Fat Baptists

Here is a sad article found at Baptist Press:

"BAPTISTS AMONG MOST OBESE -- The Chicago Sun-Times ran a column Aug. 25 deriding Baptists -- and especially Southern Baptists -- for being guilty of gluttony as they avoid other sins such as drinking and smoking.

“America is becoming known as a nation of gluttony and obesity, and churches are a feeding ground for this problem,” Ken Ferraro, a Purdue sociology professor said, according to a column by Cathleen Falsani.

Ferraro studied the correlation between religious behavior and body mass index, and his most recent study was published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion earlier this summer.

About 27 percent of Baptists, including Southern Baptists, North American Baptists and fundamentalist Baptists are obese, Ferraro found, making them the most overweight group of religious adherents in America.

“Baptists may find food one of the few available sources of earthly pleasures,” Ferraro said, which has led to overeating becoming the “accepted vice.”

Food plays an important social role in most Baptist churches, Falsani noted, drawing from her experience growing up in a Southern Baptist church. From the coffee and doughnuts on Sunday morning to the potluck dinners and ice cream socials, Baptists seem to get their fill of casseroles, pudding, fried chicken and sweet tea.

By contrast, about 1 percent of the Jewish population and less than 1 percent of other non-Christians including Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are obese. Daniel Sack, a historian and author in Chicago, told Falsani the reason may be that American Christians don’t have any dietary behavior codes."

What does everyone think about this? Could it be true that because Southern Baptists take such a strong stand on alcohol and other drugs that over-eating is taking up the slack?