Black Churches Lean On Obese Members

Alarmed by studies showing that nearly half of African American women and more than a quarter of men are obese, black churches in Los Angeles and other parts of the country are starting exercise classes and nutrition programs, trying to nurture bodies as well as souls.

With blacks at a high risk for obesity-related ailments, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, these community institutions are urging their congregations to get moving, literally.

“Charity begins at home,” said the Rev. Gailen L. Reevers, pastor of Lincoln Memorial United Church of Christ in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles. “If we don’t do something, we will be doing more funerals and hospital visits.”

In August 2004, the National Progressive Baptist Convention passed a resolution endorsing “body and soul” programs for the 2,000-church organization. Afterward, churches from across the nation and from different denominations took up the cause.

The effort is intended to build on the historical strength of African American churches, not just as spiritual institutions, but as centers for education and information.

Church leaders say keeping fit is biblical and that healthy body, mind, soul and spirit go together. Some cite I Corinthians 6:19: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”

“Our body is the temple of the Lord,” said the Rev. Timm Cyrus, pastor of Angeles Mesa Presbyterian Church in Southwest Los Angeles. “We have to revere our temple.”

Cyrus and his wife, Margaret, began teaching basic nutrition and during their home Bible classes a decade ago, after she noticed that some of the older congregants weren’t eating properly.

Three times a week, the fellowship hall at Angeles Mesa, with its soaring ceiling and well-worn grand piano, becomes a community gym.

Facing a stage with a mural backdrop -- a picturesque scene of a statue of Jesus by a lake -- men and women in varying stages of fitness work out under the firm but friendly direction of Eric Tucker. A personal trainer and church member, he considers teaching health and fitness his ministry.

“The church just mirrors the community, and if we have healthy congregations, we are going to have a healthy community,” said Elaine Lee, a public health nurse in Detroit and a leader in the movement.

On a recent Saturday morning, Tucker and his charges were flat on their backs in the fellowship hall.

“OK, I am ready,” he said, reaching over to turn on his CD player, which started playing recorded beats like a metronome.

“Knees up, feet on the floor. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,” he said, pushing up a wooden exercise bar.

Lying on her exercise mat, paralegal Lori Braithwaite, who since her kidney transplant seven years ago has been laboring to get back in shape, pushed her stick toward the ceiling.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,” she counted, huffing and puffing.

Since joining Angeles Mesa’s fitness program three years ago, Braithwaite, 47, has shed 30 pounds. “Things are starting to fit together,” she said.

Septuagenarian Flora Robinson is a member of the class too.

Tucker calls the retired schoolteacher his “No. 1 fusser” and a “top student.”

When Robinson began exercising nearly four years ago, she couldn’t take baths because she had trouble stepping in and out of her tub.

Within three months, she was enjoying her old-fashioned, extra-deep tub. “I also had more energy to go up and down steps” at her church, she said. Her dress size went from 18 to 16.

The latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 49% of black women are obese, compared with 33% of their white counterparts and 38% of Mexican American women. The obesity rates for men are about the same, regardless of race or ethnicity -- about 28%.

Obesity is measured by a “body mass index” that takes into account a person’s weight and height. Someone who is 5 feet 9 would be considered obese at 203 pounds or more, according to the CDC.

In March, with a $25,000 grant from the California Endowment, Reevers’ Crenshaw district church launched “Healthy Eating for African American Families” -- a six-session series of nutrition lessons, cooking demonstrations and field trips to supermarkets for church members and the wider community.

“We are teaching families how to prepare healthy meals, give information on how your diet affects your heart and diabetes,” said Viveca Finley, executive director of the Lincoln Family Life Center, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the church.

“For example, collard greens are healthy, but not if you cook with fat,” she said.

On a recent Saturday, Finley showed her class how tasty low-fat baked chicken and macaroni and cheese can be.

Such sessions have persuaded Taiesha Farmer, 29, a mother of two young children, to change her cooking habits.

“No more fried chicken,” she said.

Churches in Detroit, ranked the nation’s “Fattest City” by Men’s Fitness magazine in 2004, are among the most active in the fitness initiative. Nearly 40 Baptist churches in the Detroit area offer health and fitness programs.

Last June, the 10,000-member Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit ushered in a new era with “Body and Soul Day.” The usual bacon, ham, eggs, bread and grits with lots of butter gave way to yogurt, nuts, fruit, fat-free muffins and decaf coffee, said Edith Clifton, a church staffer who works closely with Lee, the public health nurse.

Understandably, some were surprised, Lee recalled.

When they first started, she recalled, even pastors said, “ ‘Oh, you are going to take away my fried chicken.’ ” She replied, “We are trying to add things -- five to seven servings of fruit and vegetables.”

At Eastern Star Missionary Church in Highland Park, a Detroit suburb, congregants do a 6,000-mile “Jerusalem Walk” from January to Easter. The miles represent the distance between Detroit and Jerusalem.

With a pedometer clipped to her waist, registered nurse Miranda Raines and her friends walk almost daily and report the mileage to the church office every week. They memorize a Bible verse for the day, and meditate and pray during their walks, she said. After Easter, they will embark on a 6,000-mile “Bethlehem Walk,” through Christmas.

The fitness and exercise programs offered at churches vary wildly, depending on each congregation’s resources.

Greater St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church in Lake Charles, La., which many Hurricane Katrina victims now call home, has installed a gym with exercise equipment.

The church also offers aerobics classes, and many congregants gather before dinner to walk, according to Sarah Alexander, director of the women’s mission department.

The Rev. Frank Portee III, pastor of the 130-member Church of the Redeemer in South Los Angeles, said that he wishes his church could have a comprehensive fitness program, but that finances and staffing won’t permit it at the moment.

He said that perhaps Scripture can offer guidance for sound bodies, as well as souls. “Christians should have a kosher diet -- what is appropriate and what is inappropriate to eat,” he said.

The Church of the Redeemer may not have a formal program now, but it’s still trying to send a message in its own way: Inside the church’s homey ladies room is a bathroom scale.