Is the Church Really to Blame for our Obesity Crisis?

There’s nothing like kicking a man when he’s down, is there? Having resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury for his handling of child abuse claims, Justin Welby (and other religious leaders) now stands accused of being responsible for Britain’s growing obesity epidemic. Yes, you read that right. And who is his accuser? None other than the ever corpulent and purveyor of oversized memoirs, one Boris Johnson.

According to our esteemed former prime minister, who was interviewed as part of a report on public health before Welby resigned, the Church of England’s lamentable failure to provide people with the “spiritual sustenance” they need is leading people to “gorge themselves”. Odd as this view might sound, we would be wrong to dismiss it entirely as the rantings of an attention-seeker.

There is little doubt that Britain is in the middle of an obesity crisis. It’s easy to blame food manufacturers for it. It’s easy to blame schools for not teaching us the virtues of a balanced diet. It’s easy to blame the Government, just because it’s easy to blame the Government for everything. But perhaps we, as individuals, need to look ourselves in the mirror and take some, if not all, of the responsibility, for what we shovel or pour into our throats. Because if we’re not responsible for that, who on earth is?It is true that the Church of England delights in collectivist moralising. As Johnson states: “Instead of balling on about slavery reparations, the archbishop should ask himself why people in this country are so bloody fat and…try to fill what is obviously an aching spiritual void in people’s lives, that drives them to gorge themselves.

“When did you last hear the Archbishop of Canterbury preach a sermon about that? Instead of farting on about Brexit or whatever, he should address the real spiritual issue.”

Gone are the days when the Church of England was considered to be the Conservative Party at prayer. Gone are the days when individual morality and individual responsibility were regularly preached from the pulpit – a shift that is reflected across society. It’s become the Government’s job to do everything, including parenting.

But it is not the Government’s job to feed children. It is not the Government’s job to instruct teachers to teach primary school-aged children to use a toothbrush properly. It’s the parents’ responsibility, and parents should be shamed by everyone, including the Church, if they fail to understand that. If you’re not willing to do the basics of the job as a parent, it’s quite simple: don’t have children.

We must stop buying into the narrative that we should all pussyfoot around issues like obesity. In his interview, Johnson said that when he was younger it was “very rare for there to be a fatso in the class. Now they’re all fatsos, and I’d be shot for saying they’re fatsos, but it’s the truth”. And he’s right. To be overweight has become normalised.

Johnson has his own theory and I think he’s barking up the right tree. Johnson reckons that higher levels of obesity among children are because of a change in lifestyles. He said: “When I was a kid, we were all out playing in the streets the whole time. You don’t see that with kids nowadays… People were skinnier, they ran around a huge amount, they drank phenomenal quantities of Tizer, they ate Spangles and Curly Wurlies and dog shit… but they expended far more energy and nowadays kids are sitting on screens and being told that it’s all too dangerous to go outside because there are paedophiles everywhere apparently.”

You can’t blame children for that mindset. You can’t blame the Government. You can’t even really blame the Church, whatever Johnson pretends. But you can blame parents.

I’ve struggled with my weight ever since I got food poisoning on a school trip to the Soviet Union at the age of 13, in 1976. Before that I could eat as much as I liked without gaining weight. Since then, I only have to look at a Crème Egg and I put on a pound. I like to eat all the things I shouldn’t, hence I have become a type 2 diabetic.

I have no self-discipline and there was no one to blame but me for relishing a diet of crisps, Lilt and cheesecake. Try as I might, I couldn’t blame Justin Welby. I’ve done what I can to improve my diet. I’ll never be perfect, but I’ve done my best, and that’s all anyone can do.

Let’s hear more from our spiritual leaders about individual responsibility. Let’s hear more about parental responsibility, and above all, let’s hear less about how every ill in our society is the responsibility of the Government to solve. Some may well be, but not the entire obesity crisis. It’s largely down to us as individuals. And here endeth the lesson.