Ketchum: Is loneliness our biggest health problem?

So what’s the biggest health problem facing Americans today?

Heart disease? Cancer? Covid-19? Hypertension?

Jeffrey Salkin, a rabbi, lecturer and columnist for Religion News Service, tells us it’s loneliness. Salkin reports that the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has statistics that prove it.

The good doctor says 36% of us experience persistent loneliness. Also, 54% claim “no one knows them well,” 40% “lack companionship” and 27% say they are estranged from their families.

Murthy says all this loneliness does as much damage to our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Yikes!

Loneliness cuts across the social fabric and visits its worst on churchgoer and atheist alike. The loneliness quotient jumped markedly, of course, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Too many of us spent too much time shut up in our houses, condos and apartments, and we are still dealing with its aftermath.

All of this goes back to the creation, Salkin says. When God created Adam, God figured out right away that Adam needed not to be alone. God said so. Besides, living alone doesn’t give you anyone to bicker with or tell jokes to except yourself. Take it from me, that’s no fun.

Humans are wired to spend their days in community with others of their kind. Unless you are a confirmed hermit who enjoys living in the deep woods and dining on deer, gophers, chipmunks and the occasional raccoon, community is where you need to live.

I would gladly trade a squirrel rifle for a lawn mower any day. I also would – and did – gladly trade my cast-iron skillet used to fry slabs of spam for the tasty creations of the most beautiful cook on the planet, with whom I am privileged to sleep.

But I digress. Loneliness is the issue. Salkin allows as how God – the creator, sustainer and font of salvation – must get lonely, too. Mostly God gets lonely when fewer and fewer of his creatures show up for worship on the Sabbath, whether that’s Friday or Saturday or Sunday.

Somehow, I never thought about God as ever getting lonely. Let’s face it, God has God’s hands pretty full these days, what with wars and rumors of wars flooding our cell-phone news feeds. New natural disasters happen before the old ones have a chance to recede.

Maybe Salkin is right. Maybe God reaches a point where God would just like to take a break and chat with someone who is not demanding something – anyone up for just a chat.

And just maybe a whole new ministry for interested churches might be lurking in all this. Maybe churches might want to consider an outreach aimed simply at those lonely in body or in spirit.

There is a difference. Whoever first observed that you can be lonely in a crowd knew what he or she was talking about.

If, in fact, loneliness is as dangerous to our health as the surgeon general seems to think it is, then this is one health crisis that seems tailor-made for communities of faith to address in their own, unique ways.

Done right, it just might help fill some of those pews that have remained empty since Covid-19 did its worst during the pandemic. Call it a win-win.

And just maybe, God might not be quite as lonely anymore.

Jim Ketchum is a retired Times Herald copy editor and a former religion editor. Contact him at jeketchum1@comcast.net.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Ketchum: Is loneliness our biggest health problem?