A study by Pew Research looked at this issue in great detail. Their report said,
By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans. Fewer young adults belong to any particular faith than older people do today. They also are less likely to be affiliated than their parents’ and grandparents’ generations were when they were young. Fully one-in-four members of the Millennial generation – so called because they were born after 1980 and began to come of age around the year 2000 – are unaffiliated with any particular faith. Indeed, Millennials are significantly more unaffiliated than members of Generation X 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.If this is the new landscape of American religiosity what are the ramifications? Is our country destined to succumb to the wickedness of temptation, and resemble a 21st century Sodom and Gomorrah, simply waiting for the Lord's vengeance? I am of the opinion that this is unlikely, however I am prone to mistakes now and again. I personally view this growing lack of faith in religion as movement towards social liberation. In too many instances politics and public policy have been the brain child of religiously motivated individuals. Since the Millennial generation has begun to assert their voting power, a significant change in the direction of our country has begun to occur. One notable example is the wide spread acceptance of same-sex marriage. A graph by Pew Research illustrates this significant shift.
While I am only speculating there seems to be a correlation between lack of religious affiliation and new found acceptance of social issues. But what does does the future hold for other important policy issues as our generation begins to tackle them? What if, as the Millennial generation ages, we revert to more conservative attitudes? Will this tide of change become merely a high water mark only to be surpassed as our children begin their challenge of dictating the direction of our country? Before we can begin to answer those questions we must first address why we have had a falling out with God? While one could postulate for days on end as to why this happened I believe there are several simple reasons.
As the Millennial generation came into age we grew up listening to case after case of the Catholic Church's pedophilia crisis. This scandal, for myself at least, put the juxtaposition of God and religion in front of my eyes. For many years, these two identities were seen as one. As goes God, goes the Church, and vice versa. Instead though, the hypocrisy of one cast the shadow of hypocrisy on the other. God was no more above judgment than religion. This series of scandals by the Catholic Church soured, in my opinion, many Millennial's attitudes about religion from an early age.
Another major factor was the introduction of Jihad by Muslim extremists. Millennial's on one hand, saw the Catholic Church employing priests who were pedophiles, and on the other hand were watching their country being attacked by what some labeled as "holy warriors". There was not much left in the middle for us to wrap, what little faith we had left in god, around. In addition to these events we have seen religion used time and again, throughout the world, to do the bidding of men with guns. Rarely is it the rallying force of good, but instead a tool of manipulation by those in power. So if this is true, and the abuse of the religious institution is the culprit in my generation's relationship with a deity, why do we not love God? If we could separate one from the other, could we not still maintain a part of our heart to love our creator, whatever, or whoever that is? Perhaps some of us can, and in reality there are plenty of us who do. But for me myself, the church that proclaims God, is God himself. There is no separation between the two because they are one and the same. The hypocrisy of one only demonstrates the hypocrisy of the other.
So when the question arises, "why don't Millennial's love god?" I respond, "because God did not love us first" and then take a selfie.
This post really resonates with me because the reasons you discussed above, for why Millennials do not love God, are actually exactly what began my distaste for organized religion. I also agree with you that I think this trend toward less religion is a "movement toward social liberation." My problem with religion has always been the discord between the message of universal love from God and all the hate that religious differences cause. It is great that with a movement away from such devout religious practices we are instead learning to be more accepting of other peoples, as we can see in the statistics you cited about support for gay marriage.
ReplyDeleteThis topic was surprising to me – after reading your post, it seemed entirely logical, judging from the recent liberal shifts on social issues, that Millenials are a freer-thinking people, but the vociferous conservative party seems to always steal the spotlight and color politics with the blinding white light of their fervor. I couldn’t agree more with you that this “movement toward social liberation” is a positive one.
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, every horrific event and tragedy is available to us through the information and graphics of the internet. You imply that this should make us all run towards God; I argue that instead it makes us run away. We’re a post-Enlightenment society, so we’ve got science and logic to explain and reason. Because we’re aware (or at least most of us are) that uncontrollable environmental forces cause natural disasters and people start wars (sometimes for God, sometimes for money), we don’t need God to function as the explanation for these things, nor do many of us feel He’ll protect us from them. Instead, as you pointed out, we associate the Church with pedophilia and extremism, populated by people that want to blame their close-mindedness on a higher cause.
I think the rise of the conservative right, starting with Reagan all the way to Bush II, has contributed to millennials shunning traditional religion. Reagan and the conservatives certainly used faith as a tool to rally support behind their party and religion became a mainstay in political discourse. Our generation has grown up hearing about religion in divisive terms, most often about gay marriage or people shaming others based on their absence of religious habits. I know at least in my personal life, some older members of my family take every opportunity to scold me for not going to church more often as if they are somehow on higher ground for openly practicing religion. I think in order for any of this to change, the major religions have to stop highlighting what's wrong with society, and start becoming more welcoming and accepting.
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