Religion |
Study links suicide rates, fall in church attendance
James Kushlan
What sounds like part of a
sermon is actually me conclu
sion of a study by a professor of
sociology at University Park:
More young adults are com
mitting suicide because fewer
of them attend church.
Dr. Steven Stack claims a 300
percent suicide rate increase
for ages 15-29 from 1954 to 1978
was linked with a simultaneous
ly decline of institutionalized
religion among the same age
group. This decline was
measured in terms of church
attendance, using Gallup Opi
nion Poll results.
While the rate of unemploy
ment and military participation
were also significant, Stack
calls the fall in church atten
dance “the most important fac
tor associated with rising
suicide rates.’’
Stack reached his conclusion
by measuring the amount of
“The fall in church at
tendance is the most im
portant factor associated
with rising suicide rates.”
Dr. Steven Stack
Professor of Sociology
variance in suicide attributable
to each of three variables: the
drop in church attendance,
military participation and the
unemployment rate. Basically
the variable which changed the
most was the drop in church at
tendance, representative of a
decrease in religious commit
ment, was that Victor, for the
15-29 age group.
Applying the conclusion of the
study, Stack suggests several
deterrants to suicide a young
person misses through lack of
religious commitment.
“Religion offers meaning to
suffering. It can reinterpret the
suffering associated with
traumatic life events such as
divorce, job loss, etc.”
It’s easier to bear suffering if
you have a sort of buffer bet
ween you and the suffering.
Without religion, suffering can
be viewed as meaningless, and
that’s kind of hard to take.
“Going to church, one of the
things which you might pick up
is that you should persevere,”
he says, adding; “The higher
the church attendance, the
higher the exposure to the value
of perseverance in the face of
suffering.”
“There are a lot of things in
Christian teaching which might
act as buffers against suicide,”
Stack says. The Gospels preach
satisfaction -- for example,
they condemn greed, which
breeds dissatisfaction.
Pastor David Newhart of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church,
Middletown
Rabbi Asher Ostrin, of Chisuk
Emuna Congregation in Har
risburg, says, “Religion is
designed to fit you into the
society’s fabric.” It provides “a
sense of community and a built
in support system of people who
care.
The person who reaches the
point of suicide, he says, often
has nowhere to go. Religious in
volvement provides caring peo
ple to turn to. Rabbi Ostrin
thinks the phone-in services
provided for suicidal people
derive from the understanding
of this need to have someone to
turn to.
“I know that there’s a
tremendous stigma attached to
suicide,” he adds, “so for a
religious person that’s not a
viable alternative.”
“People who are religious have some measure of
support and protection because of it.”
Kenneth France, of the
Counseling Center here, and a
member of the American
Association of Suicidologists, is
not sure the decline in church
attendance is the most impor
tant factor in the young adult
suicide increase, but he agrees
that it is important.
“Most suicidal people are
hopeless,” he says. “I think
religion does give hope. It
doesn’t say life is going to be
rosy or that everything’s going
to be alright, but it gives mean-
ing to life, and offers hope for a
better world or an afterlife.”
“On a more practical level,”
he adds, “an individual who is
associated with a church has
friends, teachers and clergy in
the church who care about him,
and that’s an important source
of support.”
France refrains from calling
the church attendance drop the
most important factor in the
suicide rise because Stack’s
study is a correlational one.
“With correlational studies you
can say that certain things oc
cur together, but you can’t
necessarily say that one caused
the other.”
France notes the stress in the
transition from adolescence into
adulthood as an important fac
tor in young adult suicide rates.
Mark Baron
Coordinator of Community Care
Mark Baron, Coordinator of
Community care, Dauphin
County Mental Health and
Retardation, says, “The
literature is fairly consistent in
saying that a commmitment to
religious values is helpful in
maintaining a life-committed
outlook. People who are
religious have some measure of
support and protection because
of it.”
But Barton, too, questions
Stack’s conclusion. “An erosion
of values or sense of purpose
can accompany or forecast
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depression or self-destructive
thinking,” he says. Does lack of
religious commitment make a
person more likely to commit
suicide, or does depression
make a person more likely to
lose religious commitment? The
answer would be very impor
tant, Barton says.
Stack’s report includes a
graph showing a decline in
church attendance for young
adults, from a high of 48 per
cent in 1958 to 29 percent in
1978. According to Stack, there
are several common theories on
why church attendance has
decreased.
“There’s a notion that
religious commitment should
decline with scientific develop
ment,” he says. Other theories
claim that careers replace
religion today, that mass educa
tion takes away from the con
trol of religion, or that
materialism influences people.
Pastor David Newhart, of St.
Peter’s Lutheran Church in
Middletown, sees a change in
orientation as one explanation
for the decrease in church at
tendance:
“Thirty years ago, the church
was the center of the social life
of the community. As soon as
the 1960’s came, the schools
started to take over.” St.
Peter’s even used to have its
own band, he says, but now
sports, cheerleading, bands,
and activities involve young
people at school.,
Rev. Msgr. Hugh Overbaugh,
Chancellor of the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg,
says Catholic church atten
dance in this diocese has been
declining for all age groups, but
he thinks it’s stabilized right
now. “Mass attendance is down
to perhaps 45 to 50 percent,” he
says.
Msgr. Overbaugh cites “the
culture in which we’re living,
the whole milieu” as the cause
for the decrease in church.
“People are going places, do
ing things. Before, everything
took place in the parish gym,
and parish playgrounds. “He
also mentioned television as one
of the factors in shifting peo
ple’s orientation in directions
other than the parish.
“The church doesn’t have as
much meaning for them
anymore,” he says. “They don’t
feel the need for God until some
crisis hits them; then they
come running.”
“In the end, you can hold out
all kinds of things to them, but
it all boils down to faith.” He
adds, “If they had faith in
Christ, in the Eucharist, the
Sacraments, they’d come
crawling to Church.”
Another problem lies in fami
ly life, he says. “The Church
and society is based on the
family. The Church is as strong
as the family is,” and today the
families are falling apart.