This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Today, America and Utah suffer from pandemics in chronic disease with no real relief in sight. One great solution to the problem has little to do with technology, and everything to do with spirituality, knowledge and simple caring. Christianity has forgotten its roots in health care and preventive wellness.

The earliest Christian church was known as one of two great healing religions in the ancient Near East. The other was the church of Asclepius, which spread out from Greece, just as Christianity spread out from Palestine. The ritual of healing — the dual use of religious and materialistic methods — was central in the church until medicine established itself as a separate profession. Today the two great institutions hardly speak to each other.

The Christian churches still cling to a vestige of their original roots in healing, but is that enough? The churches need to get wholesale into the arena of professional wellness programs. Secular institutions, including medicine, need to tap into spiritual avenues to achieve real success in education, human development, democracy and the marketplace.

Related to this topic is a presentation on Christianity and Healing, set for the Salt Lake Main Library, April 12, 7-8 pm, Room C.

Robert Kimball Shinkoskey

Woods Cross