For years, I've heard the theory that being religious makes you a healthier individual. I think I may have even referred to this in a sermon or two. That's because studies were released by this and that organization, saying that people who go to church/temple/mosque (etc.) are by-and-large healthier than people who don't.
Well, that's now come under some question.
According to this article from Reuters, "Being religious may not make you healthier after all."
"The study, published in the journal Circulation, suggests that when it comes to heart disease and clogged arteries, attending religious services or having spiritual experiences may not protect against heart attacks and strokes."
The article notes that people who are religious tend not to smoke because most religions frown on tobacco use. However, that health benefit is lost because religious people are more likely to be fat. If you doubt that, look around your church this weekend.
"We're not sure whether it is that religious people are more likely to gain weight through activities they pursue, or maybe heavier people seek out religion as a result of stigmatization," said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, of the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, who led the study.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
T-squared and the ad
Tim Tebow is the recently departed starting quarterback for the Florida Gators college football team. He's won trophies, national championships, fame, glory, and soon, he'll be rich (expected to be a top pick in the upcoming NFL draft... maybe).
Tim Tebow won't be playing at the Super Bowl this weekend in Miami, except for the advertisement he's in, sponsored by Focus on the Family, that the pundits say is decidedly anti-abortion.
Adelle Banks at Religion News Service has a great article about this mix of sports and religion (again). You can read it here.
It's only natural, in my humble opinion, that Tebow be on the side of anti-abortion. As I've heard on the radio, his mother, while pregnant, was faced with the decision of aborting the fetus (Tim) or not. The mother chose to keep the baby, and the rest is history.
The main point for me: the mother had a choice. Which ever way you fall on the abortion issue, the main point for me is that the mother had a choice. She made her choice and is living with the consequences of it.
Don't misunderstand me: I'm not advocating abortion... I've known women who've undergone them, and I've seen the pain it can cause. What I'm advocating is choice. It's a woman's body; it's their life; it's their decision. Don't take that away.
Tim Tebow won't be playing at the Super Bowl this weekend in Miami, except for the advertisement he's in, sponsored by Focus on the Family, that the pundits say is decidedly anti-abortion.
Adelle Banks at Religion News Service has a great article about this mix of sports and religion (again). You can read it here.
It's only natural, in my humble opinion, that Tebow be on the side of anti-abortion. As I've heard on the radio, his mother, while pregnant, was faced with the decision of aborting the fetus (Tim) or not. The mother chose to keep the baby, and the rest is history.
The main point for me: the mother had a choice. Which ever way you fall on the abortion issue, the main point for me is that the mother had a choice. She made her choice and is living with the consequences of it.
Don't misunderstand me: I'm not advocating abortion... I've known women who've undergone them, and I've seen the pain it can cause. What I'm advocating is choice. It's a woman's body; it's their life; it's their decision. Don't take that away.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Her name was Louise
One of my dear friends is the Rev. Pat Meyers. Now retired and living in Delaware, I first met Pat when she served as the dynamic pastor of an inner-city church in Pontiac, Mich., doing some incredible work serving the least and the last and the lost. She's also a powerful advocate for not just doing acts of mercy, but acting on social justice issues, too.
Pat's also a very good writer. From time to time, she sends out these wonderful e-mails about life. This past weekend, Pat sent our group the note, below. With her permission, I share it with you, unedited, below.
"Her name was Louise and she died on Friday, January 22 at the age of 102 and a few weeks. She lived in the nursing home next door to my mother. While mother was in the bathroom at the end of our visit, I would spend time with Louise. Now I pace the hall and wait. I miss her.
"Louise worked for a wealthy man and married him. He died decades ago. She was the oldest of several children. Her younger brother, George, turned 100 last summer and died in the fall. She has three younger brothers, the youngest of whom is 80, and they visited her faithfully every Thursday bringing her fresh flowers. She also had a niece who often came to visit. She always made sure that she had a bath, got her hair washed and set, and sat up in her chair to visit with them. Sometimes it tired her so much she was in bed for the rest of that day and the next, but she always snapped back.
"Louise was 99% stone deaf. On a good day, she caught half of what I said in my deepest voice with my knees touching hers. On a bad day, I either yelled into her right ear or wrote on a pad. I also used hand signals to tell her what the weather was doing or the temperature. Mostly I just let her talk. She would laugh and take my hand. During the last few months she even had trouble reading. Her hands were crippled; she had a TV with closed captioning but the words moved too fast for her to read them. She was so lonely that her eyes would literally light-up when she saw me enter her room. She knew I would only be there a few minutes, but she was glad to see me.
"She landed in the nursing home five years ago because she fell in her yard at the age of 97 while raking leaves and laid there for at least eight hours until a neighbor realized that something was wrong. The brothers intervened and she hated every day she was there.
"I discovered that she was a United Methodist. She and her mother had attended a wooden church, long gone now, and then a church still very active. I never saw a pastor visit her; she never mentioned anyone. At some point, either she drifted away from them or they lost her. She died alone, after three days of refusing to get up; she did have an oxygen supply. They checked on her at 7:30am and she refused to rise. They checked again at 7:55am, and she was dead. On Monday, as I left her room, I said as I always did as I took her hand, "See you tomorrow." It was not to be.
"Louise and I had one major disagreement, and she knew that I disapproved. She called African Americans "coloreds." Her brothers told her that "coloreds" had moved next door to her main house, and she was very upset. She also had people of color caring for her, and this upset her as well. She asked me if I agreed with her, and I told her I did not.
"This is the point of my story about Louise. How could a woman who was a United Methodist for more than a century, attending church literally in the cradle where the denomination was born, come to the point where she hated people of color? How is it that no pastor or teacher ever urged her to move beyond that point of thinking?
"I believe, because I choose to believe, that Louise is with God. I also choose to believe that Louise now understands how her hatred of people of color was so out of line with what God intended for creation. Yet she spent all of those years upset and angry when her own church did not teach her differently.
"And as a side bar, we wonder why the United Methodist Church in this area is struggling so terribly? Could it be because we are not challenging our people to be faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?"
Blessings and Peace,
Pat Meyers
Pat's also a very good writer. From time to time, she sends out these wonderful e-mails about life. This past weekend, Pat sent our group the note, below. With her permission, I share it with you, unedited, below.
"Her name was Louise and she died on Friday, January 22 at the age of 102 and a few weeks. She lived in the nursing home next door to my mother. While mother was in the bathroom at the end of our visit, I would spend time with Louise. Now I pace the hall and wait. I miss her.
"Louise worked for a wealthy man and married him. He died decades ago. She was the oldest of several children. Her younger brother, George, turned 100 last summer and died in the fall. She has three younger brothers, the youngest of whom is 80, and they visited her faithfully every Thursday bringing her fresh flowers. She also had a niece who often came to visit. She always made sure that she had a bath, got her hair washed and set, and sat up in her chair to visit with them. Sometimes it tired her so much she was in bed for the rest of that day and the next, but she always snapped back.
"Louise was 99% stone deaf. On a good day, she caught half of what I said in my deepest voice with my knees touching hers. On a bad day, I either yelled into her right ear or wrote on a pad. I also used hand signals to tell her what the weather was doing or the temperature. Mostly I just let her talk. She would laugh and take my hand. During the last few months she even had trouble reading. Her hands were crippled; she had a TV with closed captioning but the words moved too fast for her to read them. She was so lonely that her eyes would literally light-up when she saw me enter her room. She knew I would only be there a few minutes, but she was glad to see me.
"She landed in the nursing home five years ago because she fell in her yard at the age of 97 while raking leaves and laid there for at least eight hours until a neighbor realized that something was wrong. The brothers intervened and she hated every day she was there.
"I discovered that she was a United Methodist. She and her mother had attended a wooden church, long gone now, and then a church still very active. I never saw a pastor visit her; she never mentioned anyone. At some point, either she drifted away from them or they lost her. She died alone, after three days of refusing to get up; she did have an oxygen supply. They checked on her at 7:30am and she refused to rise. They checked again at 7:55am, and she was dead. On Monday, as I left her room, I said as I always did as I took her hand, "See you tomorrow." It was not to be.
"Louise and I had one major disagreement, and she knew that I disapproved. She called African Americans "coloreds." Her brothers told her that "coloreds" had moved next door to her main house, and she was very upset. She also had people of color caring for her, and this upset her as well. She asked me if I agreed with her, and I told her I did not.
"This is the point of my story about Louise. How could a woman who was a United Methodist for more than a century, attending church literally in the cradle where the denomination was born, come to the point where she hated people of color? How is it that no pastor or teacher ever urged her to move beyond that point of thinking?
"I believe, because I choose to believe, that Louise is with God. I also choose to believe that Louise now understands how her hatred of people of color was so out of line with what God intended for creation. Yet she spent all of those years upset and angry when her own church did not teach her differently.
"And as a side bar, we wonder why the United Methodist Church in this area is struggling so terribly? Could it be because we are not challenging our people to be faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?"
Blessings and Peace,
Pat Meyers
Thursday, January 21, 2010
What NOT to send to Haiti
A great piece in today's note from Al Tompkins at the Poynter Institute. He writes about what not to send to Haiti. He echos a message we're trying to get out here in Florida: don't send used clothes, don't send food, don't send medicine -- send money; send it to UMCOR.
As Tompkins points out, what follows many natural disasters are people of goodwill sending in so much stuff that another disaster is created: what to do with all that stuff.
And by stuff, I mean (and Tompkins notes) lots of junk. For instance, after Hurricane Charley a few years ago in Florida, Tompkins writes about helping out in the relief efforts and finding cans of pickled beets in the food chain. "Trust me," he writes, "after a hurricane the one thing you are not pining for is beets."
Use your head. Donate money. Give it to UMCOR. One-hundred percent of your donation will go to help the people in Haiti.
As Tompkins points out, what follows many natural disasters are people of goodwill sending in so much stuff that another disaster is created: what to do with all that stuff.
And by stuff, I mean (and Tompkins notes) lots of junk. For instance, after Hurricane Charley a few years ago in Florida, Tompkins writes about helping out in the relief efforts and finding cans of pickled beets in the food chain. "Trust me," he writes, "after a hurricane the one thing you are not pining for is beets."
Use your head. Donate money. Give it to UMCOR. One-hundred percent of your donation will go to help the people in Haiti.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
An off-base response to Haiti
I was walking our dog, Nanuk, down our street this morning. This is a regular occurance for which both the dog and myself are grateful. The dog, because she gets to sniff every tree. Me, because it's about the only exercise I get these days.
At one home on our street, a new roof extension is being added. That means construction workers are out front with their vans and pick-up trucks loaded with ladders and all sorts of tools. One man was standing by his vehicle, which had both doors open and the radio on.
Loud.
I couldn't help but overhear it.
It was tuned to some talk show that I don't think I had every heard before. The man on the radio was talking about why we should NOT give any assistance to the people of Haiti.
I don't remember the exact words of the radio host, but he said, in so many words, that the United States should not send aid to Haiti because we don't have our own house in order. We have too many homeless people, too many abortions, the economy stinks, there's violence on every corner -- that kind of stuff. We need, the host said, to spend more money here at home and forget sending troops and money to Haiti.
Now. I could not more strongly disagree with Mr. Radio Idiot. I will defend his right to be stupid on the air, but I totally disagree. As a Christian, as a person of faith, as a human being, how in the @#$% could ANYone suggest that we stand-by and watch other human beings suffer through no fault of their own? I can't think of one reason, other than being clueless.
I was tempted to stop and ask one of the construction workers if he really believed the crap spewing from his radio, but he was bigger than me and I had to finish my/our walk and get to work.
And what work have I been doing all day? Encouraging people to give to Haiti relief efforts. If you are so inclined, I would encourage you to give money to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). Why? Because 100 percent of every dollar you give will get to Haiti relief efforts. One. Hundred. Percent. Not one penny will be utilized for administrative costs or stuff like that (The United Methodist Church has a separate offering, regularly scheduled in the calendar year, to cover those costs). You can click here to see UMCOR's donation page. You can also visit www.flumc.org to see what stuff I've been working on the past week.
I'm tempted to find out what radio host this was (it wasn't Rush) and ask him if he supports our war in Iraq. If he says yes, I'd like to know: which costs more -- giving aid to Haiti, or the war?
At one home on our street, a new roof extension is being added. That means construction workers are out front with their vans and pick-up trucks loaded with ladders and all sorts of tools. One man was standing by his vehicle, which had both doors open and the radio on.
Loud.
I couldn't help but overhear it.
It was tuned to some talk show that I don't think I had every heard before. The man on the radio was talking about why we should NOT give any assistance to the people of Haiti.
I don't remember the exact words of the radio host, but he said, in so many words, that the United States should not send aid to Haiti because we don't have our own house in order. We have too many homeless people, too many abortions, the economy stinks, there's violence on every corner -- that kind of stuff. We need, the host said, to spend more money here at home and forget sending troops and money to Haiti.
Now. I could not more strongly disagree with Mr. Radio Idiot. I will defend his right to be stupid on the air, but I totally disagree. As a Christian, as a person of faith, as a human being, how in the @#$% could ANYone suggest that we stand-by and watch other human beings suffer through no fault of their own? I can't think of one reason, other than being clueless.
I was tempted to stop and ask one of the construction workers if he really believed the crap spewing from his radio, but he was bigger than me and I had to finish my/our walk and get to work.
And what work have I been doing all day? Encouraging people to give to Haiti relief efforts. If you are so inclined, I would encourage you to give money to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). Why? Because 100 percent of every dollar you give will get to Haiti relief efforts. One. Hundred. Percent. Not one penny will be utilized for administrative costs or stuff like that (The United Methodist Church has a separate offering, regularly scheduled in the calendar year, to cover those costs). You can click here to see UMCOR's donation page. You can also visit www.flumc.org to see what stuff I've been working on the past week.
I'm tempted to find out what radio host this was (it wasn't Rush) and ask him if he supports our war in Iraq. If he says yes, I'd like to know: which costs more -- giving aid to Haiti, or the war?
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The Brit Hume Award
I propose that we create a "Brit Hume Award" for careless, thoughtless utterings in the religious arena.
For those who might be wondering what I'm talking about, Brit Hume, erstwhile newsman on Fox, recently offered his opinion that Tiger Woods, in order to acheive full forgiveness for his manifold sins, needed to convert from Buddhism to Christianity. You can read about it here, from Cathy Lynn Grossman's blog at USAToday.
Hume has every right to offer his opinions; that's what he gets paid to do. My beef is the "Christianity or the highway" theology that says "We Christians got it right; the rest of you are damned to hell" or whatever. I've never been a believer in that kind of theology. Who am I to judge others (see Matthew 7:1)?
For those who might be wondering what I'm talking about, Brit Hume, erstwhile newsman on Fox, recently offered his opinion that Tiger Woods, in order to acheive full forgiveness for his manifold sins, needed to convert from Buddhism to Christianity. You can read about it here, from Cathy Lynn Grossman's blog at USAToday.
Hume has every right to offer his opinions; that's what he gets paid to do. My beef is the "Christianity or the highway" theology that says "We Christians got it right; the rest of you are damned to hell" or whatever. I've never been a believer in that kind of theology. Who am I to judge others (see Matthew 7:1)?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Jesus Christ in the jury pool
Saw this item online just now. The headline reads, "Jesus Christ dumped from jury pool," or something like that.
I want to meet Jesus some day, but I'm not sure I want him (or in this case, her) sitting in the jury box.
(Wait a minute? Isn't that part of Jesus Christ's job? I mean, the real JC, not some pretender who changed her name. Isn't Jesus going to "pass judgement" on us; decide if we're going to heaven or hell? That is, if we believe in a hell. Hmmm.... I'll have to ponder on this one some more.)
I want to meet Jesus some day, but I'm not sure I want him (or in this case, her) sitting in the jury box.
(Wait a minute? Isn't that part of Jesus Christ's job? I mean, the real JC, not some pretender who changed her name. Isn't Jesus going to "pass judgement" on us; decide if we're going to heaven or hell? That is, if we believe in a hell. Hmmm.... I'll have to ponder on this one some more.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
