The Scandal of the Evangelical Behind
Randall Stephens
I've been having the students in my Religion and American Culture class summarize news stories related to the course. One brought in a feature on an interesting study--presented at the American Heart
Associations Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions in Atlanta. It reveals that young people who go to church regularly are more likely to tip the scales as adults than their non-religious counterparts.
Jeannine Stein of the Los Angeles Times reports:
An inactive lifestyle, watching TV and eating too many fatty foods are all to blame for many Americans being overweight and obese. We may have to add religion to that list. A study finds that young adults who regularly attend religious activities may be more prone to obesity by middle age than their nonreligious peers. . . . "It's possible that getting together once a week and associating good works and happiness with eating unhealthy foods could lead to the development of habits that are associated with greater body weight and obesity," said lead author Matthew Feinstein of Northwestern Medicine, in a news release. "We don't know why frequent religious participation is associated with development of obesity, but the upshot is these findings highlight a group that could benefit from targeted efforts at obesity prevention."
My one question . . . Why?
I've been having the students in my Religion and American Culture class summarize news stories related to the course. One brought in a feature on an interesting study--presented at the American Heart
Associations Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions in Atlanta. It reveals that young people who go to church regularly are more likely to tip the scales as adults than their non-religious counterparts.Jeannine Stein of the Los Angeles Times reports:
An inactive lifestyle, watching TV and eating too many fatty foods are all to blame for many Americans being overweight and obese. We may have to add religion to that list. A study finds that young adults who regularly attend religious activities may be more prone to obesity by middle age than their nonreligious peers. . . . "It's possible that getting together once a week and associating good works and happiness with eating unhealthy foods could lead to the development of habits that are associated with greater body weight and obesity," said lead author Matthew Feinstein of Northwestern Medicine, in a news release. "We don't know why frequent religious participation is associated with development of obesity, but the upshot is these findings highlight a group that could benefit from targeted efforts at obesity prevention."
My one question . . . Why?
Comments
Another idea is that sinning against the body is so strongly defined within many evangelical circles (especially in terms of improper expressions of sexuality and leisure--drinking, smoking, dancing, etc) that indulgence in food is left as one of the "last" standard American indulgences that are still approved. Perhaps there's also a certain rejection of "worldly standards of sexiness" (especially in terms of "hott clothes, bikinis, and perfect bodies") in some circles that lends itself to just not being as careful about watching one's health. Finally, of course, there's the "the end of the world is near" thing.
I discuss this at length in the first pages (SELF-PROMOTION ALERT AHEAD) of my book coming out next spring *Moses, Jesus, and the Trickster in the Evangelical South.*
I was certainly aware of this stuff before, but really got my attention last year when giving a public talk in OK and showing a map of evangelical and Baptist adherents by county through the U.S. (not surprisingly, the South showing up very high in both categories). My brother, a cardiologist, pointed out that this map exactly correlated with maps that he saw at his doctors' professional meetings showing rates of heart disease and other health indicators nationally.
We've discussed these issues on the blog before; see http://usreligion.blogspot.com/2008/10/society-without-god-pretty-hobbesian-or.html
I know from going to hundreds of Nazarene potlucks that the awesome comfort food on offer is of the Paula Deen variety--fatty.
Mississippi might be a good test case. I think from the Pew data that state is one of the most religious in the country. Whereas Vermont is one of the least. But, again, this might be a correlation thing.
What’s also interesting is that there may be a self-awareness on the part of evangelical leaders who look out into their congregations and see this obesity. I’m thinking of the marketing of diet literature/programs by the likes of T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, and (gasp) John Hagee, etc. From my own research on megadom, I see this trend all over the place, across the country. So the self-awareness or at least recognition of the problem has turned into a marketable commodity for some evangelical superstars.
My thought has been that religious types aren't as afraid of death, or think that Providence decides such things. You could, after all, get hit by a bus or get a weird cancer totally unrelated to lifestyle.
You could have had that triple-double-bacon cheeseburger afterall!
And of course, on the other side of the averaging are the unreligious, who often strike me as positively afraid of death, and so might gravitate toward being health nuts, to the point of religiosity.
"I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens."---W. Allen
For a man who chooses great titles for posts, this has to be one of your best.
I originally wanted to bring up the frequent evangelical refrain "God made me this way - if he wants to prevent me from losing weight, who am I to deny him?," but Paul's point on the Utahans kinda disrupts this. Mind you, I'm guessing fewer Utahans per capita allow themselves to drink Coca Cola (helping keep down the high fructose corn syrup levels). Just sayin'...
The research summary on the Northwestern link says, "normal weight young adults ages 20 to 32 years with a high frequency of religious participation were 50 percent more likely to be obese by middle age after adjusting for differences in age, race, sex, education, income and baseline body mass index.
Apparently, they didn't control for region, which may be an important factor in obesity.
As for county data, counties aren't people, so there's the risk of ecological fallacy.