Posted on 12/09/2020 9:05:33 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
In 2019, 42% of Americans who attended religious services weekly rated their mental health as excellent, the poll showed. In 2020, 46% of Americans who attended religious services weekly rated their mental health as excellent — a percentage increase of four points.
No other Demographic group in the Gallup poll, which had a margin of error of ±4 percentage points and a confidence level of 95%, saw a percentage increase in rating their mental health as excellent.
34% of Americans say their mental health is excellent, down from 43% in 2019. https://t.co/kjobkuEEVD pic.twitter.com/U6mPW54ZSt
— GallupNews (@GallupNews) December 8, 2020
“Houses of worship and religious services provide so much more than just a weekly meeting place — they are where so many Americans find strength, community, and meaning,” the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s Director of Research Caleb Lyman told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Findings from this year’s Religious Freedom Index — that 62 percent of respondents said that faith had been important during the pandemic — align with Gallup’s findings on the importance of religious services to Americans’ mental health.”
The Gallup poll results are particularly striking in contrast to Democratic lawmakers’ restrictions on houses of worship. Governors and mayors across the United States have issued orders throughout the pandemic that restrict or prohibit religious services, and the Department of Justice has pushed back against such restrictions on multiple occasions.
Governors like Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam banned gatherings of 10 or more people through initial stay-at-home orders, restrictions which effectively banned church services. Authorities have arrested multiple religious leaders for defying coronavirus orders, such as Pastor Tony Spell of the Louisiana Life Tabernacle church and Florida megachurch pastor Rodney Howard-Browne.
(Excerpt) Read more at stream.org ...
Well yeah if you go to church then that likely means you don’t think you’re going to rot in a wooden box for good after they dump you in the ground :)
Many analysts have said it’s a positive thing for one’s health, believing in the afterlife, whether it’s true or not.
Our church has a mask mandate. That’s two less parishioners since last March. 😷😷
Spiritual health and mental health are related for sure.
I was furious that our congregation shut its doors for a good while. But found other churches where I could worship.
I have found a few churches where no one says anything about me not wearing a mask. At a former church I did get called out in the middle of Mass for not wearing a mask. Deacon looked right at me and everyone knew he was talking to me as I was the only one not wearing a mask. While I went to Mass there, I observed an older couple, both wearing N-95 masks, and the woman was struggling to take in oxygen. She would try to take a deep breath every few minutes.
Good idea. I’ll call around for churches that don’t require masks. Thanks 🙏
Some day people are going to wake up.
We have a church way out of town everyone wears a mask. Another church in town crowded half wearing masks. No distancing. I work in a hospital. A lot of covid. I’ve taken care of 30 year old formerly healthy people After 6 weeks on a Ventilator through the trachea. No food no moving. The bedsores are about out of control. I’ve never seen a virus like this.
A family member had it. Young woman. She was so sick. Her husband too. Some people get it no problem.
Masks might help or not. Docs and surgical people wear them in the OR. For evidence based reasons. I just don’t have a problem with masks.
Church shut since March.
No-essential according to so many governors.
In a dense state like NJ, the best function of the mask is to let the people around you know there is a virus around this is making people sick and killing some of them. I’m shocked at how many people ignore basic spacing standards, never mind masks; this has been here for nearly a year now, and some people are still acting like nothing at all is happening.
I have to say it was wonderful when our church re-opened in early May. We walked through the doors and it was like time travel — returning to a normal time and atmosphere. No masks. People hugged. We sang (loudly). It was mentally and psychologically therapeutic.
The only weird thing was that every other pew was roped off — which we pretty much ignored if we ran out of butt space in the open pews.
A congregation of about 200 people. No Covid.
Our church never required masks. If they had, we wouldn’t have gone.
Headline is past tense. Why?
The northern Indiana parish I have attended for over 25 years has never shut their doors to Divine Service, knowing that we flee to God especially in times of trouble. We follow the guidelines set forth by our governor, and take extra measures in the way of sanitation.
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