Having been raised in the South in a fairly conservative area, and having been raised in a fairly conservative church and, for a time, a conservative Christian school, one would think that most of the people I grew up with are fairly active church-goers. Not the case. In fact, it’s been sort of interesting to see, particularly starting with my generation [I'm an X-er, but barely], how few of them actually have remained active in any sort of “faith” community. The Evangelical Barna Group recently did a study to find out why all the young folks are leaving, many never to return. I’ll excerpt the broad headlines and let you jump over to read their explanations:
1. Churches seem over-protective.
2. Teens’ and twentysomethings’ experience of Christianity is shallow.
3. Churches come across as antagonistic to science.
4. Young Christians’ church experiences related to sexuality are often simplistic, judgmental.
5. They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity.
6. The church feels unfriendly to those who doubt.
Okay, so those are the broad categories. Wingnuts will ignore most of them and focus on number two, arguing that tradishnul Christianity just isn’t wingnutty enough anymore to keep the flock under lock and key [they will phrase that differently, I guess], but a couple of them merit closer examination. Here is Barna’s explanation of number three:
One of the reasons young adults feel disconnected from church or from faith is the tension they feel between Christianity and science. The most common of the perceptions in this arena is “Christians are too confident they know all the answers” (35%). Three out of ten young adults with a Christian background feel that “churches are out of step with the scientific world we live in” (29%). Another one-quarter embrace the perception that “Christianity is anti-science” (25%). And nearly the same proportion (23%) said they have “been turned off by the creation-versus-evolution debate.” Furthermore, the research shows that many science-minded young Christians are struggling to find ways of staying faithful to their beliefs and to their professional calling in science-related industries.
Shorter version of that: younger people are better educated in science these days, simply because there is far more information out there than there used to be, and it’s becoming harder and harder for them to stick their heads in the sand and deny the reality that science presents when it comes in conflict with the creation myths of ye olde time religion. Or even simpler, it’s hard to look at a young cancer researcher and say, “evolution is a myth,” when they can look back and you and say, “dear sweet moron, I’ve observed it in a lab.”
That’s also related to number four, and Barna’s explanation of their own research leaves something out that’s kind of key, as the Public Religion Research Institute points out:
But buried within Barna’s category of “sex and sexuality” is something quite specific: churches’ stances on gay and lesbian issues. Research from earlier this summer reveals that nearly 7-in-10 (69%) Millennials agree that religious groups are alienating young people by being too judgmental about these issues. Only 37% of seniors agree.
This is also part of the reality-denial thing. It is simply a bridge too far to ask a sentient, educated human being to adhere to the sorts of belief systems advocated by the Matt Barbers and the Bryan Fischers of the world. Kids these days just aren’t that stupid. They have Google at their disposals, as well as their own experiences with gay and lesbian friends and family members to be able to look at the teachings of wingnuts on these issues and say, unequivocally, “what crazy, unhinged liars.” And if their churches are pushing that crap, they’re not likely to stay around.
Granted, there are many religious people who are involved in churches and faith communities which don’t strenuously seek to deny reality at every turn, and I know many of them. If that’s your path, go for it. But I find it encouraging that, at least among the generations who will be handed the torch when it comes to determining public policy and whatnot, we’ve finally reached the point where the insanity of anti-gay, anti-science teachings just don’t resonate. Update your résumés, professional Religious Right hacks.
“dear sweet moron, I’ve observed it in a lab.”
Nice.
Some fundamentalist leaders are well-aware that young people are leaving their churches, but they don’t seem to understand the true roots of the matter. For example, creationist Ken Ham wrote a book entitled ALREADY GONE, which discusses the mass exodus of young people. His “solution”? Teach kids apologetics when they’re young. He doesn’t seem to understand that apologetics will do little good when fundamentalism ITSELF is inheretly flawed.
by its very nature all “religion” is inherently flawed.
By itself, a belief in a higher power (mine is FSM) is not a bad or evil thing. It is the often violent demand that everybody agree that your god is better than their god, that is evil and destructive.
The same goes with science. Truly if in your heart you believe that your higher power created the heavens and earth, and you believe that the higher power set in motion the things that science is uncovering, then there is no real problem.
But when you demand that your GOD created the earth is 6 Days (as measured by man), that GOD created man from mud and a sigh, and that all cell divisions in all animals are minutely and specifically ordained by that GOD, then you are jumping off the cliff.
The next step (for those people) is of course killing people who disagree with your interpretation of YOUR GOD’s interest in the cellular activity of every creature on the planet.
Unfortunately the extremist Christians and extremist Jews and Muslims are rarely concerned that jumping off the cliff is a bad choice to make.
The fact is religion spouts that man was made in the image of God, whereas the facts hold that God was created in the image of man, a good AND evil personna, the mistake of the ages. This is the major mortal flaw to all organized religion. When this “God” is dumped as so many polarizing gods have been dumped in the past, and replaced with the true God of peace ONLY, of which that is all god is “which surpasseth all understanding”, all these problems will vanish. The Gurus of the world got it right. Religiots are too welled up in self delusion to sit still long enough to feel the truth they so vehemently seek but don’t know how to perceive due to corrupt religious programming. Wall St and corporste greed is not the only institution rotten at the core, religion is right up there with the most corrupt of the corrupt. The kids get this. Kids are goings to overturn both. I look forward to a new more honest authentic truer ideology they will bring.
I might add that every field of the physical sciences has come a LONG way since I was a kid. My first set of encyclopedias included shaving with a razor as a cause of cancer (yes, I’m old). Today’s kids have at their fingertips information on exactly how our solar system evolved, etc.
The fundies are truly finished – it’s only a matter of time.
The problem is that so many “Christians” don’t act like Christ. Even a child can see that bullying, hate crimes, sceaming that gay people are “worthy of death,” that we are “terrorists” and that we are out to “destroy America” has nothing to do with love. And love is the guiding principle (or supposed to be) of true Christianity. So, the more shrill anti-gay activists attack, defame and revile us, they more they create the very thing they fear….equality.
Spot f*****g on. Every one of those reasons was a factor in my breaking away from evangelical Christianity (despite the fact that I was very well versed in apologetics, lol). Those folks should take note that even the people like me, who they haven’t turned off of Christianity altogether, end up in churches that are pro-science, queer-friendly, and supportive of people who have doubts. I cannot begin to count the ways my life is better for having ditched the evangelical church — or what a deeper, more meaningful experience of Christianity I’ve had in my current church.
Evangelicals think the problem is the way their message is packaged, but the problem is really the message itself. These young people leaving the church think their Christianity is shallow because it IS shallow: it’s just terror of the modern world covered with a thin veneer of self-righteousness.
Speaking of “packaging”, Fundamentalist Christianity could easily be framed as Ceative Fobia Seminars.