{"id":419,"date":"2011-03-25T01:40:28","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T05:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/?p=419"},"modified":"2011-03-25T01:40:28","modified_gmt":"2011-03-25T05:40:28","slug":"fun-friday-hes-not-heavy-hes-my-brother-in-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/03\/fun-friday-hes-not-heavy-hes-my-brother-in-christ.html","title":{"rendered":"Fun Friday: He’s Not Heavy, He’s My Brother (in Christ)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study, covered by Religion News Service<\/a>,\u00a0USA Today <\/a>& The Chicago Tribune<\/a>, finds that churchgoers tend to be fatter than their less devout peers. Baptists tend to be the heaviest, with Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist groups bringing up the (skinny) rear. Matthew Feinstein, the Northwestern Medicine study’s lead investigator, speculated:<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You have to take such studies with a grain of salt substitute, however; the cause and effect may be lopsided, or correlation may not mean causation. In this case, I’m skeptical that faith has much direct impact on fitness or dietary habits of the masses\u00a0—\u00a0except in the case of belief systems\u00a0that promote vegetarianism and\/or fasting periods? — unless it’s that you think the End Is Near (May 21, anyone?<\/a>), so why bother with the treadmill?\u00a0<\/p>\n

More likely, it’s that some religious groups draw more heavily\u00a0from parts of the country and\/or socioeconomic groups with pre-existing tendencies.<\/p>\n

(OK, so this is mainly a “fun” story because of the puns…\u00a0 for something more traditionally entertaining —\u00a0so to speak —\u00a0here’s\u00a0the\u00a0Religion News Service\u00a0review of the new “Book of Mormon” musical on Broadway<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The link between faith and fitness also has a political angle, as The Tribune’s Seeker blog helpfully\u00a0points out:<\/p>\n

According to a Pew Research Center survey, 56 percent of white evangelicals frown on the government\u2019s involvement in reducing childhood obesity. First Lady Michelle Obama introduced her “Let’s Move” initiative in congregations last November and marked its one-year anniversary last month at an evangelical church outside Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Other groups viewed the government\u2019s involvement more favorably, including 61 percent of Catholics and religiously unaffiliated Americans, 75 percent of black Protestants and 51 percent of white mainline Protestants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n

*Click here to\u00a0subscribe to Belief Beat\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>and\u00a0click here to\u00a0follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study, covered by Religion News Service,\u00a0USA Today & The Chicago Tribune, finds that churchgoers tend to be fatter than their less devout peers. Baptists tend to be the heaviest, with Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist groups bringing up the (skinny) rear. Matthew Feinstein, the Northwestern Medicine study’s lead investigator, speculated: It’s possible that getting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,13,15,17,16,12],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-christianity","tag-evangelical-christians","tag-fitness","tag-interfaith","tag-michelle-obama","tag-obesity"],"yoast_head":"\nFun Friday: He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother (in Christ) - Belief Beat<\/title>\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.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/03\/fun-friday-hes-not-heavy-hes-my-brother-in-christ.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fun Friday: He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother (in Christ) - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new study, covered by Religion News Service,\u00a0USA Today & The Chicago Tribune, finds that churchgoers tend to be fatter than their less devout peers. 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