They also should exercise one of the most beautiful gifts of the Spirit: the gift of self-control (Galatians 5:23)

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Obesity, Baptist, Southern Baptist, Eglon, Ken Ferraro, Randy Robison