I grew up in Indiana, too, lived in a rural area for a while, went to a “Christian” school for a few years, and…
I never noticed Pentecostal women being overweight more than the general population, but the homliness factor is definitely there. But I don’t think it’s genetic. It always seemed to me that when a Pentecostal (or Southern Baptist, IN has more than its share of those, too) woman got to be of an age where she had married and had a couple of kids, they started to get this incredibly haggard, worn look about them. Most of the jr. high to high school girls ran average to pretty. I think it’s a lifestyle thing. Being as how Pentecostals, as well as many other fund’ist Xian sects, generally regard women as existing to be servants to their husbands, generally have no real emotional outlets (unless you count praying in tongues) and there seems to be a “look the other way” attitude toward domestic abuse when perpetrated by the male HOH, the women wear out and lose their looks by the time they’ve been married a decade or so.
OTOH, there are a lot of non-denominational sects that are not part of United Pentecostal churches where the women, even though wearing clothing that covers them from just above the ankle to well below the knee, still manage to look like hookers. Think Tammy Faye Bakker- that would be the norm in some of these churches. Makeup applied with a trowel, hair teased till it touches the walls and ceiling, and sprayed almost solid, bleached more than the average female population. Garish jewelry, flamboyant clothing in colors that could be used to warn folks of nearby highway construction. It almost seems like a reaction to the traditional image of the Pentecostal women.
I personally find both types equally freaky.