"The public overwhelmingly sees religion's influence in the world and the nation as a good thing. And by 51%-28%, Americans think the lesson of Sept. 11 is that there is too little, not too much religion in the world.  ...Yet Americans are conflicted over the centrality of religion to personal morality. The public is split about equally over whether belief in God is necessary for one to be a moral person (50% say such belief is not needed, 47% disagree)."

(Source: "Americans Struggle with Religion's Role at Home and Abroad," The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, in association with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, March 20, 2002; http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=150.)

"For more than a decade, teenagers have been among the most spiritually interested individuals in the nation. However, sensitivity to faith matters has not resulted in a boom in Christian conversions. In fact, while more than three out of five teenagers say they are spiritual, spiritual goals and life outcomes are not among the top-rated goals they have established for their future."

(Source: George Barna, "Teens Change Their Tune Regarding Self and Church," The Barna Update, April 23, 2002, Barna Research Group [Ventura, California], www.barna.org.)

Studying a group of 462 college students, researchers, writing in the American Journal of Health Education, attempt to assess whether or not spiritual health contributes to overall well-being.  For some time, studies have been conducted showing religious belief and practices, such as prayer, as having positive effects upon patients' ability to adjust to treatment and some progress in recovery.  This study was undertaken to determine if spirituality-broadly conceived-has any effect upon health, as opposed to benefits to those who are ill or who have experienced injury.

The college students, based on several surveys, were divided into two groups, Low, and High, Spiritual Well-Being.  The researchers found that "self-esteem, loneliness, marijuana use per month, alcohol consumed both per day and per month, and hopelessness best discriminated between high and low spiritual well-being groups."  The authors state: "This suggests that the subjects scoring higher on the spiritual well-being scale had 'healthier' psychosocial health profiles than did their lower-scoring counterparts" (F (5,152) = 22.51; p<0.0001).  Loneliness, self-esteem, hopelessness, and monthly marijuana use accounted for 27% of the variance between spirituality well-being levels."

The authors suggest that those students who were found in the more spiritually well category "may have a more defined ethical framework from which to live their lives...include[ing] things like valuing human relationships and cultivating 'connectedness' with others."  This, in turn, may help to explain the "strong inverse relationship" between spirituality and loneliness, and spirituality and substance abuse.

The authors conclude: "Although our findings indicate a strong relationship between spiritual well-being and these indicators of health, readers should be careful not to assume a causal relationship between these two factors."  Indeed, otherwise one's religious faith becomes a mere means to health, not practiced for its own inherent worth.  In any case, it seems clear: spiritual health is beneficial to the whole person.

(Source: Jon Hammermeister and Margaret Peterson, "Does Spirituality Make a Difference: Psychosocial and Health-Related Characteristics of Spiritual Well-being," American Journal of Health Education, Vol. 32, No. 5 [September/October 2001]: 293-297.])