EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS OF THE ‘WEAKLY RELIGIOUS’

Howard Meltzer, at the University of Leicester, has recently analysed data from interviews with more than 4,000 young people aged 11 to 19, their parents and their teachers. One notable finding was that more than one half (58%) of young people said that they had no religion at all, implying that being non-religious is normal for this age group.

The largest religious group was Protestant (14%), although a substantial minority (40%) of these youngsters said that, although they are Protestant, they know nothing about the religion. They are effectively ‘culturally’ Protestant or ‘weakly religious’. Conversely, although only 3.3% of the total sample, some 60% of the Muslim young people said that their religious beliefs were strongly held (compared with only 20% of Christians).

Meltzer’s analysis set out to discover the extent to which the strength of religious beliefs correlates with emotional disturbances. In summary, the ‘religious’ young people were more likely to report emotional disturbances and the effect was found to be particularly pronounced (and statistically significant) for youngsters with ‘weakly held’ beliefs.

One of the researcher’s conclusions is that a loss of religion does not lead to unhappiness or other emotional problems. But loss of the social framework that religion can provide does seem to lead to conduct disturbance. The implications for a secularising society are clear – losing religion might be alright because the children can do well. But it’s important to ensure that they have a broad, engaged, mutual society to grow up in!

To find out more use this link:

There are I think weaknesses in the assumptions here about the relationship of 'religious belief' and relationship with God but the extent of secularisation and ignorance of the Gospel are sad if not surprising.

FRIENDS AT CHURCH MAKE YOU HAPPY

Sociologists Chaeyoon Lim of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Robert Putnam of Harvard University have recently reported on a study which reveals that religious people are happiest with their lives when they have made friends at church.

The research indicates that the health of a believer’s prayer life, the vitality of their worship at church and the strength of their faith are not the most important determinants of their levels of happiness. It seems that what matters most is whether the believer has made some close friends at church and feels a strong sense of belonging. Based on this evidence, Lim and Putnam argue that what makes religious people happier than the non-religious, are the social aspects of religious community and not the spiritual.

However, critics suggest that the research seems to be stating the painfully obvious – that being lonely in your church does not lead to a happy life. Although it may well be true that people who have made friends at church are happier, it does not necessarily mean that all you have to do to raise happiness levels is to help people make friends.  

Nevertheless, there may be an important lesson in the research for church leaders, as the study appears to indicate that the fellowship aspects of church life do impact substantially on people’s lives.

Science News

Free Meditation for City Workers

 

A London-based Christian group is offering stress-relieving meditation to city workers. At St Mary Woolnoth’s Church – opposite Bank Tube station and the Bank of England – the Moot monastic community put up banners declaring ‘Free Meditation’ to those who are ‘stressed in the city’. In a nearby pub, city workers share a drink or meal while a group of people meet in a back room for talks based on bigger questions around life, God and spirituality. ‘Britain needs primary evangelism more than ever,’ said Bishop Graham Cray, commenting on the initiative, ‘but there can be no “quick fix”. It requires an imaginative and long-term, incarnational, engagement, meeting people where they are.’
Source: Church Of England Newspaper (25/11)

• http://www.religiousintelligence.org/churchnewspaper/eos/stressed-in-the-city

'Seasonal blandness' or the Real Message of Christmas?

Many of us who love God and the glory and power of His becoming one of us find the meaning Christmas lost in materialism and superficiality.  Simon Barrow was moved to comment on the essential blandness of messages at Christmas, not just on Christmas cards but in the messages from leaders, religious and political. The Gospel is toned down, weakened, but-

Steven Shakespeare expresses the Gospel dynamic with admirable simplicity and directness when he writes: "The paradox of God's 'Yes' spoken to [us] in Jesus Christ is that it throws the world into a crisis of judgement. It is spoken, not from the lofty heights of Christendom's power, but from the depths of dereliction, a cry of protest against all Empire. Absolute and vulnerable, God proclaims life as a free gift. No market can buy it, no state can enlist it, no church can own it. It is common wealth."

This is the real message of the crib. Hope is born again and again in the shape of Christ, inviting us to a way, a life and truth that confronts everything within and around us that suffocates, kills, denies and denudes us of God-given dignity, whether it wears the language of 'religion' or some other form of verbal aggression.

In a world of poverty and inequality, environmental degradation, mass violence, deadening consumption, and crippling fear of 'the other', the litmus test of Christian belief in the West is therefore not to be found in desperate acts of self-assertion, attempts to defend the club, wave the cross like a flag, or cry 'persecution' every time we are challenged. Instead it resides in open-handed living, in the cultivation of the way of the Prince of Peace, in hospitality for the stranger, in solidarity with the weak, and in a refusal to submit to the powers-that-be.

Given the weakness of the Christian message from the institutional church perhaps we should not be surprised that the majority of those under 40yrs are not sure what Christmas is about. See the article

The Living Church 1

'I have often said that we need more "R.C." churches, standing not for Roman Catholic but for Radical Conservative churches - "conservative" in the sense that they conserve what Scripture plainly requires, but "radical" in relation to that combination of tradition and convention which we call "culture". Scripture is unchangeable; culture is not.'
John Stott in the preface to his book The Living Church.

The books purpose is 'to bring together a number of characteristics of what I will call an authentic or living church, whether it calls itself 'emerging' or not. I hope to show that these characteristics, being clearly biblical, must in some way be preserved.'

Members of God's Kingdom or citizens of the world?

The New Covenant which those of us who seek to be Christ's Disciples sign up to is about loving God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength and all our fellows in God's family as ourselves. The battles which go on in traditional institutional Churches (not just Anglicans) seem to have more to do with secular politicing with little love for the poor and the spiritually hungry:-

Covenant rejecters compared to BNP as opposition grows

Opponents of the proposed Anglican Covenant have been called ‘an ecclesiastical BNP’, while a new coalition against the proposal has been formed. The Rt Revd Gregory Cameron, Bishop of St Asaph, also described the Inclusive Church and Modern Church groups as ‘latter-day Little Englanders’ who are ‘scaremongering about foreigners’ despite their liberal views. The bishop had a key role in designing the Communion Covenant, which aims to lay down the rules by which the provinces can work together. At the same time, another opposing group has appeared, called The No Anglican Covenant Coalition. Its members are Anglican bloggers from across the globe, including England, the USA, Canada and New Zealand. The Covenant will be debated at the General Synod later this month.
Sources: Church Times (5/11); Church of England Newspaper (4/11)

Liberals oppose Anglican covenant on controversial issues

Liberal Anglicans are campaigning against the Church of England’s proposal for a covenant that will lay the ground rules for future disputes. Liberals believe the covenant is too ‘dogmatic’ and will make it more difficult to select gay priests or bless gay couples. The groups Inclusive Church and Modern Church have taken out large advertisements in church newspapers and magazines, attacking the proposal as ‘inward looking and backward looking’. They even say that the covenant would ‘redefine Anglicanism’ itself. Anglican provinces would have to accept the covenant in order to stay in the Communion, but the Archbishop of Canterbury has said that it is not ‘envisaged as an instrument of control’. The General Synod will debate the issue on 24 November.
Source: Guardian (28/10)

Time to pray-

The Movement for Change -What faith communities can do--

The comments below apply equally to people of faith in any democracy as a movement for change:

It is always appropriate and necessary for the faith community to question and challenge political leadership on the biggest moral issues -- indeed it is our prophetic vocation to do so. That means lifting up the now growing rates of poverty in America and around the world, even when both parties only want to talk about the middle class. The plight of undocumented immigrants and their families unites almost all sectors of the faith community. The younger generation of the faithful is insisting on the urgency of "creation care" of the environment and the threat of climate change, especially to the poorest people around the globe. People of faith across the political spectrum also want to make serious progress on reducing the number of abortions in America -- not with symbolic amendments or criminalizing desperate and tragic choices -- but by preventing unwanted pregnancies and supporting low-income women. There is much work to be done in promoting healthy families; not by scapegoating gays and lesbians or bullying gay teens, but by creating policies that build a culture of support for families. Increased numbers of religious leaders are also ready to challenge the ethics of endless and failed wars of occupation, which have yet to seriously reduce the real threats of terrorism but have killed too many people.

It is not enough to talk about what President Obama should be doing; but instead we should be talking about what a movement can be doing to clear the space for change and provide energy and pressure on both the Congress and the White House. Only serious public education and mobilization will move the country forward on the "big vision" above. The "outside strategy" must be strong for the "inside strategy " to finally be successful -- and only then will access give way to influence. Learning the lessons of the midterm elections means not just wondering what Obama will do next; but also asking what we will do.

I have learned in the last two years that changes in Washington, Wall Street, and the country, are indeed much harder to accomplish than anyone expects. The combination of entrenched politics (on both sides); hugely influential special interests; the growing power of money in politics; the 24/7 assault of ideologically driven media machines; and a still-passive electorate that believes voting is the only requirement of citizenship -- all have contributed to where we now find ourselves.

Instead of just sitting back and watching how things go, an empowered new electorate must push the country deeper into our best shared values, understand the need for social movements in making social change, and act to hold both political sides accountable to trying to actually solve the country's greatest challenges, instead of just winning and keeping power.

We need to construct a new "moral center" in American politics. Yes, the rising deficit is a moral issue, but dealing with it in a moral way is also important. We cannot cut the deficit using methods that would hurt our most vulnerable and least powerful people. Yes, defeating terrorism is also a noble cause, but being willing to challenge the enormous human and financial costs of failed military solutions is also a just cause. And the faith community will always be lifting up the biblical priority of the poor, the weak, the sick, the oppressed, the left out and left behind, and always the children; and we will look for allies on both sides of the political aisle wherever we can find them.

Real social change depends more on a return to core values than a partisan victory by either political side. It means lifting up the fundamental personal and social virtues in our individual choices, family lives, community involvement, and engaged citizenship. For people of faith, it means leading by example from our congregations and actually doing the things we say we believe in.

Neither the left nor the right has the answers now, though both will continue to say that it does. So we have to focus on the spiritual and moral values that bring us together; that choose the common good over private gain, inclusiveness over intolerance, civility over shouting, long term over short term, integrity over celebrity, justice over excuses, morality over expediency, stewardship over consumption, truth over spin, patient persistence over immediate results, and finally, right over wrong.

These are the values that work for our personal lives, for teaching our children, for leading our congregations, for changing our communities, for holding politicians accountable, and for creating the social movements that make a difference.

We've learned that making change is harder than we think; now it's time to go deeper.
From Jim Wallis God's Politics blog

Christian Unity

An investigation of local Church activity in Edinburgh revealed that

"Unity seems to occur more readily when people work together on a new project, which no one church, group or congregation has previously run by themselves. Common ownership seems to be a sound foundation for happier and more creative co-operation. Also, it seems that projects receive more support when there are tangible ways through which people can become involved in a practical way: for example, driving people to clubs, sorting out Starter Packs, walking to shopping centres or in centres, or Bible Study. These are some of the ways in which people can do ecumenism. It is also important that people can recognise the need that they are seeking to meet, whether it is to help people with Dementia, support the struggle of their carers, or give people who are homeless a helping hand up and out of the cycle of despair.

The Ecumenical Relations Committee felt that it would be good to gather a sample of stories which could be shared with others. Stories which offer various models, take different journeys of discovery, reveal unexpected twists and turns, which may encourage you in your situation to take the risk of walking together as pilgrims where resources, ministry and faith can be shared, nurtured and directed." more
(from Stories of Ecumenical Witness in Edinburgh published In Jan 2010 by Edinburgh Churches Together)

THE PROVOCATIVE CHURCH AND RENOVARÉ

I've had this book by Graham Tomlin for about 6 years. I read at least some of it but my memory being what it is I can't be sure I read it through. Certainly what it is saying about what the Church is -or should be, is a subject I have been looking for or researching for years. I have read plenty -and then despaired of finding others where I live, with the same concerns.

But now The Provocative Church is suggested reading before a day conference this month about the challenges facing the Church in establishing the Kingdom of God here in my part of Edinburgh. and so at last there is serious interest in finding our way on our journey into God and then how to invite others to join us- to become the people of God. It is about evangelism but not particularly about churches sending out missionaries to preach in our area. It is about being the Church as the body of Christ, alive with the Spirit.

With regard to evangelism, the main theme of the book, Tomlin says-'the Church's first task is to be what it is meant to be, to display the wisdom of God to whoever looks in from the outside. This new community is called to demonstrate, by the distinctiveness of its life and the harmony created among very different people, God's variegated wisdom. The task is to learn to live the Christian life before we talk about it ; to walk the walk before we talk the talk. God has chosen to work out his will for the world not through a bunch of individuals being sent out to persuade others to believe in him, but by creating a new community made up  of very different people, giving them his Spirit who enables them to live together in unity, to develop a new way of life and to live this way of life and to live this way of life publicly.'

But if this is to happen the Church must do more to train us to be disciples. Willard says that few Church leaders actually have an agenda to do this, they may not see the need for change or would rather not and many church members are comfortable and do not want to move out of their 'comfort zone' to follow a risk-taking God into the unknown--

Dallas Willard, with Richard Foster and others started a movement called Renovare. Foster had studied prayer and discipleship for many years and describes the disciplines which Jesus modeled for his Disciples to learn. Sometimes he sent them out to practise the skills he had taught them. Renovare helps a small group- not more than 5 meet regularly to practice six traditions or streams of discipleship summed up in the commitment to seek continual renewal through : Spiritual exercises; Spiritual Gifts and Acts of Service. This movement can be a way of renewal within a fellowship if only more people would try it. We need to pray that God will bring groups of two or three together who will commit to work and pray together.
I was part of such a group for 2 years and am praying for new friends to be my fellow disciples on the way. Renovare helps me to set achievable objectives for Spiritual growth.

Faith is good for you!

I read today a news item that said:-

Liver transplant patients who were actively ‘seeking God’ were up to three times more likely to survive, a new study has found. Published in the journal Liver Transplantation, the study of 179 patients found that, two years after their operation, only 7 per cent of patients who leaned heavily on their religious beliefs had died, compared with 20 per cent of non-religious patients. Dr Franco Bonaguidi said the key appeared to be ‘high religious coping’ and seeking ‘God’s help’, irrespective of religious creed or church attendance. The study pointed to previous research which also revealed higher survival rates for religious believers with HIV as well as heart and kidney dialysis patients.

Source: Daily Telegraph (6/10)
This is not new news really.I read of a large scale study of mental health which showed that people of faith had fewer problems of mental health or coped better. The suggestion was that belonging to a wider community of faith gave a sense of belonging, of having worth as individuals-

The scaffolding round the spire

I rather like Tom Wright's introduction to an early book of his -New Tasks for a Renewed Church' . Writing theology can be 'a bit like erecting scaffolding round a (church) spire. For some of the time, it may seem to obscure the sharp image of the church's witness etched against the secular images all around it. But theology, and biblical study do not exist for their own sake (though, like a good scaffolder, we theologians sometimes take pride in our work). They exist to get the church back into shape for the tasks it needs to perform.'

His main argument is that :-
>We face a new set of challenges to the church-significantly different from the challenges Christians have received and responded too in recent decades. These challeneges are not new in themselves and there is wisdom from the past to draw on.
> The various movements of renewal have been preparing us for these challenges; - renewal of Christian interest in ecumenism, in liturgy, in the Holy Spirit, in biblical study, in social and political action, and many other things.----'There are new tasks facing us , and a renewed church can face up to them in the knowledge that, through the wise provision of her Lord, she is in principle equal to them.'
> 'The new tasks for the renewed church demand a new look at, and perhaps understanding of, the question: What is our Gospel? The answer to this question is found 'in a new examination of the basic story of Jesus, understanding it within the Jewish context of the time.'
This is of course the question which Tom Wright (or TD Wright when writing for scholars!) has been exploring for many years in many books and papers since this book was published (1992)

What is Truth?

This was the question which Alison Morgan asked herself- 'the crucial question of all time'. Jesus, she decided is the Truth-and the Way and the Life- but what does this mean? It is like when a pebble drops into a pond and the splash ripples out across the pond to the edges; God is at the centre and the circumference. So the truth starts with God and continues on. From the moment of impact a dialogue between you and God begins and never ends - and it is in words-
Jesus is the Word. When John wrote this in Greek he used the word Logos. For the Greek Philosophers who used it, Logos was a principle or force, a statement about the universe.' Jerome's translation into Latin was Verbum - and verb is a 'doing' word. God did, God does and God will do. Jesus the Word is truth. 'This truth is the driving force, the creative force which comes from God, through Christ, into the matter of the universe and into the spirit man. This truth is the ultimate principle of reality.'
So 'since the ascension of Jesus and the subsequent coming of the Holy Spirit, we all have the potential to speak out the word of God, and in so doing be part of his creative purposes.'

But 'often the power of God has not been noticeably present among Christians-
'Truth is the power of God in the universe, but is it the force that pulses through the church?'
Sadly she concludes that often it is not. We have lost touch with the dynamic power of the Gospel in the West.

'We stand, in the church, at the end of a long process of accommodation in which we have unconsciously sought to harmonise the gospel with the assumptions of our culture. a culture which in abandoning the quest for absolute truth has embraced a new set of values - rationalist, materialist, technological and reductionist. The effect has been that we have gradually turned the gospel from something subversive and life-changing to something tamed, packaged and institutionalised; from something expressed in words of power, to something conveyed, if it is conveyed at all, in words of information. The gospel has been squeezed out from under the platform of ur lives and become merely a picture on the wall, familiar but essentially unrelated to everyday reality. We must learn again to turn the word into a language, a living language that can speak into the assumptions of our culture just as Jesus spoke  into the assumptions of his, and in so doing and in so doing can do what he promised to do:
If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth,and the truth will make you free.'   John 8;31-32

Taken from the introduction to 'THE WILD GOSPEL bringing truth to life' by Alison Morgan