Let me just say it: The world is lying to you. And a lot of Christians are eating it up like a second slice of cake they don't need.
I recently read an opinion piece in the New York Times - you know, the mouthpiece for the secular world - titled "The Unrepentant Return of Christian Diet Culture" that somewhat ticked me off and made me roll my eyes.
And then I read a Reddit post on r/ChristianDating that said "I have to be real with y'all about something no one talks about" - which, as I read through it and the comments, made me say "Thank you God, there are still some of us who aren't buying these lies."
Let me walk you through both.
What the World Wants You to Believe
The author, Jessica Grose of the New York Times article, lays it out like this:
Diet culture is making a politically charged comeback. Now it’s explicitly tied to Christianity and the MAHA crowd. Thin & fit = markers of the “right” kind of woman. Overweight = liberal and undisciplined.
The Church, according to her, is nothing but a “shame machine,” that has weaponized body image against women by tying weight to gluttony, sin and spiritual failure.
The world plays the “nice cop” role: telling us that “Obesity is not a failure of willpower. It is a treatable medical condition. A complex, chronic disease.”
And the cure is the GLP-1 drugs. Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and the like.
Just take a shot. No discipline required. No hard work. And whatever you do, don’t call it a moral or spiritual failing. That’s “medically illiterate.”
Now, the body positivity movement isn’t new. It started as the “fat acceptance movement” back in the 1960s. And here’s the message they successfully sold: “Women feel bad about how they look BECAUSE of how society perceives them. And that shouldn’t be the case.”
That birthed the rallying cries like “Fat is beautiful,” “my size is not my worth,” and “the body is not a project to be corrected, but a self to be accepted.”
Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Warm and fuzzy. Like a hug from a friend who doesn’t want you to get hurt and accepts you just the way you are.
They say, telling a woman to lose weight is an act of power, not care. Diet culture is ultimately limiting women, not liberating women. Being fat is freedom. Taking up space is rebellion. And anyone who tells you otherwise is an oppressor.
But Then I Stumbled Into Reality
I came across a Reddit post titled “I have to be real with y’all about something no one talks about.”
The poster (just a regular person, not a pastor, not a celebrity) said this:
“I’m not trying to offend anyone. But one thing I see in church singles is that many people are overweight and aren’t doing anything to change it. There are people who wonder why they’re not getting dates while ignoring the fact that they might need to work on themselves first.
This was me. When I was very unhealthy and overweight, I was still expecting men to want me and be attracted to me how I was. Then I lost weight, got healthy, and guess what? They were attracted to me.”
And the comments… were gold.
One person called out the “Just as I am” Christianity that’s slowly rotting us from the inside:
“This will fall on deaf ears. Too many Christians are ‘take me just as I am’ or ‘God will provide’ with zero self-improvement.”
Ouch. But it’s 100% true.
Then someone dropped 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 like a hammer:
"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit… therefore honor God with your bodies.”
If you don’t take care of your body, you aren’t honoring God. That’s not fat-shaming. That’s stewardship.
Another commented.
"I have since learned how one's care of their physical health is a strong indicator of one's spiritual health. I can honestly say I've never met someone that was fat wherein it wasn't a reflection of their emotional or spiritual self."
Now, before you grab your pitchfork, hear them out. They're not saying every overweight person is a backslidden sinner. They're saying there's a correlation. What you do with your body shows what's going on in your soul. Gluttony, laziness, escapism… these aren't just "bad habits." They're heart issues.
Another comment drove the final nail in - saying the quiet part loud:
"God doesn't accept obesity. It is a sin. It's gluttony. A man doesn't have to find that attractive, nor does a woman."
One wise soul said: You don't get fit for a spouse. You get fit for God.. " Do it out of service to God, because your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”
So Here’s the Hard Truth:
When we tell someone "you're perfect just the way you are" while they're destroying their body with food and laziness, are we speaking for God? Or are we just afraid of hurting feelings, or have we bought into the whole "body positivity" spiel?
The world wants you soft.
The world wants you sedentary.
The world wants you dependent on a shot instead of self-control.
You are a Christian soldier.
God wants you strong.
He wants you to be disciplined.
And He wants you honoring Him with every part of your life—including your waistline.
The scale isn’t your enemy. Neither is the fork. Your lack of discipline is.
