Faith in God makes a difference

Harold Koenig is a psychiatrist at Duke University. He's also convinced that faith affects patients' health.

Back in the 1980s, when he was a family medicine intern and research fellow in the Midwest, he had patients who read the Bible regularly and prayed in their hospital rooms. Curious about the health effects, he checked out the medical literature. What he found stood in sharp contrast to his experience: a 1961 study argued that patients who relied on the Bible were unstable.

"[My patients] seemed remarkably well adjusted while dealing with life's problems and recovery from serious illness," he says.

His efforts to prove that religious belief has a positive impact on patients had an unexpected result: his own faith was restored. He explains, "If enough people look you in the eye and tell you about their faith and trust in God, it affects you."

Reported in
The News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) May 10, 1998

CHURCHES IN CYBERSPACE

"If I had 125 people in my local church (on Sunday), I was lucky," says Rev. Charles Henderson, a Presbyterian pastor who is founder of the First Church of Cyberspace. Thanks to his new "virtual" online church, where people can find sermons, movie reviews, Christian music, and art, "I have 125 a day from all over the world. The feeling of affecting people for the good is very strong."

Part of an interfaith group, Rev. Mr. Henderson says that traditional methods of building up churches are too limited. "To grow, we're going to have to grow, we're going to have to have to communicate on the Internet."

Reported in USA Today
March 25, 1998

God and science—together again

"It is possible for a belife in God to be in consonance with the best of modern science," said John Haught, a theology professor at Georgetown University and author of Science and Religion: From Conflict to Conversation.

"So often religion is portrayed as strict fundamentalism, and science as this imperialistic institution with the intent of eliminating everything else. But there is a legitimate dialogue to be had between science and religion, and many people are now having it."

From "God and Physics"
by John Yaukey
San Antonio Express-News
April 27, 1998

Hey, teens: nothing to do?

If summer vacation is getting a little boring and you're looking for something to do, here are a few community service projects you might consider. For more, visit the National Crime Prevention Council's Web site at www.weprevent.org.

• Set up a group where teens can share problems and solutions.

• Hold a rally against drugs and violence.

• Build a nature trail for youth with special needs.

• Build a nature trail for youth with special needs.

• Put up crime prevention posters at malls.

• Be a tutor or mentor to a younger person.

• Clean up your community.

• Volunteer at a homeless shelter or senior center.

It pays to be nice to new mothers

A Study of first-time mothers shows that those who had an experienced woman with them during childbirth, reassuring and comforting them during labor and the hours after birth, tended to be more affectionate to their babies later. Although these helpers, called doulas, were taught how to coach the mothers through labor, they did not have any medical training. The study was done at Houston's Ben Taub Hospital in Texas.

Associated Press report

MAKING THE PIECES FIT TOGETHER

"If you believe God is here at any point, then God is here all the time," says George Gallup, the well-known pollster who is also a deeply religious man. Mr. Gallup affirms God's presence in his life by praying throughout the day. "The pieces fit together when you try to submit your life to God."

The Dallas Morning News
May 2, 1998