Campus Fax

February 6, 1996

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) This past week I was in the nation's capitol for meetings related to our work on the INTERNET. As you may remember, our goal is to have 100,000 articles on line, along with 10,000 annotated bibliographies to help professors and students understand and defend the Christian faith on almost any issue by accessing reliable and up-to-date research. One of the people I met is the director of a research firm specializing in the "forgotten factor," that is, the role of religious commitment and its impact on physical and mental health.

The question is, "Has religion been a help or a hindrance?" Most people in America vote on this question by attending church or Bible studies. Recent surveys show that on any given Sunday 100,000,000 are in church and an incredible 43,000,000 people attend Bible studies.

The elite-journalists, professors, government leaders-are not so inclined. Religion is emotion; it is superstition; it is unscientific and irrational; or it is a collection of arcane texts from thousands of years ago which have no credibility or relevance to the modern situation. Intellectuals largely hold this as an item of faith since so little research has been sponsored to investigate whether or not religion is good to its claims. That is, until now.

One of the issues addressed by this group was divorce. There was no attempt at moralizing or judgment and no appeal to the Bible. They simply determined to assess the "clinical, economic, and public health impact of marital disruption in the United States." The researchers accomplished this by asking and answering the following kinds of questions:

The response from secular researchers and government agencies has been impressive. They clearly understand that religion has been ignored as a factor in research. This means that it has also been ignored in the search for solutions in government, the media and the university. And, as secular researchers, they cannot ignore the results. Not surprisingly, it had led to a resurgence of interest in faith among the hardened researchers who specialize in sociological studies.

So what? At minimum, religion's tarnished reputation is up for review. At best, this is a new avenue to reach into the hearts of those who are deeply secularized and allow them to see the truth of Christianity in their own "language." This is bound to have profound ramifications on the elite and a newly discovered chink in their armor.

That's the news from the campus this week.

Stan Oakes
Christian Leadership Ministries

The Campus Fax is published by Christian Leadership Ministries every two weeks throughout the academic year.

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Prepared: 22 Feb 96