In a study that has made a splash this month, an American cardiologist concludes that praying for sick people has no effect one way or the other on their recovery. In fact, if they know they are being prayed for, it makes them worse. Non-believers naturally find the first result predictable and the second quite entertaining. But they are not the only ones to welcome the new report. Some religious leaders have, too, to their credit. It is about time a few of them reminded the world that religious belief does not necessarily entail the suspension of common sense.
How did the researchers, led by Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School, go about measuring the effect of prayer on healing? Pretty rigorously, according to the report in the April issue of the American Heart Journal. About 1,800 patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery at six hospitals were divided into three groups: those who were told they were being prayed for; those who were prayed for but told they might or might not be; and those who were not prayed for but, like the second group, told that it was a possibility.
The people doing the praying were all Christians with impeccable qualifications for the job, some from a Catholic monastery in Minnesota, some from a Catholic convent in Massachusetts and some from an evangelical Protestant prayer group in Missouri. They were instructed to pray for "a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications" for specific patients, whom they did not know. Theirs were, in short, the pure, disinterested prayers of strangers. (Presumably, the researchers figured God would accept Christian prayer as a fair representation of other brands as well.