Religion and Spirituality

When faced with serious health risks, people sometimes draw on religious faith, spiritual beliefs or a faith-based community for support. The people we interviewed held a wide range of views about religion, faith and spirituality more generally. They described many different ways in which their beliefs and associated communities were a part of how they coped with their hereditary cancer risk.

Coping and Faith

A number of people said that religious faith was central to their experience of coping with hereditary cancer risk. For Steven, “the power of prayer cannot be discounted.” Amy derives “a sense of comfort believing in a higher power.”

 

Bobbie says her faith in God and her pastor are central sources of support.

Bobbie says her faith in God and her pastor are central sources of support.

Age at interview: 65
Cancer-Related Experience: Cancer
Type of Inherited Risk: Identified breast cancer mutation
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So can you talk to me about who's helped you get through this, who's helped support you through all this?
Well I guess because of my faith, that I know that god can do anything, and I, I just have to believe that, you know, he'll take me through whatever. And with my pastor, I talk with my pastor, and my sisters and brothers, and so they, they are my support. So, that's why, I guess, I don't get-- a lot of times, they say, “are you depressed?” No, I'm not. And so, I say, “well god got me, and I know he's got me.” So. You know.
So, can you talk to me a little bit more about how your pastor has supported you?
He's prayed with me and talked with me. And so, he, you know, he said, he always encouraged me. He said, “you're going to be OK.” And I said “I believe that I am, and I do.”

 

Matthew’s faith helps him cope with his diagnosis and his diagnosis renews his faith.

Matthew’s faith helps him cope with his diagnosis and his diagnosis renews his faith.

Age at interview: 44
Cancer-Related Experience: Cancer
Type of Inherited Risk: Lynch syndrome
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I've grown up in the Christian faith, grew up in the church, and have carried that throughout my life. You know, didn't always follow it, and live it out, I think in my day to day. You know, certainly, as I, you know, high school years, and college years, certainly straight away. But, in particular, going into my diagnosis, felt that significance, and kind of the power of prayer, and just, you know, faith, and trust, and not worrying about kind of the outcome. There's not a fear. Right, there's not a fear around a diagnosis when you have a faith in something bigger.
Yeah. And so the faith strengthened, or you came back to it? How did the diagnosis?
That reignited, yeah, a bit. I don't think it was ever gone. It was always there. Some of my life decisions were probably incongruous with my faith and my core values. So I think that reignited, and kind of re-instilled, you know, what I held dear.

Others, like Lori, Mea, Barry and Bobbie, say they talk to God, believe they are being watched over, or pray for strength and to keep their spirits up. While some people of faith said it’s easier to accept their situation because they see it as part of God’s plan, no one believed their genetic condition to be a punishment. As Linda put it: “God didn’t do this to me. This is part of my genetic makeup. This is part of who I am and my body didn’t betray me.”

Support from Faith-Based Communities

Several people said that support from their faith community had been a crucial part of coping with their situation.

 

Asante stresses the importance of finding the right people for support.

Asante stresses the importance of finding the right people for support.

Age at interview: 44
Cancer-Related Experience: Cancer
Type of Inherited Risk: Identified breast cancer mutation
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And I traveled far and wide to find the right people who were going to be there for me. And my family, I can't say enough about my family and my church family. You know, they, they supported me.

 

Matthew says his church community supported him in many ways.

Matthew says his church community supported him in many ways.

Age at interview: 44
Cancer-Related Experience: Cancer
Type of Inherited Risk: Lynch syndrome
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We also have a great community here where we live. You know, just people rally, whether it's faith community or not, regardless, it's an outstanding community. So, you know, as my wife's mother, my mother-in-law, was going through cancer, and, you know, eventually died from that. She passed away five years ago. And just having a community of support, you know, having people to help with kids, help with transportation needs, help with meal needs, you know, just all these different things. That, you know, she could be with her mom, supporting her mom, and doing all that. But then there's another community that comes around. So I think that’s key. And then I think just, in the faith community, having prayer support, and everything else that comes along with that, is always key of having that.

 

Precious described the support she felt from fellow church members.

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Precious described the support she felt from fellow church members.

Age at interview: 65
Cancer-Related Experience: Cancer
Type of Inherited Risk: Identified breast cancer mutation
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The number one thing that I felt was support … my church family. They’re there for me. They pray for me. I can call anybody there and they can talk to me.

Spirituality

Many of the people we interviewed described themselves as being spiritual rather than formally religious. For these people, coping strategies related to their spirituality took many forms. Carrie said she does not “subscribe to any religion” but she does believe in “the power in people’s souls” such that “when somebody dies … that energy escapes into the universe.” She hoped that, “somehow … it can still touch the people that it loves.”

 

Cynthia finds it helpful to take time for spiritual reflection.

Cynthia finds it helpful to take time for spiritual reflection.

Age at interview: 50
Cancer-Related Experience: Elevated risk
Type of Inherited Risk: Identified breast cancer mutation
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I am not a religious person. I am a spiritual person and I do have a set of beliefs, but I don't believe that I need to have a religion in order to have faith in God and believe in the things that are associated with that, and heaven and, you know, right and wrong and a way of living my life that I think is morally and ethically correct. I don't need a religion for that. And so I'm not a religious person. I don't need a building. But I am a spiritual person. And I'm in a comfortable place with that. And so, I don't really seek that out because I don't have a need to. I feel comfortable with my God.

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It’s time alone with myself. And I guess prayer is the best way to describe it, but not necessarily because you know, a lot of people think of prayer and, you know, the whole, but it's not like that for me. It's just taking time to reflect and have that conversation, that prayer time with my god. So it's just me. Me and him.

Others talked about spirituality in terms of personal values and finding a way to live a good life. Heather spoke of wanting to “be a good person” and leaving “a positive impact.” Lisa S. stressed the importance of “rejoicing in life,” of not “mourning” what you lose and accepting that things change. For Briana, what matters most is “to be good to other people and to be accepting of other people and what they believe.”

Meditation and Mindfulness

Several of the people we interviewed had been exploring meditation, mindfulness or related practices as a way of coping with their situation. Carrie voiced a feeling shared by others that “the ability to be present” stopped her worrying about the future.

 

Ronnie finds meditation very helpful.

Ronnie finds meditation very helpful.

Age at interview: 40
Cancer-Related Experience: Cancer
Type of Inherited Risk: Identified breast cancer mutation
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So, it took like, a prescription for meditation from a behavioral psychologist for me to do it. And I think that was probably the single most helpful thing. But it really, I don't know if meditation is exactly spirituality in this context. But it definitely-- I mean, it’s just-- that whole staying in the present thing sounds very cliched, but it's actually like, the key to-- it was really the reason why, when I got the news of the diagnosis, I think I was able to keep it together. You know, it's like devastating.
Mm-Hmm.
But I remember at the breast surgeon giving me the results. And I remember just staying very-- like listening-- even though it was emotionally very difficult. I remember being in the right mind to take notes on what he said, ask certain questions. Like I wished I could be that present or to be that way, the way I was when I got one of the most-- worst news of my life. I wish I could be that way in the rest of my life. But it's really through the principles, not always doing meditation. But, well, meditation practice plus the principles of underlying meditation that really I think help you. I wish I had a better way of saying it than just being present with…
Mm-Hmm.
…but that's really what it's about. I mean, just coming to your senses and being in tune with what is happening. It really helped me I think process that information.

Facing Risk without Religion or Spirituality

Some of the people we interviewed said that they did not draw on religion, faith or spirituality as a way of coping with their genetic cancer risk. Some, like Christian and Gina, describe themselves as having some sort of spirituality but do not see it as connected to their health experience. Others, like Irina describe themselves as atheists for whom faith or spirituality just doesn’t enter the conversation.

 

Paul, an atheist, says he derives comfort from his belief in science and connection to nature.

Paul, an atheist, says he derives comfort from his belief in science and connection to nature.

Age at interview: 46
Cancer-Related Experience: Cancer
Type of Inherited Risk: A polyposis syndrome
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It's great that lots of people have lots of different kinds of beliefs. But for me, I don’t really-- as far as spirituality goes, I don’t believe in a supernatural soul. So I don't have spirituality in that sense. But again, we're a very science-centered at home. So for me, I have a concept that I like. I think there is an atheistic, I'm thinking of the word-- reincarnation, an atheistic reincarnation, in the sense that, I believe it's the first law of thermodynamics says that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transmuted. So when you die, the energy-- because your brain is basically a wet cell battery, so there is electricity-- and then the matter of your body can't be created or destroyed. So if you were to decompose, then you just become a part of the natural cycle.
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So if I could fertilize plants and trees-- so say for the sake of argument, I fertilize an apple tree, and then somebody eats the apple so part of me is in that tree and part of me is in that apple, because my matter can't be created or destroyed. It can just go somewhere else.
Right.
So for me, that's spirituality for me, in that as long as I'm not sealed up in a box, in a, you know, in a wooden box, in a concrete box, in the ground, I'm going to go back to nature. So that comforts me. So I'm not terribly worried about dying, because I'll just go back to nature.