Q & A Forum

by Francis MacNutt
Summer 1998

Q: What is the attitude of the medical and scientific communities toward spirituality and health?

A: We are seeing a dramatic positive shift in the attitude of the medical establishment in regard to the healing ministry. It has become common for doctors to appear on news or talk shows to discuss the health benefits of spirituality and prayer. But just a few short years ago, this focus on spirituality would have been unthinkable.

Three years ago, I began to take part in several "think tank" meetings on the relationship between spirituality and health. This gave me a chance to talk with prominent medical researchers regarding what's happening in the medical community:

1. Most researchers now accept that "religion is good for your health" — a far cry from the "religion is a crutch" doctrine. Church attendance is easy to measure, and many studies show that people who regularly engage in religious practices live longer and generally experience better health than average. Of course, you can be an agnostic scientist and still have no problem recognizing that Baptists who choose not to drink or smoke are not likely to die· of cirrhosis of the liver or lung cancer.
   
   
2. Research also has been conducted by medical doctors such as Harvard's Dr. Herb Benson that shows meditation and prayer relieve stress. Since many diseases are stress related, like high blood pressure and heart disease, meditation is considered good for health. Again, you need not be a Christian to see the value of being quiet for half an hour a day to relieve stress.
   
   
3. Research shows that love and a supportive community contribute to good health. One physician, Dr. Leonard Laskow, quit his medical practice to spend full time in a lab researching the curative benefits of love. The value of a loving community is now widely recognized in the medical community. Forgiveness and its benefits, aspects of love, also are being researched by psychologists. This emphasis on love relates directly to Jesus' main teaching, but once again, you do not have to be a Christian to have a high estimation of love.
   
   
4. Prayer in general, or turning to a transcendent power, is a current subject of research. Dr. Larry Dossey has written eloquently on the effectiveness of prayer. One of his books, Healing Words, details these studies. His books are popular, but my impression is that his conclusions are not widely accepted by the medical establishment. And very few of these studies have been performed. with Christian prayer, an amazing fact to me.
   
   
5. Christian prayer, which is, of course, the only kind of prayer we at CHM practice and believe in, is only now beginning to be analyzed in a research setting. The Matthews Arthritis Study in which we have participated seems to be on the cutting edge of research in this area, and we anticipate that it will have a significant impact on the medical community in understanding the relationship between Christian prayer and healing. We at CHM are certainly not the only ones involved in prayer for healing, but God has uniquely used us to play a small part in helping restore the relationship between science and religion, a relationship that has been severed since the time of Galileo.

So, the good news is that the medical establishment generally accepts that religion, prayer and meditation, faith, love and community all contribute to good health. All of these are, of course, inherent parts of Christianity.

The bad news is that prayer for healing is still seen as "fringe." The real reason for the skepticism is, I believe, that proving that prayer works forces one to face the possibility of God, a real and personal God, actually intervening. It is easy to accept the fact that 20 minutes of quiet meditation is good for stress. But if Someone is actually answering prayer, one must face the possibility that God exists.

At least we are now able to talk openly about God in scientific circles. If even Christian doctors simply embraced the practice of praying for patients as a result of the research, it would mean a major change in our society and a wonderful advancement of the Kingdom of God. And wouldn't it be a wonderful, surprising paradox if the scientific community eventually evangelized the Christian churches by simply observing that Jesus is still in the business of healing the sick!

Francis MacNutt is a Founding Director and Executive Committee member of CHM.