A hot button issue in religious dialogue lately has been the hemorrhaging of millennials from their institutional religions. The general hypothesis for the reasons why center around social issues. I don’t qualify as a millennial, but this prevailing progressive attitude is something I identify with. It seems like what young people want from religion is more openness and few rules about what righteousness looks like.
And then there is this article, which I found so interesting.
Apparently atheists and agnostics also have a retention problem.
For my part, I find it heartening that people are rejecting institutional policies that do not sit well with their conscience. And I find it even more heartening that many are, nonetheless, still not choosing to abandon faith altogether, and finding faith even when their parents have not.
To me this seems ideal. I imagine this Utopia where we all just focus on faith and love, without judgment and exclusions.
You may say I’m a dreamer…
Leah Marie
Leah Marie earned a BA in Political Science, and a Masters in Public Administration. She is currently working towards her PhD in Public Policy. She is wife to an English professor, and mother to 3 beautiful boys.
All posts by Leah Marie
But you’re not the only one . . .
I’ll “join” ya
Atheism and agnosticism is not a religion. You can’t have a retention problem with not having a belief in something. You indicated that it is heartening to you that many are choosing to not let go of their faith. Is it disheartening to you, then, to see that some do lose their faith…and if so, why? I have had many people tell me they are sorry for my loss of faith. My response is that there is no reason to be sorry. We should simply be happy that people are choosing for themselves whatever those choices may be.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but here’s my two cents:
I AM happy whenever someone finds a good path, even if that path is not my path. What’s a little disheartening to me is I selfishly will be missing out on some of the community and fellowship that these cool people that I actually share a lot in common with. It’s always nice to have fellow pioneers on the trail along with me, who have also (to paraphrase my favorite Carol Lynn Pearson poem) packed their handcarts with the precious things and thrown away the rest. It’s not that I’m worried about your eventual “promise land” being different than mine. It’s that it’s my loss that we don’t get to share the same struggle together on the journey.
Garrett, there is much debate about atheism and agnosticism being a religion or a belief system. I’m not really interested in getting into that. That isn’t the point of this post, at all.
The point of that article is that children raised by parents who are atheist or agnostic are not “retaining” those beliefs… or lack there of. To debate the semantics of that is just to get sidetracked.
And to say that I find it heartening that people have found faith is NOT the same as saying I am disheartened when people lose it. I am disheartened when people are unhappy, feel unsettled, are confused, are hurt, are searching… Many people people find the balm for those things in finding faith. I don’t discount, I guess, that some find that balm in losing it. If you are happy in your path, then I am happy for you. Honestly.
I like the dream. Nice post.
Two thumbs up. “And the world will live as one.”
Leah… I think you (and John Lennon) are dreamers of a dream that can never be. The problem with this dream is that it simply does not align with the tribal, social nature of human beings. Our nature is to define ourselves by our groups, to be loyal and trusting to those within our groups, while those outside our groups will be judged as unclean, unworthy, infidels, etc. We can moderate the severity of how we punish the out-groups but hoping to eliminate this dynamic is simply not in our nature.
Our LDS group is built on some powerful narratives that create powerful bonds for it’s members — but those narratives are evolving to accommodate race, gender, and sexual orientation, as the broader society diminishes the myths of the unworthiness and uncleanliness of people who belong to those groups.
To me a really interesting question is to ask what group identification millenials are choosing in place of traditional religion. My experience with my millennial-aged children and employees is that it tends to be family, groups that promote social fairness, futurism, and environmentalism — which I find interesting because those are just the old religious traditions wrapped in a new set of sacramental narratives, dogma and ritual.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.