"Here's a crazy idea: After all our ambitious child-rearing with Discovery toys, Suzuki piano lessons, conflict-avoidance classes, 4 a.m. swim practices, SAT prep classes, driver education and summer flights to study folk music in the Republic of Georgia, we might have done as well (and saved money) by just sending our kids to church."
Except for the first four words, the quotation above is what you might expect in a sermon. Instead, it comes from a report on a study done by a major American medical school. For years the Dartmouth Medical School has done research on kids, including brain-imaging studies. Their conclusion is that young people who are religious are better off in significant ways than their secular peers. "They are less likely than nonbelievers to smoke and drink and more likely to eat well; less likely to commit crimes and more likely to wear seat belts; less likely to be depressed and more likely to be satisfied with their families and school."
Brad Wilcox, who is a member of the commission that studied teens, said, "Religion has a unique net effect on adolescents above and beyond factors like race, parental education and family income." So striking are the findings that poor religious children tend to do better than non-religious children from a middle-class background.
The article that reported on the study's findings pointed out that the results of the study were by no means a fore-gone conclusion. In fact, "the commission was no conclave of religious conservatives. It included professors and researchers at the medical schools of Harvard and UCLA as well as longtime experts on child-rearing." The commission members said that churches benefit teenagers by affirming who they are, expecting a lot from them and giving them opportunities to show what they can do.
What sets churches apart from other organizations such as clubs, sports teams and other youth organizations — and which makes a surprisingly big difference to kids, according to the panel — is that they promote a "direct personal relationship with the Divine."
Adolescents, said the Dartmouth group, are "hard-wired to connect" to people and God. Panels of academics and medical practitioners don't usually refer to 'the Divine.' But these experts couldn't ignore what the data suggested, in particular two things: Religion or spirituality may influence young people's brain circuits, reducing their levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and personal devotion is twice as likely to protect them from risky behavior as it would adults.
"Their brains are changing, their relations with family, friends and the opposite sex are changing, and they're beginning to figure out what their purpose in the world will be," Wilcox says. "We know that people often turn to God in the midst of momentous changes. Adolescents are no different."
This crazy idea is not so crazy after all. Today's sophisticated research is simply echoing the ancient, inspired words of God: "Those who fear the Lord are secure; He will be a place of refuge for their children. … Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it. … It is better to have little with fear for the Lord than to have great treasure with turmoil. … Fear of the Lord gives life, security, and protection from harm" (Proverbs 14:26; 22:6; 15:16; 19:23, nlt).
Walt Brouwer