A Sociological Analysis of Religious Propagation Approach to Health; Case Study: Preachers and Audience of Religious Speeches in Qum

Religious propagation is one of the most effective tools for strengthening values and behaviors related to health and good quality of life. The objective of this article is to identify the approaches of religious preachers and those of their audience to explanation of health-related issues in their religious speeches. Qualitative and quantitative methods were employed. In the qualitative section, semi-organized interviews were conducted with 19 preachers of Shia Islam residing in the city of Qum. The data were analyzed through theoretical codification relying on phenomenology and data-driven theorization. The finding of this section indicate that all preachers pay attention to mental aspects of health. But, they consider physical aspects of health and environmental issues irrelevant to religious occasions, to expectations of the audience and that of their role. Also other issues such as lack of enough expertise, lack of financial and intellectual support by government institutions and lack of acceptance by the audience have been mentioned as other reasons. In the second section, through a survey, 116 audiences who almost regularly attended the religious speeches in the mosques of the city of Qum were interviewed. The findings of this section indicate that 85 percent of the audience of religious propagations maintain that the preachers mainly deal with the mental elements of health, while, if they discuss other aspects of health, it will be interesting and effective for them. The findings also show that the understanding of the religious preaches are not concomitant with the expectations of their audience.