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Religion |
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| Pastors aim to promote holistic health |
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| By Diane Reynolds, Times Staff Writer |
Sunday, September 30, 2007 |
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At a recent conference on health in North Carolina, the Rev. Ellin Dize had the chance to watch the sunrise.
"Seeing the sun come up and shine across the water is just magnificent," said Dize, pastor of Stone Chapel United Methodist Church in New Windsor.
And healing.
Such communion with nature - God's creation - is crucial for good health, she said.
She and the Rev. Bob Whiting, pastor emeritus of Mount Zion United Methodist Church in Finksburg, hope to spread the message that a healthy life comes from more than a pill or prescription drug.
To do so, the two are educating themselves to be "health ministers" to the community. They plan to offer a Christian-focused class on the mind, body, spirit connection at Stone Chapel starting Wednesday.
"There are so many people sick," Dize said.
The class will cover different areas that contribute to good health, including the physical, water, exercise, air, sun and food; the mental, attitude and stress; and the spiritual, our connection to God and God within us.
"Life is all connected," Dize said.
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Scientific research seems to support her. More than 1,000 studies since the 1990s have confirmed a link between religious belief and physical health.
In a 2004 article in American Psychologist titled "How the Mind Hurts and Heals the Body," Oakley Ray of Vanderbilt University reviewed the scientific literature on the body-mind connection.
The evidence shows overwhelming that the brain interacts with the body to help produce health or ill health, he wrote.
"The brain is the body's first line of defense against illness, against aging, against death," he wrote.
More specifically, the mind (brain), the endocrine system, the nervous system and the immune system are in constant communication with each other.
What we know, our perceptions of events, the strength of our support community and our spiritual beliefs all impact our physical health.
Ray cited a 1995 study of a group of men older than 55 who underwent voluntary cardiac surgery. The men who said they gained no strength or comfort from religion were three times more likely to die in the six months following the surgery than those who professed drawing solace and strength from religion.
All the ingredients of good health are spelled out in the Bible, Dize said, starting with "God's diet" of fresh fruits and vegetables described in Genesis 1:29.
Dize and Whiting are working toward vegetarianism, they said, and are planning to derive 85 percent of their diet from raw foods.
"We're not going to make a drastic change all at once," Dize said,
Food additives lead to depression, they said, and sugar compromises the immune system.
The two pastors promote walking, exercise and fresh air.
Whiting said he can directly correlate his two heart attacks with increased stress in his life.
He regained health, he said, as much through putting God first as through any drug regimen.
Both promote their spiritual connection through sanctuary gardens at home and through daily mediation and prayer. Dize likes to soothe her soul through lighting a candle to symbolize God's presence and by listening to music.
She said she hopes people from the community will participate in the course, using flextime options to attend if they work during the hours of the class.
Friendships and community support greatly enhance good health, according to Ray.
But we can't serve others well, Dize said, until we first take care of ourselves.
The pattern she advocates is putting God first, followed by self-care, then service to others.
"When we put God first, we don't grab all those pieces of pie," Dize said.
Reach staff writer Diane Reynolds at 410-857-7873 or diane.reynolds@carrollcountytimes.com.
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