TruthBook Religious News Blog

Cosmopolitan, the magazine that introduced women to the multiple orgasm, has appointed its first spirituality editor.

The new appointee - Hannah Borno, a 32-year-old journalist with no known religious background - will act as an alternative to the magazine's traditional agony aunt, dispensing advice to young women in a regular spiritual section that will begin next February.

Among the subjects that will be addressed in the new column are an exploration of Buddhism, the existence of guardian angels, and the reliability of mediums, as well as other "religious needs" of women.

Lorraine Candy, the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, which has a monthly circulation of 460,000, says that the appointment of a spirituality editor was a necessary response to the growing number of young women searching for "something deeper".

"We get hundreds of letters every month from successful young women looking for something outside their material success to make them happy," she said. "From our own research and anecdotal evidence, it seems that more women are praying than ever before, more women are joining the Alpha course [which introduces people to the basics of the Christian faith], and more women are phoning psychic lines or going to Tarot card readers.

"Young women today are spirituality seekers, whether that be adhering to a formal religion or something a bit less dictatorial."

Miss Candy added: "Women don't live near their parents any more, so there is a lack of emotional support. There is also a growing realisation that being at the top of a career might not make you happy in the way that marriage and children might do. The choice is overwhelming.

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Friday, November 28, 2003

30 million in U.S. claim no religious ties

Their numbers have more than doubled in a decade, to nearly 30 million. Organized as a religious denomination, they would trail only Catholics and Baptists in members.

They are the "nones," named for their response to a question in public opinion polls: "What is your religion, if any?"

Some nones are atheists, others agnostics, still others self- styled dabblers in a variety of faiths and philosophies. Despite their discomfort with organized religion, many consider themselves quite spiritual.

Nones are especially prevalent in the Pacific Northwest. In Oregon and Washington, where 21 percent and 25 percent, respectively, claim no particular faith, nones outnumber any single religious category.

"If people are interested in hiking on Sunday morning rather than going to church, that's fine. The culture won't say that's unacceptable. In fact, the culture will say that's perfectly acceptable," said Mark Shibley, a sociologist at Southern Oregon University who has studied and written about nones.

Nones grew from 8 percent of the U.S. population in 1990 to more than 14 percent in 2001.

That's the conclusion of religion experts who compared results of the National Survey of Religious Identification, conducted in 1990, and the American Religious Identification Survey, which in 2001 sought to update the earlier poll.

"That makes nones the fastest- growing religious group in the United States, if you think about them as a religious group," said Patricia O'Connell Killen, a professor of religious history at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. "We're just coming to grips with the reality that this group even exists."

Nones could form a powerful constituency for marketing or political causes. But few see them that way, and even fewer try to communicate with them.

"Because of their indifference, they're not in one place," said John Green, a professor specializing in religion and politics at the University of Akron. "It's hard to put together a mailing list. It's difficult to get them on the phone. You can't call them together for a meeting."

Yet thanks to the American Religious Identification Survey, much is now known about nones.

Young people are more likely to profess no religion. One in three nones is less than 30 years old compared with one in five of all survey respondents. More are single (29 percent) than the adult population as a whole (20 percent). Fifty-nine percent are male. Their education level (23 percent college graduates) is virtually the same as the national average for adults. Seventeen percent are Republicans, 30 percent are Democrats, and 43 percent are independents.

Many nones believe in God. Nearly half "agreed strongly" that God exists. "It is more accurate to describe them as unaffiliated than as nonbelievers," said Ariela Keysar, study director of the American Religious Identification Survey.

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Sunday, November 23, 2003

Collegians' spiritual interests get minimal campus support

While most college professors do little to encourage spiritual engagement among their students, a recent study indicates the students are highly interested in gaining such opportunities.

The report, released Nov. 21 by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, found that more than half of college students surveyed last spring said integrating spirituality into their lives is "very important" or "essential." Seventy-seven percent agreed that humans are spiritual beings, and 71 percent said they find religion to be personally helpful.

Meanwhile, just 8 percent of students reported that their professors frequently encourage discussions of religious or spiritual matters. Sixty-two percent said their professors never encourage such discussions.

"Higher education needs to explore how well it's meeting the great traditions at the core of a liberal arts education, grounded in the maxim, 'know thyself,'" UCLA professor Alexander W. Astin, director of the HERI and leader of the study, said. "The survey shows that students have deeply felt values and interests in spirituality and religion, but their academic work and campus programs seem to be divorced from it."

Only 39 percent of students said their religious or spiritual beliefs have been strengthened by "new ideas encountered in class," and 53 percent reported that the classroom has had no impact. Fifty-five percent were satisfied with "opportunities for religious and spiritual development" provided by their college experience.

Of the students who were questioned, 77 percent said they pray, 70 percent said they attended a religious service in the past year, and 78 percent said they discuss religion or spirituality with their friends.

Regarding their spiritual development, 65 percent said they question their religious or spiritual beliefs at least occasionally, and 73 percent acknowledged their spiritual or religious beliefs have helped them develop their identity. Seventy-four percent said those beliefs provide strength, support and guidance, and 86 percent said that an "essential" or "very important" goal in life is attaining wisdom. Only 9 percent of college students surveyed reported that their "religiousness" is "much stronger" since entering college.

"College students are very much engaged in spirituality and religion," Astin said in the HERI release. "Clearly, it's far more important to them than most people in higher education may assume, and there are indicators that institutions are simply not encouraging students to delve into these issues and not supporting their search in the sphere of values and beliefs."

For more information about the study, visit the website at www.spirituality.ucla.edu.

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Thursday, November 20, 2003

Many college students, administrators fuzzy on First Amendment

One out of four college students in a nationwide survey was unable to name any of the freedoms protected by the First Amendment, according to a free-speech watchdog group.

"These survey results are disheartening, but they unfortunately are not surprising," said Alan Charles Kors, president of the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Even among campus administrators who were surveyed, from presidents to assistant deans, 11 percent couldn't name any specific First Amendment rights, the survey indicated.

"Our colleges and universities continue to deny students rights that are respected in nearly every other venue of our free society," said Kors, who said the latest survey was a "belated wake-up call."

The First Amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

When asked to name any of the specific rights guaranteed by the amendment,
74 percent of private college students and 71 percent of public college students said freedom of speech;
32 percent of private college students and 27 percent of public college students said freedom of religion, and
31 percent of private college students and 28 percent of public college students said freedom of the press.
Smaller numbers named the rights of assembly and association and the right to petition.

Twenty-four percent of private college students and 28 percent of public college students didn't answer or said they didn't know.

The study was conducted between December 2002 and April 2003, surveying 1,037 students at 339 colleges and universities, and 306 administrators at 306 colleges and universities nationwide.

The survey was funded by the John Templeton Foundation, which studies issues including religious freedom, and conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut.

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Wednesday, November 19, 2003

U.S. more religious than other nations, researchers find

Political scientists once believed that modernization would diminish the importance of religion. But the United States, which is considered the most modernized country in the world, has not followed this trend, University experts say.

For years, researchers have studied the United States’ religious fervor, a peculiar blend of moral piety and economic progress.

The University’s World Values Survey, a division of the Institute for Social Research, has released a study confirming the United States’ pervasive religious beliefs — or traditional values, as political scientists say.

The study has broad implications for political science research and raises a number of sociological questions concerning demography, social welfare, minorities and immigration.

According to the study, 46 percent of American adults attend church every week, compared to 14 percent in Great Britain, 7 percent in Sweden and 4 percent in Japan.

The study also reported that 58 percent of Americans look for purpose and meaning in life. Twenty-five percent of British adults and 26 percent of the Japanese said the same.

Reasons for this phenomenon are numerous. Political science Prof. Ronald Inglehart, who directs the World Values Survey, said the widespread theories on secularization and industrialization are flawed and that the post-modern world actually supports religious views.

“The post-industrial world, the world of the computer, in a way, is more compatible with ideas, and, in a sense, magic. You can tell that you almost understand (technology), but you don’t really,” Inglehart said.

But technology is not the only cause. Inglehart’s main thesis is that the United States’ social welfare policy, which is considerably less extensive than the European model, is a cause of religious fervor in America.

“The United States is a considerably less expensive welfare state than other rich countries,” said Inglehart, referring to the disparity in unemployment services between the United States and Euope. “One of the really clear factors is that economic insecurity leads to the need for a higher belief. I think that the welfare state killed off religious participation.”

John Downer, president of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, mentioned that in times of academic and financial stress faith is very important.

The World Values Survey draws a significant distinction between the United States and European nations. Countries like France, whose main religion is Catholicism, have seen declining religious involvement.

Engineering grad student Pierre-Yves Meslin explained the historical precedent for this trend, which is markedly different from the United States’ history of entrenched religious belief.

“In French history, during the revolution, there was a big separation between the church and state,” he said. As a result, “there was an anti-clerical spirit that developed.”

As a nation founded by and large by religious refugees, the United States has a long history of religious participation. Successive generations of immigrants have come to this country for religious freedom, a phenomenon that has perpetuated traditional values, according to a written release.

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Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Laughter and optimism can relieve stress

People with positive attitudes seem to have a better outlook on life, but are they healthier? The answer seems to be yes. People who are optimistic are more likely to overcome pain and adversity when recovering from an illness. They are also more likely to stay healthy.

Your body responds to your thoughts, emotions and actions. There are three strategies you can use to recover from an illness and stay healthy.

First try to change your expectations from negative to positive. Here are some suggestions:

*Stop negative self talk. Make only positive statements.

*Send yourself affirmations. An affirmation is a phrase or sentence that sends a strong positive statement to you about you.

*Visualize health and healing.

*Don't feel guilty. Sometimes an illness may develop and persist no matter what. Do the best you can.

Just about anything that makes you feel good about yourself helps you recover and stay healthy:

*Friendship. Close social ties help you recover faster from illnesses and reduce your risk of developing diseases from arthritis to depression.

*Volunteering. Helping others helps you help yourself. People who volunteer enjoy life more than those who don't.

*Petting an animal. When you stroke a pet, your blood pressure goes down.

*Spirituality. If you believe in a higher power, ask for support while you are recovering. Prayer, faith and spiritual beliefs can play an important role in recovering from an illness and staying healthy.

Believe it or not there have been studies that show laughter does many things:

*It can strengthen the immune system, possibly increasing antibodies and disease-fighting cells.

*It increases endorphins, the body's natural painkiller, thus increasing pain tolerance.

*It gives you a mini workout by increasing your heart and respiration rates, as well as blood pressure. Experts say a hearty one minute laugh is equal to approximately 10 minutes on a rowing machine.

*It works certain facial and abdominal muscles. This is especially useful for people who have neuralgia or rheumatism.

*It helps people with certain kinds of respiratory illnesses by increasing their ventilation and clearing mucus.

*It reduces the incidence of arterial blockage, angioplasties and heart attacks.

It is said that children laugh approximately 400 times a day, while adults laugh 15 times. The older we get the more responsibilities we have and thus the more stress. Things that were funny then don't seem that way now. But it's OK to laugh. A good belly laugh will work the abdominal muscles, massage your internal organs, improve the blood supply to the intestines and help the bowels move properly. So next time you are feeling stressed, try something positive, like an old-fashioned belly laugh.

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Monday, November 17, 2003

Pope Say Consumerism Helps to Spread Depression

VATICAN CITY (RNS)--Pope John Paul II warned Friday (Nov. 14) that a consumerist society preoccupied with material well-being has helped to make depression the most common psychiatric disease in the Western world.

Addressing participants in a conference on depression, the Roman Catholic pontiff offered the experience of religious faith as a valid treatment for the depressed because it "opens them to hope and presses them to choose life."

More than 600 experts from the psychiatric, health care and religious worlds are attending the three-day (Nov.13-15) international conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Health Care.

"The spread of depressive states has become worrying," the pope told them at a Vatican audience. "They reveal human, psychological and spiritual fragility that at least in part are induced by society."

It is important, he said, to recognize that depression can be a response to messages of the media that "exalt consumerism, the immediate satisfaction of desires and the race to an ever better material well-being."

Depressed people need to regain "self esteem, faith in their own capacity, interest in the future and the will to live," John Paul said. They need to be part of "a community of faith and life in which they can feel themselves welcomed, understood, sustained and, in a word, worthy of loving and being loved."

John Paul said the family, schools, youth movements and parish associations have roles to play in preventing the disease.

"The phenomenon of depression tells the church and all of society how important it is to offer to people, and especially to the young, models and experiences that help them to grow on the human, psychological, moral and spiritual plane," the pope said.

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A new spirit at work

Leaders around the world are moving to transform the business world with an infusion of spiritual values.

Signs of spirituality in the workplace keep turning up: thousands of prayer or meditation groups; company-sponsored chaplains; conferences and executive training sessions that experiment with spiritual practices or how to incorporate values into decisionmaking.
Yet as corporate scandals capture headlines, this groundswell of activity has begun coalescing into a movement not just for personal growth but for fundamental organizational and cultural change.

A small global network of corporate leaders is emerging that is forging a new vision for business. As the world's most dominant institution, and the one most capable of rapid change, business must take responsibility for promoting not simply private gain but the common good, these leaders say. This means redefining business to focus on people and on decisionmaking based on values - like integrity, respect, intuition, and creativity. The shift involves going beyond maximizing profits to considering all stakeholders: employees, customers, vendors, shareholders, and the community.

Many see the push for change as the desire of people to lead lives more in tune with their spiritual values. "The pain and frustration around the workplace and the anger about corporations has grown dramatically," says Judi Neal, head of the Association for Spirit at Work (ASAW). "People want to find more meaning in work and to see business transformed to run on different principles."

While the goals sound similar to those in the growing social responsibility movement, the aim is for deeper change. Some leaders perceive a profound shift in the fundamental assumptions about reality - one that involves a new view that consciousness is causal and gives much greater import to individuals' inner experience. "Instead of what you see is what you believe, it's what you believe is what you see," says Rinaldo Brutoco, president of the World Business Academy (WBA), a California-based organization of executives and entrepreneurs (www.worldbusiness.org). Mr. Brutoco sees scientific materialism yielding to a respiritualization of society.

Positive benefits

While only a small percentage of businesspeople would be comfortable with such language, these leaders acknowledge, there is a growing willingness to think that spirituality has positive benefits so long as there is no promotion of specific religions.

In the United States, a 1999 study, "A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America," found executives hungry for models of practicing spirituality in the workplace without offending people; but lacking such models, many were afraid to use the word spirituality. Yet, the executives held very similar definitions of what it meant: "a total sense of connectedness in the universe; belief in a deity, and in a moral obligation to do good in the world," says Ian Mitroff, a professor at University of Southern California business school and coauthor of the study.

"We need to use the language of people in business," adds Richard Barrett, a former World Bank official who helped spur an international conference on spiritual values and development. "And values is where it is right now." In the past three years, his consulting firm has worked with more than 300 companies in 24 countries to help them create values-driven organizations.

Patricia Aburdene, coauthor of the Megatrends books, sees the rise of spirituality in the workplace as "a trend that is about to become a megatrend." She says it's reaching the "tipping point" for several reasons:

• The enormous stress people are under due to the economic and security crises of the past two years.

• Demographic data revealing a mushrooming segment of "cultural creatives" for whom values trump money and other trappings of success.

• Business leaders with their own notion of personal transformation or a spiritual path now bringing it into their institutions. (Spirituality in the field of medicine is a bellwether, she says.)

• A convergence of the movements of social responsibility and spirituality.

"All this is coming together to create a transformation of capitalism," Ms. Aburdene predicts. "The tenet of the Milton Friedman school that the sole purpose is to create economic value for shareholders is seen as having led us down the path to troubles, and this is compelling a rethinking of our philosophy of business."

Admittedly, the corporate world isn't rushing to sign up. "Even though you can show that those organizations with a spiritual orientation outperform others, even on the profit side, only a tiny percentage of business leaders 'get it,' " says USC's Dr. Mitroff. "It's a different mind-set between reactive, bottom-line-driven organizations and those that are more humane, driven by higher values."

Beyond social responsibility

A newer international group, Spirit in Business (SiB), aims at changing the core priorities of the business world to focus on the good of all, says board member Terry Mollner. A pioneer in socially responsible investing, Dr. Mollner helped found the Calvert Social Investment Mutual Fund in 1982, the first such fund. But for him, social responsibility represents only half the loaf, since it doesn't address core priorities.

"The publicly traded corporation is really not a group of human beings but a set of contracts, like a machine," he says. "They give priority to the few at the expense of the many, and that's the contract they have with society. But we need to evolve a more mature system that gives priority to the good of all."

Academic institutions, too, are getting involved. Yale University, for example, recently set up the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, with a focus on ethics and spirituality in the workplace to help people integrate the claims of their faith with the demands of their work.

The spirituality movement is in its infancy, Mollner says. But his experience with socially responsible investing convinces him that much is possible. The social screens that he and a few friends sat down and wrote in 1976 are now used by almost all investment funds.

"If this approach is more mature, it will slowly gather adherents," he says.

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Saturday, November 15, 2003

Church and family can save kids

Scientific evidence has emerged like a slap in the face to say childhood suffering is caused by a lack of spiritual meaning, an absence of expectations and limits and a breakdown in authority structures.

This is the message from an extraordinary American study recently released by 33 psychiatrists, neurologists and social scientists, Hardwired To Connect: The New Scientific Case For Authoritative Communities. The Dartmouth Medical School study says the human brain is "biologically hardwired for enduring attachments to other people and for moral and spiritual meaning".

Animal research, for instance, shows that "high levels of maternal stimulation can change brain functioning and reduce genetic risks for anxiety, aggression, depression and substance abuse in infant animals".

When a binge-drinking monkey, who has a gene for aggression and poor impulse control, is raised in a supportive environment, "the harmfully aggressive behaviour disappears, as does the binge drinking". These monkeys flourish because their inherited vulnerability has been transformed "into a positive behavioural asset" by intensive nurturing.

The study says we needn't be a captive of our genes any more than we are a blank slate for social engineers to mould. Most unpalatable for moral relativists is the study's emphasis on religion and spirituality, finding that the human brain is physically designed, or hardwired, to seek answers to life's purpose and meaning. For adolescents, religion has a protective effect against depression and loneliness. "Personal devotion" or a "direct personal relationship with the Divine" is associated with reduced risk-taking and better mental health.

Finally, the report stresses the importance of "authoritative communities" that set moral frameworks for children, the most important being the family. The "decline in social connectedness", the loss of civic and community groups and falling church attendance is thought to contribute "significantly" to childhood problems.

If religion does protect adolescents, Australians are in trouble. In the 1911 census, only 3.3 per cent said they had no religion. In the 1966 census the percentage jumped sharply; by 2001, it had climbed to 27.1 per cent. Fewer than 10 per cent of Australians now attend church regularly.

As church-going slumped, so did children's emotional wellbeing. The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth estimates that a staggering 20 per cent of children have mental health problems and 15 per cent behavioural problems, a situation that has developed since World War II. Suicide by males aged 15 to 19 has quadrupled in the past 30 years. It is a problem we will have to confront, but not with the fantasy that Scandinavian-type big government schemes can substitute for morality and family.

Parents know how inherently conservative small children are, how they crave routine, discipline, defined limits and a distinction between good and evil. But if their parents and the society rearing them are locked in a perpetual state of adolescence, no wonder so many are anxious and vulnerable.

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College students getting religion in the classroom

Religion has become one of the hottest areas of study in campuses across the country. Since the late '90s, members of Generation Y have been taking classes to help explain the world as well as find themselves a religion, often by mixing and matching beliefs. Universities are responding by offering more religion classes, from an overview of the world's faiths to concentrated looks at them.

Nathan Katz, chairman of FIU's Department of Religious Studies, sees the increased enrollment as a sign of the resurgence of spirituality in the last decade.

''We are the most technically advanced in the world and we are also the most religious, by many measures,'' he says.

Gen Y'ers -- who at about 70 million number almost as many as their Boomer parents -- also seek religion classes out of curiosity and a need to understand current events.

In just three years, from the school year 1996-1997 to 1999-2000, the number of students taking a religion class increased 15 percent across the United States and the number of religion majors jumped 25 percent, according to a national survey of 1,156 colleges by the American Academy of Religion.

A Gallup Poll survey of teens' worship attendance showed slightly more were going to services in 1998 -- 49 percent -- than the 47 percent a generation ago in 1977.

''There's a different attitude: It's more acceptable, not as contentious'' to be religious, says Christian Smith, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina who is directing the National Study of Youth and Religion. ``Today's youth are less suspicious, less hostile than Baby Boomers would have been in the '60s and '70s.''

Many students are also on a pilgrimage to learn about their family faith -- the rituals, customs and traditions their Boomer parents may have abandoned.

''People are interested in their own roots, in their own traditions, in learning about them,'' adds FIU's Oren Stier, who is an assistant professor of religious studies.

Sometimes, though, students may feel threatened by how religion classes look objectively at religions -- even challenging what students think as infallible beliefs, says Daniel Alvarez, an FIU religion instructor.

Many evangelical Christians, for example, are stunned when professors teach that the Bible is open to interpretation and contradicts itself, he says. Or they may have been taught that Christianity is the best religion -- and are now being told that other faiths are equally valid.

''The more traditional have a sense of anxiety,'' Alvarez says. ``They're exposed to historical criticism that they simply aren't familiar with or sympathetic to.''

Alvarez tries to be gentle. ``My job, I say to them, is to make each of the religions come alive.''

Stier says students come to him for pastoral counseling and he has to tell them he is an academic, not a member of the clergy, and steer them elsewhere.

Many students, though, aren't taking religious studies for personal reasons but rather to understand the times better.

Says FIU's Katz, ``There are people who are blowing themselves up for religion, our foreign policy is influenced by religion and they want to understand why.''

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Monday, November 10, 2003

Mind Your Manners

Was it all a dream? Or is it possible, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, that there was a period when America really was a kinder and gentler nation?

Manner minders

America's recent regression into uncouth behavior has not escaped the notice of those who stand guard to preserve what's left of our sense of propriety, and among them is Peter Post, great-grandson of the grand dame of etiquette, Emily Post, and author of a new book, "Essential Manners for Men."

"The grace period has definitely dissolved," he says, "but it did exist. Any time there's a crisis like 9/11, there's a willingness to forgive things we didn't forgive before. People come together for greater good and think about the other person, which is what etiquette is, thinking about the other person."

Indications that America has a problem with manners was clear in a 2002 study called "Aggravating Circumstances: A Status Report on Rudeness in America," which was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and conducted by the New York-based Public Agenda. The national survey of 2,013 adults found that 79 percent believed lack of courtesy was a serious problem in the United States, and 61 percent said rude behavior was on the rise.

None of the findings was flattering.

Forty-four percent said they hear people using crude or rude language in public, although only 36 percent admitted to swearing themselves (45 percent of men and 26 percent of women).

Behavior behind the wheel was worse. Fifty-eight percent said they often saw drivers who were reckless or aggressive, although no more than 35 percent admitted themselves to driving that way. In the workplace, four in 10 said they encounter colleagues who are rude and disrespectful, and 31 percent said their supervisors were uncouth.

Regarding behavior after 9/11, three out of four believed Americans were more courteous, but 66 percent predicted it wouldn't last, and apparently they were right.

"After the tragedy, people were more sensitive," says Rosanne J. Thomas, the founder of Boston's Protocol Advisors, who teaches etiquette. "People were able to put into perspective what was really important and what wasn't. Does it really matter if someone at the supermarket is in the wrong checkout line? For a while, people talked about the importance of being good to each other, but now I don't hear it as much.

"Is good behavior in decline? Well, polls and surveys tell us it is. I don't know if it's any worse than it's ever been, but a lot of people believe it's worse than they can remember."

Rudeness has become prevalent enough in America to justify a website, www.etiquettehell.com, where hundreds of examples of bad behavior are categorized under weddings, baby showers, funerals, etc.

Once upon a time in America, however, based on a review of etiquette books a century ago, decorum was admired, and if good manners did not guarantee wisdom, bad manners surely were a sign of vulgarity.

As John H. Young, wrote in "Deportment" in 1882: "No one subject is of more importance to people than a knowledge of the rules, usages and ceremonies of good society. To acquire a thorough knowledge of these matters and to put that knowledge into practice with perfect ease and self-complacency is what people call good breeding. To display an ignorance of them is to subject the offender to the opprobrium of being ill-bred."

So, what happened? When did rudeness become the rage?

"We can almost pinpoint the decline of manners and etiquette to the 1960s," says Thomas. "Prior to that, families ate together at the dinner table. Manners were reinforced all the time -- conversation, listening skills, dining skills, basic considerations, and even electronic manners in that you didn't take telephone calls during the meal. But then people began not to eat together as much, and that's when the basics were no longer taught.

"One problem these days," she says, "is that, unfortunately, there's a lapse in etiquette when people make too great a deal over things that are inadvertent, offenses that they perceive as being intentional but really are inadvertent oversights. In etiquette, we want to overlook as much as we can. Not everything, of course, but we try to give other people the benefit of the doubt."

Never too late

At a time when boys and girls enter school through metal detectors to ensure they're not armed with guns and knives, when teenage girls wear T-shirts describing sex acts in language common at Marine Corps boot camp, is Thomas whistling past the graveyard of dead manners in teaching the subtleties of the sorbet course, the importance of the notch that differentiates the fish fork, and the nuances of whether the finger bowl is moved left or right and with or without the doily?

"No," she says firmly. "In learning etiquette, it's never too late, never too soon.

"Children's first etiquette classes should be in the home, and children should be reminded, in a nice way, all the time. Parents need to model good behavior, reinforce good behavior, and then reward good behavior. I sense that young children want to know and want to do the right thing, and it gives them confidence."

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Sunday, November 09, 2003

Exploring spirituality's connection to community, coping ability

DOES participation in a church, synagogue or mosque create a sense of spirituality, or does a sense of spirituality motivate people to join religious communities?

Ralph Piedmont, director of research in the pastoral counseling program of Loyola College in Maryland, believes he knows the answer to the question -- one that explains why so many people who have left organized religion continue to look for spiritual fulfillment.

"Spirituality leads to involvement in community, not the other way around," he said.

Piedmont, trained in personality psychology and motivation, considers spirituality a fundamental component of one's makeup, as much as other characteristics psychologists usually measure when developing personality profiles: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

During the last six years, Piedmont has devised a Spiritual Transcendence Scale, beginning with a long form of 24 questions and recently adding a short form of nine. His goal was to create a scientific measure of spirituality -- a tool that could be used, among other things, to determine how well a chronically ill person or a recovering substance abuser might respond to treatment.

His thesis was simple: A person who is highly developed spiritually is more likely to have a positive outlook than someone with low spirituality and thus will be better equipped to cope with the emotional and physical pain of illness or trauma.

He asks respondents, among other things, to indicate whether they find a "sense of wholeness" in meditation or prayer, feel a "bond with all humanity" or believe that dead relatives or friends influence their life decisions.

"The whole (point) is to look at spirituality that cuts across denominations, to look at what is common to all faiths," he said. "It's the notion that spirituality translates into a motivational variable, something that drives people to create meaning in life."

Genetics, along with environment and life experiences, plays a role in how spiritual a person is or will become, Piedmont said. People with little spiritual development think of themselves as self-reliant, with little need for help from friends, a community of like-thinking people or a supernatural force or being. They focus on day-to-day existence and can be self-centered, often narcissistic, he said.

People with highly developed spiritualities "understand the broader sense of community. There's a certain sense of selflessness," he said. They rely on others for support and might also express devotion to God or other spiritual beings.

The sense of connectedness with other people and the world at large is one of the strongest indicators of spiritual maturity, Piedmont said.

Typically, women score higher than men on the transcendence scale, and people older than 30 score higher than those younger, he said. Psychological studies have long shown women to be communal and relationship-oriented, while men have been shown to act more independently. The age factor relates to a tendency for members of the over-30 crowd to begin thinking more about their mortality, he said.

Susan Bartlett, a psychologist and assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, found Piedmont's scale an accurate indicator of how 77 patients at Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center would cope while receiving treatment over a 12-month period in 1999 and 2000. All the study participants had rheumatoid arthritis, a "particularly devastating, debilitating disease with no cure" and ranged in age from 30 to over 70, Bartlett said.

The severity and progression of the disease is no indicator of how patients react emotionally to their illness, she said. Some with "objectively very little disease" go into severe depression and can't function, while some in advanced stages are happier and continue to do their work and other activities as best they can.

The Spiritual Transcendence Scale provided insight that previous indicators did not, Bartlett said. People high in spirituality tended to be happier, more energetic and more hopeful, she said.

Bartlett said numerous recent studies have shown that people whose lifestyle includes such religious behaviors as praying daily and attending a house of worship regularly tend to be healthier and have a more positive outlook on life, and illness, than those who don't.

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Monday, November 03, 2003

Faith & Healing

Patients are demanding more spiritual care. According to a NEWSWEEK Poll, 72 percent of Americans say they would welcome a conversation with their physician about faith; the same number say they believe that praying to God can cure someone—even if science says the person doesn’t stand a chance.

On Beliefnet, a popular interfaith Web site, fully three quarters of more than 35,000 online prayer circles are health related: patients’ loved ones—as well as total strangers—can log on and send prayers into the electronic ether, hoping to heal cancers, disabilities, chronic illness and addiction.

Popular practices like these, as well as the growing belief in the medical community that what happens in a person’s mind (and, possibly, soul) can be as important to health as what happens on the cellular level, are leading many doctors to embrace the God they banished from the clinic long ago in favor of technological and pharmaceutical progress.

All over the medical establishment, legitimate scientists are seeking the most ethical, effective ways to combine patients’ spiritual and religious beliefs with high-tech treatment. Former mutual-fund tycoon Sir John Templeton spends as much as $30 million a year funding scientific projects that explore the nature of God. “The Anatomy of Hope,” a meditation on the effects of optimism and faith on health, by New Yorker medical writer Jerome Groopman, M.D., is coming out early next year. The National Institutes of Health plans to spend $3.5 million over the next several years on “mind/body” medicine. And this weekend Harvard Medical School will hold a conference on spirituality and health, focusing on the healing effects of forgiveness. “There’s been a tremendous shift in the medical profession’s openness to this topic,” says Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania who is studying the biological effects of meditation and prayer on the brain. “People like me are very intrigued by what we’re seeing.”

Over the past decade, researchers have been conducting hundreds of studies, trying to scientifically measure the effects of faith and spirituality on health. Can religion slow cancer? Reduce depression? Speed recovery from surgery? Lower blood pressure? Can belief in God delay death? While the research results have been mixed, the studies inevitably run up against the difficulty of using scientific methods to answer what are, essentially, existential questions. How do you measure the power of prayer? Can one person’s prayer be stronger—and more effective—than another’s? How do you separate the health benefits of going to church or synagogue from the fact that people who attend religious services tend to smoke less and be less depressed than those who don’t?

People who regularly attend church have a 25 percent reduction in mortality—that is, they live longer—than people who are not churchgoers. This is true even after controlling for variables intrinsically linked to Sundays in the pew, like social support and healthy lifestyle. While the data were culled mainly from Christian churchgoers, Powell says the findings should apply to any organized religion. “This is really powerful,” she says.

In an effort to understand the health differences between believers and nonbelievers, scientists are beginning to parse the individual components that compose religious experience. Using brain scans, researchers have discovered that meditation can change brain activity and improve immune response; other studies have shown it can lower heart rate and blood pressure, both of which reduce the body’s stress response. (Most religions incorporate meditative practices, like chanting or prayer, into their traditions.)

Even intangibles, such as the impact of forgiveness, may boost health as well. In a survey of 1,500 people published earlier this year, Neal Krause, a researcher at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, found that people who forgive easily tend to enjoy greater psychological well-being and have less depression than those who hold grudges. “There’s a physiology of forgiveness,” says Dr. Herbert Benson, head of the Mind/Body Medical Institute, and a host of the upcoming Harvard conference. “When you do not forgive, it will chew you up.”

Using prayer to effect health is perhaps the most controversial subject of research. In the NEWSWEEK Poll, 84 percent of Americans said praying for others can have a positive effect on their recovery, and 74 percent said that would be true even if they didn’t know the patient.

A recent survey scrutinized dozens of investigations into religion’s effect on health, and rated the strength of the most popular hypotheses. Here’s how they fared:

Persuasive evidence
· Church/service attendance promotes longer life

Moderate evidence
· Religion or spirituality protects against cardiovascular disease
· Being prayed for improves physical recovery from acute illness

Inadequate evidence
· Religion or spirituality protects against cancer mortality

Very weak evidence
· Religion or spirituality improves recovery from acute illness
· Religion or spirituality protects against disability
· Religion or spirituality slows the progression of cancer

Source: Andrew Newberg, M.D., Univ. of Pa.; Amer. Psychologist Journal; Rick Rogers, UC Boulder; William Strawbridge, UCSF
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Overall, the prayer studies have not shown clear effects, and even religious proponents are skeptical that it can ever—or should ever—be tested. So many people already pray for the sick that scientists cannot establish a control group; when the prescription is prayer, patients often get it whether doctors want them to or not. This “noise”—the extra prayers of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, church members—may taint trial results. And the studies prompt questions that no one, not even the best scientists, will ever be able to answer: Can one extra prayer mean the difference between life and death? Can prayer be dosed, the way medicines are? Does harder praying mean better treatment by God? In the minds of many, especially theologians, those questions border on the sacrilegious. “To think that God would only respond to the group that was prayed for and leave the other group out in the dark is based on total misconceptions of how God responds to prayer,” says Cynthia Cohen, a senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. “God is not a machine who responds mechanically.”

Koenig, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health, is leading the charge for a better understanding of patients’ religious and spiritual beliefs in the medical setting. “It just makes too much sense,” he says, when patient after patient tells him, “Doctor, religion is the most important thing; it keeps me going.” Koenig advocates that doctors take spiritual histories of any patient they are likely to have an ongoing relationship with, asking questions like: “Is religion a source of comfort or stress? Do you have any religious beliefs that would influence decision-making? Do you have any spiritual needs that someone should address?”

By Claudia Kalb
NEWSWEEK
With Anne Underwood, Ellise Pierce, Joan Raymond, Jenny Hontz, Karen Springen and Sarah Childress

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Saturday, November 01, 2003

Healthy faith leads to healthy life

Abundant research evidence now demonstrates a connection between spirituality, moral choices and health. Some of us are, quite literally, making ourselves sick through our spiritual emptiness and misdirected moral choices. Others are moving toward health by reconnecting to God and to the resources of faith.

Harold Koenig of Duke University has argued from research data that church attendance, religious practices and good health are correlated. He reported on a six-year study of 4,000 people over the age of 64. The report found that frequent attendance in religious services was correlated with a lower risk of dying, lower blood pressure and healthier immune systems. He also claimed that prayer "boosts morale, lowers agitation, loneliness and life dissatisfaction, and enhances the ability to cope."

Similarly, a Dartmouth Medical Center study found that one of the best survival predictors among 232 heart surgery patients was "the degree to which they drew comfort and strength from religious faith and prayer." A study of AIDS patients at the University of Miami linked long-term survival to prayer and volunteering. A University of Pennsylvania physician has documented changes in blood flow in the brain during prayer and meditation. Other studies have shown connections between spirituality and the prevention of illness, recovery from illness and coping during illness. If we were made for relationship with God, it makes sense that alienation from our Creator can at times lead to a soul-sickness that often is intimately related to physical illness.

Joanne Coyle, a European researcher, has sifted through these various studies to argue that three main dimensions of spirituality are showing a positive impact on human health. I would restate these dimensions as transcendence, values and community.

Transcendence, the first dimension, means both connectedness with God and development of the potential of the self. Studies are showing that patients who experience such transcendence find meaning and purpose in life and can thus find meaning in illness and in battling it. They enjoy higher levels of motivation to get healthy or recover from illness. And they are more likely to find peace and serenity amid their condition, often rooted in a sense of trust in God's provision.

Second, we have values. Values establish and motivate conformity with rules, principles and goals that affect behavior in health-enhancing ways. Studies routinely show that participation in religious communities reinforces values beneficial to human health, such as prohibitions against drug use, smoking and the abuse of alcohol. More broadly, a religious emphasis on stewardship of the human body and its ultimate "ownership" by the divine Creator reinforces a sense of responsibility to treat it right.

The third dimension is community. Here spirituality aids health by connecting people to religious congregations whose practices provide structure to life and offer love and support. Prayer, attendance in worship, involvement in small groups and organized volunteer activities all have been correlated with enhanced health. Conversely, various studies have found a relationship between lack of emotional support and religious involvement and higher risk of life-threatening illness.