[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 9924]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 9924]]

                          EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS

GOD, FAITH, AND HEALTH: EXPLORING THE SPIRITUALITY-HEALING CONNECTION, 
                      A NEW BOOK BY DR. JEFF LEVIN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MARK STEVEN KIRK

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 5, 2001

  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to mark the publication of God, 
Faith, and Health: Exploring the Spirituality-Healing Connection, by 
our own Dr. Jeff Levin, raised in Wilmette, Illinois, a graduate of New 
Trier High School. Dr. Levin is a pioneering scientist and author whose 
research beginning in the 1980s helped create the field of religion, 
spirituality, and health.
  In this groundbreaking new book, Dr. Levin--a National Institutes of 
Health funded social epidemiologist who has conducted much of the 
original research in this increasingly influential area of health and 
medicine--explores the latest compelling evidence of the connection 
between health and a wide array of spiritual beliefs and practices. 
These include attendance at religious services, faith in God, and 
worship, prayer, and meditation. With examples from spiritual 
traditions as diverse as Christianity, Judaism, and Yoga, he looks with 
an open mind and perceptive eye at the many ways that religious 
involvement and belief can prevent illness and promote health and well 
being.
  Drawing on his own and other published studies, Dr. Levin shows how 
religion's emphasis on healthy behaviors and supportive relationships 
influences our overall health and how the optimism and hopefulness of 
those who profess faith promote the body's healing responses.
  Levin studies other healing modes as non-contact therapeutic touch, 
distant prayer, and transcendent experiences and asks if other forces 
could be at work in many cases of healing. Sharing compelling evidence 
from recent research, he offers an exciting vision of a new era in 
modern medicine, one in which body, mind, and something else are 
brought together to promote health, prevent illness, and produce 
healing.
  Filled with the dramatic stories of people whose health has been 
affected by their faith, God, Faith, and Health will alter the way we 
think about our bodies and our faith, and shows us the path for 
improving our own health through spiritual practice.
  In January, President Bush signed executive orders establishing the 
White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives. In light 
of the Administration's emphasis on faith-based institutions, Dr. 
Levin's God, Faith, and Health is an especially timely contribution. It 
provides a scientifically grounded model for how religious faith can 
help serve to promote the health and well being of all Americans.
  According to Dr. James S. Gordon, Georgetown professor and Chairman 
of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine 
Policy, ``Dr. Levin shows us--clearly, thoughtfully, comprehensively--
that belief does matter. Spiritual practice and religious observance 
are powerful medicine.''
  I commend Dr. Levin for his groundbreaking contribution to science 
and medicine. The evidence presented in God, Faith, and Health promises 
to heal the divisive barriers that separate faith from medicine, and 
science from spirit.

                          ____________________