To observe that is not to deny the appearance of "cures" among people who pray, meditate, an follow disciplines. Further, to observe that is not to rule out the possibility, a priori, of "miracles" occurring. A 19th century German theologian wisely said that it is not wise to tell people in advance what they are permitted to believe. The long record of medical and "pastoral" care is too rich and too complex to warrant anyone's running around with a sticker to paste on hospital beds or wheel chairs: "Not possible."

To claim to "effect" good health," to bring into being such cures, however, is an invitation to false advertising, to license false hopes (acknowledging that there can be "true" hopes), and even guilt or worse health among the hyper-religious for whom their prayer disciplines were ineffective. Am I a reject of the divine? Did I not pray intensely enough? Did I not read enough best-sellers whose authors promise perfect health? Might I so depend on "miracle cures" that I shun good medical care, which is its own miracle cure? So, again, cancel "effect."

Yes, to the suggestion that religion--too broad a term here, but we know what we mean when we use it in this context, Religion can affect health and in some ways produce healthful effects. One can assert this without moving into magic, superstition, or charlatanry.

I like to begin empirically. I've heard of a man who was asked if he believed in infant baptism. "Believe in it, hell, I've SEEN it!" So many of us who have worked on frontiers where religion and health meet have "seen" good effects. For a score of years I was affiliated with and a leader at the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics, we brought together first-class physicians, clinicians, other scientists, chaplains, pastors, ethicists, and more to measure and interpret findings about how religion affected better health.

Standards were high. A nationally known physician who worked with us counseled that we should push as far as we could, "but don't do any nutty stuff that I can't bring into med school." Of course, what is "nutty stuff" to some people in one generation becomes mainstream in the next. But I think readers will know what I mean in this context. We get some empirical clues: Seventh-Day Adventists and Latter-day Saints live longer than those who smoke, drink alcohol, ingest caffeine. (One who left Adentism smiled over a glass of wine: "but, then, maybe it only SEEMED we lived longer!) Those longer lives were "effects" of the way the disciplines of those faiths led to health-giving ways.

By now the mind-body connections are so much studied and the health-giving role of certain mental ("spiritual") processes have helped with health. Some studies show that regular church-goers have better health and longer lives than those who sleep-in on Sundays. Whether the "religion" did it or whether those who take care of their health tend to be more religious is unsettled in this.

Beyond it all, the care given through religious agencies, congregations, and the like, affect health. And finding meaning in the midst of suffering, while it does not remove pain, can help promote health as someone who is ill reorients life.

So, once again: religion in some of its many faces can affect health--and produce good effects. Still: handle with care!