"Aggressive 15 year olds who attended religious services, felt attached to their schools or were exposed to good family management were much less likely to have engaged in violent behavior by the time they turned 18, according to a new multi-ethnic study of urban youth by University of Washington researchers.

The study also showed that the likelihood of violence at 18 among aggressive youth was reduced when they had been exposed to several of what are called protective factors, even when they also were exposed to risk factors, according to lead author Todd Herrenkohl, UW assistant professor of social work."

(Source:  Joel Schwarz, "Family discipline, religious attendance, attachment to school cut levels of later violence among aggressive children," University of Washington, Mar. 4, 2004; http://www.uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=3552&Search=Herrenkohl.) 

"We find our examples in great lives. Important work in this world can be done by towering figures, like Martin Luther, who changed history and your own lives with an act of conscience. Work of lasting value can also be done by a solitary soul, condemned and stripped of all power, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Every life holds the possibility of serving God. And in every great life, that possibility is realized in service. After all, Bonhoeffer said, 'The Church is the Church only when it exists for others.'

This teaching of faith is confirmed in our daily experience. Many of us find that there is much more to life than getting and keeping. True fulfillment comes with the responsibilities we assume: to care for our families, and to love a neighbor as we want to be loved ourselves. This is more than a familiar saying; it is the foundation of a meaningful life."

(Source:  George W. Bush, Commencement speech at Concordia University in Mequon, WI, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 14, 2004; http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/may04/229435.asp.)

That not all religious groups are equal when it comes to mediating sexual mores has found support from a team of researchers at the University of Florida who explored the relationship between the effects of religiosity on sexual behavior and the extent to which faith groups proscribed nonmarital sexual relations. As might be expected, the researchers found that "those faith groupings which are the most proscriptive in their moral condemnation of non-marital relations, conservative Protestants and Catholics, report either the greatest number of significant religiosity effects or the strongest effects."

However, the researchers did not find as robust a level of support as they had expected for their hypothesis that religiosity is inversely related to nonmarital sexual relations. Using logistic regression analysis with data from the National Opinion Research Center/General Social Surveys of approximately 12,400 adults between 1988 and 1996, the researchers found that only 14 statistically significant inverse effects reached statistical significance (p<.10) among 62 measures of personal religiosity on the prevalence of premarital, extramarital, and homosexual relations.

These 14 correlations nevertheless reveal a pattern. The most inverse correlations (6) were found among conservative Protestants, as church attendance and strength of religious identification were found to lower incidents of premarital as well as extramarital sex; strength of religious identification and belief in the afterlife were inversely correlated with homosexual relations. Catholics revealed a similar pattern, as church attendance and strength of religious identification lowered the odds of premarital sex, although extramarital sex was only inversely correlated with church attendance. Belief in the afterlife also correlated with homosexual relations among Catholics.

Although fewer effects of religiosity were found among liberal Protestants, church membership and belief in the afterlife nevertheless were associated with lower premarital sex in this religious category. Church attendance registered lower levels of extramarital sex among the same while church membership was associated with lower levels of extramarital sex among moderate Protestants.

An irony that the researchers do not fully address is their finding that the inverse effects of personal religiosity are significantly more evident when it comes to premarital sexual relations - which are less uniformly condemned across various faith traditions - than with extramarital or homosexual relations - which at least until the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson in the Episcopal Church last summer, were more uniformly condemned across various faith traditions.