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• Members: 988 members
• Partnerships: 900 partners
• Comments: 3637 comments
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Farewell from Bill Johnson, ADECA Director
6-25-09
To everyone,
As you know, over the last few months there has been speculation of my pursuing another endeavor. I want to let you know that I have decided to enter the race for Governor of the State of Alabama. I am resigning my position as Director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs as of today.
I want to say how much I have enjoyed working with each and every one of you here over the last 6 ½ years. Together, we have partnered with communities across the state in achieving their vision and goals for healthier, safer and stronger places to live, work and rear families and this has been an absolute pleasure. Through grant opportunities and the thousands of remarkable volunteers giving time and resources, I've seen first hand how government and citizens can work together to improve the quality of life for our residents and businesses.
I wish all of you well, I know you will continue to work hard to make this great state a better place for all of us.
Thanks so much,
Bill Johnson
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CPR BBQ Cookout
May 29th, 2009
Governor Riley's Office of Special Projects will host a BBQ Cookout for the CPR Network on Saturday, July 18th in Montgomery. Please make plans to attend. |
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Religion and Drug Abuse
May, 04 2009
The relationship between religious practice and the moderate use or avoidance of alcohol is well documented, regardless of whether denominational beliefs prohibit the use of alcohol. According to general studies, the higher the level of religious involvement, the less likely the use or abuse of alcohol.
Persons who abuse alcohol rarely have a strong religious commitment. In their study of the development of alcohol abuse, David Larson and William P. Wilson, professors of psychiatry at Northwestern University School of Medicine, found that nine out of ten alcoholics had lost interest in religion in their teenage years, in sharp contrast to teenagers generally, among whom interest in religion increased by almost 50 percent and declined by only 14 percent. Robert Coombs and his colleagues at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine found that alcohol abuse is 300 percent higher among those who do not attend church.
Drug and alcohol use is lowest in the most conservative religious denominations and highest in non-religious groups, while liberal church groups have use rates just slightly lower than those for non-religious groups. But for all groups, religious commitment correlates with absence of drug abuse.
The parental attitude to religion also is important in dealing with alcohol use. A 1985 study indicated that if the mother and father have deep, competing differences toward religious belief and practice, their children are more likely to use or abuse alcohol than are children whose parents do not differ on matters of religion. Conversely, if their parents' religious beliefs and practices are similar, children are far more likely to abstain from alcohol or to drink with moderation. Almost three decades before these findings, Orville Walters, then a research fellow at the Menninger School of Psychiatry in Topeka, Kansas, found that alcoholics who came from religious backgrounds tended to have mothers who were highly religious but fathers who were more non-religious.
Paralleling the research on alcohol addiction, an early review of studies of drug addiction found a lack of religious commitment to be a predictor of who abuses drugs. Many more recent studies replicate this finding. As in so many other research studies, the best measurement of religious commitment is frequency of church attendance: "Overall church attendance was more strongly related to [less] drug use than was intensity of religious feelings." This is true for both males and females. According to Jerald G. Bachman of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, "Factors we found to be most important in predicting use of marijuana and other drugs during the late 1970's remained most important during the early 1980's. Drug use is below average among those with strong religious commitments." The more powerfully addictive the drug being considered, the more powerful is the impact of church attendance in preventing its use.
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New Website
April 29, 2009
The website has been refurbished and we are excited about the result. Instead of going to alabamacprnetwork.com, please log into cprnet.alabama.gov. We have officially moved to the state server and extra content is available to find the resources you need.
Please check in for upcoming meetings in your area and for recaps of previous meetings held in your area. |
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Churches Solve Social Problems
January 27, 2009
Overwhelmingly, Americans believe that religious organizations are playing a constructive role in addressing society's challenges. Two-thirds (66%) say churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship contribute a great deal or some to solving important social problems.
Agreement on this issue is widespread, with at least half in every major demographic group, including seculars (52%), saying that houses of worship contribute a great deal or some. This data is provided by the Pew Research Center Study in August 2005.
Of course we don’t need a research study to tell us that churches play a critical role in dealing with problems in our communities. That’s why it’s so important that we tap into that tremendous wealth of knowledge and practical good sense.
The CPR Network needs and will continue to need all the support, insight, help, resources and information it can get to make our mission successful.
You can help. Over the next few weeks, spend a few minutes with a church leader. Ask them to share their thoughts on how to make the CPR Network successful in supporting the needs of those who need help to survive these trying times. Post the feedback you get right here on our site.
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