By Frank Stirk

FROM happier marriages, to giving more generously of their time and money, to better grades at school: the list of scientific studies showing that regular churchgoers lead richer lives continues to grow.

The latest to be added to this list is a study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, which concluded there is something about being in church that causes people to think a lot less about committing suicide.

"We found that people who attend [a place of worship] are half as likely to have reported a suicide attempt in the past year," says Daniel Rasic, a University of Manitoba psychiatrist, who led the study. The findings are based on an analysis, by Rasic's research team, of data taken from Statistics Canada's Canadian Community Health Survey of almost 37,000 respondents.

They also found this reduced level of attempted suicides held even when they factored out the influence of social supports, such as people who can offer information and advice, affection and love, or just a listening ear.

An automatic support group

"The common thinking was, you go to church and you automatically have a support group -- and that people with good support groups are less likely to commit suicide," says Rasic, currently a resident at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

"We've shown that there's also something about the place. There's still a decreased rate of suicide outside of the social supports." The study does not try to explain why this occurs. Rasic offers two possibilities: that most religions teach against suicide; and that studies show people who are religious from a young age are less likely to develop a mental illness, such as depression, later in life. "And of course, depression is quite strongly associated with attempted suicide," he says.

BC pastor Paddy Ducklow finds Rasic's study "kind of unsurprising, actually."

A psychologist and counsellor, he believes that being in a positive, welcoming environment such as a worship service can be a natural antidote for people who are depressed and even suicidal. The preaching, too, can change the way they think.

"Depression is such a circular experience in the brain," says Ducklow. "The thoughts go around and around. So if they can find an opportunity to listen to something more linear, like a sermon, the things that normally go circular in one's brain don't. I think preaching, teaching scriptural truths is extremely helpful for the thoughts of the depressed person."

Relationship with God key

Canadian author Marja Bergen, who has struggled for years with bipolar disorder, is convinced that what makes the difference is the personal relationship anyone can have with God, regardless of their mental state.

"There's something about the kind of people that make a decision to go and worship God," she says. "What matters to them is not necessarily the people around them, but their connection with God. And then there's all the things that go with worship: the prayer, the singing, being part of a community of faith as you worship together."

Bergen adds, "I know I do feel suicidal once in a while; but I've never gone as far as trying anything, because my faith has given me a lot of meaning in life."

The researchers also found that the rate of attempted suicide did not decrease among people who called themselves "spiritual," and who do not adhere to any organized religion.

"That, sociologically, makes complete sense," says Joel Thiessen, a sociologist at Ambrose University College in Calgary. "It is that ongoing social connection that reinforces a particular group's worldview and that reinforces the individual's worldview," he says.

"So while you may be 'spiritual' and you may believe in God, and you may even appear at a religious service once or twice a year, [that sense of connection] is significantly less than for a person who goes all the time and constantly has particular messages and beliefs reinforced."

In fact, it is this personal connection that comes from being actively involved in church that numerous studies suggest helps nurture a variety of pro-social behaviours.

Churchgoers feel connected

In 2000, Statistics Canada's Canadian Social Trends reported that people who went to church at least once a month were about twice as likely as non-attenders to feel a very strong connection to their community -- and had a greater number of friends and relatives to whom they felt close. In addition, regular attenders "were somewhat more likely than non-attenders to provide care for others."

In his book, Christians in a Secular World (2004), Acadia University sociologist Kurt Bowen said, "The very [religiously] committed are more likely to say they are satisfied with life, happy and confident they will carry out their plans. They are less worried about money matters, despite having incomes about the same as other Canadians."

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Bowen also pointed out that people who regularly attend religious services have higher rates of volunteering their time and donating their money than the rest of the population.

Similarly, in his book, Restless Gods (2002), University of Lethbridge sociologist Reg Bibby reported that 61 percent of weekly churchgoers believed they had "found the answer to the meaning of life." In contrast, 56 percent of those who never go to church said "there is no answer to such a question."

Marriages and family life healthier

In a 2005 national survey, Bibby further found that across a range of interpersonal values -- such as family life, generosity, forgiveness, patience and kindness -- religious believers scored more than 10 percentage points higher than non-believers. The only value where their scores nearly converged was honesty.

In a research brief for the Center for Marriage and Families published last year, University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox said that "religious Americans enjoy happier and more stable marriages than their peers who are secular or only nominally affiliated with a religious tradition." As a result, he added, they were "approximately 35 percent less likely to divorce."

"My analysis," said Wilcox, "indicates that . . . the link between religion and strong marriages is particularly powerful for couples who attend church together. This finding is important because men, women and children who are fortunate enough to live in families centred around high-quality, stable marriages enjoy a range of benefits: better health, greater wealth and more happiness than their peers."

Teens do better?

More recently, a study by University of Iowa sociologist Jennifer Glanville published in the Sociological Quarterly suggested that teenagers who attend religious services weekly achieve higher grade-point averages, are more inclined to see their school as a community, and are significantly more likely to graduate than classmates who never go to church.

And yet, in an echo of Rasic's findings, Glanville cautioned that "the importance of religion to teens had very little impact on their educational outcomes. That suggests that the act of attending church -- the structure and the social aspects associated with it -- could be more important to educational outcomes than the actual religion."

Snake oil?

But despite all this evidence -- and more -- not everyone is convinced that regular attendance at places of worship fosters better personal outcomes and a more pro-active concern for others. Ducklow, for one, doubts the linkage is ever as simple as it sounds.

"It sounds like snake oil to me," he says. "I think that if you get into a healthy, wholesome faith community, all of these things are possible. But . . . a lot of factors have to be lining up before these guarantees are in fact valuable things."

Just because you go to church, he stresses, "I don't think necessarily your grades are going to improve or your marriage gets better. They might or they might not."

Atheists disagree -- citing Denmark and Sweden

Not surprisingly, many atheists dismiss the idea altogether. They insist it is possible for people to be 'good without God.' And they are gathering their own evidence to try to prove themselves right.

One of those is Phil Zuckerman, a sociologist at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. According to a news release, he argues in his new book, Society Without God, that while most Danes and Swedes "generally do not worship any god, do not pray and do not pay much attention to any religious dogma," they nonetheless "have very low rates of violent crime and corruption, excellent educational systems, strong economies, well-supported arts, free health care, egalitarian social policies, outstanding bike paths and great beer."

"These societies are not lacking in basic moral qualities. In fact, they may be the most tolerant, peaceful, compassionate, orderly societies that have ever existed," wrote Ottawa Citizen columnist Dan Gardner. "If that's the fate of countries that say goodbye to God, it will be a good day when we see the back of that old fraud."

And it appears that Denmark and Sweden are not alone. Writing in Slate, Yale University psychologist Paul Bloom referred to a study done in 2005 "looking at 18 democracies [that] found that the more atheist societies tended to have relatively low murder and suicide rates, and relatively low incidence of abortion and teen pregnancy."

Thiessen admits such claims "may be casting a bit of a shadow over this idea that the more you attend [church], the better off society is and the more moral or pro-social behaviours an individual would reflect.

"I wouldn't say there's a lot of evidence [to the contrary] right now, but I'd say it is building in many regards."

March 5/2009