If you scroll through any news feed today, you’ll find plenty of stories about anxiety, depression, and the loneliness epidemic gripping the Western world. What you won’t find as often is a story about one of the most consistently documented protective factors against all three — and it isn’t a new drug, an app, or a wellness trend. It’s something humans have practiced for millennia: religion. In May 2026, the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University released a sweeping report titled “The Religion and Mental Health Connection,” and it has been making waves in both scientific and religious communities ever…
