How Church Could (Literally) Save Your Life

McLaughlin (No Greater Love) serves up an undercooked endorsement of regular church attendance. Against the backdrop of a mass “dechurching” that finds 40 million fewer Americans attending church today than 25 years ago, the author contends that those who worship weekly may live longer (those who attended services more than once weekly at age 20 lived seven years longer on average than their peers, one study found); are less likely to develop depression; and are more altruistic (two-thirds of people who worship at least twice monthly give money to charitable causes, compared to less than half of those who don’t). Unfortunately, the haphazard parade of statistics fails to coalesce into a meaningful argument and is weakened by a lack of nuance, a failure to meaningfully differentiate between correlation and causation, and a tendency to lean on vague statements without sufficient supporting evidence. McLaughlin also brushes aside cases in which belonging to a church has hurt believers, dismissing those who’ve endured religious abuse by noting that “just as growing up in an unhealthy family wouldn’t lead you to give up on family for good, so the experience of an unhealthy church need not mean giving up on church.” This myopic treatise disappoints. (Oct.)