c. 1997 Religion News Service
Scientists say religious faith has health benefits
(RNS) A group of leading scientists has concluded that sincerely held religious or spiritual beliefs and practices can have a positive impact on physical and mental health.
The scientists said faith has the power to help ward off serious physical or mental illness, provides better coping skills once illness sets in, and enhances recovery. They also said religious faith is an advantage in overcoming alcohol or drug abuse.
The scientists urged academic researchers and health care providers to pay greater attention to faith’s health benefits, saying that’s what Americans want.
Dr. David Larson, president of the National Institute for Human Research (NIHR), said studies show 80 percent of Americans want religious or spiritual concepts included in the care they receive from doctors and other health care providers.”Yet only one of ten doctors addresses spiritual or religious issues,”Larson said at a Washington news conference Friday (July 18).
Larson spoke at the conclusion of a three-day conference on”Scientific Progress in Spiritual Research,”which drew more than 70 leading medical and social science researchers from across the nation.
The researchers included atheists and religious believers, individuals who subscribe to traditional medical models and others who also favor non-traditional methods. Together, they attempted to review available research and apply rigorous scientific standards in determining whether religious beliefs promote physiological or neurological changes that promote health.
The conference was sponsored by the non-profit NIHR and was funded by the John Templeton Foundation, which promotes the dissemination of knowledge about religion.
The scientists said research shows that sincerity is more important than form in determining the impact religious beliefs can have on human health.
Everett Worthington, a psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, said religious faith based on”extrinsic,”or social reasons, appears not to provide the same health benefits derived from”intrinsic”faith, or faith based solely on deeply held beliefs.
Whether religious faith’s health benefits are just another manifestation of the placebo effect is unclear and needs more study, said Frank Gawin, scientific director of the UCLA Veterans Administration Medical Center in Los Angeles.
But Dr. Dale Matthews, an associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University’s School of Medicine, noted that the world’s first health care providers were tribal religious leaders.”What we’re seeing is a return to the origins of medicine … before the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries separated”religion and science, he said.
Deadline slips by with no Yeltsin decision on religion law
(RNS) President Boris Yeltsin went on another vacation Friday (July 18) without either signing or vetoing a controversial proposed law that would severely restrict the operations of Russia’s minority religions.
Under the Russian constitution, Yeltsin had until Friday to sign or veto the”On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Association”bill. The constitution mandates that the president take a position on a proposed bill within 14 days of its parliamentary approval.
On July 4, the Russian upper house passed the bill, which earlier had been approved by the lower house. But as the deadline came and went, Yeltsin left for a holiday resort on the Volga River.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Yeltsin would approve the measure _ which passed both houses of the Russian parliament by wide margins _ only if”legal experts”declared it to be in line with the Russian constitution’s human rights provisions, Reuters reported.
The news agency said it was unclear what would happen next.
The bill in question gives official state recognition to Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism _ faiths deemed traditionally part of Russian life.
All other faiths _ including Roman Catholicism and Protestantism _ are viewed by the proposed legislation as foreign faiths that must function for 15 years in Russia before they can achieve official approval.
Without official recognition, they would not be able to own property or hold bank accounts, making their operation extremely difficult.
Yeltsin _ who has been away from Moscow since July 6 at one vacation spot or another _ is under great pressure to sign the bill from the Russian Orthodox Church and nationalist and communist Russian politicians.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexii II and 49 of his bishops sent Yeltsin a letter saying the proposed law would protect Russia from”the destructive pseudo-religious and pseudo-missionary activity that inflicts obvious damage on moral and physical health.” However, Yeltsin is under equally great pressure from outside Russia to kill the measure. The U.S. Senate _ responding to the concerns of American Christian groups that currently operate in Russia _ threatened to cut off all economic aid to Moscow if Yeltsin signs the legislation.
President Clinton also has urged Yeltsin to veto the measure, although the president said through a spokesman he does not favor cutting aid to Moscow if the Russian leader signs the bill.
Pope John Paul II, saying the measure”would be a real threat not only to the usual activities of the Catholic Church in Russia, but also to its survival,”also asked Yeltsin not to approve the bill.
Report: Anti-Semitism poses little threat to Jews
(RNS) Despite occasional anti-Jewish violence, anti-Semitism today poses little immediate threat to Jewish existence in most nations in which Jews live, according to a report released Friday (July 18).
Covering 60 nations, the”Antisemitism World Report 1997,”said Jews generally feel”increasing secure in the societies in which they live.
Australia was the only nation in the world to register an increase in the number of reported anti-Semitic events during 1996, according to the report, which was jointly released by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research and the New York-based American Jewish Committee.
Australia reported a 12 percent jump in anti-Semitic incidents over 1995.
The report noted that anti-Semitic incidents worldwide last year tended to involve less physical violence and more vandalism and threats than in previous years.
However, the report also noted the increased use of the Internet to spread anti-Semitic messages. The report called the Internet a”new challenge,”but also said it posed no greater threat than other modes of contemporary communication.
In a generally upbeat conclusion, the report said:”What is clear … is that anti-Semitism does not resonate with significant sections of the public in the way that it once did, that it cannot be used to mobilize anything other than small, extremist, fringe groups, and that one important aspect of the `new’ means of packaging and disseminating anti-Semitism _ Holocaust denial, the Internet, anti-Semitism dressed up as anti-Zionism _ is that they have arisen partly because activist anti-Semites cannot get their message across in the more traditional forms.”
AME Church whittling down its deficit
(RNS) The African Methodist Episcopal Church has reduced its deficit to”about a million or a little less”dollars, according to the chairman of its finance commission.
The 3.5 million-member denomination’s General Board learned last December that the church had a national deficit of $3.75 million. The deficit affected national church offices, not the denomination’s regional bodies.
Bishop John Hurst Adams, chairman of the AME Church’s Statistics and Finance Commission, said Wednesday (July 16) that more work was done at the board’s June meeting to rectify the situation.”We have made some decisions which are correcting our problem,”Adams said in an interview. He said the church hopes to resolve the deficit completely by mid-2000.
Much of the deficit reduction has come through contributions by members of the denomination.”We made an appeal to the church and received a very generous response,”Adams said.”Over $2 million was generated by an appeal to the church on this issue. The appeal is still open and money is still coming in.” In addition to generating new money, the board is working to reduce spending through tighter management procedures, Adams said.”No significant changes were made but over the course of three years, minor adjustments add up to a serious correction,”he said.
As of April, the church had cut the deficit by $1.8 million. Adams said the church now has reduced it by more than $2 million.”We hope to generate perhaps another million dollars in new money and between the new money and the savings which are occurring through our tighter management, we hope to address the problem,”he said.
Adams said previously that the deficit was the result of accumulating problems left”unattended”in recent years. He also said that the church’s central administration did not have reserves for such emergencies.
GCMC votes to merge with Mennonite Church
(RNS) Delegates to the annual meeting of the General Conference Mennonite Church (GCMC) have voted to merge with the larger Mennonite Church. The new denomination will likely be called the Mennonite Church.
Meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, July 6-8, GCMC delegates passed the proposal by a 3-1 margin.
The 36,000-member GCMC and the 91,000-member Mennonite Church are theologically similar. The merger, largely an administrative measure, would create a new general board and church programs for both denominations would be combined.
The Mennonite Church, set to meet in Orlando at the end of July, also is expected to vote for the merger. The last time the two churches are expected to meet separately is in 1999, said Gordon Houser, a GCMC spokesman.
The Mennonites are members of one of the historic”peace”churches and oppose all forms of war.
Stimson named editor of Presbyterians Today
(RNS) Eva G. Stimson has been named editor of Presbyterians Today, the Louisville, Ky.-based magazine of the 3.7 million-member Presbyterian Church (USA).
Presbyterians Today, which is published 10 times a year and has a circulation of 90,000, was named best denominational general-interest magazine in 1996 by the Associated Church Press.
Stimson, who also has worked as a copy editor and artist for John Knox Press, had been the magazine’s associate editor since 1984.
Quote of the day: Buddhist teacher Lama Surya Das
(RNS) Lama Surya Das is an American Buddhist spiritual leader in the Tibetan tradition. His new book,”Awakening the Buddha Within”(Broadway Books), contains the following passage on the value of living in community and helping others:”When we dedicate ourselves to a cause larger or longer-lasting than our own mortal selves, we edge in the direction of immortality.” MJP END RNS
