Poor mental health among young people linked to decline of religion

 

The well-being of young adults aged 18-25 in America has significantly declined, compared to older age groups, according to new research from the Human Flourishing Programme at Harvard University. This is due to the lockdowns but also to a decline in religious practice. The same phenomenon has occurred in Ireland.

The study used data from a nationally representative sample of US adults to examine well-being scores by age group across numerous domains such as happiness, health, relationships, financial stability, etc.

Data were collected in January 2022, after almost two years of the Covid pandemic.

It emerged that well-being improves with age. In other words, the younger age groups tend to have worse mental health.

Similar research conducted about 20 years ago revealed instead that happiness and life satisfaction were higher among young adults than in the middle-aged cohort.

Commenting on the results, Jenet Erickson a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Family Studies, speculates that decline in mental health among young people is connected with the decline in religious practice among that age group and an overarching sense of meaning and purpose.

The positive contribution of religious practice to mental health and well-being has been shown in numerous studies. (The Iona Institute has also produced a paper authored by Prof. Patricia Casey on this topic.)

Other research from the Human Flourishing Programme found that, compared to adolescents and young adults who never attend religious services, those who practice at least once a week have “greater life satisfaction and positive affect, greater volunteering, greater sense of mission, more forgiveness, and lower probabilities of drug use and early sexual initiation” They also have “fewer depressive symptoms and lower probabilities of probable posttraumatic stress disorder, cigarette smoking, prescription drug misuse, history of STIs”.

Similar results were found in those who pray or meditate regularly.

Jenet Erickson, from the Institute for Family Studies, notes that religion shapes young people through the families in which they grew up and the religious practices of the parents is the strongest influences on the devotional behaviour of their children.

The passage of faith from one to the next generation is weakening. The decline of religious practice, which is a common occurrence in the Western world, has inevitable long-term consequences on the mental health of the younger generations.

But its ill effects have been amplified by the Covid pandemic when, in many countries, churches were closed and people could not to socialise.

The convergence of long-term religious decline and the short-term, but intense, Covid crisis explains why now we see young adults suffering more than others. 

Persecution of Christians denuonced at UN Human Rights Council meeting

The persecution of Christians in the world has been denounced at the meeting of the UN Human Rights Council.

The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) has presented some examples from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan during the 51th session of the Human Right Council that took place in Geneva at the beginning of October.

In Pakistan, Christians are often accused of blasphemy and attacked by Muslim mobs. “Every year, about 40-50 cases of blasphemy are registered, and the courts continue to make unjust decisions due to increasing social pressure from Islamists.”, said ECLJ research fellow, Louis-Marie Bonnea.

Allegations of blasphemy, which could lead to the death penalty, are often spurious.

The ECLJ representative called the Pakistani government to stop the abuse of blasphemy laws and to punish the violent attackers.

In India, Christians are persecuted by Hindu extremists and also by the Government. “Police frequently arrest Christians under false charges disguised as fraudulent or forcible conversion. The charges arise from the misuse of anti-conversion laws, which have been established to ensure that people from lower castes, most of whom are Christians, remain socially and economically low.”, the ECLJ told to the UN Human Rights Commission.

In Afghanistan, after the Taliban took back control of the country, Christians and other religious groups are at extreme risk. “Under the Taliban’s rule, converting from Islam to Christianity is against the law and punishable by death. The Taliban has been utilizing tactics to uncover Christians by confiscating suspected Christians’ phones and looking through messages and contacts. The Taliban has even used direct correspondence and social media to deliver threats of imprisonment and execution to every Christian in Afghanistan”, denounced Jordan Sekulow on behalf of the ECLJ.

The European Centre for Law and Justice has also published a report on the challenges faced by ex-Muslims who convert to Christianity in Europe. The publication is based on direct interviews and highlights how, even if there are no laws banning conversions in Europe, Muslims converts still face exclusion and also violent assault from their former communities.

HSE pushes for exclusion zones outside abortion facilities

 

In another sign of the very aggressive posture of the Irish State towards the pro-life movement, the HSE has backed calls for exclusion zones outside health centres in its submission on the matter to the Oireachtas Health Committee.

Last August, the Government published a General Scheme of a Bill that would ban pro-life activities, including silent prayers, from within 100 metres of hospitals and GP surgeries. The General Scheme is now under the legislative scrutiny of the Health Committee, before being presented to the Oireachtas.

In a submission to the Health Committee, the HSE has strongly supported such legislation, claiming that “It is hugely distressing for staff and personnel, who have committed to providing a safe, high-quality termination of pregnancy service to be exposed to intimidation whilst going about their work. Access to abortion care will remain vulnerable in an environment where providers are threatened, harassed or subjected to intimidating behaviours.”

The HSE said that pro-life activity outside maternity sites included “in some instances physical and verbal aggression”.  No concrete examples were given. Late last year there were claims of intimidation and harassment by pro-life activists outside University Maternity Hospital Limerick, but when the hospital was contacted, it said it has received no complaints from anyone about such behaviour.

There are already laws in place against intimidation and harassment.

The General Scheme presented by the Government would establish a 100-metre radius around not only hospitals and GP that are currently offering abortions but also around all healthcare premises in the country, including those where abortion is not performed.

Echoing the call by the HSE, Muiris O’Connor, Assistant Secretary in the Department of Health, told the Health Committee this week that, “Within those zones, conduct which is intended to, or may reasonably have the effect of, influencing the decision of a person in relation to availing of, or providing, services related to termination of pregnancy will be prohibited.”

This would include silent prayer or holding a placard with a religious image, if they are perceived to be having the effect of influencing someone else.

This piece of legislation was promised after the abortion referendum of 2018 but it has been delayed because, as the then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said, “we do enter a difficult space in a democracy when you decide that certain opinions can’t be held, certain types of protests can’t happen.”

Some believe that such legislation breaches human and constitutional rights and it won’t pass a constitutional challenge in court.

The Committee is required to report by the 14^th November and the Bill is expected to pass before the end of the year.

The happiness gap between conservatives and liberals

 

Conservative women are generally happier than their liberal counterparts, according to a new survey, and marriage and family life are strongly linked to the greater life satisfaction of conservatives.

The American Family Survey, an annual nationwide study of 3,000 Americans, found that only 15pc of liberal women of the 18-55 age group are “completely satisfied” with their lives and with their mental health. But among conservative women 31pc are “completely satisfied” with their lives and 36pc with their mental health.

Conservative men also report greater happiness levels.

Why does this ‘happiness gap’ exist?

Bradford Wilcox, Professor of Sociology and Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, maintains that there are two main factors that explain the difference, namely marital status and family satisfaction.

Conservatives in the 18-55 age group are 20pc more likely to be married and 18pc more likely to be satisfied with their families.

The ideological gap between conservative and liberal women is even wider with regard to family life happiness. Sixty-one percent of conservative women reported complete satisfaction with their families, compared to 36pc of liberal women. The survey recorded an astonishing distance between the two cohorts that should make us reflect.

Contrary to what we often hear, and to what liberal women tend to believe, it is not independence, freedom and work that fulfil our existence, says Wilcox. Being in a family is more gratifying overall, even if the modern narrative says the opposite (namely, the more freedom and the fewer ties, the more happiness).

“The secret to happiness, for most men and women, involves marriage and a life based around the family”, comments Wilcox.

Individualistic principles such as autonomy or lack of long-term commitment in relationships are celebrated and presented to young people as positive values, but the American Family Survey confirms that getting married and being dedicated to one’s family are more gratifying overall.

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Photo by Jessica Rockowitz on Unsplash

A partial victory for the right to life in European court

 

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Belgium has violated the right to life, as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, in a controversial euthanasia case, although the ruling was more about procedure than the substance of the country ‘right to die’.

The ruling refers to Godelieva de Troyer, a woman who had suffered from chronic depression for more than 20 years. When her psychiatrist expressed doubts that she met the condition for euthanasia, she approached another doctor who strongly advocates for “assisted dying” for this kind of non-physical reason, and received the lethal injection.

This happened without the lady’s son being informed and after she “donated” 2,500 euro to the organisation that authorised the injection.

Mrs de Troyer’s son, Tom, asked for an investigation, but he was refused by the Commission responsible for ensuring compliance with the euthanasia law. After having tried the Belgian criminal courts without success, he denounced his country for violating the European Convention on Human Rights. Specifically, he argued that Belgium failed to take steps to safeguard the life of a vulnerable person under Article 2 of the Convention.

 

Last week, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that Belgium did indeed violate Article 2 because the Commission had failed to review the case, and in respect of the criminal investigation.

The Court also ruled that the Belgium euthanasia law is not contrary to Article 2, while at the same time reiterating that there is no “right to die” in the Convention. This means that countries that are signatories to the Convention can legislate to allow for euthanasia and assisted suicide, if they wish, but they have no obligation.

Only one of the seven judges, in a partly dissenting opinion, overtly stated that euthanasia is against the Convention, saying: “the purpose of euthanasia is to end life, whereas the purpose of Article 2 is to preserve and protect it. I humbly submit, on the contrary, that any form of euthanasia…would not only lack a legal basis under the Convention, but would also be contrary to the right to life.”

Another judged criticised the Belgian legislation, noting that “In patients with mental illness, a loss of autonomy may occur: a tendency to isolation and suicide may also be observed. One of the rules to follow in psychiatry is precisely to avoid leaving such patients alone.”

This remark is particularly relevant to another Belgian case that has emerged this week.  Shanti De Corte, a 23 year old woman who suffered from severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, was recently euthanised on purely psychological grounds.

Six years ago, Shanti De Corte was at Brussels airport when a terrorist attack claimed 32 lives, including some of her schoolmates, and injured more than 300. Following the accident, she experienced constant panic attacks and became suicidal.

She finally received the lethal injection in May this year for “unbearable psychiatric suffering”, but some doctors believe that she was not offered all the possible treatments and now prosecutors have began an investigation on this case.

Shanti De Corte was physically healthy. Her case is indicative of how weak the safeguards are in the Belgian legislation and how easily euthanasia is now offered as a “solution” for psychiatric issues.

Last month Pope Francis, travelling back from Kazakhstan, commented on the ethical decline of the West and mentioned euthanasia. “Killing is not human, period. If you kill with motivation, eventually you will kill more and more. Let’s leave killing to the beasts“, he said.

The cases of these two Belgian women prove the Pope’s words. Once we accept that killing is a solution to end suffering, no safeguard will restrain the temptation to offer the “lethal solution” to more and more people who suffer from mental health and need instead proper treatments.

Je legaler die Euthanasie, desto mehr Menschen werden ohne Grund getötet

Nach dem offiziellen Bericht des kanadischen Gesundheitsministeriums starben im Jahr 2021 mehr als 10.000 Bürger in diesem Land durch Euthanasie. Zehnmal mehr als vor fünf Jahren.

Die Zahl ist in nur einem Jahr um 32 % gestiegen, was bestätigt, dass Euthanasie und die so genannte “Sterbehilfe”, sobald sie einmal eingeführt sind, zu einer akzeptierten gesellschaftlichen Norm, ja fast zu einer Pflicht für diejenigen werden, die leiden oder ihren Lebenswillen verloren haben.

Dem Bericht zufolge sahen sich 36 % der im letzten Jahr eingeschläferten Personen als Belastung für Familie und Freunde, während über 1 700 unter Isolation und Einsamkeit litten. Das heißt, sie sind eher durch soziale und psychologische Ursachen motiviert als durch Krankheit. So wie in den letzten Tagen leider und mit großem Erfolg der französische Regisseur Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022).

Die Einzelheiten des vom kanadischen Ministerium veröffentlichten Dokuments sind ebenfalls aufschlussreich: Sie zeigen, was in jedem anderen Land passieren könnte, wenn bestimmte Praktiken legalisiert würden.

Kanada hat 2016 die Euthanasie und den “assistierten Suizid” eingeführt. Ursprünglich war der Zugang auf unheilbar Kranke beschränkt, aber 2019 erklärte das Oberste Gericht von Quebec diese Beschränkung für verfassungswidrig, und infolgedessen weitete die Bundesregierung 2021 die euphemistisch als “medizinische Sterbehilfe” bezeichnete Maßnahme auf nicht unheilbar Kranke aus. Mit der Gesetzgebung von 2021 wurden auch einige Sicherheitsvorkehrungen abgeschafft, wie z. B. die zehntägige Wartezeit für die Beurteilung vor der Operation und die Verpflichtung, die Alternative der Palliativmedizin anzubieten. Ab dem nächsten Jahr wird sie den “guten Tod” auch auf Patienten ausdehnen, die nur an einer psychischen Krankheit leiden. Aber ein wirklich mitfühlendes Land sollte den Kranken und Einsamen mehr bieten als eine tödliche Injektion. Stattdessen wurden dem Bericht zufolge seit Einführung des Gesetzes im Jahr 2016 31.664 Menschen auf diese Weise getötet.

Diese Zahlen bedeuten im Vergleich zum Vorjahr (10.064) eine Verzehnfachung gegenüber 2016 (1.018) und machen 3,3 Prozent aller in Kanada im Jahr 2021 registrierten Todesfälle aus. Die Zahl variiert je nach geografischem Gebiet, aber in British Columbia wird inzwischen fast jeder zwanzigste Todesfall durch Euthanasie herbeigeführt.

Der gesetzlich erlaubte “assistierte Suizid” erfolgt durch die Selbstverabreichung von tödlichen Medikamenten, ist aber eine seltene Praxis: nur sieben Fälle im Jahr 2021. Fast alle Patienten werden stattdessen direkt von einem Arzt oder einer Krankenschwester getötet. Es handelt sich sowohl um Männer (52,3 %) als auch um Frauen, und das Durchschnittsalter beträgt 76,3 Jahre: 77 Jahre bei den Frauen und 75,6 Jahre bei den Männern.

Die Ausweitung der Sterbehilfe auf nicht todkranke Menschen im Rahmen des Gesetzes von 2021 erlaubt sie, wenn die Betroffenen an einer als “unheilbar” definierten Krankheit leiden oder wenn sie behindert sind und nicht nur körperlich, sondern auch psychisch leiden. 219 Menschen, die im vergangenen Jahr eingeschläfert wurden, waren nicht unheilbar krank. Da dies erst seit Juni dieses Jahres möglich ist, beziehen sich die Daten in dem Bericht nur auf ein Halbjahr, und es ist daher leicht abzusehen, dass sich die Fälle mindestens verdoppeln werden.

Das Durchschnittsalter der Patienten, die keine Sterbehilfe in Anspruch genommen haben, liegt bei 70,1 Jahren und ist damit mehr als sechs Jahre jünger als das Durchschnittsalter der Patienten im Endstadium. Von diesen Todesfällen betrafen 37 % Personen im Alter zwischen 18 und 64 Jahren, während die Zahl der unheilbar kranken Menschen mit weniger als der Hälfte (16,7 %) deutlich geringer ist. Das heißt, je mehr die Euthanasie liberalisiert wird, desto jünger werden die Opfer.

Die häufigste Ursache des Leidens, sowohl bei Patienten im Endstadium als auch bei Patienten ohne Endstadium, ist der Verlust der Fähigkeit, sinnvollen Tätigkeiten nachzugehen (86,3 %). Mehr als 3 500 von ihnen gaben an, dass sie sich durch Familie, Freunde oder Betreuer belastet fühlten, und (wie erwähnt) mehr als 1 700 litten unter Einsamkeit und Isolation.

Nur 4 % der Anträge auf Sterbehilfe wurden abgelehnt, weil sie die erforderlichen Kriterien nicht erfüllten, während etwa 2 % derjenigen, die zunächst um Sterbehilfe baten, es sich später anders überlegten oder einfach früher eines natürlichen Todes starben.

Die häufigste Krankheit bei den unheilbar Kranken ist Krebs (65,6 %), während bei den nicht unheilbar Kranken neurologische Krankheiten wie Demenz oder Alzheimer im Vordergrund stehen. Die Erfahrung Kanadas, auch wenn sie nur kurz ist, bestätigt, dass nach der Einführung der Euthanasie oder des “assistierten Suizids” die anfänglich gesetzten Grenzen allmählich aufgehoben werden, die Zahl der Opfer ansteigt und eine Umkehr nur schwer möglich ist. Dasselbe geschah in Belgien und den Niederlanden.

The coming ‘depopulation bomb’

 

A moral transformation, rather than social policies, will stop the de-population bomb claims Dr Nicholas Eberstadt, an expert in demography, in a new interview called the ‘De-Population Bomb’.

For years we have been warned of the dangers of an increasing world population (the so-called ‘population bomb’), but what happens when it shrinks, instead? This is already happening in many Western countries, he points out. Ireland has a fast-ageing population. Only large-scale immigration will stop it shrinking in the years ahead.

The United States, for example, was at replacement level (2.1 children per couple) or slightly above up to 2008. This means that there were sufficient births to compensate deaths, without taking into consideration immigration. Since then, the number of births per woman has gone down, particularly during the Covid pandemic. Ireland fertility rate is now about 1.7.

“If current trends continue, the United States would be on a track to shrink 20 percent for each generation”, warns Eberstadt, who a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of several studies on demography.

The European Union, Russia and China are experiencing the same demographic decline. So is all of East Asia, lead by Japan.

In Ireland, as Budget 2023 was being unveiled last week, the Department of Finance said that to maintain the current levels of public service we need an additional €8 billion in public expenditure each year by 2030.

“An ageing population will involve significant fiscal costs simply to ‘stand-still’”, said a risk assessment document.

In simple words, we need more young people working for the rest, particularly for those who have retired. Ideally, the size of the younger generations should exceed older ones but our demographic trends are going in the opposite direction.

Dr Eberstadt claims that the US federal spending is becoming untenable. “Today’s consumption for seniors is being financed by the unborn”.

One solution is more immigration, he says, but, even without considering the morality of depriving poorer countries of their workforce, this population policy does not always succeed in its intended purposes. He comments on the European experience: “The work rates are lower for the foreign-born than for the native-born in most European countries, the educational qualifications of working-age Europeans are typically lower for the foreign-born, and “non-EU foreign-born” youth are far more likely to be neither employed nor in education or training. The EU’s assimilation problem also looks to be intergenerational: throughout Europe, children of non-EU immigrants are generally more likely than their parents — not less likely — to see themselves as victims of group discrimination.”

In other words, large sections of the immigrant populations of parts of Europe are experiencing alienation, which often drives crime rates, and then voter backlash, as we have seen recently in Sweden.

Assimilation works better in the United States, Eberstadt claims, but immigration cannot be the only population policy to maintain demographic sustainability.

Dr Eberstadt is sceptical about subsidies and tax relief for families. He claims that “incentives to boost birth rates are likely to be costly and to elicit only modest and perhaps fleeting demographic results”.

Referring to the Scandinavian experience, where birth rates are mostly high relative to the European average (but still below replacement level), he talks about the “Swedish roller coaster”, i.e. the birth rate goes up just after a new subsidy is introduced, but then it goes back further below where it was before. What has to be changed instead, he maintains, is the people’s desire about the size of their families. This has been previously pointed out in this Iona Institute blog.

The best indicator for fertility rates is how many children women want, but this does not depend on economic conditions. Richer people do not have more children. The most affluent and productive society that humanity has ever seen has also the lowest fertility rates.

“Children are not convenient. We have moved into a world in which convenience is prized and in which constraints on personal autonomy are increasingly viewed as onerous”.

What is needed instead is a change in values. The desire for larger families depends on the appreciation of family values.

Dr Eberstadt believes that an ageing and declining population will experience the opposite: pessimism, hesitance, dependence, self-indulgence, resentment, and division.

We can change the head count with immigration, but it will work only temporarily if immigrants embrace the same mentality that causes depopulation, he says. We need instead a moral transformation so that people are confident and brave enough to maintain a natural rate of replacement for society.