In a recent official government report, the Biden administration has warned that Americans\u2019 \u201chealth may be undermined\u201d due to their \u201cdecline in participation\u201d in church services and other religious activities.<\/p>\n
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued the first-ever government advisory on the \u201cepidemic of loneliness and isolation\u201d earlier this month, calling persistent isolation an \u201curgent public health issue\u201d that impacts the physical and mental health of millions. \u201cResearch shows that loneliness and isolation are associated with a greater risk of heart disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death,\u201d says Murthy in an online video released to coincide with the report.<\/p>\n
Loneliness is as bad for individuals as smoking 15 cigarettes a day \u2014 a pack-and-a-half daily habit \u2014 and harms physical health \u201ceven greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity,\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Murthy writes, Americans have become disconnected from one of the institutions that can forge deep and permanent social connections: church attendance. \u201cReligious or faith-based groups can be a source for regular social contact, serve as a community of support, provide meaning and purpose, create a sense of belonging around shared values and beliefs, and are associated with reduced risk-taking behaviors,\u201d Murthy writes. \u201cAs a consequence of this decline in participation, individuals\u2019 health may be undermined in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMembership in organizations that have been important pillars of community connection have declined significantly,\u201d including \u201cfaith organizations,\u201d writes Murthy. \u201cIn 2020, only 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque. This is down from 70% in 1999 and represents a dip below 50% for the first time in the history of the survey question.\u201d<\/p>\n
Experts have known about the fraying web of meaningful personal relationships for decades. For instance, the percentage of American men who said they have no close friends had increased 500% between 1990 and 2021. But a persistent sense of abandonment reached societal proportions during the COVID-19 lockdowns.<\/p>\n
Church attendance and health issues have an inverse relationship, according to multiple studies, including a new report released by evangelical pollster George Barna.<\/p>\n
The percentage of millennials who attended a church worship service, either in-person or online, dropped by seven percentage points over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, says the study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University (ACU), where Barna is director of research.<\/p>\n
The retreat from faith has devastated young people, Barna told \u201cWashington Watch with Tony Perkins\u201d recently.<\/p>\n
Separate ACU polls found that 75% of millennials \u201csay, \u2018I don\u2019t know why I should get out of bed in the morning,\u2019\u201d said Barna. A majority \u201cadmit that every day they\u2019re struggling with mental health issues, severe depression, anxiety, fear,\u201d and \u201cthe highest suicide rate of any generation we\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s roughly the percentage of millennials who do not attend religious services: Only 28% take part in services in any way.<\/p>\n
Conversely, Americans who believe in God and value marriage are more likely to be \u201cvery happy\u201d than isolated secularists, according to a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll taken in March.<\/p>\n
Read more at: washingtonstand.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a recent official government report, the Biden administration has warned that Americans\u2019 \u201chealth may be undermined\u201d due to their \u201cdecline in participation\u201d in church services and other religious activities. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued the first-ever government advisory on the \u201cepidemic of loneliness and isolation\u201d earlier this month, calling persistent isolation an \u201curgent public … Continue reading Americans\u2019 \u2018Health May be Undermined\u2019 by Not Going to Church: Surgeon General<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/watching-300x100-300x100-1.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8fAkI-6jB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24280,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24279\/revisions\/24280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}