The Archbishop of Canterbury Comes Calling

The latest Newsweek is delightfully Anglican. Now that abrupt, odd statement requires some explanation.

Newsweek is edited by John Meacham, a graduate of Sewanee: the University of the South. Cheryl and I and the kids spent a delightful summer there in 1998 where I did summer study. We have many fond memories of the university, the people, and “Teens on the Mountain,” which Kelsey and Carmen relished. Sewanee is a university of the Episcopal Church and some would say it ranks just behind Oxford and Cambridge in the pantheon of Anglican universities. Indeed, Sewanee is a little piece of England in the old American South. You can see Meacham regularly on MSNBC; he is a member of the Vestry of St. Thomas Church in New York City.

But more significantly, the current edition of Newsweek features a My Turn column by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, “God and Wall Street.” I wrote a My Turn column more than twenty years ago entitled, “My Buttoned-Down Students,” so it is good to see the archbishop follow in my footsteps! Archbishop Williams closes his essay with the observation, “Our job as human beings is to imagine ourselves ... in the hope that the images we discover will have resonance and harmony with the will and purpose of Almighty God.” This sounds like the sort of comment one would expect from an archbishop and one might be inclined to nod agreeably and pass on to the next subject—or simply nod off.

But another article in the same copy of the magazine by an old friend invites us to consider his comments more thoughtfully. Sharon Begley offers a substantial piece entitled, “The Depressing News about Anti-depressants.” A few years ago, Sharon was the science editor at the Wall Street Journal. Since a good part of my training is in philosophy of science, I used to email her about some of her columns and she was kind enough to respond. Just as I certainly learned from her, I like to think I was helpful to her understanding of science.

The gist of her article, which covers a lot of recent research regarding anti-depressants, is that popular anti-depressants—which we are consuming in enormously expensive quantities—“are no more effective than a placebo.” That means that when sugar pills were substituted for widely prescribed anti-depressants, they were just as effective if people believed they were getting the prescription medication. Of course, it was not the sugar pills bringing relief, it was the belief that the pills would help.

We keep re-learning how important our beliefs are to our well being. People who believe they will do better, in fact, do better than if they are pessimistic. People who are convinced they are loved and supported by a loving community, fare better by many different measures. People who routinely pray and open their hearts to the Creator of all, who sing of the grace of God in every situation, simply make their way in the world more effectively and with greater joy—whatever the situation they happen to face. Beliefs matter because our beliefs pave the way for the futures we imagine each moment.

As recent events around the world make clear, there is much that is not in our control. But some is, and—importantly—we have considerable sway over our beliefs and attitudes. Notably, we have a choice, as the archbishop wrote, in how we “imagine ourselves.” And in that imagining, we determine a good deal of what will happen to us. Join us this Sunday, as you imagine yourself a blessed child of God. You might not write for Newsweek, or work on Wall Street, but I believe you’ll find yourself in a better place.