TruthBook Religious News Blog

Carolyn Harrison
Thursday, February 26, 2009

Communities with a shrinking and aging church demographic can look to the growing number of college students with negative perceptions of organized religion and faith. According to a national study, 40 percent of 16- to 29-year-olds have opted out of church — 20 percent of whom have been active Christians all their lives and grew up going to church. Contrary to what you might expect, however, the forces driving college students away from church have little to do with faith and theology.

These young people said they rejected Christianity because of the behaviors and hypocrisies of fellow Christians, not because of theological reasons.

The Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan., just recently finished a sermon series called “When Christians Get it Wrong.” The series focused on major issues like the hypocrisy of Christians, religion vs. science and homosexuality.

“I think many young people are interested in Jesus and what he taught,” said senior pastor Adam Hamilton. “The perception of 85 percent of young adults who do not go to church is that Christians are hypocrites. By that they don’t mean that they take a sip of beer once in awhile. By this they mean that they don’t find them admirable, but off-putting. Some Christians they have known come across as self-righteous, acting judgmental and morally superior while oblivious to their own sins and failings.”

Hamilton’s statements seem to indicate that Christians themselves are often to blame for pushing people away from the church through their actions and words, but that’s not the end of the story. According to Hamilton, Christians do get it right a lot of the time. Organized religion is responsible for countless humanitarian services, including feeding and clothing the homeless and lending a helping hand to those in need.

But not all students drift away from their religious upbringings. About a third of K-State students are involved in more than 30 different religious organizations on campus and in the community.

There is a lesson to learn for everyone here. Christians and other organized religions need to understand that while the reasons for opting out of church and religion vary, the primary reason is not about theology or faith; it’s about the actions of people who represent the faith. On the other hand, those who have opted out of faith because of the poor behavior of a few individuals need to put this in perspective with all the good work attributed to Christians and organized religion. We all need to be less judgmental toward those with different beliefs.

Labels: Carolyn Harrison, Christian church, religion, youth

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Thursday, December 18, 2008

National Poll: More Than One-in-Four Teens Think Violent Behavior is Acceptable; Many Say It's OK to Settle a Score

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:07:31 GMT
Author : Deloitte

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 15 CO-Violent-Teen-Study

Findings Underscore Continued Need for Training in Ethical Decision-Making

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- While today's teens are learning the Three "Rs" of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in school, new research shows that many are justifying violence to practice a fourth -- Revenge. In a youth culture where violence is often believed to be acceptable, these and other findings not only present disturbing implications for school safety, but for the workplace as well, say experts.

A new poll of 750 teens from Junior Achievement and Deloitte and conducted by Opinion Research shows that more than one-in-four teens (27 percent) think behaving violently is sometimes, often or always acceptable. More students thought violence was acceptable than was cheating (19 percent), plagiarizing (10 percent) or stealing (3 percent). And fully 20 percent of respondents said they had personally behaved violently towards another person in the past year, and 41 percent reported a friend had done so.

When the teens who agreed that violence was acceptable were asked more specifically about rationale for such behavior, most noted self-defense (87 percent) and to help a friend (73 percent). However, more than a third said violence was acceptable to settle an argument (35 percent) and for revenge (34 percent). Other justifications were dislike of the person who is the target of the violence (22 percent), to gain respect (21 percent), peer pressure (14 percent), and simply for "the thrill" of it (10 percent). Of considerable concern is that more than three-fourths (77 percent) of those who think violence is acceptable also consider themselves ethically prepared to enter the workforce.

The poll also shows that teens feel more accountable to themselves (86 percent), than they do to their parents or guardians (52 percent), their friends (41 percent) or society (33 percent). Teens' feelings about accountability, coupled with self-reported unethical behavior, raises a potential concern among employers because ties within a community, school, work environment or social network often guide behavior. If teens lack accountability to others, the data suggests that their choices may be driven purely by self-interest, and not by interest in the greater good.

The survey results also show that many teenagers are lacking role models. Only about half (54 percent) cite their parents as role models. Most of those who don't cite their parents as role models are turning to their friends, or they said they didn't have a role model -- which begs the question why more parents, teachers, clergy, politicians or business leaders are not viewed as role models -- and what society can do to improve this statistic.

"Teens need training in ethical decision-making, practical tools and behavioral role models that help them understand not only how to make the right choices, but how those choices will impact their personal success and the success of the organizations they join," said Ainar D. Aijala, global managing partner, Consulting, Deloitte and chairman of the board, JA Worldwide. "That is why Deloitte continues to support ethics education in collaboration with Junior Achievement."

Junior Achievement and Deloitte offer "JA Business Ethics(TM)" as part of their $2 million initiative to help young people make ethical decisions. "JA Business Ethics" was developed in response to the needs of high school students; it provides hands-on classroom activities and real-life applications designed to foster ethical decision-making as students prepare to enter the workforce and addresses issues such as lying, cheating and violence. Students examine how their beliefs align with major ethics theories and learn the benefits and advantages of having a code of ethics. Additionally, Junior Achievement recently updated the original "Excellence through Ethics(TM)" program, which is available online at www.ja.org/ethics free of charge and provides age-appropriate lessons for students in grades 4-12. At the high school level, the "Excellence through Ethics" lessons include appropriate methods of conflict resolution in the workplace. For example, through role-playing exercises, students learn how to overcome disagreements with co-workers by finding common ground.

Methodology

This report presents the findings of a telephone survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, among a national sample of 750 teens comprising 375 males and 375 females 12 to 17 years of age, living in private households in the continental United States. Interviewing for this TEEN CARAVAN(R) Survey was completed during the period October 9-12, 2008. The survey's margin of error is +/- 3.6 percent.

Labels: Deloitte, Junior Achievement, revenge, violence, Violent-Teen-Study, youth

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Survey: Most Youth Worldwide Spiritual, Say Religion is Good

By Michelle A. Vu
Christian Post Reporter
Mon, Nov. 17 2008

Page one of a two-page article. Please click on "external link" at the bottom to access entire article

The majority of youths in the world say they are spiritual and think religion and spirituality are both positive, according to an extensive, first-of-its-kind survey.

Fifty-seven percent of young people (ages 12-25) see themselves as being spiritual, reported the survey by Search Institute’s Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence that was sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.

The research surveyed more than 7,000 young people from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds, spanning 17 countries and six continents. It took two years to complete the study that offers one of the first snapshots of spiritual development across multiple countries and traditions.

“We have spent two years listening to youth ages 12 to 25 from many countries and traditions talk about spiritual development and its role in their lives,” reflected Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, co-director of the Center for Spiritual Development, in a statement. “Many young people are keenly interested in these issues, but relatively few have opportunities to talk with others about the things that really matter to them.”

The survey found that about one in three youths consider themselves “very” or “pretty” spiritual, but this varied vastly across countries. The high was in the United States where 52 percent of the youth self-described themselves as “very” or “pretty” spiritual, and in Thailand where 50 percent gave this same response.

In contrast, Australia had the low of 23 percent youth who said they were highly spiritual. Almost half of the youth surveyed in Australia (47 percent) indicated that they are not spiritual, compared to only 12 percent in Thailand and about 20 percent in Canada, India, Ukraine, and the United States.

Religion and being spiritual are related but different, according to the world’s youth. Respondents are still most likely to say they are both spiritual and religious (34 percent). Nearly a quarter (23 percent) say they are spiritual, but not religious.

One in five of the youths indicated they don’t know.

American youths’ response was slightly different. They were more likely to say they are both spiritual and religious (43 percent) than the world’s youth in general (34 percent). A comparable number to international youths said they are just spiritual (27 percent).

Being spiritual, for this young generation, most often is associated with believing in God (36 percent), followed by believing there is a purpose to life (32 percent), and then being true to one’s inner self (26 percent).

But the most popular definition for being spiritual differed across countries and culture.

Indian youths were more likely to say being true to one’s inner self (38 percent) is being spiritual more so than believing in God (33 percent).

Whereas in Canada, the youths said being spiritual is believing in God (52 percent) and then believing there is a purpose to life (48 percent). Also, more than a quarter of the participants from Canada (28 percent) said spirituality involves having a deep sense of inner peace or happiness, which was unique to Canadian youths.

Meanwhile young people in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States all defined spirituality first and foremost as believing there is a purpose to life. Believing in God was ranked second at 33 percent for youths in the United States.

Labels: Michelle A. Vu, religion, spirituality, youth

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Friday, November 14, 2008

Here's the steeple; open the door, and where are the young people?

A survey finds that many youths draw a line between being spiritual and participating in an organized religion.

By JEFF STRICKLER, Star Tribune

November 9, 2008

The full survey is available at www.spiritualdevelopmentcenter.org. Highlights include:

• 35 percent said they never talk to their parents about religious faith, and 42 percent do so only infrequently.

• 75 percent said there is a correlation between a person's spiritual beliefs and a person's behavior.

• 82 percent believe that there is a God or other higher power, 8 percent said there is no God and 10 percent said they don't know.

• 41 percent believe that there is a purpose to life.
More from Faith + Values

A new benchmark survey finds that 55 percent of young people ages 12 to 25 say they are more spiritual now than two years ago. But nearly one-third of the young people said they don't trust organized religion.

The survey, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, was conducted by the Minneapolis-based Search Institute and released here last week at the four-day Healthy Communities-Healthy Youth Conference. Peter Benson and Gene Roehlkepartain, co-directors of the institute's Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, said that it will take several months, if not years, of serious number-crunching to figure out all of the study's implications.

The survey included 6,853 subjects. The first question was, "What does it mean to be spiritual?" There were nine choices, running from "believing in God" to "being true to one's inner self." They also could say that there is no spiritual dimension, and there was an "I don't know" option.

The good news for faith communities is that 93 percent of the young people surveyed believe there is a spiritual aspect to life.

Labels: Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, Healthy Communities-Healthy Youth Conference, Jeff Strickler, organized religion, Search Institute, spirituality, youth

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Friday, November 07, 2008

Global survey: youths see spiritual dimension to life

In the most ambitious such review to date, young people in 17 countries most often defined spirituality as belief that life has a purpose, belief in God, and being true to one's inner self.
By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the November 6, 2008 edition

Around the globe, the vast majority of young people share a conviction that life has a spiritual dimension. Seventy-five percent in a recent survey believe in God or a higher power. And while some can't easily define spirituality, the majority say they have had a transcendent experience, believe in life after death, and think it's "probably true" that all living things are connected.

For two years, a project involving some 7,000 youths ages 12 to 25 in 17 countries has explored spiritual beliefs and experiences – and found youths eager to discuss them. It's the most ambitious such project to date.

The initial findings were released Wednesday by the Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based independent research group. The group intends to plumb the results further and carry out additional research in countries around the world.

"I was surprised by the similarities we found across different cultures, even though they may have different languages and worldviews," says Eugene Roehlkepartain, the Search Institute's vice president. The institute hopes to encourage a broader look at the impact of spiritual development on other aspects of life.

Along with partner organizations, the institute conducted surveys in eight countries, focus groups in 13 nations, and in-depth interviews with young people whom others consider to be "spiritual exemplars." The youths represented more than a dozen faiths as well as nonbelievers.

The results of the report – "With Their Own Voices: A Global Exploration of How Today's Young People Think About and Experience Spiritual Development" – can't be considered representative of the countries or traditions, Mr. Roehlkepartain cautions.

Religion has trumped spirituality as a topic of study in the past, says Roehlkepartain. A study released last spring by the German research firm Berthlesmann Stiftung found that 85 percent of young people in 21 nations called themselves religious, and 44 percent said they were deeply religious.

In the US, a UCLA study of undergraduates from 2003 to 2007 broke some ground on spirituality. It found that while attendance at religious services decreased dramatically for most, their overall level of spirituality – defined as seeking meaning in life and developing values and self-understanding – increased.

When asked what it means to be spiritual, young people in the Search survey most commonly responded: believing there is a purpose to life, believing in God, or being true to one's inner self. In Thailand and Cameroon, "being a moral person" made the top three. "Having a deep sense of inner peace and happiness" was highly valued in Canada and the US.

Young people see spiritual development as both "part of who you are" and an intentional choice, the study shows. As a young man from South Africa puts it, "The more spiritual you are, the more you understand. It's like sport, everyone can do sport, but the more you do it, the better you get at it."

Some 55 percent felt their spirituality had increased over the past two or three years. Emma, a young Christian in the United Kingdom, said that "the ideal spiritual person is somebody who spends as much time as possible with God," which she does through daily prayer, devotional reading, and social activism.

Young people say they engage in a range of activities and practices to nurture spiritual growth. The most common include reading books, praying or meditating alone, and helping others.

On several scales measuring spiritual concerns, Australia, the UK, and Ukraine showed much lower values than other countries. For instance, while only 7 percent of youths overall did not see a spiritual dimension to life, among young Australians, that figure was 28 percent.

More than three-quarters of those surveyed said their spiritual development was enhanced by time in nature, from music, and from helping other people in their community. The project revealed that "serving people out of your spiritual conviction" holds young people together and can bridge differences," says Roehlkepartain.

While the youths see a difference between religion and spirituality, the great majority said they view both as "usually good." An Australian teen explains the difference this way: "Religion is kind of knowing the things in your head, but 'spiritual' is knowing them in your heart."

When asked which people, groups, or institutions were most helpful in their spiritual life, 44 percent named family. Between one-third and one-half, however, had not engaged in spiritual or religious activities with parents in the past year. Just 14 percent mentioned their religious institution as helpful, and close to 20 percent said "no one."

The institute wants to encourage parents, friends, and others to fill this vacuum. "Young people expressed to us some hunger to talk about spiritual development," Roehlkepartain says, "and we want people to say, 'If that's what kids in the survey think, what about the kids I know?'

Labels: A Global Exploration of How Today's Young People Think About and Experience Spiritual Development, God, Jane Lampman, religion, Search Institute, spirituality, youth

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Religiosity Curbs Teen Marijuana Use By Half, National Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2008) — While many congregations of different faiths preach against drug abuse, it has been unclear whether a youth’s religious involvement has any effect on his risk of drug abuse.

Now a new national study by two Brigham Young University sociologists finds that religious involvement makes teens half as likely to use marijuana.

The study – which will be published October 13 in the Journal of Drug Issues – settles a question scholars have disagreed on in the past.

"Some may think this is an obvious finding, but research and expert opinion on this issue have not been consistent," said BYU sociology professor Stephen Bahr and an author on the study. "After we accounted for family and peer characteristics, and regardless of denomination, there was an independent effect that those who were religious were less likely to do drugs, even when their friends were users."

The study, co-authored by BYU sociologist John Hoffmann, also found individual religiosity buffered peer pressure for cigarette smoking and heavy drinking.

The term religiosity as used in the study has to do with people's participation in a religion and not the particular denomination. Hoffmann said the protective effect of church and spirituality supplements the influence of parents.

Two data sets were used in the study, 13,534 students who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health and 4,983 adolescents in a state-wide survey of Utah schools. Individual religiosity was measured by two questions: one asked the students how frequently they attended church and the other asked the students to rate the importance of religion to them.

However, researchers found that religiosity didn’t have the same effect on use of illicit drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Professor Bahr gave his insight as to why:

"There are pretty strong social norms against illicit drugs throughout society," Bahr said. "So even if you aren't religious, you receive many messages against illicit drugs. But that may be less so for drinking, smoking and even using marijuana, which tend to be strongly opposed by many religious groups."

Another result showed that the religiosity within the community as a whole does not play as big a role as formerly thought by researchers.

"Previously, it was thought that if someone grew up in a religious community and went to church, then the community’s religious strength would make a difference,” Bahr said. “We basically found that this was not the case. Individual religiosity is what makes the difference."

Labels: Brigham Young University, drug abuse, marijuana, religiosity, youth

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Thursday, September 04, 2008

Pilgrims Have Their Reasons

Report Reveals Why Youth Came to Sydney

SYDNEY, Australia, SEPT. 1, 2008 (Zenit.org).-

Although a week in Sydney could be attractive for many reasons, those who travelled Down Under for World Youth Day were looking for a spiritual experience and a glimpse of Benedict XVI, reveals a study.

This was revealed in “Pilgrim’s Progress 2008,” a study of the Australian Catholic University and the organizers of World Youth Day 2008 that compiled the experiences of youth day pilgrims before, during and after the event.

Benedict XVI presided at the July 15-20 event, which attracted the largest international crowd of any event in Australia's history. Some 400,000 attended the closing Mass at Randwick Racecourse.

Relying on 12,275 responses from English-speaking pilgrims from 164 countries who took part in Web surveys, and interviews during and after event week, the researchers seek to build an understanding of the spirituality of the pilgrims.

The survey results found that 85% of those attending the event in Sydney were participating their first World Youth Day.

Researcher Michael Mason said the report revealed that what the pilgrims most wanted from the week of activities and pilgrimage was "a spiritual experience and in that context, to see and listen to the Holy Father."

Age gap

Mason reported that pilgrims over 20 showed some marked differences from pilgrims 19 and under.

"The older group was very focused on spiritual values," he said. "They were making sacrifices to take a week out to come to World Youth Day 2008, so they were not messing around. Their spirituality was very full-on and so was their approach to [the event]; they saw it as sacred time.

"The younger group were unabashedly attracted to all the aspects of World Youth Day 2008 which naturally appeal to younger people; they loved the adventure of it, the excitement of being part of a huge youth crowd, travelling to a spectacular city, making new friends, celebrating. It might be a religious occasion, but it had lots of other appeal as well."

"The pilgrims were not just a random collection of younger Catholics; they were special; they took some trouble to get to this gathering; they wanted to be there," he said.

Mason said the biggest motivating factors to attend were: friends who were going, encouragement from others, such as parents and teachers, and personal contact with somebody who had been to a previous youth day.

He also said he was surprised to see such a "strong measure of spirituality among teenagers in this group."

"Nearly half of [the teenagers polled] are regular churchgoers, have a strong faith and a firm sense of Catholic identity."

Labels: Catholicism, Pilgrim’s Progress 2008, Pope Benedict XVI, Sydney, World Youth Day, youth

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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Way We'll Be - Book Review

By Adam Goldstein, Special to the Rocky
Thursday, August 14, 2008

* Nonfiction. By John Zogby. Random House, $27. Grade: B

Book in a nutshell: Americans will face the challenges of the 21st century with creative approaches to consumerism, a cooperative worldview and an inclusive view of spirituality.

That's according to Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, a polling company that canvasses about half a million people every year to gauge public opinion on everything from the best laundry detergent to the most promising political candidate.

In The Way We'll Be, Zogby draws on his company's vast network of surveys and polls to try and predict popular trends and attitudes for the near future. Specifically, he seeks to chart general shifts in the American attitude toward a host of issues, from materialism to religion, from environmentalism to the latest take on the American dream.

His results point to a populace much less taken with the traditional signs of status and success. In survey after survey, he finds respondents more apt to be satisfied with less material wealth and more spiritual satisfaction.

Zogby's data also shows that the current generation of 18- to 29-year- olds, what Zogby terms "first globals," are more than willing to make adjustments in the face of dwindling natural resources, threats to the environment and international tensions. His results reveal a young generation tempered by the immediacy and inclusiveness of the Internet, one that's more likely to hold broad and inclusive spiritual views in lieu of rigid definitions of religion and one that's more willing to cooperate on the international stage to find solutions to pressing problems.

Best tidbit: Zogby draws on polls showing more moderate political trends among evangelical voters and a shift toward spirituality across the political spectrum as symptoms of a larger domestic movement. "A new American dream characterized by lower expectations, less want and more civility has begun to emerge; and as that has happened, a new American consensus is being born."

Pros: Zogby's exhaustive data points to heartening trends at work in the U.S. As the cost of living balloons and traditional sources of energy begin to founder, it seems the American populace is willing to innovate, cooperate and sacrifice to find solutions.

Cons: Zogby spares few details in describing his polling procedures, an element that tends to obscure the larger messages of his data.

Final word: A fascinating glimpse into how we'll be.

Labels: materialism, polling, religion, spirituality, youth, Zogby International

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Saturday, August 02, 2008

Belief in God drops among educated, but 'universal spirit' prevails

by Elizabeth Tenety
Jul 30, 2008

Religious Beliefs by Education Levels

WASHINGTON -- At first glance, a study from Gallup released Monday seems a victory for atheists: Belief in God declines as education increases. Yet something more nuanced is taking place in academia because while belief in God declines, belief in a ‘universal spirit’ increases significantly during college.

Among Americans with a high school diploma or less, 88 percent believe in God, 8 percent believe in a “universal spirit or higher power” and 5 percent say they do not believe in either. For college graduates, belief in God is at 73 percent, but another 20 percent believe in a ‘universal spirit’ and only 6 percent say they do not believe in either.

The Gallup telephone survey of 1,017 American adults between May 8 and May 11 confirms the findings of a six-year study conducted at UCLA on spirituality in higher education released earlier this year. It found that while participation in religious services declines from 44 to 25 percent between students’ freshman and junior years, students also report nearly a 10 percent increase in “integrating spirituality” into their lives between those two years.

Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic organization that works to strengthen the religious identity of Catholic colleges and universities in the United States, is among those not thrilled with the move away from traditional religion.

“We’re losing so much of the great thought and theology that has developed over centuries” when society emphasizes spirituality without the grounding of religion, Reilly said.

Reilly said two forces impact the religiosity of young adults. “In American society, we’ve relied much less on religious education so fewer young people and young adults are getting education in a particular faith.” Reilly added: “The education they are receiving at all levels is much more secularized than what was traditionally provided. Young people continue to have a sense of the divine but very little by way of religious formation.”

But Reilly said the survey did show that, “despite the increasing secularization of American culture,” Americans generally still recognize a higher power, which shows a tendency toward recognizing there is a God.

Labels: education, Elizabeth Tenety, Gallup Poll, God, spirituality, youth

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Friday, July 11, 2008

German Study: Religion Stronger Than Ever Among Global Youth

10.07.2008

A worldwide survey by Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation has found religion is as strong as ever among most of the globe's young people, with Europe the main enclave where religion is on the decline.

Releasing details Thursday, July 10, the respected social-science foundation said the findings would surprise Europeans. It said the notion that young people were less religious than their parents was a typically European perception, not a global reality.

"Young people in developing countries and Islamic states are just as religious as adults," the study's authors said. "In Morocco, about 99 percent believe in God and life after death. Among Brazilians, Turks and Nigerians, 90 percent are believers and even in Israel, Indonesia and Italy, the rate is 80 percent."

Martin Rieger, who heads the Religion Monitor, a Bertelsmann project to track faith, said: "The notion that religion continuously declines from generation to generation can be clearly disproved, even in some of the industrialized nations."

Religious Brits

The study found religious belief was stronger among young people in Britain and Israel than among their parents.

The first findings of the Bertelsmann Monitor of Religion, which will be continuously updated in future, were issued to mark World Youth Day, a Catholic youth festival being celebrated with Pope Benedict XVI in Sydney, Australia on July 20.

Globally, 85 percent of young people aged 18 to 29 are religious believers, with 44 percent defined as deeply religious in the sense that they often pray, discuss religious issues and are guided in day to day behavior by religion.

In non-religious nations such as France, Russia and Austria, daily prayer is a fixture for only 9, 8 and 7 percent of young adults respectively. The United States is quite different, with 57 percent of young adults praying daily, the survey found.

Labels: belief, Bertelsmann Foundation, Europe, religion, youth

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Saturday, May 10, 2008

Keeping the faith? More people look inward to find peace

By Amie Jo Schaenzer
The Reporter ajschaenzer@fdlreporter.com

People, apparently, are pretty wishy-washy when it comes to religion.

A recent study conducted by the Pew Forum -- one of the largest and most extensive of its kind -- shows Americans are switching religions and choosing to be "unaffiliated" more than ever before, said Brian H. Smith, chairman for the department of religion at Ripon College.

Organized religion throughout the nation, as well as locally, is on the decline, with nearly 16 percent of all men and women today not belonging to any particular affiliation.

The extensive survey released in February shows more than one-quarter of American adults, 28 percent, have either left the church they were raised in or have chosen no religion at all, according to the PewUnited States Religious Landscape Survey.

Smith said the sharp increase locally in contemporary, non-denominational Christian churches shows residents are opting for the more "upbeat services" over the traditional types of worship offered by mainstay Catholic and Protestant churches.

Ken Nabi heads one of the largest evangelical churches in Fond du Lac, Community Church, and says his congregation has seen steady growth over the past 28 years, with a current weekend attendance of 850 to 900 members.

He said many choose Community Church, N6717 Streblow Drive, because the message offered is more in-tune as to what people today want to hear.

Why?

Today, more than in years past, people are looking inward to find peace and longstanding types of worship do not offer the type of spiritual escape they want, Smith said.

"Today, people want an emphasis on the goodness of a person and not so much that they've sinned and they're bad," Smith said. "Traditional services do not nourish their spirit."

Likewise, the Pew research shows the makeup of some of the more traditional types of religion is changing: While 51.3 percent of Americans today claim to be Protestants, the group is fading, according to the survey.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church experienced one of the greatest net losses because of affiliation changes, according to the survey, with one in three Americans being raised Catholic and only 1 in four sticking with Catholicism today.

Despite the changes, the vast majority is still affiliated to a Christian religion. According to Pew research, 78.4 percent of Americans are Christians, while 4.7 percent belong to other religions, including 1.7 percent who are Jewish and 0.7 percent who are Muslim.

In Fond du Lac, changes in religious affiliation have proven gradual, said Michael Ketterhagen, associate professor of theology at Marian University.

Traditions among young people

One in four Americans ages 18 to 29 say they are not affiliated with a religion, according to the survey. Many in this age group —whom Smith teaches at Ripon College — he refers to as "nightstand Buddhists." They keep a Buddhist statue on their nightstand, he said, read Buddhist text because they like the message, but do not practice the religion.

This translates into cherry-picking highly individualized ways to be spiritual and seek faith, Ketterhagen said.

"They pray at night and they get involved in organized religion less," he said. "They still have a strong commitment to connect with God or their own personal spirituality that they call all different types of names. It's more personal and they will pray at night, meditate or go out in the woods to be closer to nature."

In the past, young people have left the church during their high school and college years only to return when they got married and settled down. The Pew survey suggests that is less likely to happen with today's youth.

Smith thinks this demographic niche will continue to mix and match religions to fit their needs, instead of returning to their childhood church. He envisions a type of spiritual smorgasbord — drawing upon Buddhism, for meditation; Judaism, for ethics; and the Lutheran religion for its Christmas and Easter services.

Labels: affiliation, Amie Jo Schaenzer, church, religion, spirituality, youth

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Friday, January 18, 2008

Trendy spiritualism breeds unhappiness

By Tamara McLean
January 18, 2008

YOUNG people who embrace trendy, self-focused spiritualism are more anxious and depressed than those who believe in God or reject religion altogether, a survey shows.

The survey quizzed 3705 people on their beliefs in God, higher powers other than God, as well as their church-going habits and other behaviours.

Young adults with a belief in a spiritual or higher power other than God were at more risk of poorer mental health and deviant social behaviour than those who rejected these beliefs, said study author Dr Rosemary Aird, a population health researcher at the University of Queensland.

Young men who held non-traditional religious views were at twice the risk of being more anxious and depressed than those with traditional beliefs.

The research is believed to be the first in Australia to examine young adults' religious and spiritual thoughts, behaviour and feelings.

Dr Aird found only 8 per cent of young adults attended church once a week, a trend linked to lower rates of antisocial behaviour among young men but not women.

She said individualism was the common thread in the shift away from traditional religious thoughts to non-religious spirituality.

"This focus on self fulfillment and improvement over others' wellbeing could undermine a person's mental health with many people feeling more isolated, less healthy and having poorer relationships," Dr Aird said.

She said so-called new spirituality promoted the idea that self-transformation would lead to a positive and constructive change in self and society.

"But there is a contradiction," Dr Aird said.

"How can one change society if one is focused on oneself?"

Labels: Australia, church, God, individualism, non-traditional, self-centered, spirituality, Tamara McLean, youth

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Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Students find it's cool to be Christian on campus

Mon Nov 26, 2007 By Andrea Hopkins

Page one of three pages. Please link to "external source" for complete article
CINCINNATI (Reuters Life!) - The students piling into a house near the University of Cincinnati are laughing, sending text messages, and lining up for plates of pizza -- then they all bow their heads in prayer.

This weekly pizza lunch at Wesley House, a ministry of the United Methodist Church, is just one of a half-dozen Christian events Nick George, 19, will attend this week with friends from the Navigators, a thriving campus evangelical group.

For while public colleges in America were once considered hostile territory for religious students, a revival among both evangelical and traditional churches on campus has made it safe -- and even cool -- to be a college Christian.

"I'm absolutely more involved (in Christianity) than before I came to college," said George, an engineering student.

Most of his friends are fellow believers who, like thousands of young Christians, have eschewed private religious colleges in favor of large secular U.S. universities in a sign of a wider shift in the United States towards acceptance of religion in all areas of life.

Eight of 10 college students attend religious services, 80 percent discuss religion or spirituality with friends and 69 percent pray, according to a 2004 University of California, Los Angeles, survey of 112,232 freshmen at 236 universities.

"The American university system is not so aggressively asking kids to question their religion as it might have been in past years, in the 60s," said Mark Regnerus, a sociology professor at the University of Texas.

Labels: Andrea Hopkins, Christian, college, religion, spirituality, youth

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Monday, November 05, 2007

Youths increasingly shunning Christianity, poll finds

By Tom Jacobs, Correspondent
Saturday, November 3, 2007

Young Americans are increasingly turning away from Christianity and expressing negative views of the faith, according to a startling new survey by Ventura-based Barna Group.

Only 60 percent of 16- to 29-year-olds describe themselves as Christians, according to Barna Group President David Kinnaman. He believes that figure represents "a momentous shift," noting that 77 percent of Americans over age 60 consider themselves Christians.

What's more, young people — Christians and non-Christians alike — feel increasingly disillusioned with the church, according to the results of Kinnaman's three-year research project involving 305 churchgoers and 440 outsiders.

Among young non-Christians, nine out of the top 12 perceptions of Christianity were negative. Large majorities called the church judgmental (87 percent), hypocritical (85 percent) and too involved with politics (75 percent).

Seventy-six percent said Christianity is based on "good values and principles," but many expressed the view that the church has turned away from the teachings of Jesus. Only 16 percent said they have a "good impression" of Christianity.

Even more strikingly, half of young churchgoers agreed with those negative perceptions.

"One of the defense mechanisms Christians use is believing this (unfavorable attitude toward the church) is the result of a negative, or at least skeptical, media," Kinnaman said. "There is certainly some truth to that.

Kinnaman and his collaborator on the study, Atlanta-based Gabe Lyons, are both committed Christians, and their book is aimed largely at an audience of church leaders. It is likely to make many of its readers distinctly uncomfortable.

"One of the defining characteristics of youth development in America is going through a Christian church," Kinnaman said. "More than four out of five teenagers will spend at least six months in a Christian church. They tried it, but it was a bad experience. It left a flat taste."

"Judgmentalism is a sticky substance that puts distance between our hearts and other human beings," Kinnaman said. "It says that we are somehow better. It marginalizes the other person. That doesn't mean we don't recognize and affirm people's fundamental brokenness, but we also recognize and affirm their fundamental goodness."

Chris Hall, pastor of the recently founded Catalyst Ventura ministry, was not surprised by Kinnaman's findings. "Unfortunately, there is a loud minority within the Christian church that has said some really stupid things," he said. "We need to stop looking at ourselves as people who have arrived at the answers."

One key issue that is alienating young Americans from most Christian denominations is homosexuality. According to the survey, 91 percent of young non-Christians and 80 percent of young Christians describe the church as "anti-homosexual."

Numerous surveys have shown a growing majority of young Americans have a relaxed, tolerant attitude toward homosexuality. A 2001 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 60 percent of Americans ages 17 to 29 support same-sex marriage.

The issue is a tricky one for those who believe the Bible condemns homosexuality (an interpretation not universally shared among Christians, and currently the subject of heated debate among Episcopalians). In Hall's view, part of the answer is to stop the loud and vociferous condemnation of what he sees as simply one sexual transgression among many.

Overall, Kinnaman was impressed with the thoughtful and nuanced nature of the responses he received.

"Faith is much more complex than we like to admit sometimes," he said "Some self-described atheists or agnostics will meditate or do yoga as a spiritual exercise. Among Christians, you will also find people who meditate, as well as some who believe in reincarnation.

"So it's very much a smorgasbord of picking and choosing. It's very hard to put your finger on a person and say, Now I've got you figured out.' Labels create distance between us."

Labels: Barna Group, Christianity, church, faith, homosexuality, Kaiser Family Foundation, Tom Jacobs, youth

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Friday, October 26, 2007

Christian right causing rest of us to lose faith

Oct. 25, 2007

I believe it was Gandhi that once said, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Then when I read a survey by the Barna Group, a Christian research organization, my worst suspicions were confirmed.

The survey was about how young people view Christianity, and it showed that among 16-29-year-olds, young people have never been more critical and skeptical of Christianity.

The survey cited feelings of disengagement and disillusionment among young people as a primary reason for this.

Whereas a decade ago, the majority of non-Christians had a favorable view of Christians, that rate now sits at 16 percent.

Which group draws most of the ire from non-Christians?

Just consider this: Half of young Christians themselves echoed the same sentiments --that they "perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical and too political."

I often find myself within this camp.

Simply put, I think the church as an institution, our leaders -- perhaps even some of our parents -- have failed us.

Over the past few decades, while mainline Protestantism was growing out of touch with modernity, evangelicals became too radicalized and began to turn many people off. Suddenly, seeking people were forced to choose. Well, many young people have chosen now, and they choose neither.

Respondents to this poll gave deeply intimate stories of experiences that have turned them off to Christianity -- not broad, sweeping generalizations. Finally, there is statistical evidence for what we have already known all along but were just afraid to admit to ourselves.

But supposing you are a Christian, the fact of the matter is that what's being done in our name (particularly by the Christian far right) is killing Christianity. Since they are often the people who hijack the dialogue and speak loudest, they are the ones the public most often sees.

Consider this a plea to those so-called Christians. The next time you malevolently condemn homosexuals, try to get creationism into classrooms or join the cries for war, just remember: The rest of us are watching.

For the rest of us, we should make it a fundamental aspect of our faith to oppose these markedly un-Christian actions that turn people off to Christianity.

It's good to know the observations of someone outside the faith. We must always be looking for the plank in our own eye, before we look for the splinter in others.

It helps us to take inventory of ourselves and learn what we can be doing better to let the world know what we are really about.

Gandhi also said that what passes as Christianity these days is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount.

I think he was right.

Labels: Barna Group, Christian, evangelicals, Gandhi, youth

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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Halo 3: Effective Outreach Bait or Not Fit for Church?

By Nathan Black
Christian Post Reporter

Mon, Oct. 08 2007

Another massively popular Halo video game is out, which means another controversial opportunity for churches to outreach to youth.

Already passed $300 million in sales, Halo 3 is being picked up by some churches to draw youth, causing some Christians to shake their heads.

Five years after Halo 2 was released, Halo 3 gives loyal gamers answers to what happens in the end with all those angry aliens and to the game's mysterious, armor-clad protagonist.

Microsoft Corp. announced last week that Halo 3 has become a global phenomenon and the game is one of the most successful entertainment properties in history.

Given that, hundreds churches are utilizing Halo as an effective tool for outreach.

“We play Halo, take a break and have something to eat, and have a lesson,” said Austin Brown, 16, of Sweetwater Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Ga., explaining that the pastor tried to draw parallels “between God and the devil."

Youth ministries specialist Lane Palmer of the ministry Dare 2 Share says the game speaks to the very real spiritual war going on today.

Dare 2 Share encourages youth to use Halo 3 as conversation starters to witness to their friends.

Studies have shown the negative influence of media, including video games, on young people. A recent Barna Group poll revealed that American children will have seen countless murders among the more than 30,000 acts of violence that they are exposed to through television, movies and video games.

But youth workers say churches need to be up-to-date on the latest cultural trends especially something that young people are inevitably going to participate in.

An Ellison Research study found that churchgoers and pastors are not very familiar with video and computer games. Half of lay people are not informed and more than 70 percent of clergy are disengaged from that area of culture.

"Pastors need to be informed about what’s out there in order to understand how the culture is influencing the people they are trying to reach," said Ellison Research President Ron Sellers.

But how relevant is too relevant especially when it involves killing?

Halo 3, for example, is rated “M” for mature audiences.

Still, Christian gamers online say "it's a way to fellowship."

And others call it a fishing hook.

"Teens are our fish," Gregg Barbour, youth minister of Colorado Community Church in the Englewood area of Denver, told the Times. "So we’ve become creative in baiting our hooks."

Since the Sept. 25 launch of Halo 3, more than 2.7 million people have logged on to Microsoft's online service, Xbox Live, to collectively play 40 million hours of "Halo 3" with other gamers, Microsoft reported.

In the game's first 24 hours on sale in the United States, sales hit $170 million, the company added.

Labels: Barna Group, church, clergy, Halo, Nathan Black, youth

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Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Are college freshmen losing their religion?

UL campus ministers committed to reaching out, reversing trend; survey says higher-education students more likely to stray from Christianity

Trevis R. Badeaux

Chances are good your Christian teen will walk away from his or her faith within the college freshman year.

A recent LifeWay Research survey indicates 70 percent of church-attending Christian teens fit the bill; that's about 1.2 million a year. Most are in their latter teens, ages 17, 18 and 19.

Surprised? UL campus ministers aren't. What's missing, they say, is a sense of community. Churches have a strong focus on young children and families. Teens and those in their early 20s are left to fall through the cracks.

That's not to say that churches aren't doing their part to reach out. Many have outreach ministries on college campuses that throw a lifeline to those drifting away from beliefs and practices established in their younger years.

The Roman Catholic LIFETEEN initiative and others like it have a record number of teens attending evening services geared toward enhancing their faith and their relationship with God.

So, what's the problem? Why are so many college freshmen and other teens and young adults walking away from their faith?

Community. It's the answer that comes up time and again from anyone in the age category asked these same questions. Teens and young adults lack a sense of connection, a relationship with others in their religions.

There is no way to force anyone to believe in Christ or become an active participant in their faith. However, there are ways campus ministries are reaching out to reverse the trend.

Most facilitate small groups that meet across campus. Students gather to share their beliefs, struggles, ways they can live out their faith and encourage others to join in. Some, like Chi Alpha, host a weekly free lunch with a scripture message or community events that attract teens and young adults.

Labels: Christian, college, faith, religion, Trevis R. Badeaux, youth

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Monday, October 01, 2007

Family, religion make youth happy, survey says

Respect for other beliefs is high

Ecumenical News International
Oct 1, 2007
Oxford, Ohio

A newly-released survey by the Associated Press and MTV, a music video channel aimed at young people, has found that religion and family are two of the strongest components contributing to the happiness of people aged 13 to 24 in the United States.

“It’s easier for kids who are happy and have things going well in their life to find the time and energy to participate in religion,” Lisa Pearce, co-principal investigator for the National Study of Youth and Religion, told AP.

The survey included more than 100 questions asked of 1,280 people aged 13-24. It found that 80 per cent of those who call religion or spirituality the most important thing in their lives say they are happy, while of those who say faith is not important to them, 60 per cent consider themselves happy.

Forty-four per cent of respondents said religion and spirituality is at least very important to them, 21 per cent responded that it is somewhat important, 20 per cent said it plays a small part in their lives and 14 per cent said it plays no role.

When it comes to spirituality, nearly 7 in 10 said that while they follow their own religious or spiritual beliefs, other beliefs might also be true. Sixty-eight per cent said they agreed with the statement, “I follow my own religious and spiritual beliefs, but I think that other religious beliefs could be true as well.”

Spending time with family was the top answer to the open-ended question, “What brings you happiness?"

Labels: Associated Press, family, MTV, National Study of Youth and Religion, religion, spirituality, youth

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Thursday, September 27, 2007

Spirituality alive on campus

Religion doesn't always mean going to church, especially for young people
By RACHEL KIPP, The News Journal

Posted Wednesday, September 26, 2007

NEWARK -- When he first arrived at the University of Delaware campus, Isaac Hicks' first taste of freedom was "awesome." For almost three years, he did whatever he wanted to do -- including leaving behind the tradition and teachings of the Christian church in which he was raised.

During junior year, something changed. God reached him, Hicks said, in the only way that could have worked: through a girl.

"We broke up," said Hicks, 26. "But I never stopped chasing the Lord."

Thousands pass Hicks on campus every Tuesday and Friday, when he stands on a corner of College Avenue asking students to leave prayer requests in a box covered with colored construction paper. Many take Hicks up on the offer of cookies, muffins and bottled water -- things he started bringing along after realizing the requests for prayers intimidated students. A few also pause to scribble prayers on slips of paper and drop them in the box. Others ignore Hicks' good-natured entreaties -- "We've got mini-muffins!" -- refusing to look him in they eye or take free baked goods.

Their reactions reflect the different approaches college students take toward religion. The four years or more they spend on campus is the first time many can make their own decisions on what priority faith will take in their lives.

Research shows church attendance is lowest when men and women are in their early 20s. But a multiyear nationwide study by the Higher Education Research Institute shows that even if the traditional trappings of religion have taken a back seat for many college students, spirituality has not.

Search for meaning, purpose

Decades ago, religion was more prevalent in society, and that carried over to college campuses, said Tim Clydesdale, a sociology professor at the College of New Jersey. Clydesdale's studies are focused on the experiences of young adults during the first year of college. He found that freshman year "really isn't a time when students are abandoning faith and it's not necessarily a time when they're really embracing faith."

A majority of students in one survey said they are searching for meaning and purpose in life and think college has an important role in that quest. The survey is part of a multiyear study of spirituality in the lives of college students by the Higher Education Research Institute that began in 2003. About three-quarters of more than 100,000 students queried last fall told the institute that they had spiritual discussions with friends and considered "attaining wisdom" as essential or very important to their lives.

Churches try to appeal to young

Although colleges are criticized for the decline in 20-something attendance at religious observances, the decline is even more dramatic for young adults who don't get a higher education, said Mark Regnerus, a sociology professor at the University of Texas.

UD senior Lindsey Kling and a group of friends became the "founding mothers" of the Unitarian Religion on Campus -- or UROCK! -- group a year and a half ago. Kling, who has been attending a Unitarian church since she was a little girl, thinks other students have a tendency to bunch together some of the smaller campus religious groups.

Kling estimates that "50 or 60 percent" of UD students are actively participating in some sort of religious group. But she said that participation is just as likely to include community service or organizing a concert as it is attending services or prayer meetings.

Once a week, Hicks, who received a master's degree from UD last spring, and other members of the prayer group Uniting Campus in Christ, empty the requests from their street-corner prayer box. Then they pray for sick relatives and students feeling lost and alone -- or hoping for an "A" on an upcoming test.

"There are people on campus that are hurting and in our finite minds we don't see," Hicks said. "We're saying to students, 'Someone out there loves you. We love you. God loves you.' "

Labels: college, Higher Education Research Institute, Rachel Kipp, religion, spirituality, youth

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Friday, September 21, 2007

Faith on campus

Arelis Hernandez
Issue date: 9/20/07

Before junior Adil Zaman came to college, he said saying prayers five times a day during his Muslim upbringing was more of a holy nuisance than a religious duty.

During high school, Zaman said, his Islamic faith took a backseat to girls, friends and trying to fit in. That changed when he stepped onto the campus: Outside the reach of parental pressure, it was suddenly a choice whether to practice his faith - not a requirement.

"When Ramadan came" during freshman year, Zaman said, "I promised myself to do things right."

Zaman is far from alone when it comes to faith and spirituality among college students. Although it was once thought that previous generations of devout college students risked eroding their faith after being exposed to secular academic communities, a new study conducted on the campus shows otherwise.

For all the liberal viewpoints so commonly espoused in the university setting - evolution, gay rights and existential philosophy included - many students are flocking to pews and prayer rugs. More than 63 percent of students here reported attending a religious service frequently or occasionally and 55 percent said that they pray.

Only a tiny number of the 524 randomly selected students surveyed - just 6 percent - said they don't consider themselves on a "spiritual quest."

The results of the survey surprised Office of Campus Programs Director Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, who conducted the survey last year with graduate student Andrew Publicover.

"More students talk about faith than what we would've anticipated, more students pray more than we anticipated and more students discuss religion," Guenzler-Stevens said. "There is a growing interest in faith" on the campus.

Paolo Ugolini, who leads the Disciples of Christ campus ministry, said that the popular view that secular campus life is a powerful influence that leads religious students astray is a mischaracterization.

"When students leave their homes and no longer have a family atmosphere to prop up their beliefs, I think many students simply find that their 'faith' was more a product of the home culture," Ugolini said. "It was not really a faith of their own to begin with."

But it isn't just students who were brought up religious that are finding a spiritual awakening during their college career, Guenzler-Stevens' survey shows...

Labels: Arelis Hernandez, college, culture, faith, religion, youth

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Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Geneva seminar opens global windows on 'religion'

7 Aug 2007

The chapel near Geneva, in which young adults from five continents gathered for an early morning meditation, seemed an unusual place of worship. The light through the stained glass windows shone on to a set of religious symbols as disparate as a simple cross, Orthodox icons, and a drum from an African Christian community - writes Annegret Kapp from the WCC.

The songs sung, the Bible text read by an American, and the text's interpretation by another Christian from Hungary did not link the worship to any denominational tradition.

But this ecumenical way of worshipping was not the most unusual thing about the moments of spirituality in Bossey at the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Institute in the Swiss countryside, from where Mount Blanc and the French Alps are visible from one side of Lake Geneva. The young people at worship were also more diverse than the spread of worldwide Christianity normally represented at the institute. Some participants wore scarves or kippots (yarmulkas) on their heads.

A month-long seminar in July 2007, entitled "Building an Interfaith Community", brought together 21 young Jews, Muslims and Christians from around the world. The annual seminar, hosted by the institute, the WCC's centre for ecumenical study and training, gave the participants the opportunity to get to know each other, including each other's spirituality, and to challenge and overcome stereotypes.

Not all the morning devotions took place in the centre's chapel. One conference room was equipped as an improvised mosque, another as a synagogue. While one faith group organised and led the moments of prayer each day, those from the other two groups were invited to assist and participate at the level with which they felt comfortable.

"Our goal is not to mix our religions and build a new global one but to understand each other’s identity better," said Morris Gagloev, a Russian Orthodox Christian.

For Steven Bell, who is awaiting ordination in 2008 as a Roman Catholic priest with the North American order of the Paulist Fathers, the experiencing of another spirituality helped to strengthen his own prayer life. He said he was impressed by the richness of song and chant in Judaism, and by the discipline of Muslim prayer.

Valeria Gatti, also Catholic, from Peru, had a similar view. "If you see your friend approaching God the way he or she does, that is so beautiful," she said.

Friendships forged allowed for frank discussions during lectures and workshops, even when touching on difficult issues like politics and gender.

The fact that the young adults lived together for a month, during which they shared moments at the beach down at the lake, prepared meals in the kitchen, and spent hours in the conference room, was essential to what some called "a unique experience".

In addition to personal and spiritual encounters, the students learned from each other in the seminar’s academic sessions, with group discussions often continuing until 9:00 p.m.

These gatherings drew on the presence of local religious experts from the three Abrahamic faiths, and included lecturers from the universities of Geneva and Lausanne; international specialists also took part.

The experts' diverse backgrounds shed light on divisions existing within each faith group, and introduced students to both Sunni and Shiite Islam, orthodox and reformed Judaism, and a variety of Christian denominations.

The participants themselves had a wealth of experience to share as well.

Following a presentation on "Affirming and living faith identity in a pluralistic world from a Christian perspective" by Rima Barsoum, who works on Christian-Muslim relations at the WCC, Saba Wallace, a participant from the two-percent Christian minority in Pakistan, asked, "How can dialogue happen when partners are not equal in any sense?"

Wallace, who works for non-governmental organisations in the areas of advocacy and interreligious dialogue, said she came to the seminar with many such questions, which she has no chance to raise in her usual context. With her multiple identities, being Pakistani, female and Christian, she feels frustrated and looked down upon both in the West and in her home country.

Gatti, on the other hand, came to see that her native Peru's dominant Christian context offers hardly any opportunity for inter-religious encounters. "This experience is like a pair of new glasses," she commented.

These participants' stories make it clear why Ioan Sauca, the director of the Ecumenical Institute, seeks to provide a "safe space" for young people from countries where interfaith relations are not always harmonious, to discuss their concerns.

Did participants succeed in building an interfaith community?

Eden Curtasan, a computer science student and collaborator of the Rumanian Muftiad, the traditional Muslim minority of Turkish-Tatars, was sceptical about speaking of community too fast in the way that politicians, he said, often do.

Still, Curtasan was positively surprised by the programme. "I actually came expecting some boring peace 'blah-blah' but finally I couldn’t even touch the books I brought because the programme was too interesting," he said.

The biggest surprise, said Bell, was that young people of all three religions face the same dilemma.

"They discover their spirituality but it is not played out in the religion's institutional building - the mosque, the church, the synagogue - because that is so steeped in traditional values which don't mesh with their personal experience," he said.

Annegret Kapp is the WCC's Web editor. This is an edited version of a story she wrote for the WCC. Link to original story: www.oikoumene.org/

[With grateful acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches]

Labels: Annegret Kapp, ecumenism, Geneva, interfaith, religion, youth

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Young adults aren't sticking with church

TO GO OR NOT TO GO

Seventy percent of Protestants age 18 to 30 drop out of church before age 23 and give multiple reasons for their departure.
Why they leave

• Wanted a break from church: 27%

• Found church members judgmental or hypocritical: 26%

• Moved to college: 25%

• Tied up with work: 23%

• Moved too far away from home church: 22%

• Too busy: 22%

• Felt disconnected to people at church: 20%

• Disagreed with church's stance on political/social issues: 18%

• Spent more time with friends outside church: 17%

• Only went before to please others: 17%

Reasons cited by the 30% who kept attending church:

• It's vital to my relationship with God: 65%

• It helps guide my decision in everyday life: 58%

• It helps me become a better person: 50%

• I am following a family member's example: 43%

• Church activities were a big part of my life: 35%

• It helps in getting through a difficult time: 30%

• I fear living without spiritual guidance: 24%

Source: LifeWay Research survey of 1,023 Protestants, conducted April and May 2007. Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points

By Cathy Lynn Grossman,
USA TODAY

Protestant churches are losing young adults in "sobering" numbers, a survey finds.
Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 — both evangelical and mainline — who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23, according to the survey by LifeWay Research. And 34% of those said they had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30. That means about one in four Protestant young people have left the church.

The statistics are based on a survey of 1,023 Protestants ages 18 to 30 who said they had attended church at least twice a month for at least one year during high school. LifeWay did the survey in April and May. Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Few of those surveyed had kind words for fellow Christians when they reflected on how they saw church life in the four years after high school.

Just over half (51%) of Protestant young people surveyed (both the church dropouts and those who stayed on in church after age 22) saw church members as "caring" or had other positive descriptions, such as "welcoming" (48%) or "authentic" (42%).

Among dropouts, nearly all (97%) cited life changes, such as a move. Most (58%) were unhappy with the people or pastor at church. More than half (52%) had religious, ethical or political reasons for quitting.

Dropouts were more than twice as likely than those who continued attending church to describe church members as judgmental (51% for dropouts, 24% for those who stayed), hypocritical (44% vs. 20%) or insincere (41% vs. 19%)

The news was not all bad: 35% of dropouts said they had resumed attending church regularly by age 30. An additional 30% attended sporadically. Twenty-eight percent said "God was calling me to return to the church."

The survey found that those who stayed with or returned to church grew up with both parents committed to the church, pastors whose sermons were relevant and engaging, and church members who invested in their spiritual development.

These findings fit with findings by other experts.

"Unless religious leaders take younger adults more seriously, the future of American religion is in doubt," says Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow in After the Baby Boomers, due in stores in September.

The proportion of young adults identifying with mainline churches, he says, is "about half the size it was a generation ago. Evangelical Protestants have barely held their own."

In research for an upcoming book, unChristian, Barna Research Group director David Kinnaman found that Christians in their 20s are "significantly less likely to believe a person's faith in God is meant to be developed by involvement in a local church. This life stage of spiritual disengagement is not going to fade away."

About 52% of American adults identify themselves as Protestant or other non-Catholic Christian denominations, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey. That's down from 60% in 1990.

Labels: Cathy Lynn Grossman, church, LifeWay Research, protestants, youth

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Thursday, May 10, 2007

Next Generation Embraces Traditional Values

By Steve Geissinger
MEDIANEWS SACRAMENTO BUREAU

Article Launched: 04/25/2007 06:41:24 AM PDT

SACRAMENTO -- Make way for the new American Dreamers.

A new, unprecedented ethnic-mix of youths in California yearn for the traditional values of family, safe neighborhoods and religion, according to a poll to be released today, with news conferences to follow in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The first poll of youths ages 16 to 22, using their communication tool of choice, cell phones, added a label to the long list of yippie, yuppie and hippie terms, and all those Generation-something alphabet-soup labels, said study spokesman Kevin Weston.

The dreamers are coming from a "post-minority generation," said Weston of the nonprofit New America Media foundation, which commissioned the poll.

"It's the most intimate generation we've had, as far as people knowing each other and getting along," he said. "We haven't seen this before in the United States."

Youths have concerns about family stability, cite parenthood as a life goal, are worried about violence in neighborhoods and communities, are seeking religiously guided lives, and want good educations, indicates the poll, jointly commissioned with the University of California.

Researchers have labeled them a "post-minority generation" -- the largest and most diverse to emerge in the nation -- reflecting relaxed attitudes about race, their own identities and immigration status.

They are as likely to identify themselves by music and fashion taste as by the color of their skin.
In short, facing financial and other obstacles, they are concerned about challenges close to home and are not nearly as worried about global warming or the Iraq war, though a majority oppose the fighting.

"While the media and politicians are preoccupied with U.S. conflicts abroad, California youth are far more concerned with conflicts in their own home neighborhoods," according to pollster Sergio Bendixen. At the same time, many see the armed forces as a way to a job.

The youths "represent the forefront of the culture" and a glimpse at "who we are becoming as a (national) society," said Sandy Close of New America Media.

The poll respondents represent a new "global society (that's) coming of age," Bendixen said, with one in eight of the nation's young people living in California -- three-fifths of them nonwhite and nearly half immigrants or children of immigrants.

More than 80 percent support giving illegal immigrants a chance to earn legal status and citizenship, according to the poll.

The study found two-thirds of the 601 respondents expecting to get married and have children.
A quarter of respondents consider the breakdown of the family to be their most pressing issue. Violence in neighborhoods was second, followed by poverty. Global warming and anti-immigrant sentiment came in significantly lower, along with war at just 3 percent.

"It's no wonder this generation is concerned about family breakdown," Weston said. "When the post-hippie generation started divorcing, many of the youths didn't have a mother or a father around."

Two-thirds said they consider it to be "very likely" they will get married and have children.
A majority of respondents also said they felt religion or spirituality is important in their lives and nearly four in 10 said they go to church. The finding stands in stark contrast to the high number of agnostic adults in California.

Given the cost of higher education, the majority of youths cite school and/or money as their top source of personal stress.

Pollsters conducted cell phone interviews of 601 youths from Oct. 6 to Nov. 15. Each was offered $10 to cover phone expenses. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Labels: family, neighborhood, New America Media, religion, Steve Geissinger, tradition, values, youth

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Monday, May 07, 2007

Guess What Troubles Young People The Most?

By Katherine Kersten, Star Tribune
Last update: May 06, 2007 – 8:27 PM

What issue most concerns young people today? A new survey from hip, racially diverse California -- home to 1 in 8 of the nation's youth -- provides a startling answer.

What does this generation of baggy pants-wearers and body piercers view as "the most pressing issue facing your generation in the world today"? Racism, environmental problems, the war in Iraq?

An answer closer to home tops the list: family breakdown. Pundits may find it fashionable to sneer at Ozzie and Harriet, but kids are longing for a harmonious home with mom and dad at the dinner table. Almost 90 percent of survey respondents expect to get married or enter into a life partnership and have children themselves.

The survey, titled "California Dreamers," assessed the hopes and fears of young people ages 16-22. Three-fifths of respondents were minorities, and half were immigrants or children of immigrants.

The survey was commissioned by New America Media, an association of over 700 ethnic media organizations.

"California Dreamers" revealed another surprise. Almost three-quarters of the young people questioned said that religion and spirituality are important to them. In this respect, California's new generation differs substantially from their parents. "Previous polls rank California as having the highest percentage of 'agnostic' adults in the United States," according to the report.

"California Dreamers" summarizes its findings this way: "The poll reveals a deep yearning among 16- to 22-year-olds for traditional structures - marriage, parenthood [and] religion."

Do Minnesota's young people share these yearnings? Absolutely, says the Rev. Efrem Smith of the Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multiethnic congregation in north Minneapolis. Smith has spent his life working with youth, and speaks nationally on the subject.

"This generation is deeply marred by family breakdown," he told me. Many young people are victims of our society's epidemic of out-of-wedlock childbearing and divorce, he says. Even children from intact families often feel neglected by busy or preoccupied parents.

"Kids understand that a strong, loving family is the core, the base, of what it takes to develop a moral compass, a sense of purpose, an identity," says Smith, even if many self-absorbed older folks have forgotten this inconvenient truth.

Smith's own parents never missed his football games or school talent shows, he says. So he first experienced young people's anger over family breakdown as a varsity basketball coach at Minneapolis' Roosevelt and Patrick Henry high schools, where a substantial number of kids are in poverty.

Smith sees a connection between kids' anxiety over abandonment and neglect, and their spiritual hunger. As a longtime youth worker, he says, he's convinced that "this void, this hole from having no moral compass or guidance at home, can only be filled spiritually."

Kids' interest in religion may seem surprising, given the debased popular culture they inhabit, and the fact that religious expression is frowned on in the public square. "But they're so hungry for love, for a sense of purpose, that they are very open to filling the void spiritually," says Smith.

"I've never seen a young person sold down the road to atheism," he adds. "That comes later in life."

"If you believe that you are beloved of God," Smith says, "that you are made in his image, it doesn't matter if you have two parents or one parent, or if you're being raised by your grandmother or by foster parents. You believe you're on Earth for a purpose, and you can make it."

Katherine Kersten • kkersten@startribune.com Join the conversation at my blog, Think Again, which can be found at www.startribune.com/thinkagain

Labels: family, Katherine Kerston, marriage, New America Media, parenthood, religion, spirituality, youth

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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Ijaw women want peace in N-Delta

NATIONAL

By Tunde Awe
Posted to the Web: Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Worried with the spate of negative reports emanating from the Niger-Delta areas in recent times, a group of mothers from the Ijaw tribe, “Ijaw Mothers Initiative” has resolved that it is time to step in and restore sanity, security of lives and properties in the region.

This position was made at a press conference last week in Lagos, where the group stated that the issues of oil pollution, deprivation, poverty, kidnapping and hostage takings among others have dominated the scene of activities in the Niger-Delta region, and as a result, the Ijaw Mothers Initiative is in a further attempt and a complimentary effort to other interventionists and organisations to bring a lasting solution to the crisis in the region, has vowed to travel through the nooks and crannies of the Niger-Delta creeks to interact and listen to the Ijaw youths whose voices echo pain.

The interaction will afford the women the opportunity to offer counsel to the youths while delivering the message of a need for the development of the region.

The leader of the group, Mrs. Beatrice Agama said that “as mothers, we gave birth to the youths and we believe that they will listen to us, it is our desire to reach out to our children (the militants) in their hideouts.

...peace is very vital for real development to be attained in any society.

The Ijaw Mothers Initiative vehemently condemned the prevailing situation where some individuals/groups ride on the back of Niger-Delta emancipation to seek personal financial benefits at the expense of peace and the collective wellbeing of the people in the area.

The group believes that there is time for everything, time to bring to the fore our grievances of deprivation, underdevelopment and marginalisation and appeals to the Niger-Delta youths to embrace peace as the time to give peace a chance is now.

Labels: Ijaw, Lagos, Niger-Delta, peace, Tunde Awe, youth

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Generation Tolerant

A cellphone poll of California youth shows remarkably liberal attitudes toward race but conservative beliefs on family values.

April 30, 2007

FOR CALIFORNIA'S teenagers and young adults, the answer to Rodney King's question is a definite yes: We can all get along. Race and ethnicity, according to a new survey of Californians ages 16 to 22, are far less significant to this generation than to any in the past.

The survey, sponsored by New America Media, found dramatically liberal attitudes when it comes to the issue of getting along. Two-thirds say they have dated someone of another ethnicity, and a whopping 87% say they would marry or have a life partner of a different race.

Not only are young people encouragingly unconcerned about the skin color or nationality of others, they don't think of themselves much that way, either. When asked the most significant aspects of their identity, they chose music and fashion. Their tribes? Punk-rock skaters, hip-hop activists, salseros.

In terms of what young people consider most important about themselves, race and ethnicity didn't even come in second — that slot went to religion.

Most young adult Californians have many friends outside their own race, the survey found. For Asians and Anglos, the majority of their friends are of different races, while Latinos and blacks said that about 40% of their friends come from different groups.

And as for illegal immigration, basically the kids don't see what the fuss is all about — 82% say illegal immigrants should be given a chance to earn citizenship.

But if you think that California is producing a generation of young liberals, think again. The young people in the survey swing to the right when it comes to family values and religion.

Their No. 1 concern is the breakdown of the family. Second is violence in their neighborhoods.

A majority say they are religious and spiritual. They plan to go to college, have jobs, marry, buy homes, raise kids.

This may seem like a return to the California of the 1950s, but it might be more of a reaction to the perceived sins of their elders. After all, California has one of the highest divorce rates in the United States, is home to more gangs than any other state and purportedly has the highest number of agnostics (although, to be fair, atheists and agnostics have the lowest divorce rates).

The survey thus suggests that California's youth are sharp critics of their parents, rejecting a culture they perceive as sanctioning loose marital bonds and religious indifference. The state's young adults may just be perfectly out of sync with their parents — sometimes more tolerant and other times more traditional. Which suggests the deepest California tradition of all: time-honored youthful rebellion, rejecting, as every generation does, the ethos of the generation before.

Labels: California, family, immigrants, New America Media, race, religion, spirituality, values, youth