It Runs in the Family? - Part 2

 

We know we inherit physical characteristics through our genes. What about psychological or behavioral characteristics? Do genetics impact spirituality and religion?

 

In 2021 I began to research my family tree and discovered that some of my ancestors were among the first Quakers. In the 1650s they became followers of George Fox in England. Then they were some of the first Quakers to emigrate to the British Colonies. 

I shared this discovery with one of my brothers and he commented, “Wow! I share many of the Quaker beliefs!”

Did my brother inherit a “Quaker” gene?

When the French and Indian War broke out in 1754, most of the Quaker politicians resigned from colonial government for several years rather than support the war. In 1756 our ancestors’ Quaker community experienced many raids but, because of their belief in pacifism, they did not join the militia.

 

However, some Quakers were conscientiously convinced that they could, despite, the Quakers belief in pacifism, take up arms. This included my 4^th. Great-Grandfather, Isaac Willits. He was a conscientious protector.  After learning this I thought, “I would have done the same thing!” Indeed, I served in the United States Armed Forces twenty-seven years before I learned about Isaac’s experience. 

Because Isaac joined a militia, he was disowned from the Quaker faith in January, 1757. Similarly, members and leaders in my protestant church readily shared their disapproval of my military service because I was a wife and mother. They believed women should be “helpers” while I strongly believed in being a conscientious protector.   Due to this spiritual difference, I “disowned” myself from that church.

Coincidence or genetic predisposition?

U.S., Quaker Meeting records,1681-1935 Pennsylvania; Berks; Exeter Monthly Meeting

Most people who are devoutly religious or determinedly atheist believe they've examined the evidence, researched correctly, and come to their own conclusions. However, psychologists are now coming to realize you might have less control over this process than you think. How susceptible you are to embracing religion, rejecting it or falling somewhere in the middle – may be a genetic trait.

 

According to evolutionary psychologists, our genetic inheritance not only determines physical traits, but also certain personality traits and social behaviors. Evolutionary psychology is a field of study that seeks to identify behavior that is a result of our genetic inheritance from our ancestors. It has its historical roots in Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. In “The Origin of Species”, Darwin predicted that psychology would develop an evolutionary basis, and that a process of natural selection creates traits, like spirituality and religiousness, that are adaptive to our environment. That was his theory, but does current research support it?

First, it is important to differentiate between spirituality and religion. According to Dean Hamer, author of “The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into Our Genes”, there is “a sharp distinction between spirituality, which is a personality trait that some of us have to a greater or lesser extent than others, and religion, which is a culturally transmitted expression of spirituality.”

In his book, Hamer contends that one's predisposition toward spirituality is influenced by genetic factors. More controversially, he proposes that the VMAT2 gene is one of many potential genes that influence spirituality. Hamer identifies one particular variation, a change from an A to a C, present in 28% of the alleles in his data set, as a marker for the more “spiritual” version of this gene.

Among the skeptics of Hamer’s work was John Polkinghorne (1930-2021) an English theoretical physicist, theologian, and Anglican priest. Commenting on “The God Gene” for The Daily Telegraph, he said "The idea of a God gene goes against all my personal theological convictions. You can't cut faith down to the lowest common denominator of genetic survival. It shows the poverty of reductionist thinking."

Exploring genetic predisposition isn’t an attempt to reduce whether or not you have faith in God to your genetics. It is exploring the possibility that genes may impact how deeply you embrace whichever faith or spiritual philosophy you identify with. 

spectrumagazine.org

Other research suggests that one of the main reasons why individuals differ in strength of spirituality (but not religious affiliation) is because of their genetics. It seems that there is some kind of predisposition to being relatively more or less spiritual, with estimates suggesting that 30-50% of differences in spirituality is due to genes. 

 

“Until about 25 years ago, scientists assumed that religious behavior was simply the product of a person’s socialization – or ‘nurture’. But more recent studies, including those on adult twins who were raised apart, suggest genes contribute about 40% of the variability in a person’s religiousness.” - Maggie Mckee

csail.mit.edu

It might be that some variation in personal spirituality is explained by genetics, although spirituality is a complex trait influenced by many genes as well as upbringing and culture. Genetics probably play a small part, but we could surely benefit from at least some understanding of that small part.

All of this seems to suggest that there might be:

• good reason to view spirituality as another part of the rich genetic and cultural variety that makes us human,
• and an even better reason to learn to respect and enjoy the full range of that variety.

An Escaped Christmas Tree

During a predawn run, another runner greeted me, “You look like an escaped Christmas Tree!” 

It was true. Thanks to my “Noxgear Tracer360”  multicolored, illuminated vest and headlamp, I was lit up like a Christmas tree!

December is chock full of holidays that are associated with light. Here are just a few:

Dec. 8: Rohatsu (Bodhi Day) — Buddhist

This holiday celebrates the historical Buddha’s decision and vow to sit under the Bodhi tree until he reached spiritual enlightenment.

Dec. 10 to 18: Hanukkah — Judaism

This is the eight-day Jewish festival of lights, which celebrates the Maccabean revolt in Egypt. Eight candles are lit with a menorah to honor the holiday.

Dec. 21: Solstice/Yule — Wicca/Pagan

Yule, otherwise known as the Winter Solstice, marks the longest night of the year. Since the night hours will only get shorter after that point, it is the symbolic end of the cold and dark winter and the return of light.

Dec. 25: Christmas — Christian

Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s when Christians celebrate God’s love for the world through the birth of the Christ child: Jesus, the Light of the World.

Dec. 26 – Jan. 1: Kwanzaa – African American and Pan-African

Created by Maulana Karenga, Kwanzza is based on African harvest festival traditions. Each day of the celebration is dedicated to one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa and families come together each day to light a candle in honor of that day’s principle. 

Neptune Beach, Florida Town Center

Throughout December, I really enjoy all the festive, creative lighting – homes decorated with colored lights, inflatable characters and our local Deck the Chairs displays.

A fellow volunteer and I were talking about our love of Christmas lights when she said, “It upsets me when people say, ‘Happy Holidays.’ I always correct them by saying, “It's Merry Christmas.” Another volunteer chimed in, “I do, too. I know they don’t want us to say it, but I do.”

Lighten up!   Christmas is a federal holiday, the only federal holiday that honors a specific religion - Christianity. No one, except yourself, is stopping you from saying “Merry Christmas,” just like no one stops you from saying, “Happy Fourth of July” or “Thank you for your service” on Veterans' Day. Congress made Christmas a federal holiday. “They” will not prohibit you from saying. “Merry Christmas!”

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech...”The First Amendment is not meant to promote one religion over any other, everyone in the United States has the right to practice their own religion, or no religion at all. Everyone in the United States also has the right to observe their own holidays and say the holiday greeting of their choice.

So why be upset if someone, usually a store clerk, says, “Happy Holidays?” Why insist that everyone use your preferred, December greeting? My preferred December greeting is “Merry Christmas,” but if someone greets me first with another December holiday greeting like, “Happy Holidays!” I respond, “Happy Holidays to you, too!” 

Lighten up! Perhaps that person who says, “Happy Holidays!” is simply acknowledging the fact that Christmas isn’t the only December holiday and wants you to enjoy your holiday, whatever it may be.

How did I respond to the runner's greeting - “You look like an escaped Christmas Tree!”?

Simple, I borrowed a line from Clark Griswold, “I hope this adds to your enjoyment of the holidays.”

The runner laughed and called over his shoulder, “Namaste!”

Perfect!

 

 

It Runs in the Family?

My paternal grandfather, Evar Swanson, was an outstanding athlete. After graduating from DeKalb (Illinois) High School, Evar attended Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois where he was an excellent student-athlete. He won two scholarships and lettered each year in baseball, basketball, football, and track. He set school records in the 100 and 220-yard dashes. In 1923, Evar ran the 100 yard dash in 9.8 seconds, just 2/10th of a second off the world record. He played all five positions in basketball and, despite never playing football in high school, he scored 109 points for the Lombard College team in 1921. In Evar’s first three seasons, Lombard’s only loss was to Knute Rockne’s Notre Dame and the “Four Horsemen.”

After college, Evar began his professional baseball career in 1924 with the Mississippi Valley League, Moline (Illinois) Plowboys. He then moved to the prestigious Pacific Coast League (PCL), 1925-1928. Next, he played two years for the Cincinnati Reds. Then, from 1931 to 1932, he played for the Columbus (Ohio) Red Birds. He finished his baseball career with the Chicago White Sox (1932-1934).

He also played professional football with the Milwaukee Badgers; the Chicago Cardinals; and a team formed by Jim Thorpe, the Rock Island (Illinois) Independents. The latter team played an exhibition game at the close of the 1925 season against the Chicago Bears in which Evar ran 50 yards for a touchdown and kicked the extra point for a 7-6 win over the Bears.

What kind of an athlete was he? - FAST! Evar led the PCL in steals in 1926 and again in 1928. In 1929 he once again displayed his speed by stealing 33 bases while playing for the Cincinnati Reds.

Evar’s speed is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest base runner. He proved how fast he was on September 15, 1929, between games of a doubleheader between the Boston Braves and Cincinnati Reds. Then a rookie outfielder with the Reds, Evar was chosen to compete with a few other players in a race around the bases – in full uniform. He won the contest, timed by the Amateur Athletic Union officials, circling the bases in an amazing 13.3 seconds.

I wish I could say that Evar’s speed runs in the family, and that I was the lucky recipient of the “speed gene.” Many physical traits run in families, like eye color; skin tone; hairline shape; and the percentage of fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch muscle fibers produce the same amount of force for each contraction as slow twitch muscle fibers, but they get their name because they can fire far more rapidly - making them better for explosive, fast and forceful athletics. Most people are born with 50% slow twitch muscle fibers and 50% fast twitch muscle fibers.

Bengt Saltin, a professor of human physiology at the University of Copenhagen's Muscle Research Centre in Denmark, said “If you don't have at least 70 to 80 percent fast twitch muscle fibers, I'd say it's unlikely you could be among the world's top sprinters." Elite runners, like Evar, are born with at least 70 to 80% fast twitch muscle fibers. And, while training and practice can obviously improve muscle performance, Dr. Saltin’s research suggests slow twitch fibers cannot be converted into fast twitch, meaning that the percentage of fast twitch fibers an athlete has is what their genes gave them.

1934 - My Dad and Grandpa

But any gene-centered explanation for athletic success dismisses the importance of a whole host of psycho-social and cultural factors that are likely to be major contributors to success. Evar would never have been successful if he simply sat on the sidelines. He was motivated to participate in sports in order to go to college on scholarships.  There he was encouraged and cheered on by people around him, and then, after college, he challenged himself to be the best athlete he could be by competing in professional sports. His behavior was crucial to his success.

Likewise, you don’t become a runner by sitting on the sidelines. Your ability to run the best you can isn’t decipherable from your DNA; it waits to be realized through your behavior – through the simple act of running. I did NOT inherit my grandfather’s “speed gene,” I probably have a low percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers. I am an old lady, slowpoke runner but, like Evar, I strive to be the best runner I can be by simply running - regardless of my genetics, age, or what others think of my lack of speed.  

I am a runner, as s-l-o-w as my grandfather was fast. So in a sense, I guess being a runner does “run in the family.”

Evar accomplished all his athletic feats way before I was born. As a child, I knew my grandpa had played baseball but I fondly remember visiting the Galesburg Post Office where he worked as the Postmaster. He had a “giant” desk with lots of cubbyholes. Most notably, I remember my grandpa for his bear hugs and his homemade peach ice cream. It wasn’t until after his death, and as an adult, did I learn the full extent of his athletic achievements. I am in awe.

My grandpa died on July 17, 1973.  Hilt Sprunger, a former Secretary of the Illinois High School Athletic Association, noted his passing - “Evar Swanson was probably the state’s greatest all-time athlete. Not only was he a tremendous competitor, but he was also in every sense, a gentleman.” - and my grandpa, a runner extraordinaire.

"I always enjoyed everything I did." - Evar Swanson

Galesburg Register-Mail, June 27, 1972

Running into the Past

 

I grew up in Moline, Illinois which was “The Farm Implement Capital of the Word.” John Deere has its headquarters and factories in my hometown. Living in “The Land of Lincoln” meant learning about our famous President and the Civil War. I think I was in the fourth grade when I first learned our country had slaves. Up until that time, I thought our country was perfect. “Why did our country have slaves?” I asked my teacher.

She replied, “Well, people were different back then.” Which did not answer my question, “WHY?” Our class had learned earlier that our nation was founded for “freedom” and “liberty.” We learned about the Declaration of Independence - “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...” My fourth-grade brain couldn’t understand why those words did not apply to slaves.

I didn’t ask the question again. I sensed that the teacher was not interested in, nor comfortable with, my question. Yet, as a child, I wanted to understand why some people were enslaved and treated horribly while others were not. Once I asked my mother why the Nazis murdered millions of people. Her response, “Because they were Jews.” So I asked, “Why Jews and not Lutherans?” Her exasperated response, “Just because. Now stop asking questions!”

I am sure I was, and still am, a “pest” asking questions no one wants to answer. I eventually learned not to ask them … out loud. I often heard, and still hear, the phrase,“It’s in the past. Who cares? Move on.” Today I would have been called a “woke” child.

By the time I was in high school, I was wide awake. I graduated with 8 semesters of “social studies.” My favorite classes were “American Problems” and “Four Societies” – a study of American; Chinese (communist); South African (apartheid); and Indian (caste) societies. Often our class discussions became intense and uncomfortable. Thankfully, my teachers encouraged civility, inquiry, and would often challenge us with a simple question, “How do you know that?” These classes (plus home ec, driver’s ed and civics), had a positive impact upon my life. I am thankful for my public school education.

Now, as an amateur genealogist, I explore “social studies” through family histories. I have come across many facts from a family’s past that make people uncomfortable. An ancestor who was a convicted criminal; parents or grandparents who “had to” get married; or ancestors who abandoned their families – all evidence of human flaws and mistakes. Throughout history people have been making these types of individual choices regardless of the world events around them.

Often awareness of a “wayward” ancestor leads to a desire to exclude that ancestor from your family tree; deny you are related; or simply minimize your ancestor’s choices by saying, “Well, people were different back then.” Basically you want to run away from the past because you are fearful of what it might say about who you are now.

Recently my husband asked me to research his genealogy. A relative had told him that their ancestors owned slaves. To be sure, many Americans still do not like to confront slavery, - “Well, people were different back then.” or “It’s in the past. Who cares? Move on.” - Those are responses of people who want to run away from history. The fact is slavery was a societal institution, enshrined in the pre-Civil War Constitution, and, even after the 13^th. 14^th. And 15^th. Amendments were added to our Constitution, still has societal consequences today (example: Black Lives Matter). To his credit, my husband wanted to run toward history instead of away from it.

His ancestors did own slaves. They are considered “First Settlers of Virginia” and had head rights to vast tracts of land. Who was going to work that land? English settlers?

English immigration did not meet the demands of working the large tracts of land in the Virginia colony and indenture contracts were not popular with English immigrants. Slavery then became the dominant mode of operation for Virginia planters and, eventually, the backbone of the colonial economy.

First, they enslaved Native Americans.

 By 1649, the enslavement of Native Americans in Colonial English households and the stealing of Native American children for the slave market was a common means to obtain a cheap supply of labor. A 1670 statue specified that slaves taken into Virginia by ship (meaning Africans) would be slaves for life while people taken into slavery on the land (meaning Native Americans) would be slaves for a set number of years – adults for 12 years and children until 30 years of age.

I also researched his ancestors’ wills. They inherited other people as property. Unborn children were enslaved before birth, and upon their birth they were taken away from their mothers to become the property of another person. This is not “critical race theory,” this is history!

The last slaves owned by Peter, my husband’s ancestor, were recorded on the 1820 United States Census. Peter owned two slaves, a woman and a young girl, while living in Chesterfield, Virginia. By the 1830 Census, he was no longer a slave owner. Peter could have sold his slaves; allowed the woman to hire herself out to earn the money necessary to purchase their freedom through manumission; or he could have emancipated them. Unfortunately, I was unable to determine what happened to the woman and young girl he enslaved.

If learning about the history of slavery makes you feel uncomfortable, good. My first mile of a run feels like crap, but I keep going. Sure, I could avoid running altogether so I won’t ever “feel bad.” Or I could deny or minimize the fact that running sometimes feels uncomfortable. However, the benefits of running far exceed the occasional, uncomfortable feelings. Likewise learning about the past may feel uncomfortable at first, but the benefits of an educated citizenry far exceed the "comfort" of ignorance.

Running away from the past involves fear. There is no direction, you just want to get “away.” You are motivated by an emotional need to avoid, deny, or minimize. While you can run away from danger, you can’t escape the past. My husband’s ancestors, and maybe even yours, enslaved people. On the other hand, my ancestors, and maybe even yours, did NOT enslave people. Either way, regardless of whether or not your ancestors were involved in slavery, our whole country was and still is involved!

Running into the past involves courage. It is directional - into history. You are motivated by an intellectual need to gain knowledge and understanding. You want to discover information and explore the ramifications of our ancestor’s choices. You want to learn!

Take a step back into the past, learn about our history … all of it, “good” and “bad!” The mistakes and human failings of the past are still relevant today. They educate and motivate us to fully realize these words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”