Body shaming tears apart the body of Christ

I made a profession of faith at a summer camp when I was 16 years old, and I was tempted to get baptized right then and there, in the pool at the camp. My motivation to move quickly had little to do with a newfound enthusiasm for faith. I was anxious because I feared there would not be a baptismal robe to fit me at the church when we got home. I imagined myself climbing the short set of stairs into the baptismal pool with a white robe stretched tightly over my body, clinging to every roll of fat—a spectacle that would only be emphasized when I came out the other side, skin cold and wet with a newly translucent robe.

I was too shy to ask to be baptized at the camp, so I spent the remainder of camp, the bus ride home, and the waiting days until the next Sunday wondering if the robe would even stretch over my body, or if I would be forced to wade into the small pool in shorts and a T-shirt. To make matters worse, I got my period the day before my baptism, and my mother advised that I ask the pastor if it was still OK to be baptized under those circumstances. The youth pastor deferred my menstruation question to a female youth leader, and I was set to wade into the waters. Thankfully, my church’s largest robe was not as tight as I had imagined. Still, this sacramental moment, one of the most important for a Christian, was a very awkward day to be in my body.

Years later, I read an interview with Rick Warren, author of the best-selling Christian weight-loss book The Daniel Plan. In the interview, he tells the reporter about his motivation to write the book. The inspiration behind War­ren’s diet book came while he was “doing baptisms ‘the old-fashioned way’—by physically raising and lowering people into the water.” Warren said that as he was lowering people, he “literally felt the weight of America’s obesity problem [and he] thought, ‘good night, we’re all fat!’” My mind flashed back to my 16-year-old self, wading into baptismal waters with jiggly thighs and a snug baptismal robe. Warren used a sacrament that welcomes us as beloved children into the family of God to issue judgment on the very people he pronounced new life over as he lifted them from the water.