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Soviet Pentecostal Refugees' Health And Their Religious Beliefs: An Exploratory Study, Dianne Fae Venable

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explored the health practices and religious beliefs of the recent Soviet Pentecostal refugee population in the Portland, Oregon metro area. The methodology consisted of 25 in-depth interviews over a period of twelve months. Soviet Pentecostal refugees' health practices are influenced by their religious belief system which is Pentecostalism. The four primary factors that were found to have an affect on the refugees' health were lifestyle practices; coherence; or the meaning of suffering that religion provides; cohesiveness, or group belonging to the religious community, and world view provided by the underlying theology. The language barrier, distrust of outsiders, unfamiliarity …