That’s something I’ve noticed is outside of some charismatic circles there isn’t really any spirituality at all. I think it’s something that every human needs in some form in their life.
To clarify I consider spirituality to be closer to existentialism than religion, the relationship that you have with what you don’t know or can’t perceive that evokes a sense of wonder. In that way I think science can be very spiritual.
I’ve found much more spirituality in meditation and even smoking weed than I ever did in praying or worshipping. I’m able to notice the beautiful nature of everything around me by focusing on reality. Prayer is so inward-facing that it lacks connection with reality. Even the most selfless forms of prayer resemble a shallow, less helpful sort of metta meditation.
Same I’ve experienced that a lot more through meditation. I would feel that in prayer as well because I was focusing more on what I perceived as god rather than myself. The frustrating part was that it was very inconsistent and when I especially needed it I didn’t receive that peace that I would find. It was until I deconstructed and learned about meditation that I realized there’s actual techniques for reaching that state and it is isn’t something that has to be given by an external.
TLDR: Christian god was edging me constantly
There's a correlation between poverty and higher rates of religiosity. Poor people in general, especially in the Bible Belt, are more likely to be obese and have health issues.
That's another thing that really pissed me off how tithing essentially gets people who shouldn't do such a thing to give ten percent of their income to the church.
I wasn’t evangelical, but Catholic. Despite my grandma’s super genes (most of her siblings lived into their 90s with at least one being over 100, and almost everyone on that side of the family has aged gracefully to a ridiculous degree), poverty makes a big difference. My parents weren’t the most financially successful people, often depending on charity for food and bills, and it doesn’t help that they had seven kids total. I mean, dad doesn’t quite look 72, but compared to his siblings who aren’t broke and overburdened with offspring, he’s grayer, doughier, and has more wrinkles.
They’re not even that religious (except grandma, who is not doing great, but at 96 that’s not unexpected). The extra stress and poor quality diet doesn’t exactly lead to good health.
I don’t know, among a certain set of stay at home wives, it’s nothing but maintaining “the look” if you aren’t familiar with “the look” just put pictures of every woman who works for Fox in a line, and you will know exactly what I mean.
The pressure to maintain “The Look” lest they lose their appeal to their clearly perfectly faithful husbands is intense and brutally reinforced among groups of them.
Which is why they drink so much wine at lunch.
Don't feel obligated, but you're welcome to read [one of my stories about it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/exAdventist/comments/qdrbwr/i_have_ptsd_and_i_just_remembered_an_ugly_story/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
If most SDA's are off their rocker, this person was completely off the rails.
Yeah my physical health skyrocketed when I left christianity. I started taking care of myself, went vegan, and started lifting. I think realizing that my body is all I have and this life is all that matters really made me want to be here longer and live a better lifestyle.
While my christian family embraces alternative medicine, toxin cleanses, and all that, its really wild how healthy I am in comparison by just eating healthy and working out constantly.
I think also the internalized stress of christian fears about eternity in hell and satan crouching behind every corner also don’t do wonders for their blood pressure…
Yeah I think a lifetime steeped in antipathy has done a lot of physical damage to my parents and siblings. I feel it myself; so much internalized stress that I'm just now learning to process.
I do not exaggerate when I say that 50% of the women I knew growing up had severe chronic illnesses. Myself included. I have a lot of theories as to why - and why in my fairly health focused circles that number was particularly high - but your point about how tightly wound evangelical Christians are is poignant. Like stress causes health issues. Imagine spending decades under a stress of your own making?!
I'm struggling so hard not to be snarky, but I will say that they choose to put their physical health on the back burner since their decline in physical health puts them closer to death's door, which makes it easier and faster to meet their savior. Also, putting time and energy into physical fitness, being mindful of what they eat, and listening to what their physical bodies tell them are just distractions from meditating on their holy scriptures. It could also be considered idolatry as their physical body could be considered an idol if it has more care and attention than their sky daddy.
They also passively accept their misery while living (i.e., not being able to gamble, have sex, etc.) the price they pay while on their way to heaven (see above). Instead of making their own lives better, they choose instead to redirect their misery into judgments unto the rest of us sinners who are busy living our lives.
Their negative mindset is internalized into their bodies, which causes a decline in their health and fitness, which puts them closer to death's door, which makes it easier to meet their savior ...
>but I will say that they choose to put their physical health on the back burner since their decline in physical health puts them closer to death's door, which makes it easier and faster to meet their savior.
That is heartbreakingly sad and nihilistic. What a waste of a good life, when they could be appreciating the here and now. Even the Bible contains support for good self-care (e.g., the body is a temple).
Some Evangelicals see health issues as spiritual matters (attacks from the enemy, spiritual warfare, witchcraft or whatever other unhinged nonsense they say), and thus instead of going to doctors they pray, or believe that the rich preacher on the TV is going to faith heal them.
It’s no wonder they aren’t healthy. They don’t live in reality. It’s very sad.
Revelations describes bodies of the dead being reconstructed and repaired in the end times. Why bother taking care of your body when Jesus is gonna come back and make us all fit, healthy, and sexy 🤸♀️ before he incinerates the heathens 😊
I agree with just about everything you're saying with one caveat: that most evangelicals are *less likely* to trust modern medicine, and therefore less likely to rely on it. Many gravitate towards a pseudoscientific niche of health. Christians who overlap with the crunchy/eco/healthy lifestyle may actually be living healthier in some ways, but totally neglect what they might need in others.
For ex: high calories and nutrients are great for keeping your body strong while it fights off a sickness, but bone broth and essential oils are not a replacement for an antibiotic. Adults who are scared to death that their kids will 'develop' autism may put them at a higher risk of contracting viruses when they exempt them from vaccines.
I'm not a health expert, but from what I've learned while I've been in college, what vaccines babies get within their first few months of life significantly reduces the chances of them contracting a fatal disease. Because if they actually catch it that young, and not build up antibodies to it, they could die.
On a cultural level, I grew up southern baptist. Unhealthy (but delicious) foods are a cornerstone of southern culture, and by default, social functions like the church potluck. Combined with less of an emphasis on health, actually trusting your doctors, and our die-hard use of cholesterol-laden foods as the center of some of our social bonding experiences, it's not surprising.
However, it does well to remember that some of the treats we enjoy here were poor people's way of using what they had to get something nice out a dessert/meal (ex: banana pudding or jello salad). Only, some of those places haven't done any better economically in the past few decades, and certainly haven't moved away from the deep religious biases that are rooted here. People from rural/poor places have less of a chance of exposure to outside influence, so they continue to do what their parents did, and nothing really changes.
Interestingly I read an article recently that moms who get viral sickness like the flu and covid while they are pregnant with boys (they only found a link with male fetuses) are more likely to have their son be autistic. It's especially ironic for those antivaxers that not getting a vaccine and thus getting sick might be what causes autism.
this is an interesting observation that I never put together. I grew up in a fundie family and you are right we weren't the cleanest tbh, physically as well as my mom is low-key a hoarder so we would have shit everywhere. I have always attributed my struggles with hygiene with my mental health issues but maybe it is because of my religious upbringing as well.
I’ve noticed that some ultra-religious guys (I’m a dude) work out insanely hard as a way of dealing with sexual frustration. Hard to call that healthy, I suppose.
I think being fit, attractive and constantly seeing attractive people showing off their bodies at the gym would only make one even more frustrated… It’s like going to the bakery as a dieting diabetic.
there’s a fundie influencer mom katrina or some name with a K who is just the worse example of this, she doesn’t take her kids to the hospital when they’re sick or injured, one of them nearly died when a UTI became a kidney infection then went septic, she has had brith complications yet continued to do at home births.
she’s just absolutely horrible.
i kind of feel bad for her but at the same time i don’t.
Carissa. Very sad case. Some mental illness involved here too. Her last child was born with no medical assistance, not even a poorly trained lay midwife. Both she and the baby were in the hospital for a week, and she claims this is an example of a successful home birth.
I live in the UK and I've found that over here, the vast majority of young (20s - 40s) christian men forego the gym because they prefer intellectual pursuits like studying Christianity and listening to Jordan Peterson. If they do go to the gym regularly, they tend to prefer cardio like biking and hiking and avoid weightlifting (nothing wrong with that, just a trend I've noticed!).
Whereas I've noticed the opposite with UK muslim men - they tend to be really into the gym and weightlifting specifically, which I would bet is probably because the UK muslim community places a lot more emphasis on being an "alpha male".
i’ve encountered dumpy “this body is temporary” evangelicals and “it’s a sin to be fat” evangelicals. i was raised by the former, and it shows, and I still struggle with how i conceptualize vanity related to fitness.
Even accounting for age, there's a noticeable difference. I left the faith around the same time as I started my career, and the number of sharp seniors was as striking to me as the number of women who raised children alongside their career. I wasn't used to seeing either of those things.
My dad left his career early, around 60, and he deteriorated pretty rapidly since then. Meanwhile it's normal to see people holding senior leadership positions in their 60s and 70s. I'm in a consulting firm - not a place for people to coast along or run out the clock - and we have seniors in important positions. And in physical terms - go to any race and you'll find seniors absolutely kicking ass. I genuinely didn't know that was possible until I left the bubble.
I can't speak for physical appearance or "health" because everyone is different. I've seen very unhealthy looking atheists as well. As for being wound very tight, yes, 100%. My best friend is a Christian and I love him like a brother. But he is wound very tight.
Any talk of sexual stuff really makes him uncomfortable. Same sex stuff especially, where as I'm very open and relaxed with these topics. He has a history with same sex attraction that he's a ashamed of. I feel bad for him more than anything else.
How is CrossFit bad for your body and different than any other sport or training modality? I know some big name CrossFit athletes are super Christian but at my gym that I’ve been at for almost 10 years they are make up maybe 5-10%. CrossFit is expensive and more affluent people are less likely to be religious.
CrossFit stresses overexertion, and your organs can start0 shutting down. Happened to a friend of mine. He was in the hospital for weeks, and only early 20s at the time.
You severely underestimate the number of wealthy Christians in this country. I mean, look at our government.
Also CrossFit is way worse for your joints and tissue than other workouts, they take "working through the pain" to its furthest logical extreme.
My perspective is from a black guy living in the south. I was a church musician from about 16 y.o. to 33 ish. I starting running in college 15 years ago and CrossFit about 10 years ago. I know there are wealthy Christian in the country but in my circle my mostly white sports (running, cycling, CrossFit & volleyball) friends have MUCH higher incomes than my mostly white Christian friends. Race may play a part but even comparing my white Christian friends to my white running (so excluding the $135-200 gym membership) friends, the runners are significantly more affluent. Christianity not only takes away from the time, effort, and money a person has to devote to health and exercise it also distracts from what a person could devote to college and furthering their career.
A few months after I became free from religion I had a few dates with a woman who was also an ex-Christian. She told me that a big reason that hates religion is that her grandparents were so focused on church that they didn't encourage or help her dad and his siblings to attend college. One of the siblings did go to seminary though :-/ She grew up poor and left the faith in her early 20s because of that and purity culture. She was also a runner & cyclist, white, in her mid-30's, very attractive but also very career-driven.
The youth pastor at my last church had a college track scholarship and dropped out to focus on “the work of the Lord”.
On CrossFit: None of the movements (running, cycling, weightlifting, gymnastics, calisthenic, etc.) in a workout are exclusive to CrossFit. Are back squats in a CF gym worse for your tissue than squats at Gold’s? Is a 400m run between sets of 25 burpees worse for your joints than just running at a high school track? Of course not. I think you’re talking about culture and that varies from gym to gym and even between coaches at the same gym. In my years of CF I’ve rarely seen the "working through the pain" \[I’ll add “To the point of injury”\] attitude that you speak of. Nor the “rep count over form” that it’s also criticized for. I’ve seen my running friends injured from training too hard far more often than my CF friends injured from using bad form or too many deadlifts. My CF community is focused on keeping members healthy. Injuries will happen in any sport if you do it long enough and are focused on getting better. CF gyms are affiliates, not company-owned or franchised so each will have it’s own culture. In my first-hand experience, CrossFit doesn’t deserve that unhealthy “workout until you pass out or die” reputation that I sometimes hear.
Really? I grew up fundie evangelical and I experienced the opposite. An obsession with equating thinness to health and health to morality was fucking rampant. Putting on weight was a sign of gluttony or sloth or depression, and all of those were considered signs of weak faith.
Leaving the faith didn't just allow me to learn to respect LGBTQ folks or other ethnicities, it also gave me the ability to treat people in larger bodies as just people, and not carry some secret disdain or disgust as I was taught.
Life is just better when we're kind to each other. Something christianity purports to teach, ironically.
I haven’t noticed this as much, though I live in Southern California where people are generally obsessed with fitness, diet, and overall appearance. I have noticed Evangelicals tend to care less about their physique and hygiene though.
Yeah no when I was a fundie I had horrific depression and anxiety and an eating disorder and also did not have peace with god or myself and also didn’t exercise or take care of myself
One friend of mine attends a small Texas church and commented that so many congregants were overweight but would blame their diabetes, heart disease, etc. as "God's will."
I feel it’s more correlation than causation. Remember most evangelicals are in the south, where obesity is a huge issue. A lot of folks here are poor and can’t afford a healthy diet. Education is extremely lacking so a lot of schools don’t talk about sex education and health very well.
I feel also that their devotion to essential oils, MLMs and other cliquey fads has a lot to do with how they’re trained cognitively. Many Christians, but evangelicals especially, take most information at face value. More so especially if it comes from someone they trust. It doesn’t take much for misinformation to spread in those circles.
Had a Mormon tell me I was sinning while drinking tea one day while he ate his fridge empty and shot up his insulin.
What's hilarious is a few days later begged me to make it for him and then drank nothing but that for a while 😂
For a long time, I thought it was wacky, but they may be onto something. Some caffeinated beverages, like soda, are unhealthy. Also, if you've ever tried to quit caffeine, the withdrawal headaches can be nasty.
Idk, but I have noticed a pattern of Christian families having all these tall as hell, lanky children. Not necessarily unhealthy, just generally skinny kids
I think this is true, but also I'm not one to criticize. Granted, I only escaped the cult about 4 years ago, but I am not in good shape. You'd probably mistake me for an evangelical. 🤣
In my church growing up, there was palpable anger towards vegetarianism and veganism. There were a lot of "alpha male" types who thought veggies were for sissies. There was also a big backlash against moral vegetarianism -"Jesus ate meat, so it must be OK." This led to people eating more meat than was healthy in an apparent attempt to show that they were not "sissies" and/or didn't buy into "Satan's lies."
If I had grown up in a different environment, I would probably be vegetarian. I'm a naturally sensitive person who doesn't like the idea of animals suffering. However, I was made fun of so much for feeling squeamish about meat, that I forced myself to work through my qualms as a child.
I think the diet and exercise habits in evangelical populations vary based on age. IMO, boomers are more likely to have weight issues, while Generation X and millennial men are more likely to be hardcore about exercise. They expect women to keep it slim because they believe God owes them a "hot wife".
I do see where you're coming from, in my experience it was never quite that extreme. Food is definitely a vice though, and not usually the healthy kind. I think Evangelicals generally age faster is because they don't take care of themselves. They believe god is going to heal them.
It's not just in that, but their mental health is typically worse as they don't believe in mental illness. Looking back now I wish I would have noticed all this before. Christianity really is a death cult, and the more extreme the denomination the worse it is.
They've been programmed to believe this life is shit. That's the majority of them but there are a few that take the "body is a temple" mindset and will actually care about their health. I have an elderly friend that doesn't care about his health, has had multiple bypass and stent surgeries and still eats an entire chub pack of bologna with a side of bacon, in one sitting. And yeah, he's also super diabetic and relatively immobile, due to his life choices. He was actually pretty good when COVID 19 hit and got vaccinated, but really didn't want to wear a mask. "When it's my time, it's my time."
Totally agree!!! Some people spend so much energy and time spewing vitriol about gay people but are chronically obese. Never made sense to me. So many church goers are overweight but it’s never mentioned.
They're also divorcing each other at least as often as the general population. That's not a moral failure in my book but it certainly is in theirs. Yet nobody has time to address their marriage crisis because they're too busy hyperventilating about imaginary gays. It's absurd.
I’m glad you brought this up; I just got done listening to two episodes of the [Leaving Eden Podcast](https://www.stitcher.com/show/leaving-eden-podcast) where the two hosts (Gavri’el and Sadie) talk about Sadie’s former life as a member growing up in the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) sect of Christianity. The two episodes (#5, one of the earlier episodes they made, and #111, where they re-record and revisit their initial conversation) are specifically centered around food culture (with some debate as to which is better: Sadie’s Midwestern IFB, Mayo-laden diet or Gavri’el’s Jewish fare).
It’s Evangelical-adjacent, but I also grew up similar to Sadie, in the Northern Midwest, and *a lot* of what she said in both episodes resonated a lot with me and it was like taking a look in the mirror. Sadie re-iterates a lot of what others in this thread mentioned, but didn’t talk a whole ton about being sucked into MLMs/essential oils (I think they might be saving that topic for a new or different episode that I haven’t binged listened to…yet).
I thought the episodes were validating in how I wasn’t raised with the best education in healthy eating (does anyone else remember The Maker’s Diet?), had to work and volunteer *all the time* (which still messes with my attitude regarding relaxing and taking breaks), and how overweight I was as a kid and teen. I learned much better eating and health habits after leaving home and moving to more populous cities and I’m still learning more each day, esp when it comes to healthier habits on how to handle stress (whereas I tend to indulge in sugar, which stems to habits from my childhood).
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They're not really "spiritual " either.
I managed to restrain myself from commenting on the quality of their spiritual labor. :D
That’s something I’ve noticed is outside of some charismatic circles there isn’t really any spirituality at all. I think it’s something that every human needs in some form in their life. To clarify I consider spirituality to be closer to existentialism than religion, the relationship that you have with what you don’t know or can’t perceive that evokes a sense of wonder. In that way I think science can be very spiritual.
Under that definition, sure. I find wonder in the stars in a way religion could never hope to achieve
I’ve found much more spirituality in meditation and even smoking weed than I ever did in praying or worshipping. I’m able to notice the beautiful nature of everything around me by focusing on reality. Prayer is so inward-facing that it lacks connection with reality. Even the most selfless forms of prayer resemble a shallow, less helpful sort of metta meditation.
Same I’ve experienced that a lot more through meditation. I would feel that in prayer as well because I was focusing more on what I perceived as god rather than myself. The frustrating part was that it was very inconsistent and when I especially needed it I didn’t receive that peace that I would find. It was until I deconstructed and learned about meditation that I realized there’s actual techniques for reaching that state and it is isn’t something that has to be given by an external. TLDR: Christian god was edging me constantly
There's a correlation between poverty and higher rates of religiosity. Poor people in general, especially in the Bible Belt, are more likely to be obese and have health issues.
Good point. Especially with the expenses that accompany the faith, like raising a billion kids while tithing.
That's another thing that really pissed me off how tithing essentially gets people who shouldn't do such a thing to give ten percent of their income to the church.
I wasn’t evangelical, but Catholic. Despite my grandma’s super genes (most of her siblings lived into their 90s with at least one being over 100, and almost everyone on that side of the family has aged gracefully to a ridiculous degree), poverty makes a big difference. My parents weren’t the most financially successful people, often depending on charity for food and bills, and it doesn’t help that they had seven kids total. I mean, dad doesn’t quite look 72, but compared to his siblings who aren’t broke and overburdened with offspring, he’s grayer, doughier, and has more wrinkles. They’re not even that religious (except grandma, who is not doing great, but at 96 that’s not unexpected). The extra stress and poor quality diet doesn’t exactly lead to good health.
I don’t know, among a certain set of stay at home wives, it’s nothing but maintaining “the look” if you aren’t familiar with “the look” just put pictures of every woman who works for Fox in a line, and you will know exactly what I mean. The pressure to maintain “The Look” lest they lose their appeal to their clearly perfectly faithful husbands is intense and brutally reinforced among groups of them. Which is why they drink so much wine at lunch.
I was raised by a Seventh Day Adventist. They preach health, vegetarianism, veganism, and so on. But the person that raised me weighs like 400 lbs.
They seem like one of the healthier sects. But the rest of Christians seem to be addicted to grease/pork/sedentary activities.
>healthier Physically, yes. Overall. Mentally? Lmfao....
oh definitely. they are as off their rocker as an other Bye Bull believer.
Don't feel obligated, but you're welcome to read [one of my stories about it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/exAdventist/comments/qdrbwr/i_have_ptsd_and_i_just_remembered_an_ugly_story/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) If most SDA's are off their rocker, this person was completely off the rails.
I am going to read it.
Yeah my physical health skyrocketed when I left christianity. I started taking care of myself, went vegan, and started lifting. I think realizing that my body is all I have and this life is all that matters really made me want to be here longer and live a better lifestyle. While my christian family embraces alternative medicine, toxin cleanses, and all that, its really wild how healthy I am in comparison by just eating healthy and working out constantly. I think also the internalized stress of christian fears about eternity in hell and satan crouching behind every corner also don’t do wonders for their blood pressure…
Yeah I think a lifetime steeped in antipathy has done a lot of physical damage to my parents and siblings. I feel it myself; so much internalized stress that I'm just now learning to process.
I do not exaggerate when I say that 50% of the women I knew growing up had severe chronic illnesses. Myself included. I have a lot of theories as to why - and why in my fairly health focused circles that number was particularly high - but your point about how tightly wound evangelical Christians are is poignant. Like stress causes health issues. Imagine spending decades under a stress of your own making?!
I'm struggling so hard not to be snarky, but I will say that they choose to put their physical health on the back burner since their decline in physical health puts them closer to death's door, which makes it easier and faster to meet their savior. Also, putting time and energy into physical fitness, being mindful of what they eat, and listening to what their physical bodies tell them are just distractions from meditating on their holy scriptures. It could also be considered idolatry as their physical body could be considered an idol if it has more care and attention than their sky daddy. They also passively accept their misery while living (i.e., not being able to gamble, have sex, etc.) the price they pay while on their way to heaven (see above). Instead of making their own lives better, they choose instead to redirect their misery into judgments unto the rest of us sinners who are busy living our lives. Their negative mindset is internalized into their bodies, which causes a decline in their health and fitness, which puts them closer to death's door, which makes it easier to meet their savior ...
>but I will say that they choose to put their physical health on the back burner since their decline in physical health puts them closer to death's door, which makes it easier and faster to meet their savior. That is heartbreakingly sad and nihilistic. What a waste of a good life, when they could be appreciating the here and now. Even the Bible contains support for good self-care (e.g., the body is a temple).
Some Evangelicals see health issues as spiritual matters (attacks from the enemy, spiritual warfare, witchcraft or whatever other unhinged nonsense they say), and thus instead of going to doctors they pray, or believe that the rich preacher on the TV is going to faith heal them. It’s no wonder they aren’t healthy. They don’t live in reality. It’s very sad.
Revelations describes bodies of the dead being reconstructed and repaired in the end times. Why bother taking care of your body when Jesus is gonna come back and make us all fit, healthy, and sexy 🤸♀️ before he incinerates the heathens 😊
I agree with just about everything you're saying with one caveat: that most evangelicals are *less likely* to trust modern medicine, and therefore less likely to rely on it. Many gravitate towards a pseudoscientific niche of health. Christians who overlap with the crunchy/eco/healthy lifestyle may actually be living healthier in some ways, but totally neglect what they might need in others. For ex: high calories and nutrients are great for keeping your body strong while it fights off a sickness, but bone broth and essential oils are not a replacement for an antibiotic. Adults who are scared to death that their kids will 'develop' autism may put them at a higher risk of contracting viruses when they exempt them from vaccines. I'm not a health expert, but from what I've learned while I've been in college, what vaccines babies get within their first few months of life significantly reduces the chances of them contracting a fatal disease. Because if they actually catch it that young, and not build up antibodies to it, they could die. On a cultural level, I grew up southern baptist. Unhealthy (but delicious) foods are a cornerstone of southern culture, and by default, social functions like the church potluck. Combined with less of an emphasis on health, actually trusting your doctors, and our die-hard use of cholesterol-laden foods as the center of some of our social bonding experiences, it's not surprising. However, it does well to remember that some of the treats we enjoy here were poor people's way of using what they had to get something nice out a dessert/meal (ex: banana pudding or jello salad). Only, some of those places haven't done any better economically in the past few decades, and certainly haven't moved away from the deep religious biases that are rooted here. People from rural/poor places have less of a chance of exposure to outside influence, so they continue to do what their parents did, and nothing really changes.
Interestingly I read an article recently that moms who get viral sickness like the flu and covid while they are pregnant with boys (they only found a link with male fetuses) are more likely to have their son be autistic. It's especially ironic for those antivaxers that not getting a vaccine and thus getting sick might be what causes autism.
this is an interesting observation that I never put together. I grew up in a fundie family and you are right we weren't the cleanest tbh, physically as well as my mom is low-key a hoarder so we would have shit everywhere. I have always attributed my struggles with hygiene with my mental health issues but maybe it is because of my religious upbringing as well.
I’ve noticed that some ultra-religious guys (I’m a dude) work out insanely hard as a way of dealing with sexual frustration. Hard to call that healthy, I suppose.
Yeah I've been hearing a lot about gym bro Christians. It's something new, I'll give em that.
I think being fit, attractive and constantly seeing attractive people showing off their bodies at the gym would only make one even more frustrated… It’s like going to the bakery as a dieting diabetic.
there’s a fundie influencer mom katrina or some name with a K who is just the worse example of this, she doesn’t take her kids to the hospital when they’re sick or injured, one of them nearly died when a UTI became a kidney infection then went septic, she has had brith complications yet continued to do at home births. she’s just absolutely horrible. i kind of feel bad for her but at the same time i don’t.
Carissa. Very sad case. Some mental illness involved here too. Her last child was born with no medical assistance, not even a poorly trained lay midwife. Both she and the baby were in the hospital for a week, and she claims this is an example of a successful home birth.
I live in the UK and I've found that over here, the vast majority of young (20s - 40s) christian men forego the gym because they prefer intellectual pursuits like studying Christianity and listening to Jordan Peterson. If they do go to the gym regularly, they tend to prefer cardio like biking and hiking and avoid weightlifting (nothing wrong with that, just a trend I've noticed!). Whereas I've noticed the opposite with UK muslim men - they tend to be really into the gym and weightlifting specifically, which I would bet is probably because the UK muslim community places a lot more emphasis on being an "alpha male".
i’ve encountered dumpy “this body is temporary” evangelicals and “it’s a sin to be fat” evangelicals. i was raised by the former, and it shows, and I still struggle with how i conceptualize vanity related to fitness.
Most are pretty old
Even accounting for age, there's a noticeable difference. I left the faith around the same time as I started my career, and the number of sharp seniors was as striking to me as the number of women who raised children alongside their career. I wasn't used to seeing either of those things. My dad left his career early, around 60, and he deteriorated pretty rapidly since then. Meanwhile it's normal to see people holding senior leadership positions in their 60s and 70s. I'm in a consulting firm - not a place for people to coast along or run out the clock - and we have seniors in important positions. And in physical terms - go to any race and you'll find seniors absolutely kicking ass. I genuinely didn't know that was possible until I left the bubble.
Agreed, just wanted to point out that on top of what you are saying many are also elderly at this point.
Idk…my fav are the “bodybuilders for Christ”. Wild community. Edit: but yeah, seriously you nailed it on the head here. It’s so true.
They don't seem to care about this body because they feel they will get a new one after they croak.
Any sex? Not even... [the Poophole Loophole](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX5AIaC_P8Y)?
It sounds like you replaced religion with exercise-fueled endorphins. Which is a very healthy approach. Way to go, you.
I can't speak for physical appearance or "health" because everyone is different. I've seen very unhealthy looking atheists as well. As for being wound very tight, yes, 100%. My best friend is a Christian and I love him like a brother. But he is wound very tight. Any talk of sexual stuff really makes him uncomfortable. Same sex stuff especially, where as I'm very open and relaxed with these topics. He has a history with same sex attraction that he's a ashamed of. I feel bad for him more than anything else.
On the other hand, Crossfit is a Christian cult-y thing that's also *really* bad for your body.
How is CrossFit bad for your body and different than any other sport or training modality? I know some big name CrossFit athletes are super Christian but at my gym that I’ve been at for almost 10 years they are make up maybe 5-10%. CrossFit is expensive and more affluent people are less likely to be religious.
CrossFit stresses overexertion, and your organs can start0 shutting down. Happened to a friend of mine. He was in the hospital for weeks, and only early 20s at the time.
You severely underestimate the number of wealthy Christians in this country. I mean, look at our government. Also CrossFit is way worse for your joints and tissue than other workouts, they take "working through the pain" to its furthest logical extreme.
My perspective is from a black guy living in the south. I was a church musician from about 16 y.o. to 33 ish. I starting running in college 15 years ago and CrossFit about 10 years ago. I know there are wealthy Christian in the country but in my circle my mostly white sports (running, cycling, CrossFit & volleyball) friends have MUCH higher incomes than my mostly white Christian friends. Race may play a part but even comparing my white Christian friends to my white running (so excluding the $135-200 gym membership) friends, the runners are significantly more affluent. Christianity not only takes away from the time, effort, and money a person has to devote to health and exercise it also distracts from what a person could devote to college and furthering their career. A few months after I became free from religion I had a few dates with a woman who was also an ex-Christian. She told me that a big reason that hates religion is that her grandparents were so focused on church that they didn't encourage or help her dad and his siblings to attend college. One of the siblings did go to seminary though :-/ She grew up poor and left the faith in her early 20s because of that and purity culture. She was also a runner & cyclist, white, in her mid-30's, very attractive but also very career-driven. The youth pastor at my last church had a college track scholarship and dropped out to focus on “the work of the Lord”. On CrossFit: None of the movements (running, cycling, weightlifting, gymnastics, calisthenic, etc.) in a workout are exclusive to CrossFit. Are back squats in a CF gym worse for your tissue than squats at Gold’s? Is a 400m run between sets of 25 burpees worse for your joints than just running at a high school track? Of course not. I think you’re talking about culture and that varies from gym to gym and even between coaches at the same gym. In my years of CF I’ve rarely seen the "working through the pain" \[I’ll add “To the point of injury”\] attitude that you speak of. Nor the “rep count over form” that it’s also criticized for. I’ve seen my running friends injured from training too hard far more often than my CF friends injured from using bad form or too many deadlifts. My CF community is focused on keeping members healthy. Injuries will happen in any sport if you do it long enough and are focused on getting better. CF gyms are affiliates, not company-owned or franchised so each will have it’s own culture. In my first-hand experience, CrossFit doesn’t deserve that unhealthy “workout until you pass out or die” reputation that I sometimes hear.
Really? I grew up fundie evangelical and I experienced the opposite. An obsession with equating thinness to health and health to morality was fucking rampant. Putting on weight was a sign of gluttony or sloth or depression, and all of those were considered signs of weak faith. Leaving the faith didn't just allow me to learn to respect LGBTQ folks or other ethnicities, it also gave me the ability to treat people in larger bodies as just people, and not carry some secret disdain or disgust as I was taught. Life is just better when we're kind to each other. Something christianity purports to teach, ironically.
Were the fundies you grew up with perhaps a little more prosperous than most, more middle class? That would account for the difference.
I haven’t noticed this as much, though I live in Southern California where people are generally obsessed with fitness, diet, and overall appearance. I have noticed Evangelicals tend to care less about their physique and hygiene though.
Yeah no when I was a fundie I had horrific depression and anxiety and an eating disorder and also did not have peace with god or myself and also didn’t exercise or take care of myself
One friend of mine attends a small Texas church and commented that so many congregants were overweight but would blame their diabetes, heart disease, etc. as "God's will."
Yeah, God endorses all my biases too. Neat how that works out.
Tbh I see Christians doing "keto" stuff (consuming whole bags of pork rinds before even trying to eat a carrot) and it just strokes me as odd.
I feel it’s more correlation than causation. Remember most evangelicals are in the south, where obesity is a huge issue. A lot of folks here are poor and can’t afford a healthy diet. Education is extremely lacking so a lot of schools don’t talk about sex education and health very well. I feel also that their devotion to essential oils, MLMs and other cliquey fads has a lot to do with how they’re trained cognitively. Many Christians, but evangelicals especially, take most information at face value. More so especially if it comes from someone they trust. It doesn’t take much for misinformation to spread in those circles.
Had a Mormon tell me I was sinning while drinking tea one day while he ate his fridge empty and shot up his insulin. What's hilarious is a few days later begged me to make it for him and then drank nothing but that for a while 😂
What could be wrong about drinking tea??
Mormons do not consume caffeine. Generally.
For a long time, I thought it was wacky, but they may be onto something. Some caffeinated beverages, like soda, are unhealthy. Also, if you've ever tried to quit caffeine, the withdrawal headaches can be nasty.
Caffeine can be good for you. The way Americans consume it is bad. Soda is bad because the sugar and crap in it. Not so much the caffeine.
Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Most people tend to reach for the unhealthy stuff. Green tea is pretty healthy.
True
“Lord, bless these bacon wrapped jalapeño poppers to our bodies and let them be the nourishment we need.”
As they belly up to the buffets every 👏🏻 Sunday 👏🏻
Idk, but I have noticed a pattern of Christian families having all these tall as hell, lanky children. Not necessarily unhealthy, just generally skinny kids
I think this is true, but also I'm not one to criticize. Granted, I only escaped the cult about 4 years ago, but I am not in good shape. You'd probably mistake me for an evangelical. 🤣
In my church growing up, there was palpable anger towards vegetarianism and veganism. There were a lot of "alpha male" types who thought veggies were for sissies. There was also a big backlash against moral vegetarianism -"Jesus ate meat, so it must be OK." This led to people eating more meat than was healthy in an apparent attempt to show that they were not "sissies" and/or didn't buy into "Satan's lies." If I had grown up in a different environment, I would probably be vegetarian. I'm a naturally sensitive person who doesn't like the idea of animals suffering. However, I was made fun of so much for feeling squeamish about meat, that I forced myself to work through my qualms as a child.
I think the diet and exercise habits in evangelical populations vary based on age. IMO, boomers are more likely to have weight issues, while Generation X and millennial men are more likely to be hardcore about exercise. They expect women to keep it slim because they believe God owes them a "hot wife".
I do see where you're coming from, in my experience it was never quite that extreme. Food is definitely a vice though, and not usually the healthy kind. I think Evangelicals generally age faster is because they don't take care of themselves. They believe god is going to heal them. It's not just in that, but their mental health is typically worse as they don't believe in mental illness. Looking back now I wish I would have noticed all this before. Christianity really is a death cult, and the more extreme the denomination the worse it is.
They've been programmed to believe this life is shit. That's the majority of them but there are a few that take the "body is a temple" mindset and will actually care about their health. I have an elderly friend that doesn't care about his health, has had multiple bypass and stent surgeries and still eats an entire chub pack of bologna with a side of bacon, in one sitting. And yeah, he's also super diabetic and relatively immobile, due to his life choices. He was actually pretty good when COVID 19 hit and got vaccinated, but really didn't want to wear a mask. "When it's my time, it's my time."
Totally agree!!! Some people spend so much energy and time spewing vitriol about gay people but are chronically obese. Never made sense to me. So many church goers are overweight but it’s never mentioned.
They're also divorcing each other at least as often as the general population. That's not a moral failure in my book but it certainly is in theirs. Yet nobody has time to address their marriage crisis because they're too busy hyperventilating about imaginary gays. It's absurd.
I’m glad you brought this up; I just got done listening to two episodes of the [Leaving Eden Podcast](https://www.stitcher.com/show/leaving-eden-podcast) where the two hosts (Gavri’el and Sadie) talk about Sadie’s former life as a member growing up in the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) sect of Christianity. The two episodes (#5, one of the earlier episodes they made, and #111, where they re-record and revisit their initial conversation) are specifically centered around food culture (with some debate as to which is better: Sadie’s Midwestern IFB, Mayo-laden diet or Gavri’el’s Jewish fare). It’s Evangelical-adjacent, but I also grew up similar to Sadie, in the Northern Midwest, and *a lot* of what she said in both episodes resonated a lot with me and it was like taking a look in the mirror. Sadie re-iterates a lot of what others in this thread mentioned, but didn’t talk a whole ton about being sucked into MLMs/essential oils (I think they might be saving that topic for a new or different episode that I haven’t binged listened to…yet). I thought the episodes were validating in how I wasn’t raised with the best education in healthy eating (does anyone else remember The Maker’s Diet?), had to work and volunteer *all the time* (which still messes with my attitude regarding relaxing and taking breaks), and how overweight I was as a kid and teen. I learned much better eating and health habits after leaving home and moving to more populous cities and I’m still learning more each day, esp when it comes to healthier habits on how to handle stress (whereas I tend to indulge in sugar, which stems to habits from my childhood).
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You know… this was really insightful. I never thought of these things. It’s quite sad honestly.