This past September 23rd, the Star News ran an article from the Chicago Tribune by Julie Deardorff under the general title, "Spirituality". I don’t know about you, but that makes me think of ghosts and crystal balls. In any case, Ms. Deardorff was reporting on a research project by Purdue University, which bore some strange results.

The main hypothesis suggested by this study implies that people who attend religious services tend to have a lower risk of obesity. It goes on to say that Baptists and Fundamentalists tended to have the highest rate of obesity among those who attend services regularly. We at Blake’s Chapel Advent Christian Church noted that our denomination, though small in number, was not singled out in this study.

Knowing Blake’s Chapel, I’m sure we would have skewed those statistics somewhat and might have confounded those social scientists. Our fundamentalist beliefs, as well as our eating patterns, would have put us solidly in the obese category.

Ms. Deardorff, no disrespect meant to you, but I would imagine that an academic study of this magnitude, probably cost a princely sum. My question is, whatever possessed the sociologists at Purdue University to initiate this study and why were you so smitten with it that you chose to write the article, "Praise the Lord and pass the gravy; study shows that Baptists are more obese than other religious groups?"

I’m sure someone is likely to follow up this research detailing the percentage of bald people who are believers, atheists or agnostics. How about left handed people? People who study the Bible according to hair color? This type of thing could go on forever.

Are we not blessed that God is no respecter of a person or his position, (Gal.2: 6, Deut.10: 17), and accepts us as we are, even as sinners, (Rom. 5: 8), and changes us over time that we may be partakers of a new nature, (II Peter1: 4), that we might be a work in progress to be more like Him? There’s no height requirement, no educational pre-requisites, no language preferences. Whether underweight or overweight, God is interested in our heart (Rom.10: 10), that we might believe in Him unto salvation, (Acts 16: 31).

We at Blake’s Advent Christian Church would like you to know that we are not about to question you with regard to where and how you stand with respect to God, much less your weight. However, we would love to have you join our church family for praise and prayer.

Fair warning however, study or no study, you are likely to put on a few pounds at "the eatingest church in Eastern North Carolina".

Dan Ligotti