Christians Fare Better than Non-Believers

Despite what we may read in the papers about the glaring dysfunctions of some very high profile Christians, there are many health and welfare benefits of living a Christian lifef or a couple and their offspring . Folks who profess to be Christians but do not attend services regularly or practice a Christian life style may even be less healthy than those who have no faith.

Where can a couple turn to find assistance for their marital problems? Does God and His church care for the couples who are in conflict and pain? And, if so can they do anything about it? The answers are all a resounding, YES!

God loves distressed people and calls us to help people with marital difficulties. Research conclusively shows the value of faith in the development of healthy family life. Christians fondly discuss family values but we what about the value of a Christian family? Some important statistics are seemingly secret in evangelism and church-growth.

David Larson, M.D. did research for years on the benefits and pitfalls of faith and family life. He concluded that:

· Religious commitment is associated with positive mental, emotional and relational benefits about 80% of the time.

· Church attend are four times less likely to commit suicide. Church attendance predicts suicide risks more accurately than any other factor.

· Patients with strong religious commitment were less depressed and recovered more quickly from hip replacement surgery.

· Religious commitment is negatively correlated with teen substance abuse. Religious people drink less and abuse alcohol less. The only exceptions are teens from homes where religion is talked but not walked. When hypocrisy rules alcohol consumption rises.

· Church attendees have less sex out of wedlock.

· Teens from homes where a parent is unavailable during the day are more likely to have sex. However, even these teens have less sex outside of marriage if they attend church.

· Church going couples experience divorce about 18% of the time while nonbelievers do so at twice (36%) that rate.

· Couples who are committed to Christ have greater life satisfaction, greater marital satisfaction and greater sexual satisfaction.

Perhaps we need to advertise these benefits to the world as a way of showing that not following God actually has many profound implications for our children. We need to count the cost of sleeping in on Sunday mornings. Parents spend a lot of money to try to get the best in educational and psychological benefits for their children when simply taking them to church has a much greater benefit than other supposedly positive experiences.