A variety of studies have shown that personal religious practice (such as attending church every Sunday) is correlated with health. Now a new study by Troy Blanchard of Louisiana State University (no relation) shows that the type of congregation in a community is also correlated with health:
LSU associate professor of sociology Troy C. Blanchard recently found that a community’s religious environment — that is, the type of religious congregations within a locale — affects mortality rates, often in a positive manner. These results were published in the June issue of Social Forces.
“Although there is a great deal of research on religion and health, previous studies have tended to focus on the individual aspects of religion, such as how often an individual prays or attends worship services,” said Blanchard.
Along with co-author John Bartkowski from the University of Texas at San Antonio and other researchers from the University of West Georgia and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Blanchard found that people live longer in areas with a large number of Catholic and Mainline Protestant churches. He offers two key reasons for these findings.
“First, these types of churches have what’s known as a ‘worldly perspective.’ Instead of solely focusing on the afterlife, they place a significant emphasis on the current needs of their communities,” he said. These religions commonly organize outreach efforts for the needy and homeless, invest in the health infrastructures of their town and participate in other forms of public charity.
“Secondly, these congregations tend to create bridging ties in communities that lead to greater social cohesion among citizens,” said Blanchard. This enhanced sense of connection between people provides collective encouragement for healthy behavior.
In contrast to Catholics and Mainline Protestant congregations, Conservative Protestant churches have a mixed effect on community health. The “otherworldly” character of Conservative Protestantism leads congregations in this tradition to focus on the afterlife. Conservative Protestantism is also a more individualistic faith, one in which the believer’s personal relationship with God is paramount. These types of churches are thought to downplay the importance of using collective action, including human institutions, to improve the world. Communities dominated by Conservative Protestant churches tend to have higher mortality rates.
However, this finding has an important caveat, because there are different types of Conservative Protestant churches, namely, Fundamentalist, Pentecostal and Evangelical.
“We find that a greater presence of Fundamentalist and Pentecostal congregations is associated with higher rates of mortality, but communities with a large number of Evangelical congregations have better health outcomes,” said Blanchard. “Evangelical congregations do a better job of engaging the broader community and promoting social connectedness that is so essential for longer life expectancies. Fundamentalist congregations tend to be more reclusive, and this insularity is linked with higher mortality rates.”
Read it all here.