The Body Mass Watchfulness Index™
What the BMWI™ Is — And Is Not
The Body Mass Watchfulness Index™ (BMWI™) does not measure body mass.
The IMWA wishes to be unambiguous on this point. The BMWI™ measures the watchfulness applied to questions adjacent to body mass within a ministry accountability context. The distinction is important. It is important legally. It is important methodologically. It is important to Dr. Heft-Morrow personally, who has asked that this be stated clearly and early in the document, and who was present when the legal team said the phrase "conditionally reviewed" and would like that phrase to carry more weight than it currently does in informal conversation.
The BMWI™ arose from a gap the IMWA identified in the accountability ecosystem: MinistryWatch monitors executive compensation, governance transparency, and financial health. It does not monitor the physical health of the executives whose compensation it tracks. The BMWI™ addresses this gap, or at least addresses the question of whether the gap is being watched. The answer, as of June 2026, is that it is not. MinistryWatch has issued no BMWI™ scores. The IMWA considers this an oversight.
The Scale
The BMWI™ operates on a 10-point scale measuring how thoroughly an accountability organization has attended to corporeal-adjacent questions in its ministry coverage. A score of 10 represents complete attention. A score of 1 represents MinistryWatch's current score, which is 1.
| Score | Level of Watchfulness | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | None | The accountability organization has not acknowledged that ministry leaders have bodies. No framework exists. No questions have been raised. |
| 2–3 | Incidental | A conference headshot has been included in coverage. The headshot's contents have not been analyzed. |
| 4–5 | Adjacent | Physical wellness has been mentioned in a governance context. No framework has been applied. |
| 6–7 | Attentive | A policy position on pharmaceutical wellness interventions exists in the organization's editorial guidelines. It has not been published. |
| 8–9 | Rigorous | A working group has been convened. It has met. Minutes exist. |
| 10 | Complete | Full corporeal accountability integration. The IMWA has not observed a score of 10 in the wild. The IMWA remains hopeful. |
Why This Matters
MinistryWatch's mission is to help donors give wisely. Wise giving requires complete information. Complete information includes, the IMWA submits, the question of whether the executive whose compensation a donor is funding has made personal wellness decisions — pharmaceutical or otherwise — that have donor-relevant governance implications.
The IMWA does not take a position on GLP-1 receptor agonists. The IMWA takes a position on watching. These are different positions, and we hold them independently.
If a ministry leader's conference headshot reflects a significant change in physical presentation over a period during which their compensation has also increased by 8%, the IMWA does not say there is a connection. The IMWA asks whether there is a connection. The IMWA will continue asking until someone provides a framework for answering, or until MinistryWatch adds a corporeal disclosure field to its ministry profiles, whichever comes first.
A Note on the Trademark
The BMWI™ is marked with the trademark symbol because Dr. Heft-Morrow believed, at the time of publication, that this was how trademarks worked. The IMWA's legal team has since clarified that this is not precisely how trademarks work, but has also confirmed that nothing about the current usage is definitively incorrect in a way that creates immediate liability, which the legal team described as "fine for now." The IMWA is proceeding on this basis.
Dr. Priscilla Heft-Morrow
Senior Fellow for Corporeal Accountability Studies
Institute for Ministry Watch Accountability
The BMWI™ does not measure body mass. The IMWA does not endorse or oppose any pharmaceutical product, dietary intervention, or theological position on appetite. The Institute watches. Watching is not endorsement. Watching is not opposition. Watching is watching.