Should Fat Pastors be Allowed to Preach?

It’s a touchy subject. Should being fat disqualify a person from preaching? That’s the question Pastor Mark Driscoll answered during a lively podcast discussion. He argued that obesity, even excess weight, may reveal a lack of self-control among pastors similar to alcohol abuse and other addictions.

Driscoll, founding and senior pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, raised the issue while answering the question “Are obese pastors disqualified?” on The Mark Driscoll Show.

“The Bible says in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1 that a pastor must be self-controlled,” he said. “And it says he should not be addicted to much wine, which is talking in general about living a life of self-control and not being one with addictions. The Bible talks a lot about gluttony, more than most pastors.”

Neither passage of scripture uses weight as a qualification for service, but Driscoll connected their commands for self-control to biblical warnings about gluttony, including the Apostle Paul’s description of people whose “god is their stomach.”

Obesity is a serious issue among pastors

A 2024 paper published by Obesity Reviews looked at 47 clergy studies that encompassed health statistics from 35,000 pastors. The rate of obesity among pastors was 46.8% in 2021. That rate was higher than among working-age American adults. One study found that about 80% of North Carolina pastors were overweight.

The Apostle Paul’s warns against drunkenness and gluttony, Driscoll said. “Paul says for some people, ‘Their god is their stomach.’ It’s a line, and somebody’s like, ‘That’s a big god.’”

During Paul’s time, upperclass Romans were often obese, and the Bible mentions wealthy Romans following and funding the fledgling messianic Jewish movement that would eventually become known as Christianity. Early Roman doctors distinguished being slightly overweight from extreme obesity and even prescribed special diets and increased exercise as a remedy, according to Medical History Review.

Driscoll recalled being criticized years ago at an unnamed seminary and that what was killing Baptists was not wine, but “drinking gravy.” He said he was never called back to preach.

“So, I got in trouble,” he said. “I won’t name the Baptist seminary that I preached at once a long time ago. They brought me in once. I’ve not had a second invitation, but I thought it was funny. Apparently, it wasn’t. I got up at chapel, and I said, ‘You know, I heard you guys are the Baptists, and you guys don’t drink wine.’ I said, ‘What’s killing the Baptists is drinking gravy.’ Because most Baptist pastors, they’re big boys. I don’t know what it is.”

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Driscoll continued that pastors need to be very mindful of their health and how that witness affects others. “I’m not saying that I am Mr. Universe, but it’s like, if you drop your Bible and you can’t see it, you probably need to work on it,” Driscoll said.

He also noted how drinking and smoking are tolerated among different Christian denominations.

“There are different traditions within Christianity,” he said. “Different things are forbidden, and other things are tolerated. So, like, if you’re in a Pentecostal circle, oftentimes they’re fit, but they won’t touch alcohol If you’re a Presbyterian, you drink beer and alcohol and smoke a pipe. And so different traditions, their pastors kind of have; it’s like a choose-your-own-adventure for your vices.”

–Dwight Widaman

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