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Americans have more influence over their personal medical decisions than political debates earlier in the year predicted. Discussion of the national health care legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, has often focused on the loss of individual freedom in selecting a doctor or health care plan. But the choices we make concerning our physical and mental well-being as Americans, and, specifically, Southern Baptists, sometimes begin at the all-you-can-eat buffet or in the life of the mind?not at the doctor’s office.
WEIGHTY MATTERS
The harsh reality is that Southern Baptists tilt the scale as the heaviest denomination in the country as revealed in a study published in 2006. And random health assessments administered by GuideStone, the financial services and insurance provider for the Southern Baptist Convention, to a degree, validate that finding. During the SBC’s annual meetings, GuideStone personnel routinely staff the Wellness Center, offering a mini-physical that includes a series of questions about health habits and measurements of weight, height, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood-sugar levels. Of those who had the free screenings at the 2010 convention, 73 percent were considered overweight or obese by U.S. medical standards. That is compared to 68 percent of the general American population as outlined in a study published in the January edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Within Southern Baptist churches the sin of gluttony is simply not addressed with the same conviction and sense of urgency as its six companion vices although medical research continues to reveal the illnesses and diseases brought on by being overweight or obese can make this sin the deadliest of the seven.
“From a sin point of view, from a health point of view?it kills,” said Tom Kennedy, associate professor of psychology at Houston Baptist University and state president of the Christian Counselors of Texas Inc. He has studied the role faith plays as it pertains to a person’s physical and mental well-being. The social and psychological effects of obesity can be devastating, he added, and can even limit a believer’s role in the work of the church as overweight people tend to lack the energy of someone more physically fit and drop out of social and ministry activities due to embarrassment or inability to participate.
From a financial perspective, being overweight or obese costs individuals and, ultimately, society immensely.
“Obese folks spend $179,000 in a lifetime more in health care costs than those who aren’t,” said GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins.
According to the CDC the obesity-related health care costs in 2000 were $117 billion. In addition, medical expenditures for obese workers, depending on severity of obesity and sex, are between 29 percent and 117 percent greater than expenditures for workers with normal weight. Largely preventable diseases like coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke, some forms of cancer and other debilitating and life-threatening illnesses are the price paid for being fat.
“I think it has become a barrier to our ministry. There are some who are in very poor health,” said Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary campus physician Richard Knight. He also noted there are students on campus who take very good care of themselves through exercise and diet, but he has seen his share of patients whose poor lifestyle choices have been a detriment to them and their ministries.
He noted one patient who struggled?successfully?to lose enough weight to meet the International Missions Board’s health qualifications. Knight told another student his ministry would be affected and his life shortened if he did not take control of his health.
Although Knight’s experiences are anecdotal and the Wellness Center health checks are not a scientific indicator of the overall well-being of Southern Baptists, one study by Ken Ferraro, Purdue University researcher and professor of sociology, revealed that religious affiliation did, indeed, play a role in the size of individuals. (A link to the study titled “Does Religion Increase the Prevalence and Incidence of Obesity in Adulthood?” can be found at the GuideStone website: guidestone.org/magazine. In the course of the study, which surveyed people from a variety of denominations and religious affiliations, Baptists (SBC, North American Baptist, and Fundamentalist Baptist) showed markedly higher rates of obesity?ranging from 24-30 percent?among those surveyed.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, obesity is an American epidemic?30 percent of adults and 16 percent of children are obese. The obesity calculation is a ratio of an individual’s weight to height. The resulting number is referred to as the Body Mass Index, or BMI (To calculate your BMI go to cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/index.html). A BMI of 30 or greater is defined as obese. Those with a BMI of 25-29.9 are considered overweight.
In a summary of the Ferraro study published in the June 2006 issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Ferraro and co-author Krista Cline stated: “The present research has established that religion is related both to the prevalence and incidence of obesity. Some religious activities and affiliations may reduce the risk of obesity, but Baptist and fundamentalist Protestant leaders may want to consider interventions for the overgrazing of the flock.”
Some within the SBC have suggested?with a wink and a nudge?that Baptists who rail against the ills of smoking, alcohol, and sex outside of marriage have neglected to be as introspective when it comes to the sin of gluttony.
Ferraro and Cline did not hesitate to make the association. After studying reports that addressed the relationship between religion and health, the authors noted, “Many religions in the United States place priority on constraining sins such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and sexual promiscuity. Gluttony does not receive the same level of pastoral or congregational condemnation in most denominations, perhaps creating an “accepted vice.” It is even possible that religion’s success in curtailing smoking may inadvertently lead to a higher rate of obesity. Some people use smoking as an appetite suppressant, and religion decreases the likelihood of smoking.”
But swapping vices only trades one illness for another. Most of the diseases Southern Baptists, like all Americans, deal with are related to choices. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, three-fourths of health care services are related to preventable, chronic, lifestyle-related conditions.
A T-shirt seen on a rotund man read, “If my body is the temple of God, I must be a mega church.” The initial chuckle gives way to a sigh as the truth of the declaration sinks in?the body of the believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit and we are to honor God with our bodies. Eating too much and leading a sedentary life can create a body riddled with illness and disease, hardly a laughing matter.
But how did Southern Baptists and their compatriots become so big in just one generation (CDC statistics indicate the rate of obesity in America doubled between 1970 and 2000 to 30 percent of the population)?
In his book “Fat Land: How Americans became the Fattest People in the World,” author Greg Critser outlined the historical confluence of circumstances from the introduction of palm oil into the American diet in the early 1970s to the reduction of physical education in schools and the exponential rise in and popularity of fast food eateries. There appears to be a correlation between the increasing abundance of cheap, empty calories and the expanding American waistline.
The author does not demonize the fast food industry but merely outlines the marketing strategy
