Helping our future neighbors

This is a story about how what you eat for breakfast can impact your children.

By: Josh Towner

Biblical and theological studies professor Christina Busman Jost walks to the Community Life Center to welcome that day’s guest speaker. Jost is 39 weeks pregnant, but she can’t hide her excitement as she turns the corner to see her longtime friend Andrea Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth is also pregnant, and the two hug and laugh their way through the halls. Jost and Hollingsworth met as teaching assistants for a general education course, Christianity and western culture, when they attended Bethel in the late ’90s. Hollingsworth laughs as she remembers having sleepovers with Jost in Arden Village East.

On this occasion, Hollingsworth had come to discuss epigenetics with one of Jost’s theological ethics classes. Epigenetics is the study of changes DNA expression. DNA stays the same in a person, but the way that one’s DNA is expressed can be changed.

Epigenetic research shows that experiences people go through can heavily impact the DNA expression of their children. Hollingsworth had noted the rampant expansion in research surrounding epigenetics, and posed a number of ethical questions to the class.

Epigenetic research has uncovered that trauma suffered by parents can impact their children’s genetic makeup. Dutch records from the 1940s show that pregnant women with little access to food gave birth to children with heightened risks of obesity.

In 2015, Rachel Yehuda, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, discovered that the offspring of Holocaust survivors have lower levels of stress-relieving hormones, which causes them to respond poorly to high stress situations. Even factors like early exposure to air pollution can change which genes are active and inactive in future generations.

During Jost’s class, Hollingsworth began to unravel the implications epigenetics have for the church. Jost’s face lit up. She shifted in her seat and raised her hand to ask questions about ethical implications of epigenetics as if she were a student.

After class, the two pregnant women talked about how external factors during pregnancy can affect the epigenes of children. They decided to begin researching epigenetics and the ethical questions they raise for the church.

Jost and Hollingsworth will present their research along with a number of questions designed to get theologians talking about epigenetics at the National Academy of Religion Conference in November. They are also working to publish an article about their research in the academic journal, Theology and Science.

“Christian ethics really aren’t talking about epigenetics, so we need to start defining the field. Christian ethicists usually fall behind science,” Jost said.

“There’s really no one in theology working on [epigenetics], and that’s surprising because science says your grandparents and parents trauma can impact you,” Hollingsworth added.

Researching how impactful external experiences were to pregnancies while actually being pregnant proved to be stressful.

“I was very aware during my pregnancy,” Hollingsworth said. “Knowing that what I eat for breakfast in the morning could impact my children and grandchildren made me very careful.”

One area that Jost and Hollingsworth found to be particularly impacted by epigenetics is in African-American communities. Womanist theologians, a group of feminists focused on the history and experiences of black women, have claimed that they inherited trauma from their ancestors who lived through slavery and racial violence. This notion has been confirmed by epigenetic discoveries, meaning that the damage inflicted by racial discrimination has not been removed.

“We don’t get to just wipe the slate clean for everyone,” Jost said. “We need to make the church a place where redemption and rest can happen. The idea that pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is now fundamentally flawed.”

Trauma experienced can impact multiple generations. Jost says that the church has to determine what its responsibility is for both past traumas and for taking care of future effects of harmful experiences.

“We need to start thinking about how we can help our future neighbors,” Jost said.

Another area of concern for Jost is people living in poverty. Since the impoverished have a disproportionate exposure to chemical pollution, many people can’t control whether or not their pregnancy is healthy. Higher risks of asthma, cancer and obesity have already been confirmed for children born into poverty stricken areas.

“Caring for the environment is confirmed by epigenetics,” said Jost, who has studied environmental ethics in the past.

While much of the research Jost and Hollingsworth have prepared implies negative connotations, positive epigenetic changes can occur as well. Since studying the children of trauma victims is more pertinent, research is less prevalent in regards to positive epigenetic effects.

“Epigenes can be reversed. In the same way trauma can affect genes, positive or redemptive experiences can change genes,” Jost said.

In addition to addressing ethical dilemmas posed by epigenetics, Jost and Hollingsworth are very focused on creating discussion.

“This opens a door for talking about sin and reconciliation,” said Hollingsworth. “We want to suggest starting points for future dialogue.”

“We’re mapping the terrain for ethical discussion,” Jost said.

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