In a resource I occasionally draw upon for preaching inspiration – Pulpit Resource, I recently came across part of an article from The Wall Street Journal entitled “So it’s come to this? Religion is good for your health? Body and Spirit: Why Attending Religious Services May Benefit Health,” by Kevin Helliker.
The article reads, “A growing body of scientific evidence shows that Americans who attend religious services at least once a week enjoy better-than-average health and lower rates of illness, including depression. Perhaps most important, the studies show that weekly attendance confers a significant reduction in mortality risk over a given period of time.
These studies have received almost no attention, in part because there is skepticism among many medical scientists about the validity of the studies. But [a new] panel’s examination of studies showing the effect of church attendance on health reached an altogether different conclusion. The panel reported that the studies showed a 25% lower mortality rate for those who attend religious services at least weekly. Religious services at churches, temples, and mosques boost various features that can be beneficial to health – meditation, a social network, a set of values that discourage smoking, infidelity, and other unhealthy behaviors. Many of hte studies have found that the health benefits of weekly attendance accrue more heavily to women than to men, perhaps because women make great use of religious social networks.
When compared with non-weekly attendance, “weekly attendance was associated with a statistically significant improvement in quitting smoking, becoming often physically active, becoming not depressed, increasing the number of individual personal relationships and getting married,” said one of the examined articles, which was published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine in 2001. That study gathered health and mortality data over a period of 30 years on 2676 Californians, 26% of whom attended religious services weekly. “Being religiously involved can confer certain health benefits, and I don’t think there’s any divine intervention involved,” says Robert A. Hummer, a non-church going University of Texas sociology professor whose studies have shown a health benefit for regular religious-service attendance.”
Fascinating is it not? What do you think? Do you think the studies are right? Is there a correlation between improved health and regular weekly attendance? Maybe so…maybe not. Of course we know seeking improved health is not the primary reason for going to worship. We worship because God commands/invites us to and because truthfully it is what we were created to do. However how great if it turns out to be true that attendance in worship WEEKLY does improve our health! Let’s test the theory. Commit to weekly attendance. See you there!
