tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/religion-and-health-2083/articlesReligion and health – The Conversation2024-03-01T13:33:52Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189922024-03-01T13:33:52Z2024-03-01T13:33:52ZThe tools in a medieval Japanese healer’s toolkit: from fortunetelling and exorcism to herbal medicines<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578362/original/file-20240227-20-ng0qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C979%2C466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An 'onmyoji,' an expert on yin and yang, performs divination with counting rods in an Edo-period illustration.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tamamonomae_Onmyoji.jpg">Kyoto University Library/Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“The Tale of Genji,” often called <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/530271/the-tale-of-genji-by-murasaki-shikibu/">Japan’s first novel</a>, was written 1,000 years ago. Yet it still occupies a powerful place in the Japanese imagination. A popular TV drama, “Dear Radiance” – “<a href="https://www.nhk.jp/p/hikarukimie/ts/1YM111N6KW/">Hikaru kimi e</a>” – is based on the life of its author, Murasaki Shikibu: the lady-in-waiting whose experiences at court inspired the refined world of “Genji.”</p>
<p>Romantic relationships, poetry and political intrigue provide most of the novel’s action. Yet illness plays an important role in several crucial moments, most famously when one of the main character’s lovers, Yūgao, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/66057/pg66057-images.html#page_92">falls ill and passes away</a>, killed by what appears to be a powerful spirit – as later happens <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/66057/pg66057-images.html#page_250">to his wife, Aoi</a>, as well.</p>
<p>Someone reading “The Tale of Genji” at the time it was written would have found this realistic – as would some people in different cultures around the world today. Records from early medieval Japan document numerous descriptions <a href="https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-46cs-wq63">of spirit possession</a>, usually blamed on spirits of the dead. As has been true in many times and places, physical and spiritual health were seen as intertwined.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://ealc.wustl.edu/people/alessandro-poletto">a historian of premodern Japan</a>, I’ve studied the processes its healing experts used to deal with possessions, and illness generally. Both literature and historical records demonstrate that the boundaries between what are often called “religion” and “medicine” were indistinct, if they existed at all.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An intricate illustration of a ceremony attended by people in robes, with the background covered in a golden color." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 17th-century scroll, ‘Maboroshi no Genji monogatari emaki,’ showing the funeral of Genji’s wife, Aoi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/leaves-of-wild-ginger-from-the-phantom-genji-scrolls-mid-news-photo/1206222207?adppopup=true">Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Vanquishing spirits</h2>
<p>The government department in charge of divination, the Bureau of Yin and Yang, established in the late seventh century, played a crucial role. Its technicians, known as <a href="https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/journal/6/issue/186">onmyōji</a> – yin and yang masters – were in charge of divination and fortunetelling. They were also responsible for observing the skies, interpreting omens, calendrical calculations, timekeeping and eventually a variety of rituals.</p>
<p>Today, onmyōji appear as wizardlike figures in <a href="https://books.bunshun.jp/sp/onmyoji">novels</a>, <a href="https://www.viz.com/twin-star-exorcists">manga</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEiZuDTEq6A">anime</a> and <a href="https://en.onmyojigame.com/">video games</a>. Though heavily fictionalized, there is a historical kernel of truth in these fantastical depictions.</p>
<p>Starting from around the 10th century, Onmyōji were charged with carrying out iatromancy: divining the cause of a disease. Generally, they distinguished between disease caused by external or internal factors, though boundaries between the categories were often blurred. External factors could include local deities known as “kami,” other kami-like entities the patient had upset, minor Buddhist deities or malicious spirits – often revengeful ghosts. </p>
<p>In the case of spirit-induced illness, Buddhist monks would work to winnow out the culprit. Monks who specialized in exorcistic practices were known as “genja” and were believed to know how to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300922/the-pillow-book-by-sei-shonagon">expel the spirit from a patient’s body</a> through powerful incantations. Genja would then transfer it onto another person and force the spirit to reveal its identity before vanquishing it.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A faded picture of a broom, branch with a few leaves, and a fan, as well as Japanese script on top of it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 19th century print by Kubo Shunman shows objects representing the New Year’s ceremony of exorcising demons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/objects-representing-the-ceremony-of-exorcising-demons-one-news-photo/1338629689?adppopup=true">Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Court physicians</h2>
<p>While less common than spirit possessions, the idea that physical factors could also cause illness appears in sources from this period. </p>
<p>Since the late seventh century, the government of the Japanese archipelago had established a bureau in charge of the well-being of aristocratic families and high-ranking members of the state bureaucracy. This <a href="https://rekihaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2657">Bureau of Medications</a>, the Ten’yakuryō, was based on similar systems in China’s Tang dynasty, <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/3414658">which Japanese officials</a> adapted for their own culture.</p>
<p>The bureau’s members, whom scholars today often call “court physicians” in English, created medicinal concoctions. But the bureau also included technicians tasked with using spells, perhaps to protect high-ranking people from maladies.</p>
<h2>Not either/or</h2>
<p>Some scholars, both Japanese and non-Japanese, compare the practices of members of the Bureau of Medications with what is now called “traditional Chinese medicine,” or just “medicine.” They typically consider the onmyōji and Buddhist monks, meanwhile, to fall under the label of “religion” – or perhaps, <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/7306973">in the case of onmyōji, “magic</a>.”</p>
<p>But I have found numerous signs that these categories do not help people today make sense of early medieval Japan.</p>
<p>Starting in the seventh century, as a centralized Japanese state began to take shape, Buddhist monks from the Korean Peninsula and present-day China brought healing practices to Japan. These techniques, such as herbalism – treatments made of plants – later became associated with court physicians. At the same time, though, monks also employed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.980">healing practices rooted in Buddhist rituals</a>. Clearly, <a href="https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-46cs-wq63">the distinction between ritual and physical healing</a> was not part of their mindset.</p>
<p>Similarly, with court physicians, it is true that sources from this period mostly show them <a href="https://rekihaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2657">practicing herbalism</a>. Later on, they incorporated simple needle surgeries and moxibustion, which involves burning a substance derived from dried leaves from the mugwort plant near the patient’s skin.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A drawing showing the outline of the human body from behind and in front, with one arm outstretched, and Chinese characters written on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th-century engraving identifying parts of the body treated by moxibustion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/engraving-of-the-meridian-points-on-the-human-body-which-news-photo/90731089?adppopup=true">Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>However, they also incorporated ritual elements from various Chinese traditions: spells, divination, fortunetelling and hemerology, the practice of identifying auspicious and inauspicious days for specific events. For example, moxibustion was supposed to be avoided on certain days because of the position of a deity, <a href="https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1520853832664346880">known as “jinshin</a>,” believed to reside and move inside the human body. Practicing moxibustion on the body part where “jinshin” resided in a specific moment could kill it, therefore potentially harming the patient. </p>
<p>Court physicians were also expected to ritually “rent” a place for a pregnant woman to deliver, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12110907">producing talismans</a> written in red ink that were meant to function as “leases” for the birthing area. This was done in order to keep away deities who might otherwise enter that space, possibly because childbirth was believed to be a source of defilement. They also used hemerology to determine where the birthing bed should be placed.</p>
<p>In short, these healing experts straddled the boundaries between what are often called “religion” and “medicine.” We take for granted the categories that shape our understanding of the world around us, but they are the result of complex historical processes – and look different in every time and place.</p>
<p>Reading works like “The Tale of Genji” is not only a way to immerse ourselves in the world of a medieval court, one where spirits roam freely, but a chance to see other ways of sorting human experience at work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218992/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandro Poletto does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In medieval Japan, healing might mean taking medicine, undergoing an exorcism or sidestepping harm in the first place by avoiding inauspicious days.Alessandro Poletto, Lecturer in East Asian Religions, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2137022023-11-02T12:33:22Z2023-11-02T12:33:22ZModern medicine has its scientific roots in the Middle Ages − how the logic of vulture brain remedies and bloodletting lives on today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556715/original/file-20231030-17-ssa8rd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6022%2C4092&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This 15th-century medical manuscript shows different colors of urine alongside the ailments they signify.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/curious-medieval-medicine#group-section-Urine-flasks-Ev4T29vMqZ">Cambridge University Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nothing calls to mind nonsensical treatments and bizarre religious healing rituals as easily as the notion of Dark Age medicine. The “Saturday Night Live” sketch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edIi6hYpUoQ">Medieval Barber Theodoric of York</a> says it all with its portrayal of a quack doctor who insists on extracting pints of his patients’ blood in a dirty little shop. </p>
<p>Though the skit relies on dubious stereotypes, it’s true that many cures from the Middle Ages sound utterly ridiculous – consider <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2853665">a list</a> written around 800 C.E. of remedies derived from a decapitated vulture. Mixing its brain with oil and inserting that into the nose was thought to cure head pain, and wrapping its heart in wolf skin served as an amulet against demonic possession.</p>
<p>“Dark Age medicine” is a useful narrative when it comes to ingrained beliefs about medical progress. It is a period that stands as the abyss from which more enlightened thinkers freed themselves. But <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkp052">recent research</a> pushes back against the depiction of the early Middle Ages as ignorant and superstitious, arguing that there is a consistency and rationality to healing practices at that time.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/history/faculty/profile.html?id=megleja">historian of the early Middle Ages</a>, roughly 400 to 1000 C.E., I make sense of how the societies that produced vulture medicine envisioned it as one component of a much broader array of legitimate therapies. In order to recognize “progress” in Dark Age medicine, it is essential to see the broader patterns that led a medieval scribe to copy out a set of recipes using vulture organs. </p>
<p>The major innovation of the age was the articulation of a medical philosophy that validated manipulating the physical world because it was a religious duty to rationally guard the body’s health.</p>
<h2>Reason and religion</h2>
<p>The names of classical medical innovators like <a href="https://www.bl.uk/medieval-english-french-manuscripts/articles/medical-knowledge-in-the-early-medieval-period">Hippocrates and Galen</a> were well known in the early Middle Ages, but few of their texts were in circulation prior to the 13th century. Most intellectual activities in northern Europe were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107323742.023">taking place within monasteries</a>, where the majority of surviving medical writings from that time were written, read, discussed and likely put into practice. Scholars have assumed that religious superstition overwhelmed scientific impulse and the church dictated what constituted legitimate healing – namely, prayer, anointing with holy oil, miracles of the saints and penance for sin. </p>
<p>However, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/tdo.2020.4">human medicine</a>” – a term affirming human agency in discovering remedies from nature – emerged in the Dark Ages. It appears again and again in a text monks at the monastery of Lorsch, Germany, wrote around the year 800 to defend ancient Greek medical learning. It insists that Hippocratic medicine was mandated by God and that doctors act as divine agents in promoting health. I argue in my recent book, “<a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9780812253894/embodying-the-soul/">Embodying the Soul: Medicine and Religion in Carolingian Europe</a>,” that a major innovation of that time was the creative synthesis of Christian orthodoxy with a growing belief in the importance of preventing disease.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556716/original/file-20231030-21-ppngib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Medieval manuscript page with an illustration of a robed physician on the left column of the page and a cross on the right column." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556716/original/file-20231030-21-ppngib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556716/original/file-20231030-21-ppngib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556716/original/file-20231030-21-ppngib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556716/original/file-20231030-21-ppngib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556716/original/file-20231030-21-ppngib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556716/original/file-20231030-21-ppngib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556716/original/file-20231030-21-ppngib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This ninth-century manuscript juxtaposes a physician with Christ’s cross.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://portail.biblissima.fr/en/ark:/43093/ifdatac55003a71476025ab60b3182cddfa4bc3288658f">Bibliothèque nationale de France</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Establishing an intellectual framework for medical study was an accomplishment of early medieval scholars. Doctors faced the risk of being lumped together with those who dealt in sorcery and pagan folklore, a real possibility given that the men who composed the Greek medical canon were pagans themselves. The early medieval scribes responsible for producing the medical books of their age crafted powerful arguments about the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/51.4.438">respectability and piety</a> of the doctor. Their arguments manifest in <a href="https://portail.biblissima.fr/en/ark:/43093/ifdatac55003a71476025ab60b3182cddfa4bc3288658f">illustrations that sanctified the human doctor</a> by setting him parallel to Christ.</p>
<p>This sanctification was a crucial step in including medicine as its own <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511599507.014">advanced degree program</a> at the first universities that were established around 1200 in Europe. Thus began the licensing of healers: the elite “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44443265">phisici</a>” – the root of the English word “physician” – trained at the university, along with empirical practitioners like surgeons, herbalists and <a href="https://doi.org/10.17077/1536-8742.1057">female healers</a> who claimed a unique authority to treat gynecological illnesses.</p>
<p>Today, religious dogmatism is often equated with <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/insights-on-vaccine-hesitancy-from-religious-people-s-view-of-science">vaccine hesitancy</a> and resistance to basic scientific truths <a href="https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1090909-1,00.html">like evolution</a>. But deeply religious thinkers of the past often saw rational medicine as an expression of faith, not something endangering it. Herbal remedies were <a href="https://www.earlymedievalmedicine.com/project-updates#h.k44h7eurfg88">scribbled into the margins</a> of early medieval works on theology, history, church sacraments and more. This suggests that book owners valued such knowledge, and people of all classes were actively exchanging recipes and cures by word of mouth before writing the most useful ones down. </p>
<h2>The body in nature</h2>
<p>Though the Dark Ages is a period from which no case histories survive, we can still form a picture of an average healing encounter. Texts from that period emphasize the need for the doctor <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44443671">to be highly learned</a>, including being well read in philosophy, logic, arithmetic and astronomy. Such knowledge enabled healers to situate their observations of sick bodies within the rules that governed the constant transformations of nature.</p>
<p>There was no way to perceive the internal state of the body via technology – instead, healers had to be excellent <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44444831">listeners and observers</a>. They sought to match the patient’s description of suffering with signs that manifested externally on the body. The inside of the flesh could not be seen, but the fluids the body excreted – sweat, urine, menstrual blood, mucus, vomit and feces – carried messages about that invisible realm to the outside. The doctor’s diagnosis and prognosis relied on reading these “excreta” in addition to sensing subtle changes in the pulse.</p>
<p>Medieval people were detailed investigators of the natural world and believed the same forces that shaped the landscape and the stars operated inside bodies formed from the same four elements of earth, water, air and fire. Thus, as the <a href="https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/ms-17/folio.php?p=1v&showitem=1v_1MedicineI_3Bloodletting1#note06">moon’s waxing and waning</a> moved the ocean tides, so did it cause humors inside the body to grow and decrease. </p>
<p>The way the seasons withered crops or <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44445287">provoked tree sap to flow</a> might manifest in the body as yellow bile surging in the summer, and cold, wet phlegm dripping in the winter. Just as fruit and meats left untouched began to rot and putrefy, so did dregs and undigested material inside the body <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120306142353/https:/prospectbooks.co.uk/books/978-1-903018-52-1">turn poisonous if not expelled</a>. Standing water in ponds or lakes generated slime and smell, and so were liquids sitting stagnant in the body’s vessels seen as breeding grounds for corrupt vapors. </p>
<p>In this sense, the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/255044/pdf">menstrual cycle</a> was representative of all bodies, undergoing internal transformations according to seasonal cycles and periodically purged in order to release pent-up fluids.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Bloodletting is currently used as a treatment only for very specific blood disorders.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to this logic, health depended above all on maintaining the body’s relationship to the physical environment and ensuring that substances were passing through their proper transformations, whether it was food turning into humors, blood disseminating throughout the body, or excess fluids and wastes leaving the body. Bloodletting was a rational therapy because it could help rebalance the fluids and remove toxins. It was visible and tangible to the patient, and, to the extent that we now better understand the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-research-studies-and-in-real-life-placebos-have-a-powerful-healing-effect-on-the-body-and-mind-173845">placebo effect</a>, it may well have offered some kind of relief. </p>
<p>Fasting, purging, tonics and, above all, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110336337-009">monthly dietary regimens</a> were also prominent tools healers used to prevent and relieve sickness. Several medical books, for instance, specified that consuming drinks with cinnamon in November and pennyroyal in August could recalibrate the body’s temperature in winter and summer because one drink was warming while the other was cooling.</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/centuries-old-potion-made-bile-garlic-stop-mrsa#">medieval remedies</a> – such as one produced from wine, cow bile, garlic and onion to heal eye infections – were later proven to be likely effective in treating sickness. But whether these remedies worked isn’t the point. For medieval doctors, vulture brains and cow bile operated according to the same logic that continues to inform research today: Nature operates in mysterious ways, but rational deduction can unlock the hidden mechanisms of disease. The M.D. has direct roots in the Dark Age elevation of “human medicine.”</p>
<p>Before mocking medieval doctors, consider how popular <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/01/11/are-detox-juice-cleanses-necessary/">juice cleanses and detox regimens</a> are in the 21st century. Are we really so far from humoral medicine today?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213702/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meg Leja does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Your doctor’s MD emerged from the Dark Ages, where practicing rational “human medicine” was seen as an expression of faith and maintaining one’s health a religious duty.Meg Leja, Associate Professor of History, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1822112022-06-01T12:08:19Z2022-06-01T12:08:19ZHow the role and visibility of chaplains changed over the past century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465106/original/file-20220524-18-nz47c0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C49%2C5548%2C3637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A chaplain prays for a COVID-19 patient in Los Angeles while on a video call with the patient's daughter in November 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXVirusOutbreakCalifornia/d120b3fd64064c77b02ec1c3bd5b9a5d/photo?Query=chaplains%20%20covid&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=76&currentItemNo=35">AP Photo/Jae C. Hong</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic brought new attention to the work of chaplains.</p>
<p>Before the pandemic, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/opinion/coronavirus-hospitals-chaplains.html">as an article in The New York Times put it</a>, the place of the hospital chaplain was “at the bedside, holding a patient’s hand, counseling them and their family members, singing with them, crying with them, hugging them, offering the eucharist, or a prayer for healing.” </p>
<p>As the pandemic unfolded, the work of chaplains – increasingly called spiritual care providers – changed. Some were declared essential employees and continued to work in person, but they were not allowed into rooms with COVID-19 patients. They <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2020-04-22/coronavirus-shifts-spiritual-care-for-hospital-chaplains">offered words</a> of encouragement and solace through baby monitors and posters taped to patients’ doors. </p>
<p>COVID-19 also shifted the work of hospital chaplains from focusing primarily on patients to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/26/us/hospital-chaplains-coronavirus/index.html">bridging the gap</a> between dying patients and their distanced family members. Many helped family members at home <a href="https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/06/19/covid-19-chaplain-dying-alone-bridget-power">connect to hospitalized loved ones</a> by phone, FaceTime, Zoom and other technologies. Some chaplains started <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/hospital-chaplain-finds-unique-strategy-combat-covid-fatigue/story?id=84669638">rolling carts</a> of treats and pick-me-ups for hospital staff to promote self-care and prevent burnout. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08854726.2020.1822081">national survey</a> conducted in 2019 found that 21% of the American public had contact with a chaplain in the past two years. Of those encounters, 57% took place in a health care setting. Other encounters happened in places like the military, higher education, and more. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/sociology/people/faculty/cadge.html">scholars</a> of <a href="https://chaplaincyinnovation.org/team/michael-skaggs-phd">American religion and spirituality</a>, we know that <a href="https://chaplaincyinnovation.org/this-chaplain">chaplains</a> have long histories in health care organizations and have been visible over time to varying degrees. </p>
<h2>The origins of modern spiritual care</h2>
<p>Chaplaincy emerged as a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30102128/">professional field</a> in the mid-20th century out of Protestant efforts to reform theological education. Concerned about the growing influence of psychology and psychiatry in matters previously understood only as spiritual, Protestant theological leaders in the 1920s sought to get students out of classrooms and into real-life situations where they would learn to respond to the challenges and struggles people face in their daily lives. </p>
<p>In hospital settings <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo13963369.html">before the 1920s</a>, chaplains were retired or volunteer clergy with no special training. They visited patients in their own religious traditions alongside other volunteers. Religiously founded hospitals also frequently had priests, ministers or rabbis in service, reflecting the hospital’s religious affiliation. </p>
<p>Many nurses offered religious support at the bedside, rooted in their own religious commitments. In the mid-19th century, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1729vkn">Florence Nightingale</a>, who rose to prominence from her service to soldiers in the Crimean War, saw both to patients’ spiritual and physical needs.</p>
<h2>Training in the field</h2>
<p>As theological educators worked to reform Protestant theological education in the 1920s, they formalized <a href="https://acpe.edu/">Clinical Pastoral Education</a>, or CPE. Initially pioneered by a leading chaplain, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Head_and_Heart.html?id=B8smAQAACAAJ">Anton Boisen</a>, and supported by <a href="http://history.massgeneral.org/catalog/Detail.aspx?itemId=53&searchFor=cabot">Richard Cabot</a>, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, CPE students completed internships in hospitals that supplemented their classroom training. Boisen viewed patients as “living human documents” from which to learn.
CPE students in later years wrote “verbatims,” or reports of conversations they had with patients.</p>
<p>While most people who completed units of CPE did not go on to become chaplains, a few did. By the 1940s, those who wanted to work in hospitals based on their CPE training started to organize themselves as a distinct professional group. </p>
<p>Unlike retired clergy, who mostly made short visits and offered rituals, CPE-trained clergy worked from referrals and connections with hospital staff, made care plans based on the severity of a patient’s illness, documented their visits and were accountable to someone within the hospital.</p>
<p>Data collected by the American Hospital Association suggested that <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo13963369.html">two-thirds of American hospitals had a chaplain by the mid-1950s</a>, though it is not clear how many were CPE-trained. </p>
<p>The development of chaplaincy as a profession distinct from that of local clergy was also supported by the extensive work of <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674972155">military chaplains</a> on the front lines during World War II and their subsequent memorialization in American public life, such as <a href="https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Monuments-and-Memorials/Chaplains-Hill">Chaplains Hill at Arlington National Cemetery</a>. </p>
<p>Chaplains in military settings rose to such prominence in the American mind that one who served in the Korean War, Emil Kapaun, is now being considered for sainthood in the Catholic Church for his service to fellow prisoners of war. The priest died in the Pyoktong POW camp in May 1951.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465109/original/file-20220524-19-fuulbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man standing in front of a crucifix reading the Bible." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465109/original/file-20220524-19-fuulbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465109/original/file-20220524-19-fuulbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465109/original/file-20220524-19-fuulbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465109/original/file-20220524-19-fuulbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465109/original/file-20220524-19-fuulbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465109/original/file-20220524-19-fuulbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465109/original/file-20220524-19-fuulbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Air Force Chaplain Stephan Borlang reads his Bible in a makeshift chapel in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1992.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SomaliaCivilWar1992UNPeacekeepingForcesUSAirForce/034154e8fe584adaace10a2c6b384f3c/photo?Query=chaplains%20%20&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1339&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Lynne Sladky</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Initially chaplains were almost all white Protestant men, but the demographics changed slowly through the 20th century. The <a href="https://www.nacc.org/">National Association of Catholic Chaplains</a> was founded in 1965 and the <a href="https://najc.org">National Association of Jewish Chaplains</a>, now known as Neshama, in 1990. Growing numbers of women and <a href="https://chaplaincyinnovation.org/resources/working-papers/black-chaplains">people of color</a> began to enter the field toward the end of the 20th century, and more health care providers began to pay attention to the role of religion and spirituality in patients’ experiences. </p>
<p>About <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo13963369.html">two-thirds</a> of hospitals have chaplains today, which include growing numbers of Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and other non-Christian chaplains. In the 1990s, theological schools began to develop specific <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11089-020-00906-5">degree programs</a> in chaplaincy and spiritual care, rather than expecting chaplains to train for congregational service and then figure out on their own how to apply their training to other settings.</p>
<p>More than a <a href="https://chaplaincyinnovation.org/training-credentials/education">quarter</a> of theological or rabbinical schools currently have such programs, with some designed specifically for <a href="https://www.shin-ibs.edu/">Buddhists</a>, <a href="https://www.hartfordinternational.edu/interreligious-peace-studies-programs/degree-programs/ma-chaplaincy/islamic-chaplaincy-pathway">Muslims</a> and people from other non-Christian religious backgrounds. </p>
<p><a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469667607/chaplaincy-and-spiritual-care-in-the-twenty-first-century/">All chaplains today</a> need basic training in caring for people that includes understanding how individuals make meaning, the interpersonal skills necessary to care for people from different backgrounds, and navigating the complexity of organizations in which they work. </p>
<h2>What chaplains really do</h2>
<p>Health care chaplains talk a lot about <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo8268248.html">presence</a> when describing their work, which is increasingly based on the results of empirical research. Presence means everything from casual conversation with patients and families to mediating conflicts between patients, families and care teams. It can also mean offering prayer or other explicitly religious service, and listening to patients’ deepest fears, religious or otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.transformchaplaincy.org/">Research</a> about the effects of chaplains’ work has <a href="https://us.jkp.com/products/evidencebased-healthcare-chaplaincy?_pos=4&_sid=5673d1fb7&_ss=r">expanded significantly</a> in recent years and shows that individuals who are visited by chaplains are more satisfied with their hospital stays and often have improved outcomes. </p>
<p>Many chaplains reported serving expanding roles during the pandemic and having found increased visibility among hospital staff. Some noted a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-15/a-chaplain-reflects-on-lives-lost-to">greater sense of appreciation and knowledge</a> among staff of what chaplains do. Chaplains aim to <a href="https://chaplaincyinnovation.org/2021/04/mayo-news">continue</a> care of hospital staff through educational programs, among others. </p>
<p>As religious demographics continue to shift in the United States and growing numbers of people are not religiously affiliated, the work of health care chaplains will continue to change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Cadge receives funding from The Fetzer Institute, the Templeton Religion Trust, and the Henry Luce Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation. She is the founder of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Skaggs receives receives funding from The Fetzer Institute, the Templeton Religion Trust, and the Henry Luce Foundation, The John Templeton Foundation, and ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care and Education. He is a co-founder and Director of Programs of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab.</span></em></p>Chaplaincy emerged as a professional field in the mid-20th century. In the years since, their roles have evolved and they have also come to include many diverse religious traditions.Wendy Cadge, Professor of Sociology and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Brandeis UniversityMichael Skaggs, Director of Programs, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1804892022-05-06T20:50:46Z2022-05-06T20:50:46ZThe Catholic saint who dedicated his life to a leprosy colony in Hawaii – and became an inspiration for HIV/AIDS care<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461138/original/file-20220504-20-mhvgtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C21%2C976%2C659&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The headstone of Father Damien, a Catholic saint who was canonized in 2009.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/news-photo/1081384530?adppopup=true">Richard A. Cooke III/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Jan. 3, 1865, the Kingdom of Hawaii, then a sovereign state, <a href="https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2021/bills/SB697_CD1_.HTM">enacted “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy</a>.” Any person suspected of having the ancient disease – which is mentioned <a href="https://theconversation.com/quarantines-have-tried-to-keep-out-disease-for-thousands-of-years-130680">as far back as the Bible</a> – would be inspected and, if deemed incurable, permanently exiled to a peninsula on the island of Molokai.</p>
<p>More than 8,000 people with leprosy fell victim to this policy of permanent segregation over the next century. Native Hawaiians renamed leprosy “ma'i ho'oka'awale ‘ohana”: <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-separating-sickness-mai-hookaawale-ted-gugelyk/1114591870">the sickness that separates family</a>. Surrounded by steep cliffs and treacherous ocean, the peninsula served as a natural prison and soon gathered a reputation as a de facto death sentence.</p>
<p>But in the Catholic Church, May 10 commemorates the day one man moved to Molokai willingly: Father Damien. Born <a href="https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/2009/ns_lit_doc_20091011_de-veuster_en.html">Jozef De Veuster</a> in Belgium, he came to Hawaii as a young Catholic missionary and spent the last 16 years of his life <a href="https://www.nps.gov/kala/learn/historyculture/damien.htm">voluntarily living in the leprosy colony</a>, before contracting the disease himself and dying in 1889.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20091011_canonizzazioni.html">Canonized as a saint</a> in 2009, Father Damien was designated the patron saint of people with leprosy, or Hansen’s disease.</p>
<p><a href="https://divinity.uchicago.edu/directory/mark-lambert-1">My research</a> focuses on how Christian theology views socially stigmatized diseases, such as leprosy. Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the 1980s, Damien has also become linked with the virus and inspired many Catholic groups that care for patients. His legacy
illustrates the church’s complicated, often harmful views on HIV/AIDS – but has also helped people see those who suffer from stigmatized diseases with more agency and dignity.</p>
<h2>Joining the community</h2>
<p>Damien <a href="https://www.damien-hs.edu/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2177609&type=d&pREC_ID=2182501#:%7E:text=I%20">landed at Molokai</a> on May 10, 1873. In a now famous letter to his brother, he wrote that he would make himself “a leper with lepers,” to “gain all to Christ.”</p>
<p>For over 2,000 years, “care” for people with leprosy has often been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/344062">reduced to segregation</a>. This was the case <a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/kalaupapa-a-collective-memory/">in Hawaii</a>, where the Board of Health offered bounties to those who turned in suspected patients. The widespread belief that leprosy was an advanced stage of syphilis added an air of moral condemnation to the policy.</p>
<p>According to accounts such as “<a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/kalaupapa-a-collective-memory/">Kaluapapa: A Collective Memory</a>,” which documents residents’ experiences in the colony, Damien employed his carpentry skills to build two chapels, new shelters for the residents, and a multitude of coffins. He provided rudimentary medical care, secured a fresh water supply, and established an orphanage. At a time when fear of being near people with leprosy was the norm, the priest also ate with residents from the same pot, and shared his pipe with them.</p>
<p>By the beginning of 1885, Damien began to show signs of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824865801-017">having contracted leprosy</a>, and in 1886 the priest formally became known as Admission #2886 to the settlements. Three years later, he succumbed to the disease. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white photograph shows a small group gathered in front of a church in front of a misty mountain." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Father Damien stands with patients outside his church on Molokai Island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/father-damien-stands-with-patients-outside-his-church-on-news-photo/615231942?adppopup=true">Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Patron saint</h2>
<p>Damien’s ministry garnered an international audience, elevating him to something of a celebrity, and his death prompted an immediate response. The future king of England, Edward VII, <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-spirit-of-father-damien-jan-de-volder/1123972273?ean=9781586174873">proposed</a> to erect a monument to Damien on Molokai, to establish a ward devoted to leprosy in a London medical institution and to fund research on leprosy in India. Damien’s example inspired the creation of several other organizations devoted to the study and treatment of leprosy, from <a href="https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/222066044">the U.S.</a> and <a href="https://damiaanactie.be">Belgium</a> to Congo and Korea.</p>
<p>In 1967, the French journalist and humanitarian Raoul Follereau presented the pope with <a href="http://fides.org/en/news/23980-EUROPE_FRANCE_Raoul_Follereau_Foundation_rejoices_at_the_canonization_of_Belgian_missionary_Fr_Damien_De_Veuster_Apostle_of_the_Lepers">a petition</a> signed by almost 33,000 leprosy patients, calling for the beatification of Father Damien. In 1977, Pope Paul VI declared Damien “venerable,” the first <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-becomes-a-saint-in-the-catholic-church-and-is-that-changing-81011">step toward canonization</a> – which eventually occurred <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20091011_canonizzazioni.html">in 2009</a>, under Pope Benedict XVI.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three women wearing flowers in their hair and dressed in yellow smile at the camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hawaiian pilgrims attend a 2009 ceremony at the Vatican to canonize five new saints, including Father Damien.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hawaian-pilgrims-attend-pope-benedict-xvis-a-new-saints-news-photo/527601302?adppopup=true">Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From leprosy to HIV/AIDS</h2>
<p>But how did <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/father-damien-aid-to-lepers-now-a-saint/">the patron saint of people living with leprosy</a> become, informally, a patron saint of people living with HIV and AIDS? Given the Catholic Church’s traditional stances against homosexuality, condoms and extramarital sex, the notion can seem paradoxical.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/28/magazine/when-fear-conquers-a-doctor-learns-about-aids-from-leprosy.html">Comparisons between the two diseases</a> were made from the early days of the AIDS crisis: Both were considered mysterious and frightening and severely stigmatized, with sufferers often viewed as “dirty” or “sinful.” Many caregivers were afraid to even touch AIDS patients. </p>
<p>Invoking Father Damien’s example became a way for religious organizations to legitimize their HIV/AIDS outreach in the eyes of the church and to emphasize their concern for patients’ social stigma – even if the Catholic Church itself was helping to perpetrate that stigma, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/12/01/783932572/how-the-catholic-church-aided-both-the-sick-and-the-sickness-as-hiv-spread">arguably the disease itself</a>.</p>
<p>In 2003, for example, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_20031201_family-values-safe-sex-trujillo_en.html">wrote that</a> “the use of condoms goes against human dignity. Condoms change the beautiful act of love into a selfish search for pleasure – while rejecting responsibility. Condoms do not guarantee protection against HIV/AIDS. Condoms may even be one of the main reasons for the spread of HIV/AIDS.”</p>
<p>Even in 2009, the year Damien was canonized, Pope Benedict <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60627-9">remarked</a> that the AIDS epidemic “cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms; on the contrary, they increase it” – an attitude out of touch with <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/06/19/Poll-says-Catholics-support-female-priest/8826708926400/">most U.S. Catholics’ views</a>, not to mention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/hiv-prevention/condoms.html">medical science</a>. The pope’s statement provoked <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2011.02.007">such outrage</a> that the Belgian Parliament even <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/belgium-condemns-pope-over-condom-issue-bk3kzgzbnrb">condemned it</a>.</p>
<p>But many in the Catholic Church <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/after-the-wrath-of-god-assistant-professor-of-religion-and-womens-gender-and-sexuality-studies-anthony-m-petro/1132140644?ean=9780190064778">responded to the AIDS crisis</a> with empathy. In 1985, for example – just a few years after the disease <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2021/06/420686/40-years-aids-timeline-epidemic">had been identified</a> – the New York Archdiocese <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/22/nyregion/aids-helps-rescue-ailing-hospital.html">opened a treatment facility</a> at St. Clare’s Hospital, the state’s first specialized AIDS unit.</p>
<p>A number of ministries turned to Father Damien as inspiration for AIDS-related work, years before the church officially made him a saint. Likely the oldest is <a href="https://damienministries.org/">Damien Ministries</a>, founded in 1987 “to serve the poorest of the poor living with HIV and AIDS, as inspired by the life of the Blessed Father Damien.” The Washington, D.C.-based ministry adopted a solidarity approach modeled after Damien’s ministry on Molokai, citing parallels between leprosy and HIV/AIDS.</p>
<p>Other Damien-inspired organizations include the <a href="http://www.albanydamiencenter.org/our-history.html">Albany Damien Center</a>, <a href="https://damien.org/about/our-history">the Damien Center of Indiana</a> – founded as a collaboration between Catholics and Episcopalians – and <a href="https://saintdamienhospital.nph.org/history/">St. Damien Hospital in Haiti</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A tapestry with a colored border depicts a portrait of Father Damien, wearing a hat and glasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tapestry depicting Father Damien, born Jozef De Veuster, hangs from the St. Peter Basilica facade during a canonization ceremony at the Vatican.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HIYEYearender/81db85f170ae4bbc9579419ffd9ee866/photo?Query=father%20damien&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=16&currentItemNo=9">AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Damien serves as what <a href="https://history.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/affiliated-faculty/robert-orsi.html">religion historian Robert Orsi</a> calls an “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691127767/between-heaven-and-earth">articulatory pivot point</a>”: a way people – HIV/AIDS patients, in this case – can use their faith to reshape their experience and gain agency, even as that same religion stigmatizes them as powerless “others.”</p>
<p>As a canonized saint, Damien is embraced by the highest levels of the church. Yet as a man who embraced those the rest of society had rejected, joining them and even dying for them, he also represents people at the margins.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark M. Lambert does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Father Damien’s legacy has inspired health providers and humanitarians for over a century.Mark M. Lambert, Teaching Fellow, University of ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1771932022-04-11T12:09:52Z2022-04-11T12:09:52ZPenance and plague: How the Black Death changed one of Christianity’s most important rituals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456189/original/file-20220404-15-nwkbnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C4%2C1008%2C623&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Confession, circa 1460/1470. Artist unknown.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/confession-1460-1470-artist-unknown-news-photo/1314769661?adppopup=true">Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 14th century is known for catastrophe. By midcentury, the first wave of plague spread through a Europe already weakened by successive <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691058917/the-great-famine">famines</a> and the <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/1862.html">Hundred Years War</a> between England and France. And crises just kept coming. After the first wave, which has come to be called the <a href="https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/tmg/vol1/iss1/">Black Death</a>, the disease returned at least four more times before 1400. All the while, fresh conflicts kept erupting, fueled in part by <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-ae/Medieval+Mercenaries%2C+Volume+I%2C+The+Great+Companies-p-9780631158868">the rising number</a> of soldiers available for hire.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/nambeau/">a medieval historian</a>, I study ways that community leaders used Catholic practices and institutions to respond to war and plague. But amid the uncertainty of the 14th century, some Catholic institutions stopped working the way they were supposed to, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300108286/stripping-altars">fueling frustration</a>. In particular, the unrelenting crises prompted anxiety about the sacrament of penance, often referred to as “confession.”</p>
<p>This uncertainty helped spark critics like <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-reformations-500th-anniversary-remembering-martin-luthers-contribution-to-literacy-77540">Martin Luther</a> to ultimately <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lasting-impact-of-luthers-reformation-4-essential-reads-105953">break from</a> the Catholic Church.</p>
<h2>Saints and sacraments</h2>
<p>During this era, European Christians experienced their faith predominantly through saints and sacraments.</p>
<p>In art, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691169682/why-can-the-dead-do-such-great-things">saints</a> were depicted as standing near God’s throne or even speaking into his ear, illustrating their special relationships with him. Pious Christians considered saints active members of their communities who could help God hear their prayers for <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/V/bo3622188.html">healing and protection</a>. Throughout Europe, saints’ feast days were celebrated with processions, displays of candles, <a href="https://broadviewpress.com/product/the-york-corpus-christi-play-selected-pageants/#tab-description">and even street theater</a>.</p>
<p>Fourteenth-century Christians also experienced their faith through Catholicism’s most important rituals, the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Medieval_Church/8FtcAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=the+medieval+church&printsec=frontcover">seven sacraments</a>. Some occurred <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Medieval-Church-A-Brief-History/Lynch/p/book/9780582772984">once in most people’s lives</a>, including baptism, confirmation, marriage and <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/1438sacraments.asp">extreme unction</a> – a set of rituals for people who are near death.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A medieval manuscript with colorful illustrations depicts rites for people who are dying." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457016/original/file-20220407-24242-o5bt9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457016/original/file-20220407-24242-o5bt9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457016/original/file-20220407-24242-o5bt9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457016/original/file-20220407-24242-o5bt9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457016/original/file-20220407-24242-o5bt9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457016/original/file-20220407-24242-o5bt9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457016/original/file-20220407-24242-o5bt9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 15th-century manuscript depicts deathbed scenes: doctor’s visit; confession; Communion; extreme unction; and burial. From the Bedford Hours of John, Duke of Bedford.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hours-of-the-dead-1414-1423-vignettes-representing-deathbed-news-photo/463979445?adppopup=true">British Museum/Print Collector/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There were two sacraments, however, that Catholics could experience multiple times. The first was the Eucharist, also known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-communion-matters-in-catholic-life-and-what-it-means-to-be-denied-the-eucharist-163560#:%7E:text=One%20of%20the%20seven%20sacraments,and%20divinity%20of%20Jesus%20Christ.">Holy Communion</a> – the reenactment of Christ’s Last Supper with his apostles before his crucifixion. The second was penance.</p>
<p>Catholic doctrine taught that priests’ prayers over bread and wine <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900016419">turned those substances into the body and blood of Christ</a>, and that this sacrament creates communion between God and believers. The Eucharist was the core of the Mass, a service which also included processions, singing, prayers and reading from the Scriptures.</p>
<p>Religious Christians also encountered the sacrament of penance throughout their lives. By the 14th century, penance was a private sacrament that each person was supposed to do <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/lateran4.asp">at least once a year</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691643823/sin-and-confession-on-the-eve-of-the-reformation">ideal penance</a> was hard work, however. People had to recall all the sins they had committed since the “age of reason,” which started when they were roughly 7 years old. They were supposed to feel sorry that they had offended God, and not just be afraid that they would go to hell for their sins. They had to speak their sins aloud to <a href="https://www.cuapress.org/9780813218694/handbook-for-curates/">their parish priest</a>, who had the authority to absolve them. Finally, they had to intend to never commit those sins again. </p>
<p>After confession, they performed the prayers, fasting or pilgrimage that the priest assigned them, which was called “satisfaction.” The whole process was <a href="https://www.academia.edu/44651890/Leonard_E_Boyle_The_Summa_for_Confessors_as_a_Genre_and_Its_Religious_Intent_in_Charles_Trinkaus_and_Heiko_A_Oberman_ed_The_Pursuit_of_Holiness_in_Late_Medieval_and_Renaissance_Religion_Leiden_Brill_1974_126_130">meant to heal the soul</a> as a kind of spiritual medicine.</p>
<h2>Broken up by Black Death</h2>
<p>Waves of plague and warfare, however, could disrupt every aspect of the ideal confession. Rapid illness could make it impossible to travel to one’s parish priest, remember one’s sins or speak them aloud. When parish priests died and were not immediately replaced, people had to seek out other confessors. Some people had to confess without anyone to absolve them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A manuscript depicts people burying victims of the Black Death plague." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456196/original/file-20220404-11-e6xmww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456196/original/file-20220404-11-e6xmww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456196/original/file-20220404-11-e6xmww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456196/original/file-20220404-11-e6xmww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456196/original/file-20220404-11-e6xmww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456196/original/file-20220404-11-e6xmww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456196/original/file-20220404-11-e6xmww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An illustration in the Annales of Gilles de Muisit, from the 14th century, depicts people burying victims of the Black Death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-annales-of-gilles-de-muisit-the-plague-in-tournai-news-photo/535795241?adppopup=true">Photo by Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, Europe’s frequent wars posed other spiritual dangers. Soldiers, for example, were hired to fight wherever war took them and were often paid with the spoils of war. They <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/3343/john-hawkwood">lived with the constant weight of the commandments not to kill or steal</a>. They could never perform a complete confession, because they could <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/historical-reflections/41/3/hrrh410302.xml">never intend not to sin this way again</a>.</p>
<p>These problems caused despair and anxiety. In response, people turned to doctors and saints for help and healing. For example, some Christians in Provence, in present-day France, turned to a local holy woman, <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501753664/souls-under-siege/">Countess Delphine de Puimichel</a>, to help them remember their sins, protect them from sudden death, and even leave warfare to become penitents. So many people described feeling consoled by her voice that a medical doctor who lived near the holy woman set up meetings so people could hear her speak. </p>
<p>But most people in Europe did not have a local saint like Delphine to turn to. They looked for other solutions to their uncertainties about the sacrament of penance.</p>
<p>Indulgences and Masses for the dead proved the most popular, but also problematic. <a href="https://www.septentrion.com/fr/livre/?GCOI=27574100385140">Indulgences</a> were papal documents that could forgive the sins of the holder. They were supposed to be given out only by the pope, and in very specific situations, such as completing certain pilgrimages, <a href="https://ignatius.com/what-were-the-crusades-4th-edition-wwc4p/">serving in a crusade</a>, or doing particularly pious acts. </p>
<p>During the 15th century, however, demand for indulgences was high, and they <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.14315/arg-1984-jg08/html">became common</a>. Some traveling confessors who had received religious authorities’ approval to hear confessions sold indulgences – some authentic, <a href="https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/pardoners-prologue-introduction-and-tale">some fake</a> – to anyone with money. </p>
<p>Catholics also believed that Masses conducted in their name could absolve their sins after their death. By the 14th century, most Christians understood the afterlife as a journey that started in a place called <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo5972676.html">Purgatory</a>, where residual sins would be burned away through suffering before souls entered heaven. In their wills, Christians left money for <a href="https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268104948/rituals-for-the-dead/">Masses for their souls</a>, so that they could spend less time in Purgatory. There were so many requests that some churches performed multiple Masses per day, sometimes for many souls at a time, which became an unsustainable burden on the clergy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An eagle's-eye photograph shows a graveyard being exhumed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457018/original/file-20220407-25034-arv88i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457018/original/file-20220407-25034-arv88i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457018/original/file-20220407-25034-arv88i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457018/original/file-20220407-25034-arv88i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457018/original/file-20220407-25034-arv88i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457018/original/file-20220407-25034-arv88i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457018/original/file-20220407-25034-arv88i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Black Death burial trench under excavation between rows of individual graves and the later concrete foundations of the Royal Mint in East Smithfield, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/black-death-burial-trench-under-excavation-between-rows-of-news-photo/467189953?adppopup=true">MOLA/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The popularity of indulgences and Masses for the dead helps scholars today understand <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781903153413/sin-in-medieval-and-early-modern-culture/">people’s challenges</a> during the Black Death. But both practices were ripe for corruption, and frustration mounted as a sacrament meant to console and prepare the faithful for the afterlife left them anxious and uncertain. </p>
<p>Criticisms of indulgences and penance were a focus of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-martin-luthers-reformation-tells-us-about-history-and-memory-85058">reformer Martin Luther’s</a> famous “95 Theses,” written in 1517. Though the young priest did not originally intend to separate from the Catholic Church, his critiques launched the Protestant Reformation. </p>
<p>But Luther’s challenges to the papacy were not ultimately about money, but theology. Despair over the idea of <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315246819-5/anxious-penitents-appeal-reformation-ozment-historiography-confession-ronald-rittgers">never being able</a> to perform an ideal confession led him and others to <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691643823/sin-and-confession-on-the-eve-of-the-reformation">redefine the sacrament</a>. In Luther’s view, a penitent <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8OEUAAAAIAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=martin+luther+95+theses+translation&ots=MwCHZjaBMT&sig=O0_frZBH_On3iTefmQAu1emmDak#v=onepage&q=martin%20luther%2095%20theses%20translation&f=false">could do nothing</a> to make satisfaction for sin, but had to rely on God’s grace alone.</p>
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<p>For Catholics, on the other hand, the sacrament of penance stayed much the same for centuries, although there were some changes. The most visible was the creation of the <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7591/9781501744709/html">confessional</a>, an enclosed space within the church building where the priest and the penitent could speak more privately. The experience of penance, especially absolution, <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501753664/souls-under-siege/">remained a central</a> ritual meant to heal Catholics’ souls in times of trouble, from the Black Death <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdab193">to the COVID-19 pandemic today</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Archambeau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Churches’ struggles to respond to the plague and constant warfare in the 14th and 15th centuries helped shape the kinds of Christianity in the world today.Nicole Archambeau, Associate Professor of History, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1769492022-02-25T13:46:16Z2022-02-25T13:46:16ZCan churches be protectors of public health?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447903/original/file-20220222-21-1ntyhbh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C10%2C1016%2C671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The relationship between public health and faith is far older than the COVID-19 pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bible-in-a-church-with-a-disposable-mask-to-avoid-news-photo/1227371856?adppopup=true">Fred de Noyelle/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past two years of living with COVID-19, many churches have had to think in new ways. Congregations across the country are experimenting with practices such as virtual worship and Bible study or masking and social distancing – even as others go “back to normal.”</p>
<p>While scholars have studied the relationship between religion and health for decades, the pandemic has put a spotlight on it. Often, this attention emphasizes examples of churches opposing safety recommendations, such as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/14/us/covid-vaccine-evangelicals/index.html">vaccines</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/22/let-us-disobey-churches-defy-lockdown-with-secret-meetings">lockdowns</a>, but this misses the complexity and variety of religious responses to public health problems.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.hartfordinternational.edu/our-faculty/andrew-gardner">a scholar</a> of Christianity in the United States, I believe understanding how churches have navigated health crises in the past can help us better understand our present. Over the past two years, I have worked with <a href="https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/">an interdisciplinary team of researchers</a> based at the <a href="http://hirr.hartsem.edu/">Hartford Institute for Religion Research</a> to understand how churches are confronting the realities of COVID-19. U.S. history, coupled with <a href="https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Navigating-the-Pandemic_A-First-Look-at-Congregational-Responses_Nov-2021.pdf">our survey of congregations</a>, suggests that a commitment to public health has long been a part of ministry, but there is room to make it stronger.</p>
<h2>A history of protecting health</h2>
<p>Christian leaders have been advocating for public health in the United States since the Colonial period. Historian <a href="https://www.missouristate.edu/relst/PhilippaKoch.aspx">Philippa Koch</a> has <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=W2wDEAAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&hl=en&source=newbks_fb#v=onepage&q&f=false">argued</a> that the religious worldview of American Protestants in the 18th century helped them “accept the new promises and insights of modern medicine.” According to Koch, this unwavering faith in God’s plan for creation helped spur individuals like the Puritan minister <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2003.008797">Cotton Mather</a> to promote inoculation for smallpox as a gift from God.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black and white illustration shows a portrait of a man in a large white wig." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447902/original/file-20220222-267-1oolmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447902/original/file-20220222-267-1oolmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447902/original/file-20220222-267-1oolmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447902/original/file-20220222-267-1oolmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447902/original/file-20220222-267-1oolmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447902/original/file-20220222-267-1oolmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447902/original/file-20220222-267-1oolmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cotton Mather, an influential minister in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, supported smallpox vaccines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-engraved-portrait-of-cotton-mather-a-boston-news-photo/517387846?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>During the 1918 influenza pandemic, too, congregations were on the front lines of public health. Churches in <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82848315/the-wilmington-morning-star/">North Carolina</a>, for example, sought to make sure their worship space was “well ventilated” to avoid spreading the virus. They also required members to wear “germ proof” gauze masks. <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82848809/the-spokesman-review/">Churches in Washington state</a> prohibited public singing and roped off pews to ensure that congregants would be spread out around the sanctuary. </p>
<p>Many churches also canceled in-person worship gatherings and turned to the technology of the day: newspapers. In Los Angeles, ministers encouraged their congregants to “<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55370413/go-to-church-in-your-home-today/">go to church in your own home today</a>” with sermons printed in the paper. In Indianapolis, the newspaper printed an <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95484327/the-indianapolis-star/">order of worship</a> with hymns, Scripture and prayers. The paper also included sermons from local congregations, including Episcopalian, Catholic, Baptist and Jewish. </p>
<p>Presbyterian minister Francis Grimke later reflected on his church’s decision to close, <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=emu.010002585873&view=1up&seq=1&skin=2021">stating</a>, “If avoiding crowds lessens the danger of being infected, it was wise to take the precaution and not needlessly run in danger and expect God to protect us.”</p>
<p>Not all churches responded to the health precautions with enthusiasm. Many ministers <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72471253/the-washington-times/">insisted</a> that communal prayers were necessary to get the country through the sickness. Others blatantly disobeyed public health orders. In Harrison, Ohio, the Rev. George Cocks of Trinity Methodist Church and 16 members of his congregation were <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78666410/the-cincinnati-enquirer/">arrested and jailed</a> for a staged protest. After being locked up, he preached through the window of his jail cell to approximately 500 individuals who had gathered to hear him. </p>
<p>Over the past few decades, more recent church practices that intersect with health include holding <a href="https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/how-to-donate/how-blood-donations-help.html">blood drives</a>, hosting 12-step programs for addiction, <a href="https://theconversation.com/nearly-half-of-all-churches-and-other-faith-institutions-help-people-get-enough-to-eat-170074">running soup kitchens</a> and providing basic <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-are-in-a-mental-health-crisis-especially-african-americans-can-churches-help-167871">mental health counseling</a>.</p>
<h2>Churches and COVID-19</h2>
<p>The past two years have been difficult on churches. Our team at the <a href="https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/">Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations</a> project <a href="https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Navigating-the-Pandemic_A-First-Look-at-Congregational-Responses_Nov-2021.pdf">surveyed more than 2,000 churches</a> and found that the vast majority – 83% of those surveyed – reported that a member had tested positive for the virus. Thirty-seven percent had a staff member who had tested positive.</p>
<p>While our data shows that nearly all churches in the United States have been affected by COVID-19, not all of them have responded to the pandemic in the same way. Political polarization around public health measures has only complicated how congregations have responded to COVID-19. </p>
<p>Twenty-eight percent of the 2,074 churches we surveyed invited a medical professional to speak to their membership about the pandemic. Evangelical Christian <a href="https://www.nih.gov/farewell-dr-francis-collins">Francis Collins</a> – who recently stepped down as director of the National Institutes of Health and is now <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/02/16/president-biden-announces-ostp-leadership/">acting science adviser</a> to President Joe Biden – has modeled how the science of public health can be <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/04/27/francis-collins-urges-evangelicals-love-your-neighbor-get-covid-19-vaccine/">framed in religious terms</a>, such as loving one’s neighbor. </p>
<p>Just 8% of churches volunteered to serve as <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/01/29/black-clergy-offer-churches-as-covid-19-vaccination-sites-roll-up-their-sleeves/">a testing or vaccination location</a>. These churches were more likely to have more than 250 members, have been founded recently, and be racially diverse.</p>
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<img alt="Masked workers in safety vests walk between cars in a parking lot by a sign reading COVID vaccine, appointments only." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447904/original/file-20220222-17-185ptz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447904/original/file-20220222-17-185ptz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447904/original/file-20220222-17-185ptz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447904/original/file-20220222-17-185ptz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447904/original/file-20220222-17-185ptz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447904/original/file-20220222-17-185ptz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447904/original/file-20220222-17-185ptz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Health care workers greet people at a drive-thru vaccination site at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Mount Dora, Fla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/health-care-workers-greet-people-as-they-arrive-in-cars-to-news-photo/1230810750?adppopup=true">Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Before the pandemic, many clergy had a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2020.1736451">positive attitude toward vaccinations</a> but did not see them as particularly relevant to their faith communities. There is reason to believe that this is changing. <a href="https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Navigating-the-Pandemic_A-First-Look-at-Congregational-Responses_Nov-2021.pdf">Our survey</a> found the majority of clergy across the country, 62%, have encouraged their congregants to be vaccinated against COVID-19.</p>
<p>This varies significantly across different segments of Christianity in the U.S., however. Of <a href="https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Navigating-the-Pandemic_A-First-Look-at-Congregational-Responses_Nov-2021.pdf">clergy surveyed</a> from historically Black denominations, 100% had encouraged their congregations to get vaccinated. Over three-quarters of mainline Protestant congregations and nearly two-thirds of Latino churches had clergy publicly encouraging members to take the vaccine. Half of Roman Catholic and Orthodox clergy advocated for their congregants to take the vaccine, and among white Evangelicals, only 29% of clergy offered similar advice.</p>
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<p>Among churches with a senior woman clergy leader, 82% encouraged their members to get vaccinated, as compared with 58% of those with senior male leaders. Small churches were also more likely to recommend the vaccine to their congregants.</p>
<p>Our project has also conducted <a href="https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/research/national-survey-research/extraordinary-social-outreach-in-a-time-of-crisis/">a survey on how churches have adapted social outreach programs during COVID-19</a> and is currently fielding a survey about the pandemic’s effect on Christian education.</p>
<p>Given the results of our first survey, there is significant room for U.S. congregations to think more deeply about how their work intersects with public health. But before taxing clergy with something else to add to their already overburdened schedules, we believe it’s worth encouraging congregational leaders to consider their churches as institutions of public health: places that can promote the physical, spiritual and emotional health of both their members and the local community.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gardner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Responses to COVID-19 health guidelines have been polarized, including in churches. But religious communities have a long history of involvement in public health.Andrew Gardner, Visiting Faculty Associate of American Religious History, Hartford International University for Religion and PeaceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1709962021-12-13T13:27:58Z2021-12-13T13:27:58ZIn polygamous communities, deep roots of distrust shape vaccine hesitancy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436771/original/file-20211209-17-1q9hgsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C75%2C3373%2C1956&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of protesters stands inside the Utah State Capitol in 2016, criticizing a proposal to make polygamy a felony again.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/UtahPolygamyLaw/74a8a9ce06dc49f4b58f4a9dd8cf598f/photo?Query=polygamy%20protest&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=31&currentItemNo=14">Rick Bowmer/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon church or LDS church, followed government guidelines to protect members of their religious community. On March 25, 2020, the church <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-temporarily-closes-all-temples-march-25-2020">closed its temples</a> and <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-message-covid-19-august-2021#:%7E:text=To%20limit%20exposure%20to%20these,be%20both%20safe%20and%20effective.">encouraged members</a> to wear masks. Leaders <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/missionaries-covid-19-vaccine">praised vaccination</a>, which church President Russell M. Nelson, a retired surgeon, called <a href="https://www.deseret.com/faith/2021/1/19/22238767/latter-day-saint-church-leaders-vaccinated-urge-members-to-protect-selves-mormon-lds">a “literal godsend</a>.” He and other senior members <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-leaders-covid-19-vaccine">received vaccinations</a>, calling on church members to follow their example.</p>
<p>Fundamentalist branches of Mormonism, however – groups who began separating from the LDS church after it ended the institutionally sanctioned practice of polygamy <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Modern_Polygamy_and_Mormon_Fundamentalis.html?id=JKHtAAAAMAAJ">in 1904</a> – took a different route. Many fundamentalists have refused to take the vaccine and have sought alternative therapies, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/ivermectin-misuse-against-covid-risks-undermining-its-use-for-other-diseases-169778">the controversial use of Ivermectin</a>, a drug commonly prescribed to treat intestinal parasites.</p>
<p>Nationwide, <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/vaccine-tracker">about 30% of Americans</a> have not received any vaccine dose against COVID-19. Many express skepticism about government intervention in their families’ health, opinions that are sometimes rooted in misinformation or <a href="https://theconversation.com/conspiracy-theories-why-are-they-thriving-in-the-pandemic-153657">conspiracy theories</a>. </p>
<p>Wariness toward government and medical authorities can run especially deep in isolated or marginalized communities. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C22&q=cristina+rosetti&btnG=">a scholar of Mormon fundamentalism</a>, I’ve seen how, for fundamentalists, such fears are rooted in distrust. From the founding of the LDS church in 1830, its members often <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/22320">faced discrimination and persecution</a>, but conflict decreased significantly after the end of institutionally sanctioned polygamous marriages. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jmormhist.47.3.0022">Fundamentalist groups</a>, on the other hand, still view the government with suspicion. Many continue polygamy, and fear of being reported to law enforcement <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2020/02/26/cristina-rosetti-making/">keeps them from accessing resources</a> like health care.</p>
<h2>Cautious care</h2>
<p>Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS church, taught that <a href="https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Mormonism_and_the_nature_of_God/Corporeality_of_God">God has a body</a> and that people’s own bodies are <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/becoming-like-god?lang=eng">sacred gifts</a> to help them reach eternity.</p>
<p>Given the religious importance of human bodies, his followers believed they required great care – and many 19th-century church members were suspicious of medical authorities, amid rising anti-Mormon sentiment. During the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, for example, George B. Sanderson was appointed medical officer for the <a href="https://historytogo.utah.gov/mormon-battalion/">Mormon Battalion</a>, a unit recruited from the Utah Territory. He frequently prescribed mercury chloride and arsenic, which were standard treatments at the time, but caused contention among the troops. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23289590">Distrustful soldiers</a> questioned whether he was poisoning them and remembered him as “Dr. Death.”</p>
<p>Early LDS leaders warned against “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45224797">poisonous medicines</a>.” Brigham Young, the church’s second president, counseled his community in alternative therapies to keep them away from medical professionals they did not trust.</p>
<p>An often-quoted adage – popularly attributed to Young – is that Latter-day Saints should have knowledge of several herbs “to withstand the scourges of the last days.” Comfrey in particular became a catch-all treatment and remains <a href="https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5034&context=open_access_etds">a staple in fundamentalist homes</a> wary of medical professionals.</p>
<p>After the turn of the 20th century, when the LDS church began supporting legal prosecution of polygamy and <a href="https://archive.org/details/improvementera0707unse/page/544/mode/2up?view=theater">excommunicating members who practiced it</a>, fundamentalist groups became even more isolated and continued to rely on home remedies. During the Cold War, former members of one group recall, <a href="https://sunstone.org/excommunication-kingston/">their late leader</a> instructed followers that a bitter concoction called “green drink” could preserve the bodies of the most righteous from nuclear fallout.</p>
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<img alt="In this black and white photo, a group of about a dozen men in suits stands in a courtroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431758/original/file-20211112-15470-pjjomf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431758/original/file-20211112-15470-pjjomf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431758/original/file-20211112-15470-pjjomf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431758/original/file-20211112-15470-pjjomf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431758/original/file-20211112-15470-pjjomf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431758/original/file-20211112-15470-pjjomf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431758/original/file-20211112-15470-pjjomf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Men being tried for unlawful cohabitation stand in a courtroom in Salt Lake City in 1945. Tensions with the government over polygamy still influence fundamentalist groups’ distrust toward officials today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CrimePolygamy1945/aa9ca5b70b5a4d8fa84814d980ebc2b5/photo?Query=fundamentalist%20mormon&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=228&currentItemNo=165">AP Photo/Anonymous</a></span>
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<h2>Changes ahead?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.5406/jmormhist.45.3.0111">my own research</a> within these fundamentalist communities, I’ve seen the use of comfrey firsthand – and even had it prescribed to me for colds. </p>
<p>In 2018, I was doing fieldwork in a rural polygamous community in Nevada during a whooping cough outbreak. Many members deemed vaccines dangerous and were reluctant to enter hospitals for fear of being reported to authorities. At the instruction of their leader, an alternative health practitioner who was esteemed as a prophet, women took to their kitchens and prepared a bitter drink called “anti-plague,” a dark brown liquid made primarily of comfrey.</p>
<p>Today, medical professionals and government agencies <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/2001/07/17/herb-industry-welcomes-curbs-on-comfrey/466aedbc-424d-4988-be9c-7924b15e3a31/">warn against consuming comfrey</a> because of potential liver damage. Yet many fundamentalist families deem government interference more risky than the herb.</p>
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<p>When people from polygamous communities explain the barriers they face because of their chosen lifestyle, access to medical care for their children is a <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2020/02/26/cristina-rosetti-making/">central concern</a>. This became a central point of debate during the legislative hearings for <a href="https://le.utah.gov/%7E2020/bills/static/SB0102.html">SB102</a>, a bill signed into law in 2020 that <a href="https://kutv.com/news/local/utah-governor-signs-bills-decriminalizing-polygamy-disposal-of-fetal-remains">effectively decriminalized polygamy</a> in Utah after years of debate. The new law lowers polygamy to an infraction, rather than a felony, unless connected to other crimes such as abuse. </p>
<p>Since the bill passed there has been significant growth in the number of families seeking community and government resources. In 2019, for example, one <a href="https://cherishfamilies.org/who-we-are/">nonprofit working with polygamist families</a> reported that 800 victims of crime received assistance, including mental health services and legal support. By the end of 2020, that number had increased to 1,098. </p>
<p>Researchers will be watching closely to see how decriminalization affects fundamentalist communities’ health.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cristina Rosetti was previously affiliated with Cherish Families, a NGO that provides support for polygamous families and those leaving polygamous communities, as a director of their 2021 awareness campaign. In addition, she lobbied and testified in favor of SB102, a bill that lowered the criminal status of polygamy in Utah to an infraction for consenting adults.</span></em></p>Fear of prosecution and a history of distrust toward the government have contributed to some fundamentalist groups’ views of medicine.Cristina Rosetti, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Claremont McKenna CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1717632021-11-15T14:43:42Z2021-11-15T14:43:42ZReligion was once Ethiopia’s saviour. What it can do to pull the nation from the brink<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431888/original/file-20211115-15-vpro7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ethiopian Orthodox pilgrims at Lalibela, Ethiopia. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ethiopia is at war with itself – all over again. Again, it is in the global media spotlight for the wrong reasons: <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/ethiopia-grave-humanitarian-crisis-unfolding-never-saw-hell-before-now-have">war, displacement, rape, and killings</a>. A nation with a long but turbulent history and a rich religious heritage has struggled to shrug off the vices holding it back from moving forward.</p>
<p>This, however, is not for a lack of opportunity. The nation lays claim to <a href="https://addisstandard.com/opinion-does-ethiopia-really-need-democracy-then-it-should-draw-resources-from-indigenous-virtues/">cultural and religious values</a> which could have been nurtured, re-calibrated, and developed to foster peaceful cohabitation. Moreover, history has afforded Ethiopia <a href="https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=ijad">many chances</a> to find a unifying formula and move to a more democratic dispensation. Many times, the country has struggled to root out toxic seeds which have effectively ruined its chances of using ethnic and religious diversity as a strength, not as a threat.</p>
<p>Ethiopia is a <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/08/orthodox-christians-are-highly-religious-in-ethiopia-much-less-so-in-former-soviet-union/">deeply religious</a> nation. Both Christians and Muslims have <a href="https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/fr/oir/interfaith-relations-between-christianity-and-islam-ethiopia">fascinating stories</a> to tell not only of their origins, but also of how they have managed to negotiate their shared space. The question, therefore, should be: what role is religion playing in the conflict in Tigray? </p>
<p>It is worth starting this discussion by way of briefly capturing the role religion played in the past in addressing threats of division and disintegration.</p>
<h2>The unifying myth</h2>
<p>Ethiopia has survived several dark epochs in its long history. Religion was one of the reasons why it survived. Take, for example, the <a href="https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199211883.001.0001/acprof-9780199211883-chapter-4">“Zemene Mesafint”</a> – the era of princes. This period, between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, got its name from the Bible because it mimicked the biblical <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43660013?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">“period of judges”</a> in Israel’s history.</p>
<p>Joshua, who had guided Israelites in the last and critical part of their journey of liberation and helped them to settle in the promised land, had just died. Upon this, the central point in Jewish life <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00393388408600023?journalCode=sthe20">started to dissipate</a>. The nation splintered into 12 tribes, followed by a vicious cycle of violence and lawlessness.</p>
<p>In the same way, the Zemene Mesafint was a treacherous time in Ethiopian history, its union <a href="https://books.google.es/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jRMWPSfPBysC&oi=fnd&pg=PA348&dq=zamana+mesafint+%2B+Israel&ots=PYQ3wV_69N&sig=qi4yB6MVHxmhDh3fjATiSOCpXSE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=zamana%20mesafint%20%2B%20Israel&f=false">threatened by power-hungry regional warlords</a>. As the real power deserted central government and lay instead with regional leaders, the nation’s political and institutional architecture was challenged. </p>
<p>Scholars <a href="https://books.google.es/books?id=m5ESDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA39&dq=Regionalism+%2B+zemene+mesafint&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_xIjEm_PjAhUBYsAKHaegA5EQ6AEIMTAB#v=onepage&q=Regionalism%20%2B%20zemene%20mesafint&f=false">believe</a> that heightened regionalism during the Zemene Mesafint brought Ethiopia to the brink of disintegration. But the Orthodox church, a powerful non-state actor, was in favour of unity at the time. Religion, therefore, provided a theologically informed political tool – a national myth of a social covenant – to abate the looming danger. </p>
<p>Ordinary citizens used this notion to invent their own version of <a href="https://books.google.es/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Y0YDve-kiK0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Ullendorff+Ethiopia+and+the+Bible&ots=QcAb3ybQgz&sig=DC8YWs0OcNTVfMmzkrspafRULjY&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Ullendorff%20Ethiopia%20and%20the%20Bible&f=false">volksgiest</a>, or a way of life. Their principal concern was negotiating their space with ethnic and religious others. Ultimately, the social tool that religious intellectuals deployed to avoid existential crisis became an opportunity that helped reconfigure the Ethiopian union. For many years, it was an epistemic framework that provided a vision for peaceful cohabitation.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ethiopia-needs-a-new-rallying-point-instead-of-recycling-its-painful-past-121531">this myth</a> – and the social values that enveloped in it – has not been nurtured and re-calibrated to fit current social and political realities. Instead, it has been demystified and politicised. The result is that, instead of becoming a unifying force, it became a source of polarisation. That religious default point is now replaced by a new one: ethnicity.</p>
<p>In the current Ethiopian political reality, ethnicity is not mere allegiance, it is also an interpretive framework by which groups analyse and formulate their existence. Religion and its social values have been weakened. More worrying, religion is now being preyed upon and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1YE-gr1yGU">can be instrumentalised</a>, if necessary, by politicians to score political points.</p>
<h2>War in Tigray</h2>
<p>The problem confronting Ethiopia now has some similarity to the times of the Zemene Mesafint. For instance, powerful regional states were born. Some of them operate with worrying levels of autonomy in relation to the federal state. They have well-resourced armies that stand toe-to-toe with the federal army. </p>
<p>Personal animosities among political leaders often swiftly take a tribal shape. Ethnic allegiance, and resultant territorialism, has become a social and political prism through which human interactions are imagined. Historical injustices are not properly addressed. Instead, they are recirculated and galvanised by hostile groups to achieve their political goals. </p>
<p>So, what is the role of religion here?</p>
<p>Firstly, what is manifesting in the social and political reams is symptomatic of moral decay within the religious institutions. By their very inability to become a source of peaceful cohabitation and reconciliation, religious groups have become responsible for the loss of the moral compass in society.</p>
<p>Secondly, there is no one unified religious entity that commands attention and dictates a unifying narrative as religious institutions face their own internal crises related to ethnicity. A case in point is that Abune Mathias – the head of the Orthodox Church who is of Tigrayan descent – has recently <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-africa-religion-99106036de345fc5e8615ca95b022b36">spoken against</a> the government’s stance in the conflict. There are other clergy members within the same church who are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpPC2WlnTUE">outspoken supporters</a> of the government’s action of “maintaining law and order” in Tigray.</p>
<p>Thirdly, even though religion is not the primary factor behind the conflict, it can be used as a mobilising factor by both sides. Supporters of the warring groups use their pulpits to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QshmiE3-XwE">demonise their perceived enemies</a> and paint their leaders in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Avy9Y9_GA">messianic light</a>. This comes with the risk of dogmatising ideological positions and desensitising conscience when atrocities are committed by those who are supported by a particular group.</p>
<p>Finally, religiously laced conversation pushes politics from ideas that can be challenged to dogma that should be defended at any cost. It, simply, is a matter of existence.</p>
<h2>Going forward</h2>
<p>Ethiopia’s future is uncertain. The country needs the efforts of every stakeholder to prevent it from the already unfolding tragedy. Religious groups – Christians and Muslims – have big roles to play. I will suggest three action points:</p>
<p>The first, and very critical, step is genuine soul-searching within each religious group. They need to ask the hard questions of why and how the society is sliding into hate-filled chaos. They need to come up with corrective actions within themselves and find a unified narrative among themselves.</p>
<p>Secondly, there is a great need for an inter-religious peace effort. This requires coming out of their own small echo chambers, empathetic listening to those who are hurting, and providing a transcendent narrative that goes beyond the political divides.</p>
<p>Third, they need to take an emotional distance from politics and find a neutral space so they can get moral clarity. They need to find courage to speak truth to power, if necessary. Ethiopia is crying out for a new social covenant – the “we” of humanity, not for the “us versus them” of politics. While diversity should be respected, and even celebrated, the religious teachings should now be focused on healing and reconciliation.</p>
<p><em>An earlier version of this article was first published by <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/religion-and-the-social-covenant-in-ethiopia-faith-in-the-tigray-conflict">Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171763/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mohammed Girma does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ethiopia’s main religions need to take an emotional distance from politics and find a neutral space so they can get moral clarity.Mohammed Girma, Visiting Lecturer, University of RoehamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1689952021-10-04T13:09:11Z2021-10-04T13:09:11ZCherry-picking the Bible and using verses out of context isn’t a practice confined to those opposed to vaccines – it has been done for centuries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424263/original/file-20211001-21-1yt9i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C0%2C4850%2C3330&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many people are using Bible verses to justify their stance against vaccines.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-holds-a-sign-quoting-the-bible-as-anti-vaccination-news-photo/1234683079?adppopup=true">David McNew/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A devout evangelical Christian friend of mine recently texted to explain why he was not getting the COVID-19 vaccine. “Jesus went around healing lepers and touched them without fear of getting leprosy,” he said.</p>
<p>This story that <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2017%3A11-19&version=NIV">St. Luke tells in his gospel (17:11-19)</a> is not the only Bible verse I have seen and heard evangelical Christians use to justify anti-vaccine convictions. Other popular passages include <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2030%3A2&version=NIV">Psalm 30:2</a>: “Lord, I called to you for help, and you healed me.”; <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%206%3A19&version=NIV">1 Corinthians 6:19</a>: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?”; and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2017%3A11&version=NIV">Leviticus 17:11</a>: “For the life of a creature is in the blood.” </p>
<p>All of these verses have been lifted out of context and repurposed to buttress the anti-vaccine movement. As a <a href="https://www.messiah.edu/info/21426/our_faculty/2371/john_fea">historian of the Bible in American life</a>, I can attest that such shallow reading in service of political and cultural agendas has long been a fixture of evangelical Christianity. </p>
<h2>Bible in the hands of ordinary people</h2>
<p>In the 16th century, Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers <a href="https://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/9780800637392/Printing-Propaganda-and-Martin-Luther">translated the Bible</a> from an already existing Greek text into the languages of common people. Prior to this, most men and women in Europe were exposed to the Bible through the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-latin-new-testament-9780198744733?cc=us&lang=en&">Vulgate</a>, a Latin version of the Old and New Testaments that only educated men – mostly Catholic priests – could read.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman reading the bible on a digital tablet Ipad. France." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Protestant Reformation put the Bible in the hands of ordinary people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-reading-the-bible-on-a-digital-tablet-ipad-france-news-photo/1337897241?adppopup=true">Philippe Lissac/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As people read the Bible – many for the first time – they inevitably began to <a href="https://www.ivpress.com/the-people-s-book">interpret it</a> as well. Protestant denominations formed around such interpretations. By the time Protestants started forming settlements in North America, there were distinctly Anglican, Presbyterian, Anabaptist, Lutheran and Quaker reading of the Bible. </p>
<p>The English Calvinists who settled the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay built entire colonies around their reading of the Bible, making New England one of the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Literacy_in_Colonial_New_England/yc-aQgAACAAJ?hl=en">most literate societies</a> in the world. In the 18th century, popular access to the Bible was one way that the <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300152807/britons">British</a> – including the North American colonies – distinguished themselves from Catholic nations that did not provide such access. </p>
<h2>American evangelicals</h2>
<p>In the early 19th-century United States, biblical interpretation became more free-wheeling and individualistic.</p>
<p>Small differences over how to interpret the Bible often resulted in the <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807846490/american-originals/">creation of new sects</a> such as the Latter Day Saints, the Restorationists (Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ), Adventists and various evangelical offshoots of more longstanding denominations such as Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists and Quakers. </p>
<p>During this period, the United States also <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/the-rise-of-american-democracy/">grew more democratic</a>. What the French traveler and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville <a href="https://www.loa.org/books/202-democracy-in-america">described as “individualism</a>” had a profound influence on biblical interpretation and the way laypeople read the sacred text. </p>
<p>The views of the Bible proclaimed from the pulpits of formally educated clergy in established denominations <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300050608/democratization-american-christianity">gave way</a> to a more free-wheeling and populist understanding of the scriptures that was often dissociated from such authoritative communities. </p>
<p>But these evangelicals never developed their approach to understanding the Bible in complete isolation. They often followed the interpretations of charismatic leaders such as Joseph Smith (Latter Day Saints), Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell (Restorationist), William Miller (Adventists) and Lorenzo Dow (Methodists). </p>
<p>These preachers <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300050608/democratization-american-christianity">built followers around innovative readings of the Scriptures</a>. Without a church hierarchy to reign them in, these evangelical pied pipers had little accountability. </p>
<p>When large numbers of Irish and German immigrants arrived on American shores in the middle decades of the 19th century, evangelicals drew on <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195384093.001.0001/acprof-9780195384093">longstanding anti-Catholic prejudices</a>. They grew anxious that these Catholic newcomers were a threat to their Protestant nation and often based these fears on perceptions of how Catholic bishops and priests <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=us&lang=en&">kept the Bible</a> from their parishioners.</p>
<p>While this fear of Catholics was mostly rhetorical in nature, there were a few moments of violence. For example, in 1844, nativist Protestants, responding to rumors that Catholics were trying to remove the Bible from Philadelphia public schools, <a href="https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/nativist-riots-of-1844/">destroyed two of the city’s Catholic churches</a> before the Pennsylvania militia stopped the violence.</p>
<p>These so-called “<a href="http://pegasusbooks.com/books/the-fires-of-philadelphia-9781643137285-hardcover">Bible riots</a>” revealed the deep tensions between the individualistic and common-sensical approach to biblical interpretation common among Protestants and a Catholic view of reading the Bible that was always filtered through the historic teachings of the Church and its theologians. Protestants believed that the former approach was <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Catholicism_and_American_Freedom/Tv93eR6f1nUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">more compatible</a> with the spirit of American liberty. </p>
<h2>Vaccine opposition and the Bible</h2>
<p>Today this American approach to reading and the interpreting the Bible is front and center in the arguments made by evangelical Christians seeking religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination mandates. When they explain their religious objections to health officials, employers and school administrations, evangelicals select verses, usually out of context, and reference them on exemptions forms. </p>
<p>Like they did in the 19th century, evangelicals who refuse to get vaccinated today tend to follow the spiritual leaders who have built followings by baptizing political or cultural propaganda in a sea of Bible verses. </p>
<p>Megachurch pastors, televangelists, conservative media commentators and social media influencers have far more power over ordinary evangelical Christians than those local pastors who encourage their congregations to consider that God works through science.</p>
<p>When I ask those evangelicals who oppose vaccines how they come to their conclusions, they all seem to cite the same sources: Fox News, or a host of fringe media personalities whom they watch on cable television or Facebook. Some others they cite include Salem Radio host and author <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/better-samaritan/2021/april/dear-eric-metaxas-anti-vax-messaging-you-are-spreading-is-h.html">Eric Metaxas</a>, the <a href="https://www.lc.org/newsroom/details/20200626planned-parenthood-humanized-mice-and-the-covid-vaccine1">Liberty Counsel</a> and Tennessee megachurch leader <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/09/14/twitter-bids-farewell-to-greg-locke-pro-trump-and-anti-vaxxer-tennessee-pastor-with-permanent-ban/">Greg Locke</a>, to name a few.</p>
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<p>Social media allows these evangelical conspiracy theorists to become influential <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SRzv1ZBTQE">through</a> their <a href="https://currentpub.com/2021/07/28/eric-metaxas-dont-get-vaccinated-be-a-rebel/">anti-vaccine rants</a>. </p>
<p>From my perspective, the response of some evangelicals to the vaccine reveals the dark side of the Protestant Reformation. When the Bible is placed in the hands of the people, void of any kind of authoritative religious community to guide them in their proper understanding of the text, the people can make it say anything they want it to say.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Fea does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A historian of the Bible in American life explains how Bible verses are being picked out of context to make a case for the anti-vaxxer movement.John Fea, Professor of American History, Messiah CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1533742021-02-23T13:27:45Z2021-02-23T13:27:45ZHow Philadelphia’s Black churches overcame disease, depression and civil strife<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385602/original/file-20210222-17-fp0p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C5760%2C3811&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A statue of Bishop Richard Allen outside the historic Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AmeChurchBicentennial/ed596e5771534234afa0a82de5ccfc96/photo?Query=Richard%20Allen%20Church&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=15&currentItemNo=5">AP Photo/Matt Rourke</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/black-church/">Black Church</a> is an institution that was forged in crises. Through slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation and the civil rights era, the network of places of worship serving traditionally Black congregations has seen its fair share of traumatic events.</p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="https://candler.emory.edu/faculty/profiles/franklin-robert.html">the Rev. Robert Franklin</a>, former president of Morehouse College, acknowledged as much in a speech on urban ministries: “Disruption is the question, but the radical love ethic of Jesus is the response.”</p>
<p>And that was before 2020 delivered the <a href="http://doi.org/10.18865/ed.30.3.425">COVID-19 pandemic</a>, the related economic crisis and the global movement for Black Lives – forcing Black churches to find new ways to worship and serve their communities.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www2.baylor.edu/baylorproud/2020/04/meet-baylors-nationally-recognized-expert-on-how-churches-address-societal-issues/">scholar</a> who looks at how the Black Church engages with the community, I believe looking at how the institution has endured past crises can provide a blueprint for how communities can deal with today’s trying times.</p>
<p>In particular, the story of how three Black churches in Philadelphia endured events similar to those afflicting society today can give both solace and hope.</p>
<h2>A pillar of Philadelphia</h2>
<p>Black churches have long been an important pillar in Philadelphia’s African American community. As far back as 1896, civil rights leader and sociologist <a href="http://www.dubois-theward.org/resources/documentaries/">W.E.B. Du Bois</a> was recording the impact that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1049483?seq=1">they had</a> in the city. <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044010520278&view=1up&seq=7">Du Bois’ research</a> found that <a href="http://www.dubois-theward.org/history/du-bois-black-church/">Philadelpia’s 55 Black congregations</a> had amassed a total annual income of at least US$94,968 and property valued at approximately $908,729 – almost $29 million in today’s dollars. About 100 years later, the <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14272.html#:%7E:text=In%20The%20Other%20Philadelphia%20Story,support%20of%20other%20charitable%20organizations.">University of Pennsylvania’s Congregation Census study</a> found that approximately 2.4% of the Black congregations in the city had established commercial ventures including thrift stores, grocery stores and restaurants.</p>
<p>This tradition of Philadelphia’s <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-black-church-in-the-african-american-experience">Black churches</a> providing a role beyond the faith needs of congregants meant they were well placed to help out in times of crisis, be it health, social or economic.</p>
<h2>On the front lines of a health crisis</h2>
<p>Philadelphia’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3511576">Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church</a> is the mother church of the oldest Black denomination in the United States. It was <a href="https://www.ame-church.com/our-church/our-history/">established in 1794</a> by <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/allen/allen.html">the Rev. Richard Allen</a>, a former slave, four years after he purchased his freedom for $2,000.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="An engraving of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385599/original/file-20210222-15-1fdlo5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C335%2C3661%2C2743&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385599/original/file-20210222-15-1fdlo5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385599/original/file-20210222-15-1fdlo5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385599/original/file-20210222-15-1fdlo5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385599/original/file-20210222-15-1fdlo5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385599/original/file-20210222-15-1fdlo5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385599/original/file-20210222-15-1fdlo5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was America’s first Black church.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/illustration-of-the-mother-bethel-african-methodist-news-photo/2217816?adppopup=true">Kean Collection/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Allen, an entrepreneur, also co-founded the <a href="https://hsp.org/history-online/exhibits/richard-allen-apostle-of-freedom/the-free-african-society">Free African Society</a>, a mutual aid organization, with clergyman Absalom Jones in 1787. The Free African Society, in which the seeds of the church were sown, emphasized <a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/colonial-postrev/free-african-society/">self-determination</a> for free Black people by providing economic, cultural, social and spiritual guidance, as well as medical care. </p>
<p>During the <a href="https://www.history.com/news/yellow-fever-outbreak-philadelphia">yellow fever outbreak of 1793</a>, Allen and <a href="https://episcopalarchives.org/church-awakens/exhibits/show/leadership/clergy/jones">Jones</a> responded to the request of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/09/02/643764214/rush-the-other-founding-father-from-philadelphia-named-benjamin">Benjamin Rush</a>, a well-known physician and lesser-known founding father, to help the sick. </p>
<p>As the plague took more lives, <a href="https://whyy.org/segments/yellow-fever-epidemic-of-1793-all-was-not-right-in-our-city/">about 20,000 people fled the city</a>. People abandoned sick family members, and hospitals were unprepared to meet the need. Within four months, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/04/04/yellow-fever-led-half-philadelphians-flee-city-ten-percent-residents-still-died/">about 5,000 people died</a>, approximately 10% of the population. </p>
<p>Allen asked Black residents in Philadelphia to set aside their resentments against white people to work as nurses, cart drivers, coffin makers and gravediggers for a decent wage. Meanwhile, churches remained open to maintain morale.</p>
<p>Historians have noted that Allen, Jones and other free Black people helped to restore the <a href="https://time.com/5861843/americas-first-epidemic-transformed-philadelphia/">sense of human dignity</a> to the city while urging <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20093783?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">white citizens to expand their notion of brotherly love to include black people</a>.</p>
<h2>Surviving the 1930s economic crisis</h2>
<p>In common with many people across Philadelphia and across the U.S., congregants of <a href="https://www.tindleytemple.net/history/">Tindley Temple United Methodist Church</a> suffered as a result of the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/race-relations-in-1930s-and-1940s/">economic depression of the 1930s</a>.</p>
<p>The church, led by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mpOhWuhikM">the Rev. Charles Albert Tindley</a> from 1902 to 1933, served a Black community in South Philadelphia at a time when many were locked out of occupations through a “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2123118?casa_token=WyrhOW-L9fgAAAAA%3AzuSJze-qQjmmJTdLD3OEcCdkB7sFb8tzO1ON0PNRQuTchK5doiSlreqDVQF2XMlCNuUiy1Z23av0ojjprdPxoEKTRNquKsXX-0Yk3WlbaxR1dmB0U2x6&seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents">last hired, first fired” policy</a> that discriminated against them. </p>
<p>Tindley, the son of an enslaved person who advanced from brick carrier and church janitor to pastor of one of the first Black-built churches on Broad Street, used his <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42864032?casa_token=eGUSucH9d4oAAAAA%3A_0sCKm58HspH7upP3xByj7UnWwrCvJk0cVYSIFOGeqtWymPJqMCD-tK5CFhjFkpVqtNkBoYgsw_HIBdxp46sDsZh9zzNv0WQA0j6wGSBQzFzcj21ELnY&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">entrepreneurial skills</a> to help the congregation.</p>
<p>Under <a href="https://baylor.app.box.com/file/548965868458?s=i4iobni85m7ekaxqzgonc26fbhtxxndo">Tindley’s leadership</a>, the church used its relationships and resources to both train and place African Americans in new positions. Tindley advised church members to use their skills to start businesses such as restaurants and barber shops and to save their money to purchase homes. To implement these strategies, the <a href="http://nunncenter.net/goinnorth/files/original/43be1830db3bd7126122966af4eb2056.pdf">church</a> established a building and loans association and offered evening classes to offer job training to church members and new migrants from the South. </p>
<p>Tindley also associated with other entrepreneurs, like merchant and political leader <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/wanamaker_hi.html">John Wanamaker</a>, and leveraged such connections to create employment opportunities for parishioners.</p>
<h2>Advancing civil rights and self-reliance</h2>
<p>Through the social upheavals of the civil rights era, Philadelphia’s <a href="https://hiddencityphila.org/2018/08/north-broads-lion-of-zion-finds-strength-in-design/">Zion Baptist Church</a> served as a rock for North Philadelphia’s Black community.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.5323/jafriamerhist.96.1.0039?journalCode=jaah">The Rev. Leon Sullivan</a>, who served as the church’s pastor from 1950 to 1988, provided moral guidance and promoted an institutional and collective approach to economic success. It came at a <a href="http://northerncity.library.temple.edu/exhibits/show/civil-rights-in-a-northern-cit/historical-perspective/why-philadelphia-">time when Black people</a> faced discriminatory hiring practices, police brutality and were shut out of the new suburban housing boom and opportunities to build wealth.</p>
<p>Sullivan founded the <a href="https://oicofamerica.org/our-history/">Opportunity Industrialization Center</a> to provide employment training to address urban poverty and racial inequality. </p>
<p>He is best known for urging American corporations to divest from South Africa during apartheid, and his “<a href="http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/links/sullivanprinciples.html#:%7E:text=The%20objectives%20of%20the%20Global,and%20boards%3B%20to%20train%20and">Global Sullivan Principles</a>” set guidelines for multinational corporations to do so. In 1962, Sullivan led his congregation to establish a “<a href="https://wurdradio.com/build-brother-build-build-sister-build/">community investment cooperation model</a>” known as the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.5323/jafriamerhist.96.1.0090">10-36 Plan</a>.”</p>
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<p>By 1968, the 10-36 Plan had over 3,300 members and $400,000 worth of assets secured to build <a href="https://progressplaza.com/about-us/our-founder/">Progress Plaza</a>, which is one of the nation’s first shopping centers owned, operated and primarily funded by Black Americans. </p>
<p>Sullivan also led efforts to start the <a href="https://blackthen.com/leon-h-sullivan-initiated-original-sullivan-principles/">Selective Patronage Program</a> – boycotting companies that failed to hire Black and other minority employees.</p>
<h2>Lessons of the past</h2>
<p><a href="https://aaas.fas.harvard.edu/people/henry-louis-gates-jr">Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.</a> – who narrated a <a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/black-church/">PBS documentary series</a> on the Black church – has noted how the institution became a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/624481/the-black-church-by-henry-louis-gates-jr/9781984880338">laboratory for the creation of a new culture</a> for the benefit of Black Americans. </p>
<p>For this reason, it has always served as a pillar that has helped families and communities disproportionately affected by health, economic and racial crises – both in the early days of the Black church through to today’s uncertain times. </p>
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<p><a href="https://www.ats.edu/">George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University is a member of the Association of Theological Schools.</a></p>
<footer>The ATS is a funding partner of The Conversation US.</footer>
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</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153374/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Stephanie Clintonia Boddie received funding from the Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE) at Carnegie Mellon University as the 2015-2016 post-doctoral CAUSE fellow.
She is also a research associate of The International Black Business Museum.
</span></em></p>A history of how African American congregations in Philadelphia weathered crises over 200 years.Stephanie Clintonia Boddie, Assistant Professor of Church and Community Ministries, Baylor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1443912020-09-04T12:26:05Z2020-09-04T12:26:05ZWhy masks are a religious issue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355847/original/file-20200901-22-dytuaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5108%2C2880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anti-mask protesters at a rally in Orem, Utah.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Utah/3f4cb6aa556e40ed8fd785631a41e3ba/71/0">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Seemingly everyone has an opinion on masks: when to wear them, how to wear them, which ones are best and even whether we should be wearing them at all.</p>
<p>For those in this last camp, a popular argument is that the coverings aren’t the problem, but <a href="https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/2020/07/27/anti-mask-protesters-indianapolis-claim-governmental-overreach/5520232002/">being forced by a government entity to wear one</a> is. It’s the mandate, not the mask, some might say.</p>
<p>Some anti-maskers have claimed that being forced to wear a face covering <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/may/1/forced-face-masking-civil-rights-offense/">violates their religious rights</a>. Back in May, Ohio State Rep. Nino Vitale, a Republican, publicly <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ohio-lawmaker-refuses-wear-mask-because-he-says-it-dishonors-n1201106">rejected</a> mask-wearing on the grounds that covering one’s face dishonors God. This view is echoed by some individual faith leaders, with churches <a href="https://khn.org/news/churches-mask-wearing-colorado-springs-congregations-flour-mask-orders/">flouting requirements</a> that congregants wear masks. Meanwhile, media-savvy pastors have put <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PastorLocke/videos/615824959335756/?v=615824959335756">anti-mask posts on Facebook</a> that have been viewed millions of times. </p>
<p>And a recent <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jssr.12677">study</a> revealed that the rejection of masks is higher in populations that associate with conservative politics and the idea that the United States is a divinely chosen nation.</p>
<p>Is it that masks are a religious matter, or is religion being used to suit people’s political agendas? Socially speaking, both things can be true.</p>
<h2>The function of religion</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.avila.edu/academics/schools-colleges/college-of-liberal-arts-social-sciences/humanities/religious-studies-and-philosophy/faculty-3/faculty-dr-leslie-dorrough-smith">scholar who studies Christian conservatism and its impact on culture</a>, I believe society often adopts an overly narrow understanding of how religion works. </p>
<p>Using religion to support one’s political interests is generally viewed as a negative thing that represents the hijacking or twisting of religion. Such a view is echoed in the words of preacher and activist Rev. William Barber, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/08/trump-religion-megachurch-american-tradition">who said</a> Donald Trump’s alliance with evangelical Christians was a “misuse of religion.” </p>
<p>From a scholarly perspective, though, all forms of religion affect society in some way – even if those outcomes are deemed undesirable or unethical by certain groups. Examining how religion operates in society can help us understand why the conversation over masks has recently turned religious.</p>
<p>In his landmark <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo4038430.html">analysis</a> of the social impact of religion, <a href="https://divinity.uchicago.edu/directory/bruce-lincoln">scholar Bruce Lincoln</a> argued that there is no realm of life that cannot somehow be made religious. This is not because there are topics that are specific or unique to religion, but because of what happens to the authority of a claim when religious language is used. In other words, when people use religious speech, their authority is often perceived to be heightened.</p>
<p>For example, if someone plans to marry a partner they don’t appear to like very much, their claim that “we’ve been together a long time” may not come across as a convincing argument for a wedding. But what if that same person says that “God has brought this other person into my life”? That reason may be more readily accepted if the public hearing these words is already open to religious ideas. </p>
<p>Taking this approach to religion doesn’t mean that all religious claims are factually true or ethical. It also doesn’t mean that the people who use religious language are insincere or even wrong. Rather, the function of religious speech is to amplify the authority of an idea through appeals to seemingly unquestionable authorities, like deities and “ultimate truths.” If a statement does this, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo4038430.html">Lincoln concludes</a>, then it is religious. </p>
<h2>Special authority</h2>
<p>These are important considerations for the debate over masks. Using religious language to justify an anti-mask position is a move intended to amplify the voices of those who make this claim. And public health issues have long been a concern of American religious groups.</p>
<p>For example, when it comes to childhood vaccinations, arguing for <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/school-immunization-exemption-state-laws.aspx">exemption on philosophical or moral grounds</a> will work in only 15 states. But arguing a religious objection will be <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/28/nearly-all-states-allow-religious-exemptions-for-vaccinations/">accepted in at least 44 of 50 states</a>. The difference is that, in the United States, religious claims are often granted a special type of authority.</p>
<p>Consider also that Americans generally <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/parenting/guides/circumcision-baby-boy.html">accept</a> the circumcision of infant boys on religious grounds. This is true despite the fact that some <a href="https://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/for-parents/reasons-to-keep-your-son-whole/">medical authorities and activists</a> have questioned both the ethics and health impact of performing this specific surgery, which is otherwise elective and cosmetic, on a newborn. </p>
<p>This does not mean, however, that if religion is involved, then anything goes. As recently as 2014, a faith-healing couple was sentenced to <a href="https://time.com/8750/faith-healing-parents-jailed-after-second-childs-death/">jail time</a> after the preventable deaths of two of their children. The couple claimed that seeking medical care was against their religion. </p>
<p>These examples provide some clarity on when religious rhetoric is successful and when it is not. Groups, beliefs or practices that are already popular or commonplace often appear to get a boost of authority when religious language is used to describe them. If the claim is unpopular or the group is not considered mainstream, then religious language may have little impact.</p>
<h2>Barometer of public opinion</h2>
<p>Masks are a religious issue because some people have described them that way. But this does not mean that such religious claims have successfully granted them authority. Despite an existing <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/23/most-americans-say-they-regularly-wore-a-mask-in-stores-in-the-past-month-fewer-see-others-doing-it/">partisan divide</a> on the matter, there is still no widespread sentiment among Americans that a government mask mandate is religiously problematic.</p>
<p>This means that those who rail against masks for religious reasons may not gain a lot of traction right now among the wider American public, when more than <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html">6 million Americans</a> have so far been infected with the virus. There is simply too much fear presently to make that a popular line of reasoning. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>But if that number wanes, I believe it is entirely possible that religious rationales against masking could receive renewed, and even broader, support as the culture’s interests change. </p>
<p>This is a good reminder that whether religious ideas take hold is not so much a matter of “truth” or ethics. Rather, the issue at hand is often the barometer of public opinion.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that 6 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus to date.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144391/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leslie Dorrough Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Are masks a religious matter, or is religion being used to suit people’s political agendas? A scholar of Christian conservatism and culture argues both can be true.Leslie Dorrough Smith, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Women's and Gender Studies Program, Avila UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1397112020-06-12T13:02:00Z2020-06-12T13:02:00ZChurchgoers aren’t able to lift every voice and sing during the pandemic – here’s why that matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341295/original/file-20200611-80784-1ds5fqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5991%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Even when singing does take place, voices are muffled.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-sings-and-claps-during-easter-sunday-morning-services-news-photo/1209750098?adppopup=true">Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Because of COVID-19, churches no longer reverberate with song; hymnals are neatly stacked and projection screens blank. Even as church leaders plan for reopening, scientists warn that it <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-06-01/coronavirus-choir-singing-cdc-warning">might be too early to resume singing in groups</a>. </p>
<p>Though such restrictions are understandable, they rob congregations of an important aspect of their Christian faith. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A18-19&version=NIV">Believers should be</a> “filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” </p>
<p>As a choral conductor, <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/music/cox_donna.php">scholar in African American sacred music</a> and teacher of sacred music and worship, I have studied the relationship between singing and worship for over three decades. Singing is critical to identity and faith. In some traditions, it is as important as the sermon. In African American churches, for instance, there is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Black-Worship-Trilogy-Preaching-Praying/dp/0937644013">an equal emphasis on preaching, praying and singing</a>.</p>
<h2>First, verse</h2>
<p>The importance of song in Christian worship can be traced to its Judaic beginnings. Throughout the biblical canon, <a href="https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/what-is-the-apocrypha-are-apocryphal-books-really-scripture.html">the Apocrypha</a>, the collection of books omitted from the Protestant Bible and noncanonical biblical texts, there are <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/737240.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Aaf50d49ab1bafe6a7b14b83553af95cc">hundreds of references to Christians singing</a>.</p>
<p>In the Old Testament, singing was used to praise God, provide lessons for the community, confess sins, provide solace in times of lamentation and joy in times of celebration. For instance, Moses and sister Miriam memorialized the miraculous exodus from Egypt through the Red Sea in song. </p>
<p>Early Christians even sang their prayers. The Book of Psalms – a collection of 150 songs and proclamations – served as the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Enter-His-Courts-Praise-IV/dp/1565632753">songbook of the early church</a>.</p>
<p>The New Testament is similarly filled with song. In the Book of James, the Apostle Paul and his companion, Silas, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2016:16-40&version=NIV">sang their way to freedom</a> in a jail. After the Last Supper, Jesus <a href="https://biblehub.com/matthew/26-30.htm">led the disciples in song</a>. </p>
<h2>Main chorus</h2>
<p>Singing has tremendous power, both spiritually and physically.</p>
<p>When people sing, sound runs through the body, giving rise to emotion and facilitating transformation. It acts as a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/music-making-found-to-be-powerful-antidepressant/">natural antidepressant</a> by releasing endorphins, the feel-good chemical. Studies have also linked singing with <a href="https://www.room217.ca/article/dementia-and-music-therapy-memory-stimulation">improved mental alertness, memory and concentration</a> through increased oxygenated blood to the brain. Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg found that <a href="https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=jbffl">changes in the brain during worship</a> make people “nicer, more forgiving, and trustful.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p6ZLQCOWMoo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Choral singing creates the kind of community togetherness that is necessary in churches. It brings disparate parts into a cohesive oneness, just as corporate worship – the <a href="https://biblehub.com/matthew/18-20.html">gathering of the faithful to worship together</a> – brings individuals into oneness in Christ. </p>
<p>Bringing people together for song has proven to be dangerous in the coronavirus pandemic. On March 10, a group of 61 singers met at the Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church in Washington state for rehearsal. One of the members <a href="https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-superspreader-singing.html">unknowingly infected 52 people with COVID-19</a>; two people died.</p>
<p>Stay-at-home orders designed to stem the spread of diseases hit church music programs hard – some more than others. </p>
<p>Conversations I have had with church music directors around the country reveal the creativity employed to keep the music going: utilizing solo performers, prerecorded music, reducing the amount of music to the essential in liturgical services and creating virtual choirs.</p>
<p>Those with praise teams and bands that lead the congregation in song found it easier to provide music in online services – with fewer people, social distancing was easier to maintain. As a result, they continued to rehearse and perform in livestreamed or prerecorded services.</p>
<p>For churches that rely on choirs to carry the music, things have been tougher.</p>
<p>National guidelines limiting gatherings to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/large-events/mass-gatherings-ready-for-covid-19.html">10 or fewer people</a> meant no in-person choir rehearsals. Virtual choir rehearsals and performances are very problematic. Differences in bandwidth create lags that challenge the essence of choral singing: cohesion and community. Virtual performances demand technological expertise most choral directors are not trained to execute.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341298/original/file-20200611-80746-oqt6ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341298/original/file-20200611-80746-oqt6ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341298/original/file-20200611-80746-oqt6ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341298/original/file-20200611-80746-oqt6ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341298/original/file-20200611-80746-oqt6ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341298/original/file-20200611-80746-oqt6ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341298/original/file-20200611-80746-oqt6ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A drive-in singalong during an Easter service at the First Baptist Church in Plaistow, New Hampshire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cindy-simard-sings-a-song-during-a-drive-in-easter-service-news-photo/1209753319?adppopup=true">Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The resulting experience often falls short of a true choral experience. My own gospel choir, the Ebony Heritage Singers, <a href="https://youtu.be/p6ZLQCOWMoo">recorded a song</a> for the University of Dayton’s virtual commencement using this technique. The result was pleasing, but it lacked the true feel of a gospel music performance. </p>
<p>In my experience, virtual choral experiences are pale imitations of the real thing. Being connected in a physical way, feeling each others’ inhalations, coordinating exhalations and blending voices gives life to singers and to congregations. </p>
<h2>A codetta?</h2>
<p>Although research on the spread of COVID-19 is rapidly changing, singing in groups might be deemed too risky to enable churches to return to anything approaching “normal” for a long time.</p>
<p>So, until further notice, congregations are being advised to consider alternatives to singing. Worship may still be joyful, but it will likely be more quiet. </p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-facts">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139711/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donna M. Cox does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A choral conductor and scholar of sacred music explains what’s missing from church worship with singing banned due to the pandemic – and why live choir rehearsals are still a ways offDonna M. Cox, Professor of Music, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1400522020-06-10T12:13:39Z2020-06-10T12:13:39ZAre religious communities reviving the revival? In the US, outdoor worship has a long tradition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340645/original/file-20200609-21226-15hgjea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4193%2C2797&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A pastor leads a prayer at an outdoor Easter service.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Florida-Easter/f680fd442e95408ebbeb17121cd92dab/14/0">AP Photo/Chris O'Meara</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Religious communities have been forced to find alternative ways to worship together during the coronavirus pandemic. For some that has meant going online, but others have turned to a distinctly non-digital practice steeped in this history of the American religious experience: outdoor worship.</p>
<p>Prayer sessions <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/05/26/video-shows-socially-distanced-muslims-praying-in-ikea-lot/">in parking lots</a> and services in green spaces formed part of an improvised response to the lockdown by religious leaders and they may now be <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/06/09/skip-singing-shake-hands-short-sermons-ecumenical-guide-on-reopen-church-covid19/">part of the plan</a> as the United States emerges from the crisis. Indeed, a team of clergy and scientists have issued <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DhfgclYRUomeWApWtRGPr_tZJ4pe5ew6/view">a new guide</a> suggesting, among other recommendations, that baptisms could take place in “flowing streams, lakes or in beach settings.”</p>
<p>So are brick-and-mortar houses of worship essential? </p>
<p>It is a question that states and courts, <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-reopening-churches-in-the-pandemic-supreme-court-says-grace-aint-groceries-135287">including the U.S. Supreme Court</a>, have asked in considering the extent to which states can or should place restrictions on meetings in religious buildings.</p>
<p>Religious communities, too, have reflected on whether the terms “church,” “mosque,” “temple” or “synagogue” describe a building or a community – it is as much a religious question as a legal one. The responses to this question vary between traditions, communities and individuals. </p>
<p>The history of outdoor worship in the United States reveals a diversity of understandings of the proper place of worship. As a <a href="https://www.philrs.iastate.edu/directory/jeffrey-wheatley/">scholar of American religious history</a>, I believe it also reveals an irony: While white evangelical Protestants have been some of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/coronavirus-churches-florida-social-distancing">more vocal protesters of government restrictions</a> on houses of worship during the pandemic, they actually have a long history of embracing outdoor worship. </p>
<h2>Observing outside</h2>
<p>A variety of American religious communities in the 18th and 19th centuries made do without physical houses of worship. They turned to alternative spaces for worship out of necessity – due to lack of institutional support and issues of religious freedom – or even preference.</p>
<p>Protestant communities were chief among the groups who considered making do without a physical church. Protestantism emerged in the 16th-century Reformation in part as a protest against some of the more formal aspects of the Roman Catholic Church, such as elaborate buildings, holy objects and even regular access to religious authority figures. As such, Protestants in this period were theologically more open to holding services outside of churches.</p>
<p>The emergence of evangelical forms of worship in the 18th and 19th centuries included outdoor revival meetings, which Protestant groups such as the Methodists, Baptists and Shakers helped popularize. Revivals included spontaneous preaching, hymns, displays of emotion and an emphasis on conversion.
Large crowds met for days at a time at outdoor sites like <a href="https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/revival-at-cane-ridge">the one at Cane Ridge</a>, Kentucky, where thousands congregated in 1801. Though not the first, the Cane Ridge Revival signaled the emerging popularity of evangelical outdoor services in the 19th century.</p>
<p>Historian Brett Grainger has <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674919372">argued</a> that evangelicals, through revivalism, formed a mystical relationship with nature. For white settlers in America, hosting revivals in frontier spaces was also a way of sanctifying the colonization of land held by indigenous peoples, who have <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538104743/Religion-and-Culture-in-Native-America">their own</a> intricate relationships with nature and outdoor worship.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340654/original/file-20200609-21191-kuklnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340654/original/file-20200609-21191-kuklnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340654/original/file-20200609-21191-kuklnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340654/original/file-20200609-21191-kuklnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340654/original/file-20200609-21191-kuklnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340654/original/file-20200609-21191-kuklnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340654/original/file-20200609-21191-kuklnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340654/original/file-20200609-21191-kuklnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Camp meeting of the Methodists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98508274/">Library on Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Enslaved black people, too, embraced forms of outdoor worship. Some met in what were called “<a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html">hush harbors</a>,” or secret meetings held outside of established churches. In these meetings, as scholar of religion Albert Raboteau has <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/slave-religion-9780195174120?cc=us&lang=en&">examined</a>, black people could partake in Christian and African-derived worship practices apart from white surveillance and pro-slavery Christianity. The outdoors provided a refuge.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.ushistory.org/us/26f.asp#:%7E:text=A%20transcendentalist%20is%20a%20person,Boston%20home%20of%20George%20Ripley.">19th-century white transcendentalists</a> such as Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau emphasized nature as a site of devotional reflection to discern the reality of the divine. Emerson wrote in his essay “<a href="https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/nature.html">Nature</a>” that: “The aspect of nature is devout. Like the figure of Jesus, she stands with bended head, and hands folded upon the breast. The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.” </p>
<p>They sought to transcend their individual selves into a greater universal being. This required not churches but the experience and appreciation of nature.</p>
<h2>Parking lot prayers</h2>
<p>During the pandemic, different religious communities responded differently to the restrictions on indoor worship and the possible alternative of hosting events outdoors.</p>
<p>The emphasis on ritual prayer in the Islamic tradition comes with a degree of flexibility for the safety and convenience of pious Muslims. <a href="https://imana.org/imana-backup/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Joint-Statement-on-Phased-Reopening-of-Mosques_05182020.pdf">A statement</a> by the <a href="https://amhp.us/national-muslim-task-force/">National Muslim Task Force on COVID-19</a>, for example, considers recommendations from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, local laws and Islamic moral tradition in asking Muslims to use caution and discernment in how they meet to pray. Where practical, the statement suggests that communities use mosque grounds or parking lots for Friday prayers.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.jta.org/2020/05/22/politics/trump-demands-that-states-let-synagogues-and-other-houses-of-worship-reopen">Most Jewish denominations</a> have emphasized the need to keep synagogue buildings closed. Instead, many Jews have turned to virtual or outdoor worship services. Some Hasidic Jews <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/opinion/hasidic-jews-covid-distancing.html">have debated</a> the permissibility of this and even <a href="https://theconversation.com/jewish-history-explains-why-some-ultra-orthodox-communities-defy-coronavirus-restrictions-135292">questioned the scale of the threat of COVID-19</a>, as have a minority in all faiths.</p>
<p>In-person services play an important role in the Catholic tradition. Some Catholic leaders, such as <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/catholic-cardinal-burke-says-faithful-should-attend-mass-despite-coronavirus">Cardinal Raymond Burke</a> have pushed for churches to remain open. Nonetheless, Pope Francis has <a href="https://www.theoaklandpress.com/news/pope-urges-virus-lockdown-obedience-amid-church-state-debate/article_8321dd64-8999-11ea-a273-03b080bbe6e2.html">urged</a> churches to take precautions and follow the recommendations and mandates of local governments. Priests have had to adapt and find ways to bring the sacraments to parishioners outside of the church. </p>
<h2>Nave or nature?</h2>
<p>If any group’s theologies and histories suggest an adaptability to the present situation, Protestants would be high up there. Some Protestant communities today affirm outdoor worship as a positive good. For example, the <a href="https://www.wildchurchnetwork.com/">Wild Church Network</a> comprises Christians who “question the wisdom and consequences of regarding ‘church’ as a building where you gather away from the rest of the world for a couple hours on Sundays.” Nature, more than the inside of a building, is a proper space for Christian devotion for this network.</p>
<p>Evangelical Protestants have been among those who have defied government shutdowns of houses of worship. As scholar of religion Pamela Klassen <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-religious-freedom-stokes-coronavirus-protests-in-the-u-s-but-not-canada-136557">has argued</a>, the resistance is especially evident in the United States, where conservative religious groups have long developed suspicions to government authorities and modern science, especially when it concerns public health.</p>
<p>But as the history of outdoor worship in the United States shows, adapting religious services to an outdoor setting is not uncommon. Historically, religious communities have long contested the essentialness of brick-and-mortar houses of worship.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Wheatley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If worshippers congregate outside amid coronavirus fears, it wouldn’t be unprecedented. Early settlers used outside worship to sanctify colonized land, and slaves relied on it to meet in secret.Jeffrey Wheatley, Instructor, of Philosophy & Religious Studies, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1384092020-05-20T12:10:35Z2020-05-20T12:10:35ZLong before face masks, Islamic healers tried to ward off disease with their version of PPE<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335834/original/file-20200518-83348-alxfyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C2982%2C1913&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Faithful in many religions, including Islam, may turn to healing amulets like necklaces and other small objects in difficult times.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/kashmiri-muslim-woman-hold-amulets-in-her-hands-given-to-news-photo/148191211?adppopup=true">Yawar Nazir/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just as many now <a href="https://theconversation.com/masks-help-stop-the-spread-of-coronavirus-the-science-is-simple-and-im-one-of-100-experts-urging-governors-to-require-public-mask-wearing-138507">don face masks</a> and do <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-jk-rowlings-breathing-technique-cure-the-coronavirus-no-it-could-help-spread-it-135935">breathing exercises</a> to protect against COVID-19 – despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-everyone-be-wearing-face-masks-its-complicated-135548">debate around the science behind such practices</a> – so too did the Islamic world turn to protective devices and rituals in premodern times of trouble.</p>
<p>From the 11th century until around the 19th century, Muslim cultures witnessed the use of <a href="https://www.academia.edu/11255688/Amulets_Magic_and_Talisman">magic bowls, healing necklaces and other objects</a> in hopes of warding off drought, famine, floods and even epidemic diseases. </p>
<p>Many of these amulets and talismans are beautifully crafted objects, and so are of interest to <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/histart/people/faculty/cjgruber.html">art historians such as myself</a>. And while they are now largely seen as relics of folk belief and superstition, in the premodern era these ritual objects emerged from elite spheres of Islamic knowledge, science and art.</p>
<h2>Islamic personal protective gear</h2>
<p>The phrase “personal protective equipment” – or “<a href="https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/general-hospital-devices-and-supplies/personal-protective-equipment-infection-control">PPE</a>,” in hospital lingo – has become part of our daily lives as we watch frontline health workers don gowns, face shields and gloves to protect themselves from COVID-19. </p>
<p>Before the germ theory of disease, in Islamic lands epidemics were often conceptualized as a pestilential corruption of the air, through which <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3632188?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">“humid” spirits entered the human body</a>. Some medieval Islamic thinkers also thought the plague was caused by <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3632188?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.">black angels shooting invisible arrows</a>.</p>
<p>The Arabic language still reflects this historic understanding of disease as an invading enemy: The term for “plague” – ta‘un – derives from the verb “ta'ana,” to pierce or strike. </p>
<p>Protecting its wearer against a range of assaults, the quintessential premodern Islamic PPE was the talismanic shirt – a cloth garment inscribed with holy text and often worn in warfare. Featuring circular designs on the chest, shoulder pad roundels and a fringed lapel, the talismanic shirt may sound like something out of the disco era – but in practice it more closely recalls the body armor of war.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335547/original/file-20200517-138644-1wvpf5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335547/original/file-20200517-138644-1wvpf5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335547/original/file-20200517-138644-1wvpf5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335547/original/file-20200517-138644-1wvpf5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335547/original/file-20200517-138644-1wvpf5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335547/original/file-20200517-138644-1wvpf5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335547/original/file-20200517-138644-1wvpf5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335547/original/file-20200517-138644-1wvpf5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Talismanic shirt made in India in the 15th or 16th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/453498">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Covered in squares, numbers and designs, the shirts were “<a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/arab/64/3-4/article-p673_673.xml">amuletically charged</a>,” meaning they were thought capable of physically protecting the wearer against disease and death. </p>
<p>One <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/453498">group of South Asian talismanic shirts</a> from the 15th and 16th centuries displays the entire text of the Quran as well as all God’s names. Read aloud, these names would turn the shirt into a kind of “textile rosary,” <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/arab/64/3-4/article-p673_673.xml">according to religious studies researcher Rose Muravchick</a>, allowing its owner to recite a pious litany in God’s honor.</p>
<p>Other talismanic shirts, from India, included a <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/fabric-of-india/guest-post-a-warriors-magic-shirt">protective panel on the back</a> inscribed with a Quranic verse calling God “the Best Guardian and the Most Merciful of the Merciful Ones.” </p>
<h2>Anti-plague design</h2>
<p>Other common medieval Islamic PPEs included the miniature <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/452893">talismanic scroll</a> – a tiny roll of Quranic verses on affordable block-printed paper – and amuletic designs like the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/seal-of-solomon/EF8A70326592F0FC40A30D6DD5A723DE">six-pointed seal of Solomon</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335847/original/file-20200518-83380-10vrgcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335847/original/file-20200518-83380-10vrgcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335847/original/file-20200518-83380-10vrgcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335847/original/file-20200518-83380-10vrgcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335847/original/file-20200518-83380-10vrgcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335847/original/file-20200518-83380-10vrgcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335847/original/file-20200518-83380-10vrgcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335847/original/file-20200518-83380-10vrgcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eleventh-century talismanic scroll from Egypt (left) and pendant with the ‘Garden of Names’ anti-plague amulet for sale online today (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/452893">Metropolitan Museum of Art/Screengrab, www.dilekbora.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Quranic scrolls and amulets were worn around the neck or otherwise attached to the body, suggesting that physical contact with the object was thought to unlock the enclosed blessings or life force, <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/baraka">known as “baraka” in Arabic</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps most germane to today’s pandemic was the Islamic anti-plague talisman known as the “Garden of Names,” used across the Islamic world and especially popular in Ottoman lands.</p>
<p>The Garden of Names, or Jannat al-asma’ in Arabic, is a circular amuletic design that contains 19 letters and numbers, verses from the Quran and several names of God. Some painted images of this device show controlled smudges, suggesting that people <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-plague-quarantines-and-geopolitics-in-the-ottoman-empire-hb.html">kissed, rubbed or made potions out of the design</a> to activate its baraka.</p>
<h2>Healing water</h2>
<p>Water has important healing properties in Islamic traditions, too, being associated with cleanliness and godliness. The Quran credits it as the source of “every living thing.” </p>
<p>Since the seventh century, Muslims visiting the holy city of Mecca, located in Saudi Arabia, have visited the Zamzam well, whose water is thought to have curative properties. There, religious pilgrims still <a href="https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=214909&partId=1">fill flasks</a> with the holy liquid, which is then drunk straight or mixed with other liquids into therapeutic potions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335831/original/file-20200518-83397-1f5tmw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335831/original/file-20200518-83397-1f5tmw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335831/original/file-20200518-83397-1f5tmw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335831/original/file-20200518-83397-1f5tmw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335831/original/file-20200518-83397-1f5tmw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335831/original/file-20200518-83397-1f5tmw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335831/original/file-20200518-83397-1f5tmw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335831/original/file-20200518-83397-1f5tmw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muslim pilgrims drinking Zamzam water upon arrival in the holy city of Mecca in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/saudi-men-offer-muslim-pilgrims-zamzam-water-upon-their-news-photo/1160106847?adppopup=true">Fethi Belaid/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, you can buy a plastic bottle <a href="https://www.amazon.com/JarZamzam-Water-Zamzam-500-Ml/dp/B00IK35N6K/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=zamzam+water&qid=1589651424&sr=8-7">of Zamzam water online for about US$14</a>. In earlier centuries, however, Zamzam water was carried home in <a href="https://agakhanmuseum.org/collection/artifact/ablution-basin-akm722">ceramic jugs and basins</a> for use in ritual cleaning before a meal or prayer. </p>
<p>Alternatively, regular water could turn curative if a folk doctor poured it into special metal bowls decorated with talismanic words and images while praying. Some of these talismanic bowls specify the reason for their creation, so <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/594826?seq=1">historians know</a> they were used to heal everything from poison and dog bites to intestinal problems, “pain of the heart” – that is, heartbreak – and the plague. For centuries, Muslim women in labor were also cooled with water from these bowls. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335843/original/file-20200518-83352-9bgikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335843/original/file-20200518-83352-9bgikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335843/original/file-20200518-83352-9bgikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335843/original/file-20200518-83352-9bgikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335843/original/file-20200518-83352-9bgikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335843/original/file-20200518-83352-9bgikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335843/original/file-20200518-83352-9bgikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A metal magico-medicinal bowl, left, and a ceramic ablutions basic inscribed with the word ‘taharat,’ meaning purity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Michigan Hatcher Library/Aga Khan Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Islamic healing today</h2>
<p>Traditional Islamic protective and healing arts have <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/iran-confronts-coronavirus-amid-battle-between-science-and-conspiracy-theories">largely ceded the way to modern medicine and technology</a>. </p>
<p>But amuletic objects and homeopathic practices still exist in the Islamic world, as they do in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-buddhists-handle-coronavirus-the-answer-is-not-just-meditation-137966">many faith cultures across the globe</a>. Some Muslims still use magico-medicinal bowls at home; they’re <a href="https://www.ebay.com/b/islamic-brass-bowl/bn_7024807378">sold on eBay</a>.</p>
<p>Like prayer or meditation – which can have something of a placebo effect, bringing <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/relaxation-techniques-breath-control-helps-quell-errant-stress-response">real benefits for both mind and body</a> – Muslims facing sickness or other crises found strength and solace in religious objects for nearly a millennium. </p>
<p>As art objects, too, these artifacts speak to a human desire to seek comfort and cure in creativity and design. That is a <a href="https://news.ucsc.edu/2020/04/art-in-time-of-covid.html">feature of today’s pandemic</a>, too. </p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-help">Read The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138409/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christiane Gruber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From magic bowls to holy shirts, Muslim cultures used various devices to protect the user from harm starting in the 11th century. Many of these objects were beautifully designed, too.Christiane Gruber, Professor of Islamic Art, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1353882020-04-22T12:03:45Z2020-04-22T12:03:45ZBeating coronavirus requires faith leaders to bridge gap between religion and science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329584/original/file-20200421-82654-bjl6mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4179%2C2696&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some members of New York's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community defied the government's ban on gathering for Passover and other religious occasions, Brooklyn, April 16, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-orthodox-jewish-community-gather-on-april-8-news-photo/1209496819?adppopup=true">ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While many religious communities have <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/27/21194239/coronavirus-churches-online-pray-com">embraced physical distancing</a> measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-louisiana-life-tabernacle-church-packed-services-again-charges-against-pastor-tony-spell/">some still encourage</a> gatherings despite strong public health messages that large groups run a significant threat of disease transmission.</p>
<p>Some ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in New York continue to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-york-governor-tells-ultra-orthodox-jews-to-halt-large-gatherings/">gather for funerals</a>, weeks after physical distancing guidelines went into effect in the city. Four Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations have <a href="https://www.jta.org/2020/04/02/united-states/brooklyns-orthodox-neighborhoods-have-especially-high-rates-of-coronavirus">especially high rates of coronavirus infection</a>, according to data released in early April.</p>
<p>Other religious leaders are using the pulpit to spread misinformation. The evangelical pastor Kenneth Copeland, for example, claims to <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-televangelist-cure-coronavirus-television-sets-20200313-wvkb2aqkwzfvzgu3lzwhw6223u-story.html">have cures</a> for COVID-19. And some <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/16/835710029/hindu-nationalists-blame-muslims-for-indias-covid-19-crisis">Hindu nationalists in India have blamed Muslims</a> for the country’s outbreak, leading to a surge in hate crimes.</p>
<p>As these situations demonstrate, millions of people worldwide look more to religious authorities than health officials for guidance on how to behave and what to believe in a crisis. <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/subprojects/the-role-of-religion-and-faith-actors-in-the-ebola-crisis">My research</a> on the intersections between public health and religion suggests enlisting religious institutions worldwide will be vital in stopping the spread of coronavirus.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329582/original/file-20200421-82654-gvr3nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=76%2C95%2C4045%2C2561&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329582/original/file-20200421-82654-gvr3nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329582/original/file-20200421-82654-gvr3nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329582/original/file-20200421-82654-gvr3nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329582/original/file-20200421-82654-gvr3nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329582/original/file-20200421-82654-gvr3nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329582/original/file-20200421-82654-gvr3nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope Francis presides over Good Friday service at an empty St. Peter’s Square during the coronavirus pandemic, Vatican City, April 10, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/good-friday-way-of-the-cross-presided-over-by-pope-francis-news-photo/1219123864?adppopup=true">Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Connecting theology and health</h2>
<p>Social resistance to medical intervention often drives the transmission of infectious diseases, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6762146/">research shows</a>.</p>
<p>Studying the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which killed <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/history/2014-2016-outbreak/index.html">over 11,000 people</a> between 2014 and 2016, I have identified <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)61082-0/fulltext">important lessons</a> – both positive and negative – about how religious actors can help build essential bridges between faith and science to strengthen a pandemic response.</p>
<p>Bridging theology and science was imperative in the Ebola outbreak, when up to <a href="https://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/ebola-6-months/sierra-leone/en/">60% of Ebola cases</a> were linked to funerals. Traditional religious burials in West Africa, both Christian and Muslim, often involve touching and washing the body, yet contact with <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/index.html">body fluids spread Ebola</a>.</p>
<p>For the first months of the outbreak, in early 2014, government prescriptions to <a href="https://www.voanews.com/africa/who-traditional-burials-hamper-ebola-fight">cremate or swiftly bury the dead</a> sparked <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60938-7/fulltext">fears and suspicion</a> in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – the most affected countries. Many relief workers, outsiders dressed in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/12/17/371413804/dreaming-up-a-safer-cooler-ppe-for-ebola-fighters">spacesuit-like protective outfits</a> sent in to implement these procedures in Ebola-affected communities, were <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-ebola-westafrica/as-ebola-stalks-west-africa-medics-fight-mistrust-hostility-idUSKBN0FI0P520140714">blocked from entering</a>. Others faced <a href="https://www.intrahealth.org/vital/health-workers-pay-ultimate-price-fight-against-ebola">violent, even deadly, physical attacks</a>.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2014/ebola-burial-protocol/en/">late 2014</a>, public health officials and religious leaders got together with the World Health Organization to produce a <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/137379/WHO_EVD_GUIDANCE_Burials_14.2_eng.pdf;jsessionid=E527DA07AC456600E8CCD54835F76504?sequence=1">protocol for culturally sensitive burials</a> of Ebola victims. Over <a href="https://www.wvi.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/CoH%20Ebola_2020_FINAL.pdf">2,000 Christian and Muslim leaders</a> were trained to conduct safe, dignified funerals in Liberia and Sierra Leone. </p>
<p>The burial protocol may have <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-40375693">saved thousands of lives</a>, according to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005491">2017 study</a> published in the journal of <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/">Neglected Tropical Diseases</a>.</p>
<h2>Faith and trust</h2>
<p>Among the <a href="https://www.international-alert.org/sites/default/files/Liberia_SurvivingEbola_EN_2015.pdf">assets that religious actors offer is trust</a> – perhaps the most vital key in a crisis for addressing fear and misinformation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329585/original/file-20200421-82650-71g5el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329585/original/file-20200421-82650-71g5el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329585/original/file-20200421-82650-71g5el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329585/original/file-20200421-82650-71g5el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329585/original/file-20200421-82650-71g5el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329585/original/file-20200421-82650-71g5el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329585/original/file-20200421-82650-71g5el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329585/original/file-20200421-82650-71g5el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A family in Liberia watches the burial of a loved one during the Ebola outbreak, Disco Hill, Liberia, Jan. 27, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/family-watches-as-a-burial-team-lowers-their-loved-one-into-news-photo/462412428?adppopup=true">John Moore/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After an initial period of doubt and confusion, when many faith leaders in West Africa <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/world/africa/after-ebola-outbreak-liberian-churches-confront-crisis-of-faith.html">understood Ebola as divine punishment</a> for various sins or simply as fate, public health officials made a concerted effort to get religious leaders to the same tables as scientists to educate and engage them on health education. </p>
<p>By late 2014, faith-inspired organizations like <a href="https://www.worldvision.org/health-news-stories/2014-ebola-virus-outbreak-facts">World Vision International</a> were organizing workshops that taught public health practices like meticulous hygiene and quarantining of people exposed to Ebola grounded in theology and scripture. </p>
<p>Like the burial protocol, such programs proved to be a <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)61082-0/fulltext">crucial step in halting the spread</a> of Ebola.</p>
<p>An equivalent intervention for COVID-19 might be a simple message focused on physical distancing, for example – framed by religious leaders in terms people can understand and accept. </p>
<h2>Building bridges</h2>
<p>Any COVID-19 prevention program aimed at religious communities would have to work with faith-based organizations that know local leaders and have roots in the community. </p>
<p>But it is difficult to build partnerships between faith and health networks not accustomed to working together.</p>
<p>The Ebola outbreak demonstrated that relationships between religious and health institutions in West Africa <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/publications/response-to-ebola-mapping-religious-networks-and-fios">were at best patchy</a>. Governments, international health agencies and aid groups lacked systematic knowledge about the region’s diverse <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)61082-0">religious landscape</a>, which includes Christianity, Islam and traditional African religions. And little relevant public information was available to help them learn the ropes.</p>
<p>Ultimately, groups of religious leaders from various faith traditions worked through <a href="https://rfp.org/priorities/end-poverty/health/">interreligious councils</a> to help coordinate national faith responses. On the regional level, faith-inspired organizations like World Vision, Catholic Relief Services and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation leveraged their relationships with religious actors in West Africa to provide funding, supplies and training for Ebola relief workers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329586/original/file-20200421-82650-1avq2iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329586/original/file-20200421-82650-1avq2iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329586/original/file-20200421-82650-1avq2iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329586/original/file-20200421-82650-1avq2iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329586/original/file-20200421-82650-1avq2iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329586/original/file-20200421-82650-1avq2iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329586/original/file-20200421-82650-1avq2iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329586/original/file-20200421-82650-1avq2iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man prays for Muslim Ebola victims at a crematorium in Monrovia, Liberia, March 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-reads-prayer-for-the-muslim-victims-of-ebola-in-front-news-photo/465573214?adppopup=true">Zoom Dosso/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The global scale of the coronavirus pandemic will make it even more challenging to launch faith-inspired public health programs today.</p>
<p>I am part of one such effort to begin this difficult, delicate process. On March 11, the <a href="http://wfdd.us/">World Faiths Development Dialogue</a> and <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/">Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs</a> at Georgetown University, where I teach, joined with the <a href="https://jliflc.com/">Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities</a> to <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/events/consultation-on-covid-19-exploring-faith-dimensions">document how faith communities</a> are responding to COVID-19. </p>
<p>My project includes a <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/publications/faith-and-covid-19-resource-repository">digital repository</a> to track changes to religious gatherings, beliefs and practices during the pandemic. So far, the database shows that religious communities are responding in very different ways. </p>
<p>Many Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities in the U.S. are providing <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/03/19/houses-of-worship-pitch-in-to-help-those-left-vulnerable-by-virus-outbreak/">financial as well as spiritual support</a> for not only the ill but also those who’ve lost jobs because the outbreak. Global faith-based groups like Religions for Peace are teaming up to provide <a href="https://jliflc.com/2020/04/launch-of-global-multi-religious-faith-in-action-covid-19-initiative/">support for vulnerable children</a> worldwide. </p>
<p>But other religious groups continue to spread false information to explain the disease. </p>
<h2>Hope for the future</h2>
<p>For health officials, figuring out which religious leaders worldwide to work with, who their constituents are and how to transmit health messages that will resonate with these communities will be tricky indeed.</p>
<p>But once on board, faith leaders can do more than convey health guidance: They can bring messages of hope to communities struggling with anxiety, sadness and despair.</p>
<p>On March 27 Pope Francis, speaking alone from the Vatican to a plaza usually filled with followers, <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/03/27/read-pope-francis-urbi-et-orbi-address-coronavirus-and-jesus-calming-storm">urged Catholics to approach the pandemic through faith</a>, not fear.</p>
<p>“Embracing the Lord in order to embrace hope,” he said. “That is the strength of faith, which frees us from fear.” </p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-facts">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Marshall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Given that some people look to religious authorities not health officials in times of crisis, faith leaders can promote hand-washing and social distancing to slow the spread of coronavirus.Katherine Marshall, Founding Director, World Faiths Development Dialogue; Senior Fellow, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1181642019-06-28T13:04:36Z2019-06-28T13:04:36ZI went on a Voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281674/original/file-20190627-76701-5z62lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Haiti's black saint known as Grann Sainte Anne Charitable in her European Catholic form and Ti Saint Anne, in Vodoo form.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guilberly Louissaint</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In July, hundreds of pilgrims will make their way to an isolated town in the northwest of Haiti, called Anse-à-Foleur or Ansafolè. The journey celebrates a black saint known as <a href="https://lenouvelliste.com/article/48856/la-sainte-anne-de-lanse-a-foleur">Gran'n Sainte Anne Charitable</a> in her European Catholic form and Ti Saint Anne in Voodoo form. </p>
<p>Voodoo, known as “Vodou” in Haiti, is a spirit-based religion. Its followers believe saints carry miraculous powers.</p>
<p>People in search of healing, justice, and prosperity – both Haitians and outsiders – take part in the pilgrimage. </p>
<p>As an anthropology doctoral student <a href="http://centerforethnography.org/content/visualizing-haitis-health-regime-vodou-toxic-subject">interested in religious healing</a>, I went on this Voodoo pilgrimage in 2018 during the saint’s feast day.</p>
<p>This pilgrimage, like other Haitian pilgrimages, brings together Catholic and African practices.</p>
<h2>Who is this icon?</h2>
<p>The pilgrimage site was created in the early 20th century. </p>
<p>According to local lore, a group of people on their way to the Dominican Republic came across a dark <a href="https://lenouvelliste.com/article/48856/la-sainte-anne-de-lanse-a-foleur">doll-like</a> idol in a strait of water.</p>
<p>The travelers carried the idol to Ansafolè, but discarded there, finding it of no particular value. However, the story goes, <a href="https://lenouvelliste.com/article/48856/la-sainte-anne-de-lanse-a-foleur">the idol reappeared miraculously in the strait</a> where she was initially found.</p>
<p>Not long after, the idol appeared in the dreams of the locals. One local in particular, a businessman named <a href="https://lenouvelliste.com/article/48856/la-sainte-anne-de-lanse-a-foleur">Dédé Mezina</a>, created a space where people would come visit her for a few Haitian gourde. As the idol’s popularity grew, she came to be worshipped as a saint. </p>
<p>Her fame spread as more miracles were attributed to her. Among those was one where she was credited for freeing a rich shipowner who had visited her from prison. </p>
<p>The shipowner built a <a href="https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00010534/00001">two-story church</a> in the saint’s honor in the 1930s. Today, this church is the site of the pilgrimage as well as the idol’s resting place. The town itself has <a href="https://lenouvelliste.com/article/48856/la-sainte-anne-de-lanse-a-foleur">come to be associated</a> with the saint. </p>
<p>During my visit, I found that testimonies of the saint’s miracles filled the small prayer houses near the church. Most of all, people believe in her power of healing. Two women in their late fifties told me stories of being healed by the saint. </p>
<h2>A saint with two forms?</h2>
<p>Going on Voodoo pilgrimages is a practice with African origins tied to the strong belief in the healing power of saints, spirits and God. Pilgrimages are also a way to <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/2889">appeal to higher powers</a> for one’s unfulfilled desires.</p>
<p>This pilgrimage, like many others in Haiti, combines Catholic practices. Catholic prayers are used to bring about transpossession, where Voodoo <a href="https://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu/sites/secure.lsit.ucsb.edu.blks.d7/files/sitefiles/people/strongman/stongman142.pdf">healers believe they become possessed</a> with African spirits in order to give guidance to the sick.</p>
<p>The population of Haiti is <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/religious-beliefs-in-haiti.html">80% Catholic and 16% Protestant</a> Christian. But there is a common saying as I learned during my visit that Haitians are 100% Voodoo.</p>
<p>The reason for this goes back to Haiti’s slave past. African slaves had to disguise their African gods as Catholic saints in order to avoid punishment by their masters. Over time the Voodoo idols and Catholic saints became one, causing Haiti’s gods to have <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Faces_of_the_Gods.html?id=lF9ZAAAAMAAJ">multiple forms</a>.</p>
<p>For example, African slaves associate the Voodoo god of iron, <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/2889">Ogou, with Saint James</a> because the saint was associated with war and Christian conquest. Another example: Ezili Dantor, a Voodoo goddess, came to be associated with Virgin Mary.</p>
<p>Voodoo continues to play an important social and religious role in Haitian life and in healing its post-slavery past. </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118164/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guilberly Louissaint does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar went on a Voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti and learned how an oppressive slave past has shaped its religious present.Guilberly Louissaint, Anthropology Ph.d Student, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1119892019-04-25T20:13:42Z2019-04-25T20:13:42ZFriday essay: how Western attitudes towards Islam have changed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270589/original/file-20190424-19269-9rstod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslim clerics and members of the Pakistani Christian minority light candles to commemorate the victims of this week's bomb blasts in Sri Lanka. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rahat Dar/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Less than a week after the attack on the Twin Towers in New York on 11 September 2001, US President George W. Bush gave <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html">a remarkable speech</a> about America’s “Muslim Brothers and sisters”. “These acts of violence,” he declared, “violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith.” After quoting from the Quran, he continued, “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.”</p>
<p>This speech is remarkable, not only for its compassion towards Muslims in the face of the attack on the US, but also because Bush was contradicting what has been, since the beginnings of Islam, the standard Western perception of this religion – namely that it is, at its core, a religion of violence.</p>
<p>Since its beginnings in the Arabia of the 7th century CE, the religion of Muhammad the prophet had pushed against the borders of Christendom. Within 100 years of the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, an Arabian empire extended from India and the borders of China to the south of France. Militarily, early Islam was undoubtedly successful.</p>
<p>Since that time, for the Christian West, regardless of the Islamic precept and practice of religious tolerance (at least as long as non-Muslims did not criticise the prophet), Islam has remained often threatening, sometimes enchanting, but ever-present. Indeed, the West created its own identity against an Islam that it saw as totally other, essentially alien, and ever likely to engulf it.</p>
<p>Thus, from the 8th century to the middle of the 19th, it was the virtually unanimous Western opinion that Islam was a violent religion whose success was due to the sword.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-spite-of-their-differences-jews-christians-and-muslims-worship-the-same-god-83102">In spite of their differences, Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God</a>
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<p>That Islam is, at its core, a violent religion is an attitude still present among some today. In the aftermath of the horrific murder of 50 Muslims in Christchurch by an Australian right wing nationalist, the conservative Australian politician Fraser Anning <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/new-zealand-attack-muslims-immigration-racism-1364132">declared</a> (straight out of the West’s medieval playbook), “The entire religion of Islam is simply the violent ideology of a sixth century despot masquerading as a religious leader, which justifies endless war against anyone who opposes it and calls for the murder of unbelievers and apostates.” Any violence against Muslims, he suggested, was therefore their own fault. </p>
<p>Anning has been roundly condemned for his statements by both sides of politics. He is clearly wildly out of step with mainstream public opinion in Australia. A <a href="https://www.change.org/p/the-prime-minister-remove-fraser-anning-from-parliament">change.org petition</a> with more than 1.4 million signatures has been delivered to Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Australia’s first Muslim senator. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270570/original/file-20190423-175535-1wz27r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270570/original/file-20190423-175535-1wz27r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270570/original/file-20190423-175535-1wz27r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270570/original/file-20190423-175535-1wz27r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270570/original/file-20190423-175535-1wz27r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270570/original/file-20190423-175535-1wz27r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270570/original/file-20190423-175535-1wz27r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270570/original/file-20190423-175535-1wz27r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young speaks during a censure motion against Independent Senator Fraser Anning (on right) as he walks out of the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra on April 3.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Clearly, blaming innocent people at prayer for their deaths at the hands of a right wing zealot crossed all the boundaries. But Anning’s view of Islam does echo an historic Western emphasis on the use of force in Islam as an explanation for its success.</p>
<p>This was, of course, part of an argument about the relative truth of Christianity and Islam. According to this, the success of Islam was due solely to the sword. The success of Christianity, having renounced the sword, was due to divine favour. The one was godly, the other Satanic.</p>
<p>This Western image of a benign, peaceful Christianity against a malevolent, violent Islam was a mythical one. With few exceptions, its proponents ignored both the violence that often went along with the spread of Christianity and the religious tolerance that often accompanied the extension of Islam. But the myth did reflect the deep-seated Western horror, always potent in the collective imagination, of being literally overrun by the fanatical hordes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270612/original/file-20190424-19276-1umefec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270612/original/file-20190424-19276-1umefec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270612/original/file-20190424-19276-1umefec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270612/original/file-20190424-19276-1umefec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270612/original/file-20190424-19276-1umefec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270612/original/file-20190424-19276-1umefec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270612/original/file-20190424-19276-1umefec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270612/original/file-20190424-19276-1umefec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 14th century miniature depicting Crusaders at The Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar (Battle of Homs) of 1299.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ripe for colonialism</h2>
<p>In the 19th century, however, attitudes did begin to change. Muhammad was, on occasion, imagined not as the ambitious, profligate impostor of old but as a “silent great soul”, a hero who spoke “from Nature’s own heart”, as Thomas Carlyle called him. The Dublin University Magazine described him in 1873 as “one of the greatest ever sent on earth”.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270581/original/file-20190424-19283-1fnbas4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270581/original/file-20190424-19283-1fnbas4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270581/original/file-20190424-19283-1fnbas4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270581/original/file-20190424-19283-1fnbas4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270581/original/file-20190424-19283-1fnbas4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270581/original/file-20190424-19283-1fnbas4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1115&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270581/original/file-20190424-19283-1fnbas4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1115&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270581/original/file-20190424-19283-1fnbas4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1115&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grigory Gagarin. Muhammad’s Preaching (circa 1840-1850)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Islam too now came to be seen more benevolently. The increasing cultural and global political power of the West rendered obsolete the traditional fear of being overwhelmed by Islam. The “religion of force” was now meeting a greater secular force, that of the imperial West. Islam no longer looked as threatening as it once had. The doctrine of Jihad (holy war), declared The Quarterly Review in 1877, “is not so dangerous or barbarous a one as is generally imagined”.</p>
<p>Islamic cultures now came to be seen as spheres of Western patronage, secular and religious. The image of a vibrant, active, progressive West against a passive, inert Islam was congenial to colonial enterprise. Ironically, the religion of aggressive action now came to be viewed as passively stagnant, decadent and degenerate, ripe for domination by an assertive West.</p>
<p>The inability of Western commentators in the 19th century to endorse a newly submissive Islam arose from a deep-seated Western incapacity to treat Islam on equal terms. Indeed, the greater value of the West over all those it variously characterised as backward, degenerate, or uncivilised was a central feature of most discussions of non-Western forms of life.</p>
<p>In short, Islam and progress were incompatible. And there was a strong tendency throughout the Victorian period to blame Islam for all the imagined ills of Oriental societies – the moral degradation of women, slavery, the physical and mental debilities of men, envy, violence and cruelty, the disquiet and misery of private life, the continual agitations, commotions, and revolutions of public life.</p>
<h2>Contemporary times</h2>
<p>Cut to the 21st century and a post-imperialist age, and Muslim nationalisms are again on the rise, not only in the Middle East and North Africa, but in Indonesia, India and Pakistan. The West once again feels under threat. The myth of Islam as essentially violent has re-surfaced. But, interestingly, it has done so in a different way.</p>
<p>On the one hand, the growth of terrorism has moved the imagined military threat of Islam from the borders of the West to its very centres – to London, Paris, New York. </p>
<p>On the other hand, Islam is now seen as a cultural threat as much as a military one. Even at its most benign, it is perceived as threatening Western values by virtue of the Muslims in its midst, stubbornly refusing to acquiesce to Western values. Thus the need to keep Muslims out. In December 2015, to the outrage of many Americans, then presidential candidate Donald Trump called for <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jimdalrympleii/trumps-statement-calling-for-a-ban-on-muslims-entering-the">a ban on Muslims entering the US</a>. Better the enemy kept outside the wall than the enemy within.</p>
<p>The refusal of the UK to allow Shamima Begum, the school girl who left London in 2015 to join ISIS, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/20/shamima-begum-family-challenge-sajid-javid-over-citizenship-decision">to return to England</a> is the most recent example of the fear of home-grown terrorism and the enemy “within”. That she appears to endorse a violent Islam and is lacking in remorse has not helped her cause. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270569/original/file-20190423-175532-kyep05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270569/original/file-20190423-175532-kyep05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270569/original/file-20190423-175532-kyep05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270569/original/file-20190423-175532-kyep05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270569/original/file-20190423-175532-kyep05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270569/original/file-20190423-175532-kyep05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270569/original/file-20190423-175532-kyep05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270569/original/file-20190423-175532-kyep05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shamima Begum leaving Gatwick Airport, southern England, 17 February 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">London Metropolitan Police/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, a new discourse has emerged of Islam as having failed to have a Reformation and an Enlightenment as did the West. Thus, for example, former Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-35048128">declared in December 2015</a> that Islam has never had its own version of the Reformation and the Enlightenment – the two events that seem to symbolise for Abbott the transition from barbarism to civilisation. </p>
<p>“It’s not culturally insensitive,” he declared, “to demand loyalty to Australia and respect for Western civilisation. Cultures are not all equal. We should be ready to proclaim the clear superiority of our culture to one that justifies killing people in the name of God.”</p>
<p>Does Islam need an Enlightenment like Europe had in the 18th century? Well yes, in the sense that European governments finally legislated freedom of religion to stop Catholics and Protestants slaughtering each other. Like Christianity in Europe in the 17th century, Islam in the 21st is as much at war with itself (especially in the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites) as it is at war with the West.</p>
<p>So, in the light of this history of Western attitudes to Islam, what are we to make of President Bush’s claim that Islam really is a religion of peace and that Muslim terrorists are, as a consequence, not true Muslims? </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270586/original/file-20190424-19303-18s8cn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270586/original/file-20190424-19303-18s8cn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270586/original/file-20190424-19303-18s8cn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270586/original/file-20190424-19303-18s8cn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270586/original/file-20190424-19303-18s8cn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270586/original/file-20190424-19303-18s8cn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270586/original/file-20190424-19303-18s8cn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270586/original/file-20190424-19303-18s8cn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Malcolm Turnbull in 2017: emphasised inclusivity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At its simplest, it is a recognition that there are vast numbers of Muslims, indeed the majority by far, both inside and outside the West, who endorse the virtues of tolerance, compassion, kindness and – simply put – just getting on with each other and with others.</p>
<p>It is also a recognition that multicultural and multi-religious societies thrive on unity and not divisiveness. As then Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/07/malcolm-turnbull-stresses-inclusion-after-donald-trump-signs-revised-travel-ban">put it in March 2017</a>, “What I must do, as a leader, and what all leaders should do in Australia, is emphasise our inclusivity, the fact that we are a multicultural society where all cultures, all faiths are respected and that is mutual. So, trying to demonise all Muslims is only confirming the lying, dangerous message of the terrorists.”</p>
<h2>Many religions under one name</h2>
<p>It is foolish to deny that there is a violent edge to Islam, as there is to Christianity and Judaism. In all these traditions, there is the tension between the idea of a God whose will is always good and a God whose will is always right. </p>
<p>And where God is seen as a being whose will can transcend the good (as he is in Islam, Christianity and Judaism), evil acts committed in his name can abound. Both peace and violence can equally find their justification in the Muslim, Christian and Jewish idea of God. </p>
<p>The willingness of the Islamic State group <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/23/pressure-builds-on-sri-lankan-officials-as-isis-claims-easter-attacks">to accept reponsibility</a> for the horrific bombings in Sri Lanka indicates their belief that such acts are in accord with the will of God. </p>
<p>That said, the question of whether Islam is <em>essentially</em> violent is not one that any longer makes much sense (if it ever did). The supposed fundamental oppositions between the West and Islam fail to map on to any reality.</p>
<p>“Islam” and “the West” are no longer helpful banners behind which any of us should enthusiastically rally. There really is no clash of civilisations here, not least because the notion of “civilisation”, Islamic or Western, really doesn’t have any purchase in a globalised world.</p>
<p>Moreover, we now know that it is difficult to identify the essence of any religion and futile to search for one. Any one religion is really many religions under the one name. So there are many Islams – Sunni and Shiite, but also Indonesian, Albanian, Malaysian, Moroccan, Pakistani, all culturally nuanced in quite different ways. This was evident in the many nationalities of those at prayer in the Christchurch mosques. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270585/original/file-20190424-19272-16wq5rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270585/original/file-20190424-19272-16wq5rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270585/original/file-20190424-19272-16wq5rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270585/original/file-20190424-19272-16wq5rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270585/original/file-20190424-19272-16wq5rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270585/original/file-20190424-19272-16wq5rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270585/original/file-20190424-19272-16wq5rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270585/original/file-20190424-19272-16wq5rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Worshippers pray at a makeshift memorial at the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch on March 19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So too, there are many Christianities, often so different as to be hardly recognisable as parts of the same tradition – think Pentecostal snake handlers in the American south, Catholic peasants in Sicily devoted to the Virgin Mary, or cool Lutherans in Scandinavia.</p>
<p>The fault line in modern religion doesn’t go to a clash between civilisations or even to a clash between religions so much as to a struggle within religions and within cultures, between theologies, ethics, political ideologies, ethnicities, exclusivism and inclusivism.</p>
<p>It is a struggle between liberals and conservatives, fundamentalists and moderates, reason and revelation. It is a battle within theologies between a God who is thought to be knowable through nature, man and history and a God who is thought to be only knowable through the revelations contained in the inerrant pages of the Torah, the New Testament or the Quran.</p>
<p>It is a struggle within all religions between those who believe there are “many paths to Heaven”, endorse freedom of religion, encourage tolerance and support mutual respect against those who believe there is only “one way to Paradise” and desire to impose this on everyone else, whatever it takes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111989/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip C. Almond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For centuries, Westerners viewed Islam as an inherently violent religion. But the struggle today, for all religions, including Christianity, is between liberals and conservatives, fundamentalists and moderates, reason and revelation.Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/248592014-05-28T05:20:47Z2014-05-28T05:20:47ZCould biology explain the evolution of religion?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49576/original/wkbnkbgc-1401208714.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One among many inevitable phenomena?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/edwardmusiak/11133556913">edwardmusiak</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For a biologist like me, the interesting questions about religion have always been where did it come from and why did it evolve? I taught evolutionary biology in a Catholic University in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/most-catholic-countries-top-10-by-population_n_2740237.html">the most Catholic country in the world</a> – Brazil. Some of my colleagues here in the UK thought that must have been very challenging, but it wasn’t. The Brazilian population is unusual in that <a href="http://oglobo.globo.com/sociedade/ciencia/maioria-dos-brasileiros-acredita-em-deus-em-darwin-segundo-pesquisa-datafolha-3029733">60% of the population</a> are religious and also believe in evolution by natural selection.</p>
<p>The development of new religions looks like the way new species are formed and thrive. In case of protestants, the “evolutionary spark” would be Martin Luther with his calls for reform. Similarly the deliberate differences, such as religious rituals, were created to keep the two faiths separated in the same manner that speciation of songbirds often provides related species with similar, but distinct songs so they will not interbreed.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.02.013">recent study</a> by Bernard Crespi and Kyle Summers at Simon Fraser University attempts to explain religion in biological terms. They believe that evolution of religion is similar to what happens to biological species when they evolve through “inclusive fitness”, which is how biologists describe talk about nepotism. </p>
<p>The goal of all organisms is first to survive and then to create as many copies of their genes as possible, this can be done by reproducing at a high rate or by helping your relatives (who have copies of your genes) to reproduce or survive (inclusive fitness). There is an old Bedouin saying, which sums up what scientists call Hamilton’s Rule:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Me against my brothers, me and my brothers against my cousins, me and my brother and my cousins against the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So inclusive fitness says we should take into account the copies of our genes in the bodies of relatives when expressing behaviour and help relatives when we are in gene profit.</p>
<p>For most of our evolutionary history we lived in small groups (fewer than 250 individuals) of relatives and in-laws. It was here that religion was first born. Anthropologists believe it started as wisdom being passed down from elder relatives. In many religions, the ancients (the dead) are worshipped as givers of advice. Much of this advice would be moral guidelines about how to treat kin well – love thy neighbour – and thereby promote copies of your own genes through the survival and reproduction of relatives. </p>
<p>The question is how to get people to believe in and follow such advice, the answer would be to develop the concept that such wisdom comes from super-beings. If such elders were long dead, this creates a concept of a benevolent supernatural parent figure, which are frequent in many religions. Thus, serving God is synonymous with serving your kin circle. Such selfless behaviour is susceptible to exploitation by free riders, but this is counteracted by the overseeing kin circle (the omnipresent God).</p>
<p>To support this evolution of tribal Gods, mechanisms are necessary to promote spiritual feelings (belief in the supernatural). Feeling spiritual has a genetic basis related to the creation of ideas and people with these genes are <a href="http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialSciences/ppecorino/PHIL_of_RELIGION_TEXT/CHAPTER_10_DEFINITION/Genetic-Basis-for-Religion.htm">more likely</a> to be religious. These feelings are also related to the friendliness neuromodulator oxytocin, which can generate a <a href="http://www.anapsid.org/cnd/gender/tendfend.html">warm feeling of power</a>, and which comes from being part of a large cooperative group. </p>
<p>All these are particularly important determinants of women’s behaviour, who in most societies are <a href="http://www.livescience.com/7689-women-religious-men.html">more religious</a> than men. Women also often have the responsibility of religious education for children. Thus, we can find underlying physiological, neurological, psychological and genetic mechanisms behind religiosity. All the ingredients are in place for religion to evolve in families.</p>
<p>This explains to some extent why religion evolved in our species. But modern societies are very different from the kin groups where religion evolved. Robert Hinde <a href="http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415497626/">suggests</a> that the interesting question in modern times is “Why Gods persist?” His answer is surprisingly simple: Intrinsically religious people (who have faith for its own sake) have better physical and mental health than the rest of the population. Whereas extrinsically religious people (who have faith because they want to gain something) have no better health than atheists. Put simply, there is an evolutionary advantage in being intrinsically religious.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Next, read this: <a href="https://theconversation.com/restoring-sciences-place-in-society-will-help-us-resolve-the-big-debates-26410">Restoring science and religion’s place in society will help us resolve the big debates</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24859/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert John Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For a biologist like me, the interesting questions about religion have always been where did it come from and why did it evolve? I taught evolutionary biology in a Catholic University in the most Catholic…Robert John Young, Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/203282013-11-18T06:06:02Z2013-11-18T06:06:02ZLike FGM, cut foreskins should be a feminist issue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35500/original/zvz87g73-1384770780.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C2%2C1396%2C989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">His rights as much as hers. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elvert Barnes</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Making a comparison between male and female genital cutting is usually dismissed or condemned. When, for example, the Council of Europe recently passed <a href="http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=20174&lang=en">a motion</a> declaring both female genital cutting (FGC) and the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons “a violation of the physical integrity” of children, Tanya Gold, writing in The Guardian, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/11/ban-male-circumcision-antisemitic">called it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A revolting … juxtaposition of female genital mutilation, which is always torture, and often murder, with ritual male circumcision, which is neither, and, incidentally, is practised by most Muslims, and all Jews.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gold’s reaction is understandable. The horrifying damage caused by amputation of a girl’s external genitalia and infibulation (closing up of the vagina) – the most invasive forms of FGC – are incomparable to the harm caused by male genital cutting (MGC). Other less invasive forms of FGC, such as clitoral “<a href="#WHO_Type_IV">nicks</a>”, can <a href="http://www.rcm.org.uk/midwives/in-depth-papers/female-genital-mutilation/">also cause</a> severe bleeding, infections and infertility. </p>
<p>But both FGC <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Circumcision/Pages/Risks.aspx">and MGC</a>, where the erogenous foreskin is removed, can cause serious physical, mental and sexual harm. In 2011, 11 boys under the age of one <a href="http://endmalecircumcision.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=NHS+bosses+silent+as+botched+circumcisions+put+baby+boys+in+A%26E">were treated</a> in Birmingham for life threatening hemorrhage, shock or sepsis relating to circumcision. In the US it’s estimated that 100 boys die <a href="http://www.mensstudies.com/content/b64n267w47m333x0/?p=de1140707d7d4af9877d67cbfc973d9a&pi=5">as a result of</a> circumcisions every year. MGC is also far more common globally: <a href="http://bit.ly/1gkQvTn">13m boys to 2m girls</a> annually.</p>
<h2>It isn’t a ‘harm competition’</h2>
<p>But this isn’t a harm competition. It’s about how FGC, often referred to as female genital mutilation because it’s <a href="http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008/9789241596442_eng.pdf">widely seen</a> as a violation of women’s rights and a form of oppression and sexual control, is easily accepted when that girl is a boy. </p>
<p>FGC has been banned in the UK <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/38/pdfs/ukpga_19850038_en.pdf">since 1985</a> (despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-letting-down-victims-of-female-genital-mutilation-14867">no convictions</a>) and <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/31/pdfs/ukpga_20030031_en.pdf">since 2003</a>, it has been illegal to carry out the procedure on British nationals abroad.</p>
<p>But, as bioethicist Dena Davis put it: “When one begins to question the normative status of the male newborn alteration in the West, and when one thinks of female alteration as including even a hygienically administered "nick,” one begins to see that these two practices, dramatically separated in the public imagination, actually have significant areas of overlap.“</p>
<h2>Overriding concerns</h2>
<p>Although FGC is practised because of religious beliefs and seen as an important part of cultural identity (imparting a sense of pride, a coming of age or a feeling of community membership), aversion to it overrides concerns about protecting these religious or cultural freedoms – a view <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/04/uk-mutilation-girls-report">also held</a> by some community leaders.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35409/original/ywwmsrb2-1384523623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35409/original/ywwmsrb2-1384523623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35409/original/ywwmsrb2-1384523623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35409/original/ywwmsrb2-1384523623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35409/original/ywwmsrb2-1384523623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35409/original/ywwmsrb2-1384523623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35409/original/ywwmsrb2-1384523623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=689&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For Jews, the ritual is a sign of God’s covenant with Abraham.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cheskel Dovid</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But when it comes to Male Genital Cutting (MGC) <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/circumcision/Pages/introduction.aspx">it’s neither</a> explicitly illegal nor compulsorily regulated. Instead <a href="http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9789241596169_eng.pdf">it’s perceived</a> as a relatively innocuous procedure, a "routine neonatal circumcision”, or brit milah for Jews and khitan for Muslims. </p>
<p>The reasons for male circumcision also vary: for Muslims it’s sunnah, a practice instituted by the Prophet Muhammad; for Jews it’s a sign of God’s covenant with Abraham. It’s also cultural: it marks an entrance into manhood and is also carried out because of perceived social or health advantages (<a href="http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/malecircumcision/en/">reduced HIV transmission</a> among adults in Africa is a specific case, unrelated to most others or children). And in the case of MGC, religious and cultural freedoms are generally respected.</p>
<p>Given these contrasting public perceptions, drawing parallels is controversial. Some feminists interpret comparison as an offensive trivialisation of the harm done to women, while many Jews and Muslims see it as an attempt to restrict their religious and cultural freedom, with some going as far as to <a href="http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/113074/circumcision-could-be-banned">liken the threat</a> to the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany.</p>
<h2>Consent and control</h2>
<p>My research suggests it’s more complex. Leading medical <a href="http://www.case.edu/med/bioethics/facultystaff/denadavis.htm">ethicists</a>, <a href="http://www.historyofcircumcision.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=56">historians</a>, and <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/law/staff/profile.aspx?ReferenceId=18601">legal scholars</a> think that FGC and MGC overlap in ways that question the distinct labels and laws applied to them. </p>
<p>Along with the serious harm that both FGC and MGC can cause, both occur without the consent of the child, and irreversibly violate the child’s <a href="http://jme.bmj.com/content/39/7/469.abstract">human right to physical integrity</a>. In so doing, FGC and MGC both prioritise the cultural or religious beliefs of parents over their child’s right to self-determination and an <a href="http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2013/01/29/medethics-2012-101182">open future</a>.</p>
<p>Both have also sought to shape bodies and control sexual desire. FGC seeks to <a href="http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008/9789241596442_eng.pdf">contain women’s sexuality</a> within marriage and reproduction by aiming to reduce sexual pleasure, while the Jewish sage <a href="http://www.cirp.org/library/cultural/maimonides/">Maimonides</a> and the <a href="http://www.cirp.org/library/history/darby4/">Victorians</a> advocated MGC to reduce lust and masturbation. Legal scholars Marie Fox and Michael Thomson <a href="http://www.circinfo.org/Circumcision_and_women.html">have argued that</a> MGC is “a gendering practice tied to masculinity and the management of male sexuality” that “parallels the ways in which feminist scholars have argued that female genital cutting serves to fix gender in women”.</p>
<h2>Double standards</h2>
<p>Given these overlaps, why have the two been treated differently? Alongside the difference in harm and misperceptions about the contrasting settings and ages at which the procedures take place, the double standard stems from two further factors: sexism and ethnocentrism.</p>
<p>Male bodies are constructed as resistant to harm or even in need of being tested by painful ordeals, whereas female bodies are seen as highly vulnerable and in need of protection. In other words, vulnerability is gendered. And little girls are more readily seen as victims than little boys. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35410/original/3ptqpzfv-1384523936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35410/original/3ptqpzfv-1384523936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35410/original/3ptqpzfv-1384523936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35410/original/3ptqpzfv-1384523936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35410/original/3ptqpzfv-1384523936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35410/original/3ptqpzfv-1384523936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35410/original/3ptqpzfv-1384523936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Circumcision in central Asia in the 1800s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Library of Congress</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The consequence of this, say Fox and Thomson, is that patriarchy often allows men’s experiences to remain unquestioned.</p>
<p>Familiarity also creates comfort, and since MGC has been practised in the West for millennia and been routine in English-speaking countries for a century, we’re desensitised. By contrast, since FGC is geographically or culturally remote, it’s more liable to be seen as barbaric.</p>
<h2>Gender assumptions</h2>
<p>It’s time to re-examine our gender and cultural assumptions about genital cutting, and take a non-discriminatory, intellectually consistent approach. We either accept that the loss of some individual rights of both boys and girls is the price of societal diversity – an approach rooted in a respect for pluralism and multiculturalism – or we respect the rights of all children, both girls and boys, equally. </p>
<p>The first means rethinking opposition to FGC, and perhaps even re-allowing it on the basis of parents’ religious beliefs or cultural preferences. But this would be unconscionable. The better thing would be to recognise that little boys have the same rights as little girls to bodily integrity (as <a href="http://knmg.artsennet.nl/Publicaties/KNMGpublicatie/Nontherapeutic-circumcision-of-male-minors-2010.htm">recently recognised</a> in the Netherlands), an open future and freedom from harm – in spite of their parents’ views. </p>
<p>Recognising overlaps in the cultural and religious arguments used to defend both, and human rights violations in no way trivialises the horror of FGC. And from a strategic point of view, making foreskin cutting a feminist issue would strengthen efforts to eliminate FGC. How can activists expect to convince a mother to leave her daughter uncircumcised if her husband is able to continue circumcising his son?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35420/original/8bj9ytkf-1384631179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35420/original/8bj9ytkf-1384631179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35420/original/8bj9ytkf-1384631179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35420/original/8bj9ytkf-1384631179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35420/original/8bj9ytkf-1384631179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35420/original/8bj9ytkf-1384631179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35420/original/8bj9ytkf-1384631179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rights should apply to all.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather than criticising the Council of Europe’s motion, we should celebrate it as a move towards greater child protection and gender equality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Steinfeld has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). </span></em></p>Making a comparison between male and female genital cutting is usually dismissed or condemned. When, for example, the Council of Europe recently passed a motion declaring both female genital cutting (FGC…Rebecca Steinfeld, Visiting Research Fellow, Goldsmiths, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191972013-10-22T03:30:13Z2013-10-22T03:30:13ZReligious freedom vs bodily integrity: another round of the foreskin wars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33347/original/xjv8b9fj-1382327717.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Should we favour physical integrity over respect for cultural difference? </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Council of Europe’s <a href="http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-EN.asp?FileID=20176&lang=EN">resolution</a> earlier this month to prohibit the circumcision of infant boys for religious reasons has ignited another round to the “foreskin wars”. This time it’s about the rights of religious freedom and autonomy versus the right of individuals to retain “physical integrity”. As usual, different groups are shouting that my human rights are more important than yours. </p>
<p>The Council’s new <a href="http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=20174">Childrens’s Right To Physical Integrity</a> notes the parliamentary assembly is</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… worried about a category of violation of the physical integrity of children, which supporters of the procedures tend to present as beneficial to the children themselves despite clear evidence to the contrary. This includes … the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons… </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The resolution is based on a <a href="http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-EN.asp?FileID=20057&lang=EN">report</a> by German MP Marlene Rupprecht who apparently wants to see Europe comprehensively ban the non-therapeutic circumcision of minors. That call is consistent with moves in <a href="https://theconversation.com/german-case-opens-up-another-battle-in-the-circumcision-war-7967">Germany</a> and <a href="http://www.news.com.au/world-news/childrens-ombudsman-calls-for-circumcision-ban-in-sweden/story-fndir2ev-1226729243733">Sweden</a> to criminalise that circumcision.</p>
<p>But while the <a href="http://hub.coe.int">Council of Europe</a> represents governments in regional policymaking, the resolution isn’t legally binding; nor is it recognised in the major international human rights agreements. The resolution has since been <a href="http://www.humanrightseurope.org/2013/10/jagalnd-male-circumcision-does-not-violate-human-rights/">disavowed</a> by the Council’s President and unsurprisingly <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/07/israel-council-of-europe-resolution-ritual-circumcision">condemned</a> by the governments of Israel and <a href="http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-AMDetails-EN.asp?fileid=20057&amid=20118&lang=EN">Turkey</a>, along with a range of human rights scholars.</p>
<p>So, how is the debate playing out in Australia? And are there likely to be any flow-on effects of the resolution? </p>
<h2>Local debate</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/08/27/3576889.htm">Royal Australasian College of Physicians</a>, rates of male circumcision have fallen in Australia in recent decades, with 10% to 20% of newborn boys undergoing the procedure. </p>
<p>Locally, there’s disagreement among medical practitioners about the procedure, with some arguing that circumcision poses <a href="https://theconversation.com/unethical-and-harmful-the-case-against-circumcising-baby-boys-1543">unacceptable risks</a> to the newborn or adolescents, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/unethical-and-harmful-the-case-against-circumcising-baby-boys-1543">is unnecessary</a>. Contrary to hyperbole, we are not seeing many instances of death through infection or other problems.</p>
<p>Others argue it <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/prevention/research/malecircumcision/">reduces the incidence</a> of conditions such as herpes and HIV and should be seen as preventive surgery. Overall there’s no consensus, so we watch duelling professors making claims about risk, harm and benefit. </p>
<p>We’ve also seen recurrent and noisy expressions of “foreskin pride” or “intactivism”, often linked to rhetoric about physical integrity as a human right. </p>
<p>We don’t have definitive statistics, but circumcision appears to be a standard practice for many in the Jewish community and among Australia’s growing Islamic community. For those communities, the surgery is an important aspect of faith and belonging. </p>
<p>Circumcision of babies and minors on the basis of ethno-religious affinity (as a symbol of faith or culture) is legal in Australia. That was recognised in the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute’s three-year review which considered whether to change the law. The 2012 report <a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/302836/Circ-Media-Release-2012.pdf">recommended</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A general prohibition on the circumcision of incapable minors with an exception for well-established religious or ethnicity motivated circumcisions. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The report highlights that people often have very strong views and that there is debate about how we conceptualise conflicting claims regarding human rights.</p>
<h2>Balancing rights</h2>
<p>The circumcision debate raises questions about how we construe rights, responsibilities and Australia’s respect for cultural diversity. As a practice, non-therapeutic circumcision is of no concern to some people, is viscerally opposed by others, and fundamentally important to others as an embodiment of faith and belonging. </p>
<p>Understandably, some members of Australia’s Jewish and Islamic communities wonder whether proposed prohibition of circumcision signals both a profound disrespect for their faith and an attack on their cultural identity. They plausibly argue that a ban would disregard their human rights (and those of their children) – a disrespect of something that gives meaning to their lives.</p>
<p>The European resolution isn’t Australian law. It is interesting, however, as an illustration of tensions in thinking about rights and discrimination. It is likely to be invoked in Australia through local calls and support for a ban in infant circumcision.</p>
<p>Once the latest battles in the foreskin wars are over, we’re likely to see a regime in Australia where employees of public hospitals refuse to conduct non-therapeutic circumcisions. Administrative <a href="https://theconversation.com/male-circumcision-policy-ignores-research-showing-benefits-8395">guidelines</a> will act as a “soft” substitute for law. And parents will rely on private practitioners, particularly practitioners within their communities. Exclusion is discriminatory.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, bioethicists and lawyers will continue to disagree about therapeutic and non-therapeutic values because there is an inescapable tension in how we think about harm, autonomy, and competing claims for rights. What are the rights of children, including psychological well-being associated with “belonging”? Do we necessarily favour physical integrity over respect for cultural difference? </p>
<p>One conclusion is that we need to be wary about easy answers in relation to human flourishing, diversity and the “right to health”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Baer Arnold does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Council of Europe’s resolution earlier this month to prohibit the circumcision of infant boys for religious reasons has ignited another round to the “foreskin wars”. This time it’s about the rights…Bruce Baer Arnold, Assistant Professor, School of Law, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/139572013-09-13T04:52:04Z2013-09-13T04:52:04ZO, what a tangled Weber we weave with unemployment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/31134/original/qdvzmz52-1378862729.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Unemployment has higher psychic costs for workers who identify with the Protestant work ethic.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recently released labour force figures have shown a rise in unemployment figures to 5.8% and, with Treasury’s budget update slating a rise to 6.25% by the end of the financial year, the future doesn’t look bright for many Australians. </p>
<p>Previous studies have shown that such unemployment has high psychic costs - or loss in quality of life and increased stress. However, our recent research illustrates that the impact on individuals and society may be more complex than previously thought, with religion playing a role in relative levels of well-being loss. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268113000838">Our study</a>, published in July in the <em>Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization</em>, examined 82 countries, including Australia. It found that the psychic costs of unemployment may be higher for some religious denominations than others, with Protestants suffering the most.</p>
<p>Moreover, the effect of religious differences was even more pronounced at the societal level, with people from predominantly Protestant societies hurting much more than those people from other societies, when they didn’t have a job. </p>
<p>The study classified Australia as a Protestant country, alongside Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, the UK,and the US.</p>
<h2>How does religion affect economic attitudes and outlook?</h2>
<p>The question is as relevant now as it was more than a century ago. </p>
<p>At that time, Max Weber pioneered the idea that culture and religious teachings may hold the key to understanding how the Western world developed its capitalist economic system. </p>
<p>Weber, one of the founding fathers of modern sociology, draws attention to the <a href="http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/jhamlin/1095/The%20Protestant%20Ethic%20and%20the%20Spirit%20of%20Capitalism.pdf">ascetic ethical system</a> propagated in specific sub-denominations of Protestantism, namely Calvinism, Pietism, Methodism and Baptism. </p>
<p>He found that these religious traditions have been instrumental in promoting the idea that worldly activity can be a means for individuals to prove their faith, which eventually evolved into “spirit of capitalism”: the belief that working for a profit is a moral good in itself.</p>
<p>More than a century since Weber’s writing, his thinking on the cultural roots of modern economic institutions appears to have made a comeback in social science. </p>
<p>At the same time, evidence on Weber’s original thesis on a specific Protestant work ethic remains ambiguous and relies on questionable measures of work ethic.</p>
<p>A wholly different approach, overcoming earlier problems, is to examine what makes people (Protestants and non-Protestants) happy and derive a measure of the intrinsic appreciation of work. </p>
<h2>Weber and a new approach</h2>
<p>This is what we did in our study, where we examined data on almost 150,000 individuals from 82 countries and considered religious variation in the extent to which work makes people happy and unemployment hurts people’s well-being.</p>
<p>We then took Weber’s Protestant work ethic thesis to suggest two possible hypotheses. </p>
<p>The first hypothesis was that unemployment (relative to having a job) affected the well-being of individual Protestants more than the well-being of individuals with other denominations. </p>
<p>This reflects the most common interpretation of the Weber thesis; that Protestant individuals will have a stronger work ethic than individuals that are holding different religious beliefs.</p>
<p>However, it occurred to us that Weber’s argument does not so much focus on individuals and Protestantism in the present, as it does on a Protestant ethic that has evolved into a rational, secular “spirit of capitalism”. </p>
<p>Our second hypothesis therefore emphasised the idea of a work ethic pervading a whole society. It postulated that unemployment (relative to having a job) affects the well-being of people from historically Protestant societies more than it affects the well-being of people from other societies.</p>
<h2>The way we work</h2>
<p>Both these hypotheses were confirmed in our empirical analysis. </p>
<p>Not having a job is universally bad for people’s happiness, regardless of religious denomination, but it hurts the well-being of Protestants about 40% more, even with several factors such as income and health controlled for. </p>
<p>Religious differences in the psychic costs of unemployment were even more pronounced at the societal level. People from Protestant societies are hurt more than twice as much by not having a job, than those from other societies. </p>
<p>In fact, when testing the effect of individual Protestantism and societal Protestantism simultaneously, the societal-level effect dominated. </p>
<p>More than a century later, we have a clear confirmation of Weber’s original thesis, even in contemporary data.</p>
<p>Beyond providing the most comprehensive evidence on the Weber thesis to date, our study also makes an important methodological contribution. </p>
<p>As interest in the role of culture, socio-economic outcomes and developments increases, we also need to improve methods of measuring differences in cultural values between societies and groups of people. </p>
<p>Our method can be used to measure systematic cross-cultural differences in a range of issues, posing a most welcome contribution to the methodological toolkit of empirical social scientists.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/13957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>No conflicts.</span></em></p>Recently released labour force figures have shown a rise in unemployment figures to 5.8% and, with Treasury’s budget update slating a rise to 6.25% by the end of the financial year, the future doesn’t…Andre van Hoorn, Assistant professor, University of GroningenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/63922012-04-15T00:45:46Z2012-04-15T00:45:46ZGod of many faiths eludes some Hospital Chaplains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9594/original/kjnzvh9r-1334448585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">(L-R) Intensive Care Chaplain Di Roche, Catholic Chaplain Father Jaison Kuzhiyil, Uniting Chaplain Julie Telfer feature in Hospital Chaplains.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“No one laughs at God in a hospital”, chants popular Russian-American songwriter Regina Spektor. Her words come to mind as I preview the first episode of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/compass/comingup.htm">Hospital Chaplains</a>, a new ABC series broadcasting on Sunday evenings at 6.30pm, starting tonight. </p>
<p>Only, the “God” of this series is not some abstract theological concept in an academic setting. This is the God of those who suffer, those who are brought close to death in the intensive care units and public wards of hospitals. </p>
<p>Forty thousand people in Australia end up in hospitals every day of the year, says the narrator, Geraldine Doogue, and they have to be cared for in terms of both their bodies and souls. The chaplains are introduced as those who care for souls, and in a primarily secular and non-believing country like Australia, this must present huge obstacles to chaplains and churches alike. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9595/original/q9dxbkfc-1334448611.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9595/original/q9dxbkfc-1334448611.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9595/original/q9dxbkfc-1334448611.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9595/original/q9dxbkfc-1334448611.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9595/original/q9dxbkfc-1334448611.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9595/original/q9dxbkfc-1334448611.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9595/original/q9dxbkfc-1334448611.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">(L-R) Muslim Chaplain Anwar Albarq, Anglican Chaplain Graham McKay and Buddhist Chaplain Hai Trieu Hanh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The series is quick to try to make a dividing line between spirituality and religion, presumably in deference to Australia’s secular and multicultural character. A very eloquent doctor in charge of the intensive care unit at Royal North Shore Hospital explains that chaplaincy in his unit is “not about proselytising, not about ‘you must repent’; it’s mostly about listening and letting patients express their own emotional and spiritual side, and coming to grips with it in some way.” </p>
<p>Dr Ray Raper is talking about his non-denominational chaplain, Di Roche, who indeed espouses a very open, non-sectarian style of chaplaincy. She introduces herself to patients and their families with an immediate disclaimer – “I’m not a God-botherer”, and those in her care feel relaxed, and want to trust her. </p>
<p>Suspicion of religion is so great in Australia that the primary concern of culturally-sensitive, intelligent chaplains is to get on the same wave-length as patients. That means not coming across as strongly religious; as “spiritual” rather than dogmatically religious. </p>
<p>However, not all chaplains are as open and adventurous as Di Roche. We are introduced to a telling encounter between Graham McKay, Anglican chaplain of Liverpool Hospital, and Neville, a retired driver of earth-moving equipment dying of cancer. </p>
<p>“I know I’m dying,” says Neville, in a luminous and prayerful moment, “and there must be something I’m supposed to do.” With disarming simplicity he turns to the chaplain and says, “I’m wondering if you can help me.” </p>
<p>The chaplain seems obliging enough, but looks to me to be a God-botherer, and rather too pleased to help out with old-fashioned remedies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9593/original/v6b7tbhr-1334448566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9593/original/v6b7tbhr-1334448566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9593/original/v6b7tbhr-1334448566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9593/original/v6b7tbhr-1334448566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9593/original/v6b7tbhr-1334448566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9593/original/v6b7tbhr-1334448566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9593/original/v6b7tbhr-1334448566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uniting Church Chaplain Julie Telfer with a patient.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here is where the series shows its hackneyed and clichéd side, and the split between its claims and practices. McKay discovers that Neville hadn’t attended church since he was in Sunday school, and he speaks to him in a patronising way, as if he were still a child. </p>
<p>He is told to “put his faith in Jesus Christ – that’s how we get ready to die. Do you think that is something you’ve ever done?”</p>
<p>The chaplain is sincere but sanctimonious. Neville remains unconvinced, and seems to have a few surprises in store for his conventional chaplain. </p>
<p>He says, “My step-daughter married a Muslim guy and she’s gone over into the Muslim faith now – and I cannot knock anything they do. I can’t say he’s no good (because he’s not a Christian)”. </p>
<p>The chaplain nods, but with evident unease and a sense of embarrassment. Neville says his son-in-law wanted him to convert to Islam but he wouldn’t. He says he hadn’t been able to convert, that he didn’t feel motivated to make the change, but is adamant that his son-in-law is a good person.</p>
<p>“I’m not saying he is wrong,” he emphasises.</p>
<p>Again the chaplain looks uncomfortable, hoping for a rip-roaring and uncomplicated death-bed return to the absolutist Christianity of Neville’s childhood. And absolutist his faith is: “My way is God’s way,” asserts the chaplain. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9596/original/t33q9khh-1334448798.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9596/original/t33q9khh-1334448798.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9596/original/t33q9khh-1334448798.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9596/original/t33q9khh-1334448798.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9596/original/t33q9khh-1334448798.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9596/original/t33q9khh-1334448798.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9596/original/t33q9khh-1334448798.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anglican Chaplain Graham McKay with patient.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Oh dear, this is not what we are meant to hear. Graham McKay has a monopoly on God’s way? What happened to the God of other traditions, the God of different faiths, the God beyond divisive religions? This is not good television for us, in our present spiritual difficulty and complexity. </p>
<p>McKay offers tepid consolation, “We can have great respect for people who have other beliefs, but in the end we have to work out what’s right.” But who does his royal “we” refer to? We Australians, we Christians, we moderns, we Buddhists? Ought not his ministry in multicultural western Sydney have taught him something about a larger God, a God of all people, a God of the suffering community of humankind?</p>
<p>Neville may be unsophisticated in what he says, but he has learnt important lessons about living in a multi-faith society, and is not going to say what the chaplain wants him to say – that only Jesus can save souls and lead to eternal life. </p>
<p>If only the chaplains would listen more to what their patients are saying, they might learn something about putting in practice the brave new rhetoric about caring for body, soul and spirit. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6392/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Tacey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>“No one laughs at God in a hospital”, chants popular Russian-American songwriter Regina Spektor. Her words come to mind as I preview the first episode of Hospital Chaplains, a new ABC series broadcasting…David Tacey, Associate Professor, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/14912011-12-27T20:16:23Z2011-12-27T20:16:23ZDoes religious faith make people healthier and happier?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6705/original/gf8c8jdf-1324442943.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The findings of the study don't suggest that religion should be adopted as a tool for promoting health.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gauri Ma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As immigrants from around the world have joined Australia’s cultural mix, an inevitable rise in religious diversity has followed. But has this made for a healthier society? A <a href="http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/en/Publications/Freedom-from-discrimination/Freedom-of-religion-and-belief.aspx">recent VicHealth study</a> showed that while religion can protect against illness, religious discrimination can harm health. This has led to a renewed call to embrace and respect religious diversity. </p>
<p>Most Australians still adhere to Christian beliefs, but people who follow the Buddhist, Islamic and Hindu faiths are increasingly making Australia their home, expanding the religious landscape.</p>
<p>The Australian government has signed various international human rights agreements protecting religious freedoms, including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And religious discrimination is unlawful in Australia under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act of 1986.</p>
<p>Despite these legal protections, members of some religious groups living in Australia are unable to express their right to religious freedom in their daily lives. Muslim Australians, in particular, have faced higher levels of religious discrimination in recent years. Discrimination against Jewish Australians also occurs with worrying frequency.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6703/original/84cp3wtd-1324442670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6703/original/84cp3wtd-1324442670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6703/original/84cp3wtd-1324442670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6703/original/84cp3wtd-1324442670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6703/original/84cp3wtd-1324442670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6703/original/84cp3wtd-1324442670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6703/original/84cp3wtd-1324442670.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prayer beads.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Moe M</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A study exploring the link between religion, religious discrimination and health was undertaken as part of VicHealth’s broader program of research into preventing race-based discrimination. It involved comprehensively reviewing the scientific literature – both from Australia and internationally – on the links between religion and health, as well as religious discrimination and health. </p>
<p>The findings suggest that religious beliefs and practices can protect the health of people of faith, with the link being most evident between religion and mental health. Religious beliefs and practices may protect against depression and reduce the risk of anxiety and of suicide. Religious people are also less likely to risk their health with alcohol, drugs and tobacco. </p>
<p>The link between religion and physical health isn’t as clear, but there’s evidence that people who regularly participate in religious activities may live longer. </p>
<p>It’s important to be clear that the good health associated with religion only occurs when people are able to exercise control and choice over their beliefs and practices. When people practice religion as a result of external pressures, and not internal beliefs, their health may actually be negatively affected.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6704/original/69vsp966-1324442806.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6704/original/69vsp966-1324442806.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6704/original/69vsp966-1324442806.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6704/original/69vsp966-1324442806.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6704/original/69vsp966-1324442806.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6704/original/69vsp966-1324442806.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6704/original/69vsp966-1324442806.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Blaustein</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The reasons behind the religion and health link are not well understood, but there’s some evidence that religious practices (like praying) can help to reduce stress. Also, when people are part of an organised religion, they generally have a strong social network, which benefits both physical and mental health. </p>
<p>Religion can also be associated with positive emotions, including a sense of optimism and purpose to life, and can provide a healthy way of coping with stress. Attendance at places of worship seems to be particularly important for physical health, as it may keep people active and reduce the risk of physical disability. </p>
<p>At the opposite end of the spectrum, it’s quite clear that religious discrimination has the potential to make people unwell. Such prejudice appears to be associated with anxiety, depression, distress, sub-clinical paranoia and decreased life satisfaction. Experiences of religious discrimination may also prompt people to take risks with their health – manifest as smoking and alcohol or drug abuse.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6709/original/xc6377bh-1324443707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6709/original/xc6377bh-1324443707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6709/original/xc6377bh-1324443707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6709/original/xc6377bh-1324443707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6709/original/xc6377bh-1324443707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6709/original/xc6377bh-1324443707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6709/original/xc6377bh-1324443707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are a number of reasons why discrimination is bad for health. It can produce negative emotions such as stress and fear, and it can cause people to adopt risky coping strategies and can affect individuals’ self-esteem and sense of belonging. </p>
<p>Crucially, discrimination can restrict people’s access to resources such as housing, employment and education – all of which are vitally important for health and wellbeing. At its worst, discrimination takes the form of physical attacks or violence, which clearly impact on the physical and mental health of those who are targeted.</p>
<p>The findings of this study don’t suggest that religion should be adopted as a tool for promoting health (as has been the case with exercise and a nutritious diet). Rather, they highlight the importance of ensuring all Australians have the opportunity to practice their faith, without discrimination, and that people aren’t excluded from society because of their religious beliefs. The findings also suggest that religious beliefs and practices may need to be better accommodated in schools and workplaces. </p>
<p>Perhaps most crucially, the findings highlight the importance of improving inter-faith understanding and dialogue in Australia – not only from a human rights perspective, but as part of a broader health promotion agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/1491/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As immigrants from around the world have joined Australia’s cultural mix, an inevitable rise in religious diversity has followed. But has this made for a healthier society? A recent VicHealth study showed…Natascha Klocker, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of WollongongBrigid Trenerry, PhD Candidate, Western Sydney UniversityKim Webster, PhD candidate, VicHealthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.