While at a breakpoint, daily look and an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging

truth for the Colson Center on John Stone Street.

According to the CDC, 20% of American children are by medical definition obese.

Recently attempting to combat this growing epidemic, the American Academy of Pediatrics

released new guidelines, recommending behavioral and nutritional therapy for children as young

as six years old and weight loss medications and maybe even surgery for children as young

as 13 years old.

The new guidelines drew fire from two opposite directions.

Some referred to the guidelines as just another example of the healthcare industry trying

to fix every physical problem with a medical solution, rather than encouraging broader, personal

and social changes necessary in both lifestyle and food production.

A very different but just a strong reaction came from advocates of what's now being called

the Fat Positivity Movement.

Obesity, this movement argues, should never be stigmatized.

Some advocates even claim that just acknowledging that there are behavioral factors behind obesity

or medical risk associated with being overweight amounts to being fat phobic or fat shaming.

Now, Christians should immediately reject ever-changing cultural standards of beauty that

so often function in a culture as moral imperatives.

We reject all cultural messages, implicit or explicit that dehumanize those that are

deemed whether rightly or wrongly to be overweight.

A Christian worldview unequivocally affirms that every human being no matter their appearance,

no matter their size bears the image of God and therefore possesses an inherent and

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