c. 1998 Religion News Service
Researchers link elderly religious activity to lower blood pressure
(RNS) Researchers have found that elderly people who study the Bible, attend religious services or pray every week were 40 percent less likely to have high blood pressure than those who did not take part in such religious activities.
The study, authored by professors at Duke University in Durham, N.C., is reported in the August edition of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine.
The study of 4,000 North Carolinians ages 65 and older found that those who participate in weekly religious activities were 40 percent less likely to have diastolic hypertension or high diastolic pressure, which is often linked to heart attacks and strokes. Religious participants also had smaller increases in blood pressure over the years than nonreligious counterparts in the study, researchers learned.”The likelihood of this finding happening randomly is less than one in 10,000,”said Harold Koenig, co-author of the study and a Duke associate professor of psychiatry.”That finding holds up even after you take age, sex, race, smoking history, and a number of chronic illnesses into account.” Koenig said the effect of religion was especially strong in blacks and people younger than 75.”In these subgroups, you could predict ahead of time what their blood pressure would be during the next wave of the study, based on their religious activity,”he said.
Researchers are not certain why religious practices have this positive health effect in the elderly, but Koenig suggested that faith and religious activities help people cope with difficult life circumstances.
Linda George, co-author and sociology professor at Duke, said researchers can only speculate on the connections.”Religious people have better support systems which keep them healthier,”she said.”The sense of meaning and kind of comfort that religious beliefs provide make them more resistant to stresses both physical and social.” The study, which occurred in three waves in 1986, 1989 and 1992, was funded by the National Institute on Aging.
Lawsuits against former United Methodist pastor settled
(RNS) All of the lawsuits stemming from charges of sexual misconduct by Barry Bailey, the former senior pastor of the third largest congregation in the United Methodist Church, have been settled.
Bailey was senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth, Texas, a 10,500-member congregation, when allegations of sexual misconduct by several women surfaced in 1994.
Bishop Joe A. Wilson of the denomination’s Central Texas Conference issued a statement Friday (Aug. 7) concerning the settlements of several lawsuits filed against the conference, its officials and Bailey’s church, the United Methodist News Service reported.”I am pleased to announce that all of these lawsuits have now been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties,”Wilson said.”The settlements are not an admission of guilt by any of the defendants.” The bishop said he regretted”the human failure of all involved that allowed the tragic conditions of pain in the lives of the women who brought accusations of misconduct.” Bailey retired in August 1994 after serving 18 years at the church. He surrendered his clergy credentials the following March, at the request of the Central Texas Conference, and avoided a church trial. He has consistently maintained his innocence.
Wilson said neither he nor his predecessor knew of the alleged sexual misconduct. The bishop added that he began the church process for dealing with such allegations within three days of their being brought to his attention.”The church stands for justice, and where there has been evidence of neglect and personal harm, we are sincerely sorry,”Wilson stated.
State attorney general OKs Ten Commandments display
(RNS) The Ten Commandments can be displayed in South Carolina public schools, according to a nonbinding opinion of the state’s attorney general.”A public school is not a place of religion,”said Charlie Condon, a Republican.”But religion has a constitutional place in the public schools.” The opinion came after state Board of Education member Henry Jordan proposed that students be permitted to post the commandments. Condon’s opinion also approved allowing school boards to begin their meetings with prayer.
Condon said the commandments must be part of an exhibit aimed at teaching students about history, culture or law. He said posting them alone probably would be unconstitutional, the Associated Press reported.
Students have a free-speech right to display the commandments but the state cannot endorse them, he said.
Steve Bates, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s South Carolina chapter, said the opinion could cause schools in the state to violate the religious rights of students.”He’s put us on notice to gear up our legal machinery in anticipation of taking a number of these issues to court,”said Bates.
Vatican to broadcast papal prayers over Internet
(RNS) The Roman Catholic Church is wired.
Around the world, Catholics _ and other interested Web surfers _ can for the first time see Pope John Paul II recite the Angelus prayer live on the Internet this Saturday (Aug. 15), the Feast of the Assumption.
Using free software that can be downloaded from http://www.realnetworks.com, people can watch the pontiff pray by accessing the church’s Web site at http://www.vatican.va, the Vatican announced Monday (Aug. 10).
The project, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Vatican’s Television Center and Vatican Radio, is the first of what church officials hope will be regular Internet broadcasts of all the pope’s public celebrations, the Associated Press reported.
Raymond E. Brown, Catholic Bible scholar, dies
(RNS) The Rev. Raymond E. Brown, an influential Roman Catholic Bible scholar and popular author, died of a heart attack Saturday (Aug. 8). He was 70.
Brown, the first Catholic to hold a tenured position at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he taught for two decades, wrote nearly 40 books, many of them commentaries of the New Testament, including detailed studies of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth and death.
Regarded as a centrist with a reputation as a man of the church, Brown in 1996 wrote”An Introduction to the New Testament”(Doubleday) to counter what he called the”new and bold theses”of the liberal theologians associated with the Jesus Seminar, which question the historical accuracy of the biblical accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings.
Marion L. Soards, a former doctoral student of Brown’s and now a professor of New Testament at the Louisville Theological Seminary, told The New York Times always lectured in his clerical collar and possessed a pastoral presence that encouraged students.”Ray understood himself to be a priest, and he understood himself to be in service to Christ and the church,”she said.
Brown was born in New York City in 1928. He received degrees from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a doctorate in sacred theology from St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and a doctorate in Semitic languages from Johns Hopkins University.
In 1953, he was ordained in the Diocese of St. Augustine, Fla., and served as an adviser to his bishop at the Second Vatican Council in 1963.
At different times, Brown served as president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America, the Society of Biblical Literature and the International Society of New Testament Studies.
His most recent book, published the day before his death, was entitled”A Retreat With John the Evangelist: That You May Have Life”(St. Anthony Messenger Press). It was part of his”A Retreat With …”series of devotions written primarily for lay readers.”Raymond Brown reached scholars, religious educators and clergy with his academic books, but in his zeal he wanted to reach more: the people in the pew who hungered for a greater understanding of the Bible,”said the Rev. Jeremy Harrington, publisher of St. Anthony Messenger Press.
Quote of the Day: Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop
(RNS)”… It is important not to get into the place where research tries to prove faith, because faith is the evidence of things not seen. There is a point beyond which you cannot go in proving faith and proving prayer. You have to remember that both are very personal things, and whether it is divine intervention or whether it is mind-body medicine that gets you better, you will never really be sure.” _ Dr. C. Everett Koop, who served as U.S. Surgeon General from 1981 to 1989, speaking in an interview on spirituality and health in a recent edition of Science & Spirit magazine.
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