Mary Louise Bringle is chair of the humanities division of Brevard College in Brevard, N.C. She wrote of her eating disorder in “Confessions of a Glutton” in the Oct. 25, 1989, issue of The Christian Century.

Tami Coyne and Karen Weissman are known as “The Spiritual Chicks” and are authors of The Spiritual Chicks Question Everything: Learn to Risk, Release and Soar (Red Wheel, 2003). In the book, they discuss whether God loves fat people and conclude that God does. Both Chicks live in New York City.

Carol Showalter is the author of 3D: Diet, Discipline and Discipleship (Paraclete Press, 2002) and is a member of the Community of Jesus. She is the founder of the 3D Plan, a Christian lifestyle group.

Lael Atkinson is pastor of Payson Park United Church of Christ in Belmont, Mass. In 2003, she delivered a sermon about America as a culture that consumes too much of everything, including food.

Miriam Berg is president of the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination, a national nonprofit group based in Mount Marion, N.Y., that works to eliminate weight discrimination and “sizism.”

Ravindra S. Khare is a professor of anthropology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He has written about Hindu gastrosemantics.

Jualynne Dodson is a visiting professor at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Michigan State University in East Lansing. She has written extensively about African-American Christians and food.

The Rev. O.S. Hawkins is president of Dallas-based GuideStone Financial Resources. He has said that taking care of the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit is one of the duties of a Baptist. The top two medical claims paid by the denomination’s health insurance program in 2002 were for obesity-related ailments, including back […]

Kenneth Ferraro is a professor of sociology and psychological sciences at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. In 1998, he published the findings of a study that showed that religious participation is associated with higher body weight. His study of 3,600 people found that Southern Baptists are heaviest, with Jews, Muslims and Buddhists less likely to […]