Gen Y of Little Faith?
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
A new Pew Research Center survey on Millennials and religion has found that members of Gen Y are less religiously active than perhaps any generation in American history; but still retain faith in an afterlife and say they pray about the same amount as young people in previous decades.
According to Pew,
“Millennials are significantly more unaffiliated than Generation Xers were at a comparable point in their life cycle (20% in the late 1990s) and twice as unaffiliated as Baby Boomers were as young adults (13% in the late 1970s). Young adults also attend religious services less often than older Americans today. And compared with their elders today, fewer young people say that religion is very important in their lives.”
Interestingly, Pew ties some of these results to Gen Y’s wide acceptance of homosexuality.
In their social and political views, young adults are clearly more accepting than older Americans of homosexuality, more inclined to see evolution as the best explanation of human life and less prone to see Hollywood as threatening their moral values.
Certainly I can only speak for myself, but my views on same-sex relationships have definitely played a role in my non-attendance at church in my adult life. I grew up attending services, well, religiously, and had mostly only wonderful experiences there. And though there are definitely no shortage of nearby churches that do embrace everyone, I still have a hard time separating them from the rigidity and intolerance of most Christian churches.
Moving on … Pew certainly seems to have a special fascination with Millennials – this month alone, it has published surveys on our use of social media and mobile Internet; our religious life; and our weakening attachment to the Democratic Party.
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I think it’s really interesting that we’ve been touted as a generation who is more into community service and being politically active than other generations, but we don’t see a need to be involved in religious institutions.
I think previous generations were told that the church is the start of good morals and culture. And yet, we as a generation, have seen that much good can be done outside of church, and often, church life is the start of intolerance and hatred.
I go to one of those “accept everyone” churches, but most of my friends don’t. And when I say that I go to church, they look at me with a little fear in their eyes.
Sara: If you are truly interested in the churches around you but hesitate because you can’t shake Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn or Joel Osteen, then forget them and step inside those churches and see what they’re about. I’m speaking as a Gen Xer who has had his own religious issues, but who has been happy with a United Church of Christ congregation his wife found, a church that does a lot of social good despite its small size. The UCC: letting priests be gay since 1972!
Also, I would say that if you’re looking for a church where you agree with everyone and everything in it, that’s not going to happen.
The beauty is, it’s your choice, and there isn’t a wrong one as long as you’re true to yourself.
No religion is perfect because the adherents aren’t perfect. Still, much magic happens when sincere people gather together for good.
Ms. Libby,
I do not doubt the Pew Survey results but I am less impressed as to its meaning. Young people, just out of the parents house but not yet a parent themselves, have historically had the lowest church attendance in every recent generation. The Amish, in a bit of unexpected wisdom, recognize this tendency, and incorporate into their church. When their youth reach 16, they are expected to not be “Amish” but to sow their wild oats. This sort of a “Time Out” or as they call it “Rumspringa” (literally, running about), when the young people can get their youthful exuberance out of their system. Eventually the majority return to the normal Amish lifestyle and are then baptized into the church (the Amish believe that only an adult can be baptized as only an adult can make a knowledgeable and fully free decision). So the young people of today are probably not that different from the young people of generations gone by. When they marry and have children, most will probably return to the church (synagogue, mosque, &c). There is nothing new under the sun.
Good for Gen Y. Any unbiased observer will note that things started getting better for most people in western civilization when people started kicking organized religion out of control, getting the priestly jackboots off their necks, and ending religious control of government.
Christianity, in particular, is a religion for slaves.
“Slaves, obey your masters!”–”Saint” Paul.
The superstitions are old and tired–time for a dump.
If you formerly enjoyed and found value in attending church, you appreciate it’s value. I began attending an Episcopal church in 1998 and it has changed and deeply enriched my life in ways no secular activity can. I agree with Bob that, if a spiriritual community once nourished you, go! You may have to shop around between denominations and parishes, but sitting in a pew does not in any way — certainly for many churchgoers — mean checking your brain at the door.
I value Episcopalian worship for it’s “three-legged stool” — faith, tradition an reason. The church is led, in North America, by a woman and embraces and ordains homosexuals, without which I would not feel comfortable there.
I learn more about community there than through any form of social media.
Episcopal?! It’s also a lot of fun to stuff your face with marshmallow creme, and not too different from Episcopalian theology.
In response to another comment. See in context »Don’t blame the gays, blame the fathers.
Note the findings from this study from Switzerland:
I suspect this is more a symptom of the flight of men from the church.