To my own surprise when I read this new book that I ordered before I went out for Japan. Let me post what it said:
By the '90s, with such purely theological considerations aside, scholars who studied the sociology of religion began to notice a growing trend: Not only did religion no longer address overconsumption, it seemed somehow implicated in just the opposite -- in aiding and abetting overeating. In a 1998 study looking at 3,500 US adults, the Purdue University sociologist Kenneth F. Ferraro sought to find out the answer to two interrelated questions: One, was religion related to body weight, especially obesity, and two, did religion intensify, mitigate, or counterbalance the effects of body weight on well-being? To the first, the answer was qualified: Obesity was highest in states where religious affiliation was highest, but the specific differences in body weight between groups were more likely explained by differences in class, ethnicity, and martial status. Of all the religious groups surveyed, Southern Baptists were heaviest, followed by Fundamentalists and Pietistic Protestants. Catholics fell at the middle of the list, while the lowest average body weight was found among Jews and non-Christians. Surveying attitudes within those groups, Ferraro concluded that obesity was associated higher levels of religiosity. If one calculated in the fact that many of these believers were also of low socioeconomic status, one could almost conclude that eating and religion had become a unified coping strategy. "Concsolation and comfort from religion and from eating," Ferraro wrote, "may be a couple of the few pleasures accessible to populations which are economically and politically deprived.
To the second question -- did modern religion act to inhibit gluttony or obesity -- the answer was more surprising. It didn't. Instead, the church had become a nest of unqualified social acceptance. As Ferraro wrote: "There is no evidence of religion operating as a moral constraint on obesity." Instead, Ferraro went on, "higher religious practice was more common among over-weight persons, perhaps reflecting religion's emphasis upon tolerating human weakness and its emphasis upon other forms of deviancy such as alcoholism, smoking and sexual promiscuity."
Ferraro warned that it wasn't that religion indirectly promoted higher body weight. Rather, more poastors simply saw obesity and overeating as too risky a subject. "They feel they would risk alienating the flock -- at least at this point," says Ferraro. "In that sense we are in a stage with obesity like we were with smoking in the 1950s and 1960s."
And so when it came to overeating, gluttony, and obesity, Christians, like everyone else in America, were in deep, deep denial. As Jerry Falwell said when he heard about Ferraro's findings, "I know gluttony is a bad thing. But I don't know many gluttons."
Source: "Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World" by Greg Critsen. Page 56-57
Actually, there are few more informations in this book that I also found it very interesting concerning about religions and its social views & practices on 'gluttony' or 'obesity' (In one of pages, it mentioned this book: "Pray Your Weights Away") Anyway I found this book very fascinating, and plan to read until the end today.
By the '90s, with such purely theological considerations aside, scholars who studied the sociology of religion began to notice a growing trend: Not only did religion no longer address overconsumption, it seemed somehow implicated in just the opposite -- in aiding and abetting overeating. In a 1998 study looking at 3,500 US adults, the Purdue University sociologist Kenneth F. Ferraro sought to find out the answer to two interrelated questions: One, was religion related to body weight, especially obesity, and two, did religion intensify, mitigate, or counterbalance the effects of body weight on well-being? To the first, the answer was qualified: Obesity was highest in states where religious affiliation was highest, but the specific differences in body weight between groups were more likely explained by differences in class, ethnicity, and martial status. Of all the religious groups surveyed, Southern Baptists were heaviest, followed by Fundamentalists and Pietistic Protestants. Catholics fell at the middle of the list, while the lowest average body weight was found among Jews and non-Christians. Surveying attitudes within those groups, Ferraro concluded that obesity was associated higher levels of religiosity. If one calculated in the fact that many of these believers were also of low socioeconomic status, one could almost conclude that eating and religion had become a unified coping strategy. "Concsolation and comfort from religion and from eating," Ferraro wrote, "may be a couple of the few pleasures accessible to populations which are economically and politically deprived.
To the second question -- did modern religion act to inhibit gluttony or obesity -- the answer was more surprising. It didn't. Instead, the church had become a nest of unqualified social acceptance. As Ferraro wrote: "There is no evidence of religion operating as a moral constraint on obesity." Instead, Ferraro went on, "higher religious practice was more common among over-weight persons, perhaps reflecting religion's emphasis upon tolerating human weakness and its emphasis upon other forms of deviancy such as alcoholism, smoking and sexual promiscuity."
Ferraro warned that it wasn't that religion indirectly promoted higher body weight. Rather, more poastors simply saw obesity and overeating as too risky a subject. "They feel they would risk alienating the flock -- at least at this point," says Ferraro. "In that sense we are in a stage with obesity like we were with smoking in the 1950s and 1960s."
And so when it came to overeating, gluttony, and obesity, Christians, like everyone else in America, were in deep, deep denial. As Jerry Falwell said when he heard about Ferraro's findings, "I know gluttony is a bad thing. But I don't know many gluttons."
Source: "Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World" by Greg Critsen. Page 56-57
Actually, there are few more informations in this book that I also found it very interesting concerning about religions and its social views & practices on 'gluttony' or 'obesity' (In one of pages, it mentioned this book: "Pray Your Weights Away") Anyway I found this book very fascinating, and plan to read until the end today.