Geoff W. Sutton Blog

The correlation between church attendance and good health is a strong relationship.  Put simply, people who attend church on a regular basis also have better health than do people who do not attend church on a regular basis. So, what’s my issue? It’s the old problem that never goes away-- correlations do not mean causation. The fact that people who attend church have better health than those who don’t, does not mean attending church caused better health. The RNS writer, Yonat Shimron , does not emphasize this important fact about correlations. Here’s a quote from the first sentence of the story: “(RNS) The latest in a long line of studies, now numbering in the hundreds, if not thousands, shows that church attendance is good for your health. ” Later in the article, the author refers to various factors connected with church attendance that might be responsible for the supposed effect. It is good to consider various possibilities like prayer, social interac...

" Thank God for psychologists and Lexapro. Without them, I might be dead today." --Jonathan Merritt ( 2018, February 16 ) Jonathan Merritt's body vibrated. Then he had difficulty breathing. He grips us with his story of a panic attack. Then he shares his story of faith and psychology. Friends diagnosed a spiritual problem. A professor advised against a professional therapist saying, "you already have a wonderful counselor in Jesus." Merritt has more to say about Christian beliefs and mental health so, I suggest reading his post. I now move to related thoughts on Christianity and psychology. ***** I was sitting in a church pew one Sunday evening when a pastor launched into a rant against psychology. I left and never went back. At the time, I was in the process of earning a master's degree in Counseling at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Since those days, I find that my profession is still unwelcome in many conservative church...