Is Obesity a Sin?, Part 1

Last Saturday, I was at the amusement park, Six Flags Over Georgia (with my grandchildren, YEAH!).  The park hosts about 2,000,000 visitors a year and is spread out over 290 acres (117 hectares) which require a large amount of walking on some hilly terrain.  The temperature on Saturday was around 95 - 98 F (37C) with a heat index over 105F (41C).

I, like many Americans, am above my medically ideal weight, so all the walking was good for me.  What I noticed, though, were the many people two, three, four, or even five times their healthy weight.  It was beyond obvious that these people were suffering in the heat.

Many of the large people were huffing and puffing, with red faces.  They had wet towels wrapped around their necks, and were lurching and stumbling forward as they walked.  Many had resorted to walking with a cane or riding around in the little battery-powered carts normally reserved for persons who are unable to walk.  Surely this is not how God intended for them to live.

I know. “God made me this way,” and there really are rare persons with metabolic disorders who must be under medical care so that they will not continually gain weight.  The word to remember in this is “rare.”

Weight is one of the very “hot-button” issues.  Look at the internet chat rooms.   Any discussion of weight quickly degenerates into sarcasm, mean-spirited self-superiority by thin persons, excuses and rationalizations by overweight persons, name calling, someone knows a fat person who eats very little,  someone knows a skinny person who eats enough for an elephant,  someone knows a person who has turned their concern over weight into an unhealthy obsession, obesity is due to gluttony and gluttony is a sin,  obesity and gluttony are two different things,  some are defiantly fat, some say God is indifferent to your body size, spme say God wants you to stay at the size he gave you,  denial (I’m not fat, just pleasingly plump),  the reason I overeat is because I can’t drink or smoke.  The arguments and insults go round and round.

I believe that obesity CAN be a sin, but I am not sure exactly where the line is.  This is clearly not a black and white issue and the border one crosses into overt, willful sin may actually be different for each person. Romans 14:13-15, 22-23.

Tomorrow, in Part 2 of this post., I will list several facts and observations about the Christian and obesity.