Reply #44: please provide the evidence [View All]

[mairceridwen]

of where I said that one's spiritual life has a direct relationship with health. I said no such thing. I said that someone's religious/background can impact someone's sexual/mental, and yes ultimately physical well-being. That's not the same thing.

If I implied that, I was making a fair generalization and you are just being nitpicky but to be fair, I will elaborate:

Anyone with even half an open mind should be able to understand the likelyhood of a relationship between religion (organized or otherwise) and people's attitude's about sex, reproduction, and birth control and that this MAY impact physical and mental health.

It goes without saying that many women who were brought up catholic have many issues to resolve regarding their bodies and sex. Shame and guilt makes sexual pleasure and communication difficult. It also may impact someone's ability to undergo even a basic gynecological exam to say nothing of birth control and STD's/

There has been countless research done (from both liberal and conservative perspectives) using both personal testimony and conventional psychological and sociological methodology about the complex relationship between these issues.

You could start with Thomas C. Fox's, Sexuality and Catholicism:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0807614688/104-4091598-2875167
which would actually debunk the assertion that the church DICTATES actual sexual behavior, but it doesn't mean that there is no relationship or that religion/spirituality can have an incredible positive and/or negative affect on sexual wellbeing.

OR:

Religion and Sexual Health: Ethical, Theological, and Clinical Perspectives (Theology and Medicine, Vol 1) by Ronald M. Green
Unfortunately, I know nothing of this text

It's also been recognized as an international issue:
http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040310/449_13863.asp


Here is some more information:

Author
Ross, Michael W; Henry, Doug; Freeman, Anne; Caughy, Margaret; Dawson, Alvin G Jr..
E-Mail Address
Ross, Michael W.: [e-mail]
Title
Environmental influences on safer sex in young gay men: A situational presentation approach to measuring influences on sexual health. .
Source
Archives of Sexual Behavior. Vol 33(3) Jun 2004, 249-257.
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands
Abstract
(from the journal abstract) Environmental influences on sexual behavior are difficult to examine given their temporal distance from the sexual act and the cost of long-term longitudinal studies. We examined environmental influences on risky sexual behavior in young gay men using the Situational Presentation (Sitpres) methodology, where situations in which relevant environmental variables are presented as computer vignettes with the variables randomly allocated, and participants rate the likelihood of their engaging in unsafe sexual behavior. A total of 100 gay men aged between 18 and 26 years of age completed 20 Situational presentations with the outcome being the likelihood of engaging in unprotected anal intercourse. On regression analysis, 3 environmental variables significantly predicted safer sex: perceived gay/bisexual men's norms toward condom use; availability of HIV prevention messages; and what one's religion says about gay sex. Not significant were family, media, legal, and work/school attitudes to homosexuality. Demographic variables that were predictors included education, age, sexual orientation, and degree of being "out" about sexual orientation. These data suggest that environmental factors can be approximated using the Sitpres methodology, and that more proximal environmental variables... (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

Author
Safir, Marilyn P.
E-Mail Address
Safir, Marilyn P.: [e-mail]
Title
An Israeli sex therapist considers a New View of women's sexual problems. .
Source
Women & Therapy. Vol 24(1-2) 2001, 47-52.
Haworth Press, US
Abstract
Comments on the article by L. Alperstein et al (see record 2002-12764-001) concerning the classification of female sexual problems. The author believes that by focusing on the inequalities that exist between men and women as a result of culture, ethnicity, religion, legislation, etc, the New View of Women's Sexual Problems brings to the forefront the social inequalities that may produce sexual dysfunction in women in Israel. In addition, the rights to sexual information, comprehensive sexual education and appropriate sexual health care have not been recognized in Israel. The field of sexology in Israel is also relatively young and underdeveloped. Therefore, the New View of Women's Sexual Problems' focus is extremely relevant for sexologists and sex therapists working in Israel. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)

Author
Gordon, Sol; Snyder, Craig W.
Title
Personal issues in human sexuality: A guidebook for better sexual health (2nd ed.).
Source
Needham Heights, MA, US: Allyn & Bacon. (1989). x, 389 pp.
Abstract
(from the preface) After reading a conventional book on human sexuality, one is often left unsatisfied. Although it is important to learn the latest facts and research findings, these do not often lend insight to the inherently personal issues of one's own sexual behavior. Thus, in this edition (as it was in the first), our focus is on both the personal, philosophical, and ethical issues in people's lives and the significant medical and research data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)

Author
Nelson, James B.
Title
Chapter
The role of religion.
Source
Albee, George W (Ed); Joffe, Justin M (Ed); et al. (1988). Prevention, powerlessness, and politics: Readings on social change. (pp. 421-432). Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc. 557 pp.
Abstract
(from the chapter) links between a Western white culture's inability to live in ecological harmony with the earth and our proneness toward self-body dissociation /// Judeo-Christian understandings of God are crucial to our own self-understandings /// submit seven deadly sins which Western religion has contributed to sexual disease, countered by seven virtues (or positive resources) which the Judeo-Christian tradition offers to sexual health /// deadly sins / spiritualist dualism / sexist or patriarchal dualism / homophobia / guilt over self-love / legalistic sexual ethics / sexless image of spirituality / privatization of sexuality /// white racism / social violence (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)

Author
Myers, Lonny.
Title
Sex researchers and sex myths: A challenge to activism.
Source
Journal of Sex Research. Vol 17(1) Feb 1981, 84-89.
Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, US
Abstract
Contends that organized medicine and organized religion continue to perpetuate sexual myths with impunity and that sex researchers do not hesitate to present data that contradict the conservative viewpoint, but they do not attack the inaccuracies published by medical and religious organizations. By allowing these publications to go unchallenged, it is argued that researchers run the risk of giving both the public and conservative professionals the idea that inaccurate medical and religious writings are not truly inaccurate but rather represent another equally valid view of sexual health and normalcy. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)

Author
Yates, Wilson.
Title
The role of the Theological Ethical Task Force in the University of Minnesota Program in Human Sexuality.
Source
Counseling & Values. Vol 20(4) Jul 1976, 190-197.
Assn for Spiritual Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling, US
Abstract
Discusses 3 areas of cooperative work in human sexuality undertaken by participants in a Program in Human Sexuality (PHS) from the University of Minnesota Medical School; the American Lutheran Church staff; and Luther, Northwestern, and United Theological Seminaries. The endeavor took shape in the spring of 1971 and was formalized through the creation of a Theological Ethical Task Force (TETF) in the fall of 1972. Value analysis was one area of cooperative work by TETF members. Examination of the educational philosophy of the PHS uncovered basic value assumptions, such as one to the effect that each person has a right and an obligation to acquire objective knowledge about the full range of human sexual behavior. Analysis of the program's image of sexual health identified suppositions which included the notions that one should accept sexual feelings as a natural part of life and also accept responsibility for what is done with those feelings. Value contrasts and conflicts between the theoretical models used in the program (e.g., behaviorist and humanistic models) also were considered. The 2nd area of cooperation focused on seminars for helping professionals to train them to deal with sex-related issues, and the 3rd area concerned ways in which the work of the medical science and theological disciplines on human sexuality might complement and supplement each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)

Author
Daniluk, Judith C.
Title
The meaning and experience of female sexuality: A phenomenological analysis.
Source
Psychology of Women Quarterly. Vol 17(1) Mar 1993, 53-69.
Blackwell Publishing, United Kingdom
Abstract
Conducted a phenomenological analysis of the experiences of 10 women (aged 30-66 yrs), including the author, who met in a group format weekly for 11 wks to discuss the lived experience of their sexuality. Recordings of the sessions were transcribed, and themes were determined. The influence of medicine, religion, media, and sexual violence in constructing and confining the experience and expression of female sexuality was underscored. Structural and institutional barriers to the development of female sexual health were identified. Areas of central importance to women for experiencing their sexuality included sexual expression, reproduction, body image, and intimate relationships. Both positive and negative themes were identified, emphasizing the importance for women of assuming an active role in the construction of their own sexual paradigms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)


That should keep you busy for a while. You can read up. I won't spoon feed you "facts" on what is ultimately a very complex issue.