v

Christian dieting programs-like Gwen Shamblin's Weigh Down Diet-help believers pray off the pounds. But what deeper messages

are they sending about faith and fitness?

ommomam by LAUREN F. WINNER

ULIE JONES says Gwen Shamblinsaved her life. Jones, a fortysome-thing homemaker and mother oftwo who was overweight since herteens, had tried "every diet underthe sun-Jenny Craig, WeightWatchers, the grapefruit diet. Ifyou've heard of it, I've tried it." ButJones could not manage to keep offthe weight. Even when she "suc-

cessfully reduced," the pounds slowly crept back. Everymonth, Jones combed the health and dieting sections of herlocal Borders bookstore, looking for a new dieting schemethat would make the difference.

"Then I found Gwen," Jones says, describing her intro-duction to Shamblin in terms some reserve for Jesus. And,in a sense, Shamblin's book was her salvation. "I openedThe Weigh Down Diet and I knew then and there that it wasgoing to cha my life forever. Realy, it saved me." At asize 14, Jones was in litte danger of deati due to medicalobesity, but she was contemplating suicide. "I was indespair. 1 felt ugly and fat, and my husband had lost all

t interest in me. He made it quite clear that he did not wantto touch me until I got the weight off, I thouht I may aswell just end it, you know. Ufe that fat just didn't seemworth living."

What was the message that distinguished The WeighDown Diet from the other dieting guides? "Shamblin," saysJones, "tells overweight women what we want to hear: yOUdon't have to starve yourself to lose. Overeating is a prob-lem of the soul. Put your spiitual hife in order and you willlose weight, without cutting out the foods you love fromyour daily diet."

People should not be obsessed with food, Shamblinargues, and counting calories is every bit as obsessive as

compulsive overeating. The real problem is spiritual: getright with God, stop trying to fill your God-shaped holewith food, and your figure will improve.

So Shamblin, 45, does not prescribe a specific menu; shedoes not encourage readers to cut out "empty calories"from their diets; she does not chastise those who keepOreos in the cupboard and M&ms in the desk drawer; shedoes not suggest snacking on dried apricots or substitutingsorbet for ice cream.

Instead, she focuses on helping disciples discem whenthey are physiologicall hungry- "[F]ind [the] rumbling ofacid underneath the ribs.... If you are not sure that thisfeelng is hunger, just wait a little longer." Once you knowyou are truly hungry, rather than just cravig food to fill anemotional or spiritual need, you can eat whatever foodsyou want to-simply stop when you are full.

Shamblin, whose luminous smile, big blonde hair, andpetite figure bring to mnind a Southem Barbie dol, is justone of many people who have made a profession out ofproviding dieting and fitness resources to weight-consciousChristians. Trimn and toned, Shamblin may not look like shehas ever struggled with overeating, but it has been an issuefor her. "I was a thin eater growing up," she confesses inThe Weigh Down Diet. But in college, overwhelmed by theavailability and variety of food at the campus "megacafete-na" and late-night delis, Shamblin gained the "freshman15." She took the pounds off easily in 1982 simply by mim-icking the eating habits of a skinny friend, who ate onlywhen she was hungry and rarely consumed all the food onher plate. She says she's never been more than 20 poundsover her precollege weight, but her obsession with food lefther feeling enslaved.

in time Shamblin combined the eating habits of her thinfriend with a renewed focus on God: when she felt like eat-ing but knew she wasn't hungry, she took it as a call to read

Sept e mber 4, 2000 1 CHRISTIANITY TODAY 51

her Bible or pray. This formula became the foundation ofthe Weigh Down program. After several years of running aMemphis nutritional counseling center for a primarily secu-lar clientele, in 1992 she launched the Weigh DownWorkshop, which tailored her weight-loss program forchurch-sponsored classes.

Today Shamblin's business, in the words of her book-jacket copy, has risen from a garage startup to a multimil-lion-dollar, Nashville-based corporation. There are now30,000 Weigh Down Workshop locations in the UnitedStates, Canada, and overseas. The Weigh Down Diet (Dou-bleday), Shamblin's first book, rocketed up the bestseller listsoon after its release in 1997 and has sold more than a mil-lion copies. Her latest books, Rise Above and its companiondevotional Out of Egypt (Nelson), focus even more deeplyon the spiritual dimension of weight loss. Shamblin's suc-cess has put Christian dieting books in the spotlight lately,but the genre goes back nearly half a century.

THE WEIGHT OF A MOVEMENTThe modem Christian dieting industry probably began in1957, when Presbyterian minister Charlie Shedd publishedPray Your Weight Away. The book, which would never fly intoday's Christian self-help market, used the guilt-trip styleof a folksy preacher to persuade readers that God neverintended for "one hundred pounds of excess avoirdupois"to be hanging around their belts.

'We fatties are the only people on earth who can weighour sins," Shedd wrote. Along with a host of hokey affirma-tions ("Today I eat with Him"), He offered an exercise regi-men that, among other things, instructed readers to per-form karate kicks while reciting Proverbs 3. The book wasa bestseller.

Today's Christian dieting and fitness movement focusesless on sin and more on the individual's addiction and recov-ery. With Shamblin as its most popular guru, the industryhas exploded. According to nutritionist David Meinz, authorof Eating by the Good Book, the dieting industry in America isworth $30-50 billion. "A conservative estimate is that 5 per-cent [$1.5 billion] of that is the Christian dieting industry,"Meinz says. "Many Christians are also buying Lean Cuisine.The 5 percent estimate does not include that."

Meinz offers another way to parse it: "Thirty-nine per-cent of the American population considers itself bom again.So [up to] 39 percent of that dieting industry is Christiandollars. That's a huge amount of money."

Christian dieting programs fall into two camps. First arethe programs like Shamblin's Weigh Down Workshop,which try to avoid the strict rules and regulations of manydiets, focusing on the "spiritual" side of eating to the exclu-sion of calorie-counting.

Most other Christian dieting programs are more regi-mented. They advocate food exchanges, measuring fourounces of this and two ounces of that. The national mnim-

istry 3D-Diet, Discipline, and Discipleship-embodies thisapproach. Considered the mother of Christian dieting pro-grams, 3D was founded in 1973 by Carol Showalter, a NewEngland Presbyterian pastor's wife who struggled with herweight. "Weight Watchers met in the church," she recalls,"and I had a hard time not noticing it as I was off to Biblestudies." As Showalter considered enrolling "for the thirdor fourth time . .. God spoke to me in a most extraordinaryway: through a hand-painted sign on a Sunday-school wall.

"Weigh Down worked for me," Christiansen says.'With Weigh Down I don't have to think about food untilmy tummy growls. Weigh Down doesn't feel like a dietbecause diets draw your attention onto food-WeighDown draws your attention onto God."

Indeed, there is much to applaud in Shamblin'sapproach. In contrast to programs such as First Place thatrequire you to develop a cycle of focusing on what you putin your mouth, Shamblin's message de-emphasizes the cen-

One of Weigh Dowi founder Gwen Shamblin'sfavorite verses is Matthew 6:25:

"Do not worry about what you eat or drinki"The message was this: GOD HAS THE ANSWER.

God's answer, she determiined, was for her not to returnto Weight Watchers. Instead, she organized 3D, whichteaches that Christians, meeting in small groups, can loseweight if they lead disciplined lives: disciplined eating butalso disciplined prayer.

A similar program is First Place. Founded in 1981 atHouston's First Baptist Church, First Place preaches "struc-ture," according to Carole Lewis. Lewis, now the nationaldirector of the group, was an early devotee. Thirty-nineyears old when the First Place meetings started in Dallas,Lewis thought, Do I want to befat and 40?

"I had already joined an aerobics class. I had 20 pounds Ineeded to lose. I had tried Weight Watchers, hypnosis, andI always gained it back." With First Place, Lewis was able tolose weight and keep it off. "'We support a recognized foodplan-using food exchanges and a food guide by the USDA,"

she explains.Weigh Down, and other programs like it, is nothing like

First Place and 3D. As Showalter puts it, "Gwen Shamblin issaying something dramatically different from 3D. Eat yourchocolate, eat your ice cream. The people in her testimoni-als may be losing weight, but is it healthy? Is it proper? Is itdisciplined? I don't think so."

Weigh Down Workshop critics like Showalter askpotential Christian dieters to irnagine what a life patternedon Shamblin's loose philosophy would look like. Where isthe discipline that the Christian walk requires? Lewisagrees: "The biggest difference between Weigh Down andFirst Place is that Gwen says eat whatever you want.AXVe recognize] that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit."

Jan Christiansen is another devoted "Weigh Downer."Christiansen made her way to a 3D group about three yearsago after struggling with her weight for years. She liked thediscipline the program provided, but she couldn't stick withit. "It seemed just like another diet. If I have to think aboutit at all, all I think about is food." Then she stumbled acrossShamblin's book in the library.

trality of food. As a result, many people have been able tobreak the cycle of food obsession and lose weight. But evensome of Weigh Down's biggest fans also have concernsabout the program.

WEIGH DOWN CONTROVERSYChristiansen was so devoted to Weigh Down that shewrote a book about it: More of Him, Less of Me: My PersonalThoughts, Inspirations, and Meditations on the Weigh DownDiet, which came out last year. "Writing this book hasmade me see another side of Weigh Down," she says. Andit wasn't positive.

Though she contacted Weigh Down several times whenshe was first starting to write, she heard no response untilshe signed her contract with Starburst Publishers. ThenWeigh Down officials paid attention, making it clear theydid not want Christiansen to publish the book. "At firstthey tried to warn me off my publisher, saying it wasknown for plagiarism," she says. "Then they got really con-cemed with [the size of WElGH DOWN on] the cover."

After More of Him, Less of Me was out, Christiansenplanned to attend a small Weigh Down conference inPennsylvania. When she registered, she did not mentionher own book, but a few days later a local organizer con-tacted Christiansen and asked her to bring copies of lkIore ofHim, Less of Me to the conference.

"I was surprised. I couldn't imagine, given their earliertreatment, that the national people would support this." SoChristiansen asked the local organizer to check with thenational office, which promptly contacted Christiansen andtold her not to bring the book to the conference. "I don'twant to think anything bad about Gwen," says Christian-sen, reflecting on the workshop's marked hostility and non-cooperation. "But I have to wonder why she is really inthis-to help people or to make money?"

"Weigh Down routinely discourages those who seek toprofit from its and/or Gwen's narne," Weigh DownWorkshop spokeswoman Jeannie Propst told CHRISTIANrrY

Sept cm be r 4, 2 000 o CH RI ST IAN IT Y TOD AY 53

TODAY when asked about Christiansen's book. Propstadded that Shamblin's publisher at the time, Doubleday,"was actually the more incensed party."

Weigh Down has stirred controversy on the Christiancollege scene as well.

On some campuses, counselors who work with stu-dents worry that Weigh Down and other dieting pro-grams could contribute to eating disorders. Students at

not turn to The Weigh Down Diet for nutritional informa-tion," says Meinz, although he appreciates that Shamblinis a registered dietitian with a master's degree in nutri-tion. "Shamblin needs to rethink her perspective on exer-cise," which has little place in her message.

Mary Louise Bringle, professor of religion at St.Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, NorthCarolina, and author of The God of Thinness, concurs:

"To have a lot of young, thin [college]women going into a program to lose weightis contrary to what we really need.FPDon1 Ferrell, director of Wheaton College Counseling Center.

Wheaton College urged the administration to sponsor aWeigh Down group last year, but the college, concernedthat the workshop might somehow create a climate foranorexia on campus, refused.

"For young women who tend to be perfectionistic andconcerned about having the perfect body," says DonFerrell, the director of the Wheaton College CounselingCenter, "being fat is one of the most terrible things in thewhole world. To have a lot of young, thin, perfectionistwomen going into a program to lose weight is contraryto what they really need. Women can make use of WeighDown in a very unhealthy way, like an alcoholic whoreads that drinking a glass of wine every day will be goodfor him and uses that information to keep drinking."

Ferrell is careful to point out that programs like WeighDown have a place, but that place is not on the collegecampus. Kelly Williamsen, a former Wheaton counselornow in private practice, agrees. There are many positiveelements to programs like Weigh Down, she says: Theyteach people that some longings can only be filled byGod; they confront "the erroneous idea that there are'good' foods and 'bad' foods."

But, says Williamsen, most Wheaton students "whostruggle with food issues need also to be learning how todevelop intimate relationships with others and to recog-nize that God has created us to need and long for closenessin community, not just with him." Most college studentsdo not need to lose weight, she adds; they need to learn"to get more comfortable with the reality that their bodieswill continue to change during the early adult years."

Equally worrisome is Weigh Down's lack of responsiblenutritional information. Nutritionist David Meinz, whoenthusiastically endorses the spiritual component of Sham-bhn's plan, worries about its nutritional value.

"Weigh Down has tapped into the issue that peopleovereat for spiritual or emotional reasons, but you should

"Anyone who says that you don't ever need to exerciseexcept getting down on your knees-that is not a mes-sage about fitness."

As for Shamblin, she has misgivings of her own aboutthose who would question the Weigh Down approach."People don't know what sin is," she told CT. "Sin isthese people who keep telling people that God requiresyou to exercise, that brownies are evil, that sour cream isevil.... Is exercise the measure of letting your heartdesire less food?"

DANGEROUS DIET?Noted Christian nutritionist Pam Smith has offered per-haps the most balanced assessment of Weigh Down'sbenefits and costs. "People have really grown so muchstronger spiritually in Weigh Down, with the power ofthe small group and the power of the knowledge thatGod is God and food is food, but the program is scaryfrom a medical perspective," Smith says. "People comeaway from it with no understanding of what they needfor health. Who wouldn't want to hear that you can eatbiscuits and gravy and it doesn't matter because some-how it's going to work? But there is no self-control;rather, people are saddled with the anarchy of whatever,whenever, however."

Smith's latest book, The Diet Trap (LifeLine Press), seeksto tum readers away from "fad diets" toward more naturalweight-loss options. She is especially worried about peoplewho go through the Weigh Down program and then begingaining their weight back: "People schooled in the notionthat 'if you're really connecting with God, then you'll bethin' will say they're letting God down when they gain."

Smith adds that the Weigh Down formula promotesshortsighted teachings about nutrition and ignores docu-mented scientific principles. "People can come away fromWeigh Down with a distrust of everything research has

54 CH RI ST IAN IT Y TOD AY I S e p t e m b e r 4, 2 0 0 0

shown to be true, thinking it doesn't apply to us asChristians," she says. "Through Weigh Down, people tradean obsessive focus on food for an all-out focus on God, andthere's freedom there, but that's where it ends." .

What are the nutritional teachings of which Smith is socritical? "Almost everything your body needs your bodyproduces: lecithin, cholesterol, brain cells, protein. Themain thing your body needs is just gasoline to run it,"Shamblin writes in The Weigh Down Diet. "So God in hisgenius put all these nutrients in almost all foods--protein,carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, water, and minerals. Theyvary in percentage. Your liver can take those, move theconfigurations of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogenaround, and can turn a carbohydrate into a protein and soforth." She adds that she gets the exact nutrients her bodyneeds: "All I do is listen to my senses."

"To the layman's ear this sounds great," says Smith. "Butyou can't trust that your body will tell you what it needs. Itdoesn't have a mechanism, deep in your soul, that says,'My muscles are breaking down, I need protein."'

Shamblin suggests that her critics' self-interest may beclouding their judgment. "Nutritionists would love for usto keep the industry going by telling us how complicatedthings are," she says.

CRAID-SCALE REVIVALIt is easy to see why Shamblin's program has been so popu-lar. Overweight people are often desperate for a solution,

says. "This has rejuvenated our entire spiritual life."But according to some observers, Christians should be

cautious about embracing Shamblin's brand of theology.Kelly Williamsen applauds the workshop's "strong affirma-tion that God, as Creator, acted with incredible wisdom inthe formation of our bodies." But she worries thatShamblin's axiom, "we can love either food or God," failsto recognize that people can love "several people and/orthings at one time. Is it true that all of the longings andempty spaces we find within ourselves are only a quest formore of God? Maybe we also eat when we are longing forcompanionship, community, family."

Shamblin's enthusiastic following suggests that she goesway beyond the status of simply a dieting figurehead; fordroves of Weigh Downers, she is a major spiritual leader.

To have become such an influential voice on spiritualmatters, Shamblin has very little theological heft behind herteachings-and she doesn't see the need for oversight fromoutside pastors or theologians. Her approach to Scripturerelies heavily on freestyle prooftexting. In her books andvideos, she has adopted the Exodus story as an elaboratemetaphor for America's bondage to dieting. ("The Israelitesstayed in Egypt for 430 years," she writes in Rise Above,"and then they cried out for a Savior. America has been in amess for decades, and we have cried out to God again andagain to remove this fat and save us from this burden.")

Concerned lately with all the "false information" circu-lating about food, weight, and nutrition, Shamblin refers to

"\People can come away from Weigh Downwith a distrust of everything research hasshbwn to be true, thinking it doesn't apply

to Christians. Pam Smith, nutrltionist.

and an easy solution is usually preferable to a hard one.What's more, in teaching people to let God-not food-meet their deepest needs, Shamblin is doing the church agreat service. While it seems unlikely that historians a cen-tury hence will be intoning about any Weigh DownRevival, it is clear that Shamblin's program has helpedmany Christians move into deeper relationships with God.

Karen Mitchell, an Arkansas mother of three, says read-ing Shamblin's books helped her not only lose weight but"reconnect with a God I realized I hadn't really spoken to inseveral years. And I'm not alone. I know Gwen is helpingpeople all over the country reconnect with their Lord."

In Mitchell's neighborhood alone, three women, all ofwhom credit Shamblin with their own spiritual reawaken-ing, have formed a Bible study and prayer group. "Wedon't get together and just pray about weight," Mitchell

God's warning in Deuteronomy 13 that "false prophets"will rise among his people to test them. "When churchleaders confuse the sheep, the sheep don't know where togo," she says. "But God has always allowed Pharisees."

On the same theme, she likes to quote Jude 4: that cer-tain "godless men" will secretly slip in among you andchange the grace of God into license to sin. But one of herfavorite Scripture verses is Matthew 6:25: "Do not worryabout .. . what you will eat or drink" In that verse, saysShamblin, Jesus isn't merely teaching about anxiety andtrust in God; he also means that folks should not worryabout getting enough fiber.

Shamblin, who does not identify herself with any oneChristian tradition, told CT she has been associated withboth denominational and nondenominational churches.Thousands of churches use her program, but amid her

Septemnber 4, 2000 j CHRISTIA NITY TODAY 55

national fame, she has become increasingly critical ofAmerican churches. She suggests they have drifted too farfrom the scriptural model. "Early Christians died to theirwill and it was radical," she says. "They wanted people toknow that God is your only Lord. Today people are look-ing for a message that tickles their own ears."

Perhaps because of such concerns, Shamblin and herhusband, David, joined another another couple 18 monthsago in planting a new church in the Nashville area.Remnant Fellowship meets in a renovated warehouse andcurrently has about 80 members.

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SAVING BODIES AND SOULSShamblin is not the only Christian dieting personality toclaim that the primary benefit of her program is spiritualand revivalistic: most Christian dieting programs say thattheir real goal is not pounds but God. As Lewis says of FirstPlace, "The whole purpose is to draw us closer to Christ."

"The ultimate goal is always evangelistic," says Christiandieter and nurse Judy Halliday, coauthor of Thin Again(Baker) and founder of the ministry Thin Within."Otherwise this work would be very unsatisfactory to me."Halliday recently was able to lead her client Stephanie

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Sferra to faith in Christ. Sferra, a California wife and moth-er, began working with Halliday after yo-yoing with JennyCraig and other diets.

Sferra's experience with religion had always been "aboutceremony, doing it because you had to, walking throughthe motions," but Halliday seemed to present somethingmore than empty ritual. The two talked about a perfectlove that was not performance-based. Soon Halliday invit-ed Sferra to church and later gave her a Bible. "Judy askedme if I was ready to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior andwelcome God into my heart. I said I'd never said that outloud, but this time I wvas ready. Now I'm walking throughmy life buttressed by the Spirit. And to think it all startedbecause I thought I was 20 pounds overweight!"

Sferra is not alone. Christian dieting programs havehelped many non-Christians come to faith. Secular folkswho want to slim down see a coworker or neighbor who

Christians describing past sins, authors of Christian dietingbooks tell their readers they can sympathize with weightstruggles by recounting their own battles of the bulge.

But have Christian dieters simply bought into a worldlystandard? After all, the underlying assumption that pro-grams like Weigh Down share with the more disciplinedprograms like 3D is the notion that God wants people to bethin. Although evangelicals are typically outspoken in theiranalysis of worldliness, weight is one area where we seemto have embraced a worldly aesthetic uncritically.

As a writer in Daughters of Sarah put it, "The message,whether blatant or subtle, is that fat-is-sin-and-the-right-eous-are-thin-amen."

Evangelism is one of the most popular justifications forChristians jumping on the weight-loss bandwagon. FirstPlace's Carole Lewis teaches that a slender appearance iscrucial to being an effective witness, "Although God looks

"If I'm 100 pounds overweight and tryingto tell people about God's power in their life,they will wonder why thre's no power to help

me n this area Carole Lewis, director of First Place

took off-and kept off-40 pounds, and ask, "'How did youdo it?" That the answer is "religious" doesn't trouble manynonbelievers: they figure if it will help them lose weightthey might as well give it a shot-and they often leave theprogram converted to Christ, if not always slimmer.

Carole Lewis of First Place underscores her group's evan-gelistic successes: the program is "a hook to introduce peo-pie to Christ. Many people come who've never darkenedthe door of a church." Shamblin says Jews and Mormonshave come into the evangelical Protestant fold through theWeigh Down Workshop. "Losing weight is great, but evan-gelism is my whole point," says Jan Christiansen. "Above allI want to tell people God can help you."

IS FAT SIN?If professional Christian dieters emphasize their evangelisticsuccesses, they also talk about conversion to thinness.indeed, Christian weight-management books are nothing somuch as modem conversion narratives. The author recountsher own struggles with weight, describes the wrong tums shetook in searching for an answer, highlights the datablemoment where she realized that food had taken over her life,and then shares the story of her victorious walk to thinness.Princeton University's Marie Griffith is the author of anacclaimed study of Women's Aglow Fellowship and a forth-coming study of Christians, dieting, and food in Americanhistory. She observes that in the routinized formula of

on the heart, man looks on the outward appearance," shesays. 1 think we have a responsibility in our world to shareChrist. If I'm 100 pounds overweight and trying to tellthem about God's power in their life, they will look at meand wonder why there's no power to help me in this area."After publishing her 1979 book Free to Be Thin, Neva Coylereceived scads of letters like this: "'What shall I do? At a size16 I look awful! How can I ever tell anyone about Christuntil I take this disgusting body back down to a size lo?"

Uniting Christ and weight-loss is no innocent, self-evi-dent act but one laden with theological implications. MaryLouise Bringle has struggled with her own weight andbody image for years. Critical of the ways in whichChristians have embraced the cult of thinness, she suggeststhat hidden assumptions about women may be buried inChristians' adoption of an aesthetic that privileges thinness."We've got to think about what this says about women,and what women are valued for."

Though men do participate in dieting programs, fromWeigh Down to Weight Watchers, Bringle observes thatthe vast majority of dieters are women. "Men get strokedby their wives whether they gain weight or not," she says.In contrast, countless Christian women are motivated todiet because they fear their husbands are repulsed by fleshythighs and protruding tummies.

Since the days of the early church, Christianity, has had alot to say about food from the days of the early church (see

Sep ter.ber 4, 2000 1 CH RSTIANITY TODAY 57

"Rx for Gluttony," p. 62). As sins go, gluttony is right upthere with sloth, avarice, and lust. But, as Griffith notes,"the Christian tradition [also] has resources for critiquing"the diet craze. And there are signs that some Christiandieters are beginning to offer that critique.

When pressed, professional Christian dieters admitthat, in the words of Carole Lewis, it doesn't "matter toGod whether we're thin .. . it matters to us." Showalterechoes that sentiment: "I can't believe that God is look-ing at my scale."

FEEDING THE SHEEPAt least two women who formerly had success as leaders inthe Christian dieting world have recently shifted the focusin their ministries. Their stories now serve as cautionarytales for others.

Neva Coyle regained over 100 pounds after writing the

other women closer to God. But Will Power "and mostChristian diet groups of recent years . .. promoted the liethat thin equals righteousness ... heaped additional guiltupon women who felt plenty guilty already.... [and] bap-tized all these efforts as 'dieting' unto-the-Lord.' It simplywas not biblicall"

Now Higgs has a different take: "Sinful to be fat? I don'tthink so." And she asks "all my sisters in Christ and espe-cially those whom I unintentionally misinformed duringmy Will Power days: please forgive me and accept God'scomplete and unconditional love for you."

There are hopeful signs that Christians will find a wisebalance between physical fitness and spiritual growth-and not accept cultural notions of size 2 supermodels as anattainable reality. However, the success and very existenceof a Christian dieting industry suggest that believers willcontinue to walk a fine ine on the issue.

"I cantt beli Cve that God is lo f3ingat my scale. P Carol Showalter, founder of 3D

bestselling Free to Be Thin and founding OvereatersVictorious. She now had an added motivation to loseweight: not only would it please God and her husband, buther career depended on it as well-an obese woman wouldnot have much success hawking a dieting program. ButCoyle was also fighting "a severe health crisis": her doctorstold her she would have to reverse the stomach-staplingprocedure she had undergone years before. "I was facedwith the realization," says Coyle, "that it was my weight ormy life." After some hesitation, she chose life and had theintestinal bypass reversed.

Fifteen years later, Coyle has moved away from her ear-lier obsession with slendemess, and her book Loved on aGrander Scale (Servant) reminds readers that God lovesthem no matter what their size. She urges them to askJesus: 'Forgive me for putting my body size before you.For spending so much time on how I look, how much Iweigh, and caring more about pleasing others than I caredabout pleasing you."

Probably the most straightforward critique of the indus-try is found in a short book published in 1993 by ThomasNelson-the same publisher now selling Weigh Down tothe Christian market. In One Size Fits All and Other Fables,Liz Curtis Higgs recounts battling her waistline for years.When she became a Christian in 1982, she joined WeightWatchers-"only this time, I told myself I would give Godthe glory for any changes that took place."

When she quickly lost 50 pounds, her friends at churchurged her to start a weight-loss group. She founded WillPower, which stood for "My Will Surrendered to God'sPower. " The group, Higgs recalls, brought her and many

Phyllis Tickle, contributing editor to Publishers Weeklyand a contributor to The Bread of Life: A Cookbook for Bodyand Soul, has watched the booming Christian dieting indus-try both as a journalist tracking publishing trends and as adevotional writer who believes Christians need to seethemselves as whole beings: body, spirit, and mind.

Tickle says evangelicals have mostly focused on themind and spirit. She is encouraged, however, by the dietingindustry's sincere, if not always perfect, attempts to helpbelievers look at their physical bodies through a Christianperspective.

Tickle recognizes Gwen Shamblin as an influential voicein this effort. "Shamblin is showing us that you diet as aChristian, you choose your food as a Christian, you exer-cise as a Christian-and that's a fairly new phenomenon,'Tickle says. "We are beginning to say the world of thebody can indeed be approached by a soul who is devoutand in service to his or her God and sees the world of thebody that way."

Achieving the proper balance in our image-obsessed cul-ture, however, is another matter.

Jane, a striking twentysomething graduate student withsmooth mocha skin and shapely legs, unwittingly offeredwhat may stand as the best caution for the Christian dietingindustry and its disciples. Dieting constantly, subsisting onyogurt, anxious to slim her already fit figure down evenfurther, Jane went to church and heard a sermon on disci-pleship. "Listening to Jesus tell Peter to feed his sheep, Ithought, How well am I going to feed any sheep TI don't feedmyself?" she recalls. "He said feed his sheep, after all. Hedidn't say diet them." (3

58 CH RI ST IAN IT Y TODAY I Sept em be r 4, 2 0 0 0

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TITLE: The weigh & the truthSOURCE: Christianity Today 44 no10 S 4 2000

WN: 0024803886014

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