Earlier today, we tweeted about a new Pew Research study on religious life in the U.S.
31% of 18-29 year olds have no religious affiliation according to new Pew Religion study religions.pewforum.org/reports/ #millennials #stumin #youthmin
— Launch Ministry (@Launch_Ministry) October 10, 2012
Some of the findings in that survey include the news that the number of Protestant Christians has dipped below 50% for the first time and that the number of ‘nones’ (those with no religious affiliation) has now grown to nearly 20%. Most notably for us at Launch Ministry, the number of 18-29 year olds with no religious affiliation is up to 31%.
As with our post on the rising level of doubt in the existence of God among Millennials, these new findings may also contain some hopeful elements.
Most notably, the ‘nones’ are not necessarily religiously disinterested. They are simply religiously unaffiliated. Some of these are those who have struggled with institutional elements (perhaps the ‘exiles’ of Kinnaman’s You Lost Me might land here). Some of these are those who have little to no experience with religious belief and yet are open to searching and discovering something meaningful and real.
These are the young people that give me hope. Just last night at our Launch Bible Study, a young woman who has been hanging around with us for a month or so stayed late to ask questions about who Jesus is, who God is, what the Bible is all about and where she should start reading it. She was almost entirely a blank slate and I mean that in a good way. Though growing up nominally Catholic, she had virtually no understanding of Christian doctrine or practice and yet she desires to know what it’s all about and experience it for herself. Instead of having to first deconstruct things that she has been taught or previously believed, we can simply talk about Jesus and watch him do his transforming work in her heart. If it’s true that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is the dominant religious expression that has been passed down to the next generation, not having to sort through that watered-down approximation of Christianity is a positive thing.
In a perfect world, the church would engage and keep those who grew up there and would attract those who haven’t. But this isn’t a perfect world. This is a deeply polarized, religiously pluralistic, anti-structural and religiously skeptical world. How amazing that despite all of our flawed efforts, Jesus can still work his way into the hearts of those who are far from him.
