TruthBook Religious News Blog

Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) has received a $378,862 grant from the John Templeton Foundation to fund ISR's Initiative on the Economics of Religion.

The grant will provide funds for four scholars to investigate the connection between religion and economic growth and the effects of government intervention in religious markets on the practice of religion.

The economics of religion is a newly-developing field that is attracting the interest of scholars around the world, according to Dr. Byron R. Johnson. "Possibly more than any other discipline, the field of economics has the most potential to advance our understanding of the significant role and value of religion in our past, present, and future," he said

The role of religion in economic performance has long been a topic addressed by sociologists and historians, and it has become an increasingly popular topic among economists. Recent economic research suggests that stronger religious beliefs within a country are associated with higher rates of economic growth. However, Johnson believes that to date researchers have not adequately explored the institutional mechanisms through which religion might impact growth, and very little of the existing work takes an empirical, statistical approach to the question.

"Given how much has been written on religion and economic growth, perhaps the most amazing thing is how little - and how poorly - it actually has been studied," Stark said.

The research generated under this grant will improve upon the current state of knowledge on economic growth and religion.

"Despite much of our world continuing to languish in poverty, researchers have not yet adequately studied how religious culture impacts economic outcomes," North said. "The results of our studies will inform policy-makers and allow them to address economic policy in a way that accounts for the effects of religious beliefs and practices around the world."

Additionally, the grant will fund a new survey to be conducted regarding the religious, educational, and financial practices of Americans. This survey "will allow us to understand how individual religious beliefs affect decisions on savings, investment, home ownership and more," Gwin said. "In turn, this knowledge will help us explain how interactions between religion, education, and financial practices affect the overall performance of the economy."

The research initiative is composed of five parts. The first three directly explore the link between religious beliefs and some of the important practices and institutions known to promote economic growth and development.

• Part One focuses on how a country's religious tradition and culture influence the rule of law and reduce corruption, both of which are known to improve economic growth.

• Part Two examines the network effects of spiritual, human and financial capital in fostering economic growth through the new survey data.

• Part Three will explore the historical role of religion in focusing economic actors on growth-enhancing cooperative equilibria.

• Parts Four and Five build on prior work by Stark, North and Gwin to explore how state intervention in religious markets affects the level of religious involvement in modern times as well as ancient.

For more on ISR and on the Initiative on the Economics of Religion, contact Johnson at (254) 710-7555 or visit ISR's website at www.isreligion.org. Information on the John Templeton Foundation is available at http://www.templeton.org.

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Monday, September 18, 2006

Can Prayer Heal What Ails You?

"Praying for your health is one of the most common complementary treatments people do on their own," said Dr. Harold G. Koenig, co-director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Center. "About 90 percent of Americans pray at some point in their lives, and when they're under stress, such as when they're sick, they're even more likely to pray."

More than one-third of people surveyed in a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine said they often turned to prayer when faced with health concerns. In the poll involving more than 2,000 Americans, 75 percent of those who prayed said they prayed for wellness, while 22 percent said they prayed for specific medical conditions.

Numerous randomized trials have been done to assess the effect of intercessory prayer on heart patients' health.

In one such study, neither patients nor the health-care providers had any idea who was being prayed for. The coronary-care unit patients didn't even know there was a study being conducted. And, those praying for the patients had never even met them.

The result: While those in the prayer group had about the same length of hospital stay, their overall health was slightly better than the group that didn't receive special prayers.

"Prayer may be an effective adjunct to standard medical care," wrote the authors of this 1999 study, also published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

However, a more recent trial from the April 2006 issue of the American Heart Journal seemed to contradict these findings, suggesting that it's even possible for some harm to come from prayer.

In this study, which included 1,800 people scheduled for heart surgery, the group who knew they were receiving prayers developed more complications from the procedure, compared to those who had not been a focus of prayer. Additionally, this study found no benefit in the group that received prayers, but didn't know it.

But Koenig said there's a simple explanation why people might fare worse if they knew they were being prayed for in a study.

"These people got the news just before they went into surgery. They were given pieces of paper that said they'd be getting prayer, which may have made them think, 'Oh my God, what's wrong with me?' " Koenig explained. "That's a totally artificial situation. Normally, you have loved ones and friends praying for you and there's nothing negative in that situation."

This new study also points out the difficulty of trying to quantify the effects of prayer, said Koenig.

"Studies cannot prove that prayer does not work. We don't know any more about the efficacy of prayer after reading these studies and they shouldn't affect anyone's belief in prayer," he said.

With scant evidence to support prayer for healing, should doctors encourage the practice?

Clearly, many patients are reluctant to bring up the subject with their physicians. In one study, only 11 percent of people surveyed have mentioned prayer to their physicians. But, physicians may be more open to the subject than patients realize, particularly in serious medical situations.

In a study of doctors' attitudes toward prayer and spiritual behavior, almost 85 percent of physicians thought they should be aware of their patients' spiritual beliefs. Most doctors said they wouldn't pray with their patients even if they were dying, unless the patient specifically asked the doctor to pray with them. In that case, 77 percent of physicians were willing to pray for their patient.

The bottom line on prayer and health: If it's something you want to do and you feel it might be helpful, there's no reason you shouldn't do it.

"I think many people are convinced that prayer helps, otherwise I don't think they would do it. Some people are 'foxhole religious' types and prayer's almost a reaction or cry to the universe for help. But, many people do it because they've experienced benefit from it in the past," Koenig explained.

"So, if you have any inclination that prayer might work, do it," he said.

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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Americans More Religious, Spiritual than Previously Thought, Survey Says

The United States calls itself one nation under God, but Americans don't all have the same image of the Almighty in mind.

A new survey of religion in the USA finds four very different images of God — from a wrathful deity thundering at sinful humanity to a distant power uninvolved in mankind's affairs.

Forget denominational brands or doctrines or even once-salient terms like "Religious Right." Even the oft-used "Evangelical" appears to be losing ground.

Written and analyzed by sociologists from Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, in Waco, Texas, and conducted by Gallup, the survey asked 77 questions with nearly 400 answer choices that burrowed deeply into beliefs, practices and religious ties and turned up some surprising findings:

• Though 91.8% say they believe in God, a higher power or a cosmic force, they had four distinct views of God's personality and engagement in human affairs. These Four Gods — dubbed by researchers Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical or Distant — tell more about people's social, moral and political views and personal piety than the familiar categories of Protestant/Catholic/Jew or even red state/blue state.

For example: 45.6% of all Americans say the federal government "should advocate Christian values," but 74.5% of believers in an authoritarian God do.

Sociologist Paul Froese says the survey finds the stereotype that conservatives are religious and liberals are secular is "simply not true. Political liberals and conservative are both religious. They just have different religious views."

• About one in nine (10.8%) respondents have no religious ties at all; previous national surveys found 14%. The Baylor survey, unlike others, asked people to write in the names and addresses of where they worship, and many who said "none" or "don't know" when asked about their religious identity named a church they occasionally attend.

• The paranormal — beliefs outside conventional organized religion — is immensely popular. Most people said they believe in prophetic dreams; four in 10 say there were once "ancient advanced civilizations" such as Atlantis.

• "Evangelical" may be losing favor as a way Americans describe themselves. About one in three Americans say they belong to denominations that theologians consider evangelical, but only 14% of all respondents in the survey say this is one way they would describe themselves. Only 2.2% called it the single best term. Top choices overall: "Bible-believing" (20.5%) or "born-again" (18.6%).

"Any politician who really wants to connect with Christians should be looking at those terms, not vague abstractions like evangelical. ... They need to tap into labels that have salience," Baylor sociologist Kevin Dougherty says.

• Most Americans think their nearest and dearest are going to heaven. The pearly gates open widest for family (75.3% say they'll get in) and personal friends (69.3%). The survey did not ask whether people expect to go to heaven themselves.

• Religion-themed movies and books have a vast reach: 44.3% of those polled saw Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ. More than one in 10 of all surveyed say they spent $50 or more in the past month on items such as religious books, music and jewelry.

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Saturday, September 02, 2006

Evangelicals Pulling Kids Out Of Schools

Public schools take a lot of criticism, but a growing, loosely organized movement is now moving from harsh words to action - with parents taking their own children out of public schools and exhorting other families to do the same.

Led mainly by evangelical Christians, the movement depicts public education as hostile to religious faith and claims to be behind a surge in the number of students being schooled at home.

Though the movement's rhetoric strikes public school supporters as extreme, some of its leaders are influential. They include R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who last year said the denomination needed an "exit strategy" from public schools, and the Rev. D. James Kennedy, pastor of 10,000-member Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and host of a nationally broadcast religious program.

"The infusion of an atheistic, amoral, evolutionary, socialistic, one-world, anti-American system of education in our public schools has indeed become such that if it had been done by an enemy, it would be considered an act of war," Kennedy said in a recent commentary.

Overall, public schools are in no danger of withering away. The latest federal figures, from 2005, show their total K-12 enrollment at 48.4 million, compared to 6.3 million in private schools - most of them religious.

However, the National Center for Education Statistics said private school enrollment has grown at a faster rate than public schools since 1989, and it expects that trend to continue through 2014. Moreover, the private school figures don't include the growing ranks of homeschoolers - there were at least 1.1 million of them in 2003, according to federal figures, and perhaps more than 2 million now, according to homeschool advocates.

According to a federal survey, 72 percent of homeschooling parents say one of their primary motivations is to provide stronger moral and religious instruction.

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Survey: Evangelicals, Other Christians Split on Evolution Debate

On the issue of evolution, evangelical Protestants differ significantly from other Christian groups, according to a recent survey. Only 28 percent of white evangelical Protestants believe in evolution compared to majority of seculars and most other Christian groups, such as Catholics and mainline Protestants, reported the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life last week. Instead, the group supports the idea that living beings have the same form presently as the beginning of time.

Meanwhile, the national survey conducted early July on 2,003 adults found
* 59 percent of white Catholics,
* 62 percent of white mainline Protestants and
* 83 percent of seculars believe in evolution.

However, mainline Protestants and Catholics who believe in evolution differ among themselves on the question if evolution occurred by natural selection or through the guidance of a supreme being.

Thirty-one percent of mainline Protestants believe in natural selection, while 26 percent believe in a supreme being overseeing the process. Among Catholics, a higher percentage than mainline Protestants believe evolution was divinely guided. Thirty-one percent of Catholics believe in evolution through control of a higher power while 25 percent support natural selection.

Only among seculars – who have no religious affiliation – does the majority (69 percent) accept the process of natural selection for evolution.