| Go to Home Page | Return to Sermon Index |
|
|
Union University Church | |
|---|---|---|
|
|
| By Reverend Laurie DeMott |
July
20, 2008 |
||
|
|||
| It’s
summertime and there are many festivals going on in our local communities.
Strawberry festivals are over, and Arkport had their Summerfest last weekend, while this weekend is the Wellsville Balloon Rally. It seems that along with festivals come the summer revival meetings, such as the one which was advertised in the local papers. The bold lettering proclaims….“Sickness! Addictions! Anxieties! Chemical Dependencies! People are getting set free and being healed, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and you will be, too!” This claim in last week’s paper was illustrated by a photo of a woman sitting in a wheelchair during the Miracle Healing and Deliverance Service, while she is photographed pushing her wheelchair under her own propulsion as she leaves the service – proof of the miracle of her healing. The gospel of Mark surely inspires the healers and the faithful who attend these revivals. . But while the revival ministers may perform their miracles with passion and artistry, their claims of true healing are viewed with suspicion by nonbelievers, and perhaps even by other Christians who believe in more modest miracles. In the very next edition of the Hornell Tribune I read an article about a Florida revival leader who claims to bring miraculous recovery. The Fresh Fire Ministries held in Lakeland draw 25,000 webviewers each week, and more than 400,00 people are said to have witnessed the revivals in person. But the non-conventional tactics of the founder, Todd Bentley, have drawn criticism. Vinson Synan, a professor of church history at Regent University, describes Todd Bentley as “The most unlikely evangelist you can imagine. Compared to the curly-haired Billy Graham or to Oral Roberts, they were attractive people, this guy’s kind of short, fat, and bald, with tattoos on his arms. He looks like a hippie…in a way he’s very much of the common man.” Aside from his appearance, Rev. Todd also uses extreme healing tactics – such as the time he was so filled with the holy spirit of healing that he “touched”a faithful follower hard his tooth popped out, while reciting unconventional phrases such as “Miracles are popping like popcorn; come and get some.” Leaders within the Pentecostal church call these “sideshow” tactics and note the s lack of reference to the Bible or sermons on Jesus’ healing during the miracle services. But most damaging are criticisms from investigative journalists from the Associated Press who didn’t question the attractiveness or preaching style of the Fresh Fire minister but asked a more profound and secular question – “Did these believers get healed?” The reporters tried tracking down a handful of cured believers, but found phone numbers to be disconnected , and messages weren’t returned, or physicians who issued medical records proving the cure couldn’t be found. Perhaps this miracle healer was - as Jesus warned - one of the “false prophets who will appear and deceive many people, even the faithful.” What kind of proof exists to demonstrate that faith can be healing? Proof of faith and healing can be found in what may seem a more logical place – medical journals and psychological research studies! Understanding how faith can heal is a legitimate branch of the science of medicine, so mainstream that 66% of medical schools in the United States now offer a course on religion and health. I read an extensive review of the scientific literature on spirituality, religion, and health which culled articles from medical journals examining a very real phenomenon – do people who believe in God and religion experience cures? Given that surveys have shown nearly 80% of Americans believe that prayer can improve the course of illness, this question is of interest to medical researchers. The research generally divides people into two groups: those who practice a religion (which is carefully defined as attending a church, engaging in prayer) or have a deep sense of engagement with a higher power (called spirituality by researchers) and people who don’t believe (atheists, nonchurch-goers and most of my friends). The studies on religion and health were carefully ranked them according to the level of evidence provided: Were the results statistically significant? Were the studies conducted by independent groups of researchers? Did the researchers control the degree to which other factors, such as heredity, were accounted for in the results? This rigorous set of scientific criteria seemed designed to quell critics who would scoff at the role of God in the doctor’s office. The resulting studies show consistent and in some cases the researchers say, even “persuasive” evidence that people who believe in a religion or spirituality indeed fare better on many studies indices of health. First off, Americans who practice a religion live an average of 7 years longer than those who do not believe in God or a higher power. Seven extra years….that’s an amazing statistic and the kind of results that pharmaceutical company researchers and marketers can only...well…pray for I guess! In addition to a longer lifespan, the community of believes fare better on some of the most common diseases affecting adults in our country. Patients who fall into the category of religious believers have lower blood pressure and reduced episodes of stroke, coupled with lower mortality rates from heart attacks, compared to those who don’t attend church or engage in a spiritual life. Other studies measuring cholesterol show that religious followers have health cholesterol profiles, while better immune system function for fighting illness was found in another line of medical research. Patients who suffer from conditions involving chronic pain, such as arthritis, list praying as the second most common treatment, right after pain-reducing medications. One of the study authors notes the lack of side effects from prayer – it’s noninvasive, and does not cause weight gain, stomach upset or need to be tracked through billing and insurance companies, and can be self-administered in the patient’s own home! I can just see the pre-printed prescription pads with a blank line for doctors to fill in the names of local churches. So the medical community has established that there is something healing, or at least, helpful about religious beliefs and bodily responses. But what is going on? What are the potent ingredients of religion that helps keep people healthy? There are a number of theories that have been proposed. One theory is that followers of a religion are also followers of a healthier lifestyle. If the church prohibits drinking, drug use, and sexual promiscuity, this translates into a healthier lifestyle. The healthier lifestyle is surely evident here at the Union University Church, we find our potlucks have lots of cholesterol-lowering whole grains and complex carbohydrates, and our workbees provide great opportunities for physical exercise. Another theory is that belonging to a church provides access to needed resources, especially among low-income congregations. These resources might be called “the Diaconate” and take the form of rides to the hospital, loans of medical equipment, or home-cooked meals when the budget is tight or families are beset by stress and grief. Or perhaps the key to faith and health is that churches are filled with upright pastors and church families, who can provide good role models for keeping healthy , or with a caring community who provides needed social connections, such a Family Game Night, and receptions like those sponsored by our own UUC Fellowship Committee. But I am also struck by one more powerful finding that I have not yet shared, one that the medical researchers are at a loss to explain. This finding is that people who are prayed for actually have a better recovery from an acute physical illness than those who have no prayer group to back them up. Patients who knew that family, friends, and church members were praying for them had fewer relapses, critical events or secondary infections while in the hospital, and in some studies left the hospital earlier. The researchers lamented that this finding is hard to believe, as there was no plausible theory to back up the finding. But it doesn’t take much looking to find a perfectly plausible theory. I am a psychologist, and I believe in a decidedly more psychological explanation; an explanation that involves our thoughts and feelings. Those who were prayed for drew comfort from the knowledge that prayers where being marshaled, just as many members of our congregation draw comfort from knowing that we are on the prayer list, and they believed that it would help. And it is the belief, the positive expectation, that changes our body responses. The famous journalist, author, and biochemical researcher Norman Cousins once wrote that “Belief becomes biology.” He was alluding to the well-known connections between the nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system. We are all familiar with the automatic fright, fight, flight responses that are marshaled by our sympathetic nervous system when we perceive danger….our brain sends out signals of distress and our endocrine system jumps into action to flood our muscles with messages to tense, to stop digestion, to prepare for the worst. Too much danger or stress causes a high level of development of our alarm system, and our immune systems will be drained, producing statistically predictable patterns of higher respiratory illnesses and infections. Similarly, pleasant thoughts, feelings of satisfaction, and hope release the neurotransmitter serotonin, which bathes the limbic/emotional control center of the brain and signals to the endocrine system to take a break and relax, while rejuvenating the immune system. Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and hopes change our biology, creating and refining neural pathways that can build frontal lobe areas devoted to coping, planning, and delaying gratification, or conversely, to brain areas dedicated to activating alarms and releasing chemicals of distress, alarm, and readiness for anger, and fighting. The positive power of belief is often measured and packaged as a substance known as placebo. Placebo is what the control group being studied gets instead of the potent medication or treatment. The gold standard of proof for a new medication is that the group getting the “real thing” shows more improvement than the group getting the sugar pill or the placebo. It is accepted that belief in the medication will show some level of improvement. I recall reading the package label for the hair growth treatment Rogaine. I was amazed to find that of those men using Rogaine, 42% perceived moderate hair growth, which was determined to be clinically superior to the 29% who found a similar level of hair growth using moisturizing lotion. Isn’t it great that belief can grow hair? Physicians and psychologists certainly capitalize on the placebo effect…the expectation that you will get better starts those brain chemicals firing, and can lead to measured improvements in physical functioning. But we know that placebo alone is often not enough, and that we need more active ingredients for many medical treatments. So is faith just the placebo component of healing? Or is there more to religious beliefs and spirituality than there is to sugar pills or moisturizing lotions? Here again I find a psychological explanation compelling. One of the things that I study as a child psychologist is parent-child attachments. The attachment is the degree to which a child expects a parent to provide comfort and security, and feels satisfied by the adult’s efforts to provide this. An infant is totally dependent on a caregiver, generally a parent, to provide food and comfort and security. The baby learns that if she feels hungry someone will feed her; that if she tries out a new skill (like making a babbling sound) a loving parent will notice and smile, and encourage her to try it again, and that if she is scared or tired her parents loving arms will encircle her to provide safety and comfort. The child’s ability to interact with others is rooted in the attachment relationship, which sets the model for belief that others outside the family (like playmates or teachers) can also be trusted and will make her feel good. A child with a poor attachment does not gain weight, attain developmental milestones or develop confidence in self and others. And what is at the heart of a religion or spirituality? It’s the attachment relationship with God. It’s the belief that I have worth to God, that I can trust God, that I can find safety and refuge in a power higher than my own when I am helpless. If we have a relationship with God we believe God can help us through life’s problems and illnesses, be they physical or related to sadness, anxiety, and grief. And this belief floods our nervous system with messages of comfort and safety and healing. Belief in God can become part of our biology. We can live healthier lives and cope better, knowing that God’s love goes beyond what we can do. Placebo involves no relationship, no attachment, and cannot invoke a sense of God’s love and hope for a better world. As the woman saw Jesus pass in the crowd she thought to herself “If I just touch his garment, I shall be healed.” And immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was cured. But Jesus was not content to walk away from her touch; he needed to see and speak to the woman who had touched his robe. “Daughter” he said “Your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” We have the power to start our own healing. It is the power of our relationship with God. |
|
||