January 13, 2012
The Religious Views of 20-Somethings, Part 2
Service, tradition, and morality are good. But actual belief? Not so much.
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In a previous post, I described a few trends I noticed in responses of my students in a community college world religions course to prompts about the role of religion in their lives. In that post, I listed the responses that came as no surprise to me. Here I list a few recurring things I did find surprising.
Tradition and morality are valued more than belief.
Regardless of their religious background, a majority of my students expressed that they plan to take their own children to church (synagogue, temple, etc.) or have them attend religious education. This was true even of students who do not consider themselves religious. They liked the traditions, they said. Or they want their children to have a strong moral foundation. Or they want their children to be baptized or bar mitzvah. These students weren’t concerned, necessarily, that the content of the faith be true; it seems they simply want their kids to share memories and a heritage they themselves were raised with.
Serving doesn’t require believing.
Half a dozen students or so wrote that they were currently leaders in a youth group, Sunday school, or some sort of religious organization (like Muslim Youth), but that they did not consider themselves religious. One girl is planning to major in religion and then go to seminary so she can be a (Christian) youth minister. But she isn’t sure she’s a Christian; she doesn’t know what she believes. Even so, she knows she wants to work with teens, provide a safe place for them to explore important questions, and navigate the challenges of becoming an adult. A religious setting appears as good a place as any to do that. Others say they currently work with children or youth in their religious communities, even though they do not share all the beliefs of their religious community.
Religion is irrelevant in daily life, even for the "religious."
In one assignment, I asked the students to reflect on how religion might hinder or help them attain their personal and career goals. This is where I found the biggest surprises. Predictably, students who weren’t sure about their spiritual convictions found the question hard to answer. If they aren’t religious now, they couldn’t imagine religion helping them down the road.
But those students who do consider themselves religious—most of them Christians—saw their religious beliefs having very little impact on their personal or professional goals. A few said they wanted to get married in their church. One said she was a committed Christian but her longtime boyfriend is Muslim, and he can only marry her if she converts. She’s considering it. So, in that sense, religion has real consequences for her. But on the whole, students were stymied to come up with a way religion could play any role at all in the parts of their lives that really matter.
This is the data, such as it is. In the following post, I’ll make a few observations about what implications this might have for how we minister to young people.
Posted by UrL Scaramanga on January 13, 2012
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Comments
I don't find this surprising, and I'm not sure it is truly a difference from prior generations, except for the church attendance and where on serves. I'm nearly twice as old as these kids, and I'm still trying to find a local church that helps answer the question of making belief relevant to everyday life. Of course we all give lip service, but beyond moralism, I have had little interaction with people who I actually find different in day to day things because of submission to the Lordship of Christ.
Posted by: anonymous at January 13, 2012
This is typical of us 20 somethings. I've even noticed a shift in how my friends name their babies. A lot of my friends refuse to name their children anything that relates back to the Bible (Matthew, Jacob, Sarah..etc etc) because the Bible is good but humanity can be fine without it.
The shift I see in generations breaks my heart. I am 25 and will continue to pray that my generation comes back to the Lord.
Posted by: Sarah at January 13, 2012
This reminds me of the campus evangelism I was involved with in the 80s on a Belgian Catholic University campus. At one point, our group had done a survey among the students. One question asked them to identify their religion if they had one. Of course, most of the students self-identified as Roman Catholic, Belgium being a historically Catholic nation. Later in the survey, the same students were asked if they believed in God. Almost all answered no. For them Catholicism was like a national or ethnic heritage, much like the secular Jew still considers himself Jewish even if he doesn't believe in God or observe Jewish traditions. There is a radical disconnect between the observance of traditions and a living faith. It's not surprising, I guess, given that the U.S. seems to be traveling much same path as western Europe, and is just a generation or so behind them in terms of cultural trends.
Today's church leaders (and observant Christians in general) certainly have their work cut out for them. As I see it, that work is largely fervent prayer and cultivating a personal readiness to sacrifice all for Christ.
Posted by: Karen at January 13, 2012
One of my high school choirs is singing the song, "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel". Many students in the group had no idea what the song was about ("...He delivered Daniel from the Lion's Den; Jonah from the belly of the whale; and the Hebrew children from the firey furnace; then why not every man") I had an amazing opportunity to share Bible stories in a secular classroom setting. And yes, the song has implications about slavery, both American Negro and all men being slaves to sin. Brandon, you have an amazing opportunity.
Posted by: elegance at January 13, 2012
"...But those students who do consider themselves religious—most of them Christians—saw their religious beliefs having very little impact on their personal or professional goals."
Yep, that's what I've been encountering, and even though I know this intellectually, it still makes me :::/sigh::: when I talk to young adults.
They think they know so much about the bible that they're not even aware of how little they know.
It'd be one thing if they could actually quote the bible right, and yet...:::/sigh:::...they make attempts...I'll give them that, but they still miss the entire point of the quote, much less the context surrounding the quote...in fact, a lot of times...young people just don't know what they're talking about, or even aware that they're just reacting to bad...no, not just bad, but terribad behavioral and moralistic teaching with no G-d, and no spiritual way of understanding what it all means...they're just told, "it say's right here in the good book, "thou shalt not [fill moralistic quote]."
Yeah it's kind of disheartening watching older people telling the youth, "you need to do x,y,z, and no questions because that's faithlessness!" and then the older people just stand there wondering why their youth bail out of Church as soon as they can.
Posted by: sheerahkahn at January 14, 2012
I really don't know how these students and myself (in my 30s, admittedly) both went through a religious upbringing (are these mostly evangelical?), and yet we have such vastly different understandings about what religious faith is. I don't know how to view religious faith as an accessory. Regardless of how we answer it, isn't belief in God and his relationship to the world one of the "Big Questions?" But these responses seem to suggests that these students can't really distinguish between a Big Question and a small question.
Posted by: Nate at January 15, 2012
Nate--
Good point. To answer your question (and as I mentioned in Part 1 of this series), these students are not primarily evangelical. This is a World Religions class at a public college. So "religious" is being used broadly for present purposes. That said, I find very little difference in student responses between Christian--and even evangelical--students and students of any other religious background.
Posted by: Brandon at January 15, 2012
Most churches, if not the vast majority, are simply gatherings that present a Christian themed intertainment venue. And who's not for that?
The real Gospel, the truth of God is absolute. All seven churches of Revelation had the truth but only two were living that truth. And to top it off the rest had added their own ideas and pagan worship.
No wonder that God will have to create a New World. Not to the order of man, but according to his Word. And that's the key...His Word.
It has allways been a remnant that follow God. The rest have itching ears looking for someone and something in which to justify their desires and lusts.
Only the truth, the whole truth will make us free...how sad that most people are just looking for a good time.
A really "good time" can only be found in the Real God and His real truth, with a real relationship thru Jesus the Christ.
Posted by: Nathaniel Rodriguez at January 17, 2012
If I may, what I find most sad in this very interesting article is that the trend towards "being and appearing relevant" is growing more and more and is a definite influence in the American Christian realm. I don't see this nearly to this degree when I do mission work abroad. Also, I don't see Jesus Christ in the Bible being to concerned about being relevant. Does not the Word say that in the last days there shall be a falling away. If this is the case shouldn't we Christians be more concerned about if the message we are sharing is real instead of trying to be relevant?
Posted by: Gregory at January 18, 2012
Gregory it has to be both real and relevant. That is what Jesus did. Continually the gospels show him creating and exploiting teachable moments (relevant) with real life insights. To be good news it has to be relevant to the hearer. When we make ourselves the judge of what is relevant for another person we usually lose their attention and quickly get ourselves classed as irrelevant in their minds. Irrelevant equates to ignored in life terms. CiteSimon looks at this interface.
Posted by: Chris at January 18, 2012
One of the sad things is that there are answers. I, myself, at 59 and 10 years old, am finding that the church doesn't necessarily have the answers you are looking for. Its all about relationship and there are no shortcuts. If you want something, you must pursue. Jesus will not drop out of the sky into your lap and say, "Here I am." Things I want to know the church I attend is not teaching. So I am slowly going after it myself. There is joy in that.
Posted by: jeanne at February 9, 2012