(ANALYSIS) I’ve got some pretty fun data to work with today — it’s got a great name: “The Many-Analysts Religion Project,” and it asks a battery of religion questions from folks in 25 countries around the world. Although it was fielded in 2019, it was just added to the Association of Religion Data Archives (the ARDA) in the last couple of weeks.
Read More(OPINION) More than anybody I’ve ever known, Dad loved God. I mean, he really loved God, as if God was as real and tangible as a puppy or my mom. Meanwhile, he fought a probable emotional disorder on his own, the best he could, with no counseling and no medication, just him and the Holy Ghost waging war with his demons.
Read More(ANALYSIS) I am going to pull out some questions that piqued my interest when I was scrolling through the codebook. The first is a set of two questions about mental health. Folks were asked, “How often do you get the social and emotional support you need?”
Read More(ANALYSIS) For all the death and destruction that COVID-19 brought to the United States and every other country on Earth, it also gave us a tremendous window into how folks handled mental stress in near real time. Here we look at whether there’s an association between mental illness and religious attendance.
Read More(OPINION) Distress and hopelessness are typically met not with plans of action or offers of assistance, but with a pat on the head and 15 different versions of ‘You can do it” or “You’ll survive.” But not everyone can do it, and people die. There are horrors beyond our control. No amount of cute and sweet clichés will save the heartbroken and the hopeless. Such phrases may, however, make them feel isolated and even more vulnerable.
Read More(OPINION) As one who’s prone to be anxious about — well, about nearly everything — I’ve spent a good deal of my life looking for ways to de-stress. So allow me to offer a few reminders about dealing with presidential indictments, global warming, nightmarish customer service, artificial intelligence, road rage, grouchy spouses and troublesome offspring — without imploding.
Read More(OPINION) It may sound contrived to say one song you listened to 35 years ago changed you. But hearing “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” I realized you could be from places such as Loretta and I were from and cherish them as gifts, not curse them as barriers. You didn’t have to fix the way you talked — it made you different, but not inferior.
Read More(OPINION) Religion can help people find meaning and wholeness, which can lead to happiness even after a traumatic experience or just a rough patch in life. This is valuable in an ever more shallow world that puts a premium on materialism, and is driven by greed and wastefulness.
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