Will the miners’ new faith stick?

CNN asks whether the newfound faith of the 33 rescued miners in Chile will stick. The answer is “maybe, maybe not.”

[Theologian Tom] Long [of Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta] recalled how churches across America were packed on the Sundays that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He was asked then by journalists whether that was a sign of a religious renaissance in the United States. He predicted no – and he was right.

“There has been no upsurge in church membership,” he said.

One predictor is whether the person was spiritually inquisitive or restless before the crisis. Long says that the crisis becomes a catalyzing moment rather than an originating one, and the chances of that person continuing on that journey are much greater.

Another predictor of continued faith after a crisis is whether the person seeks out a faith community who will help nurture and reinforce their faith.

Ralph Hood, a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said many people come out of crisis thinking: “God has a purpose for me.”

But if they cannot find the proper support group to help them continue to frame their lives in terms of God, they are likely to slip back into their former selves. They need a church, a mosque, a synagogue. They need interaction with others who will help nurture their newfound faith, said Hood, co-author of “The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach.”

Terry Anderson, who was taken hostage in 1985 by Shiite militants in Lebanon for seven long years, continues to hold onto his rediscovered Catholicism more than two decades later.

He was brought up in the church but lost his religion somewhere along the way. He was starting to rethink his faith when he was kidnapped. For him, captivity served as a catalyst.

He likes to tell a story of how one of his guards asked him if he needed anything and his answer was: “I want a book. I want a Bible.”

He read it cover-to-cover for seven years.

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