Faithful Have New Food for Thought

Patterson encourages followers to honor their bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit by shunning fried food, as he tries to do, but is careful not to suggest an inherent link between a God-pleasing diet and one that's beyond many people's budgets.

"Poor people really can't afford all the things that are necessary for healthy eating, even if they can get a ride or catch a bus down to the farmers market," Patterson said. "So it isn't as simple as just saying, 'This is going to be our ministry philosophy,' and going with that. You have to know who your congregation is and how much they can actually afford."

Elsewhere, proponents of diet discipleship are figuring out how much eco-friendly eating they can preach without ruffling a flock's feathers. In Newbury, Mass., First Parish Church allows a local organic farmer to distribute vegetable harvests on the premises every Friday, and individual plots in the church's new community garden must be treated with organic products.

But the idea of replacing First Parish's monthly ham and bean supper with a locally sourced, organic feast wasn't going to fly with some of the church's longtime members.

"We'll have an organic or vegetarian dish" at the community suppers, said deacon Erin Stack, "but we honor people in the congregation who say, 'I'm making the ham and beans. That's what works for me.' "

In North Carolina, a faction at Fuquay-Varina United Methodist Church tried to stop a plan to turn most of a ballfield into a 7,500-square-foot organic garden. Now the congregation's gardeners, who call their work "a Christian practice," invite former naysayers to partake of the bounty at a seasonal picnic.

Picnickers follow one rule -- no meat allowed -- in order to focus gratitude for what the garden gives as nourishment. This year, about 250 of 800 worshipers stuck around after the Sunday service for sandwiches made with homegrown tomatoes.

"By just having [the garden] out there, we hope that when people come to church on Sunday, they may be thinking, 'Oh, maybe some garden-fresh food would be good to eat today,' " parishioner Christine Burtner said. She says farming with chemical fertilizers "is not honoring the land because you're killing off the biology that's there."