Why young (and many older) people don't go to church, Part II

In last week’s blog, I passed along some survey data and opinions I’ve recently read about why young people don’t go to church. In general, the survey results and the opinions agree that it’s principally a matter of relevancy. Many young people believe religion has little to do with their lives.

A 32-year-old evangelical, Rachel Held Evans, wrote that ministers often misunderstand her message, thinking that “edgier music, more casual services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall” are what’s needed to make the message relevant. But they miss the point, she says. “We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers….We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there.”

So, you don’t become relevant by trying to be relevant. Something is relevant when it is significant or important in your life. And in the realm of faith, you expect relevancy to facilitate consideration of important questions, such as “Does my life have a purpose, and if so, what is it?” “How can I find an anchor for my life?” “What can fill the emptiness I often feel?” “What can help me see things as they are?” “How can I get through the really tough times?” “How do I maintain a sense of joy, no matter what?”

Antipathy about Jesus and his Message

You don’t need religion to talk about living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed or pursuing reconciliation. Non-religious people often do as well or better at that than religious people. In the case of Christianity, despite what Rachel wrote, many people’s real problem may be with Jesus himself, about whether he is God, as claimed, and about whether someone who lived 2,000 years ago should have any say in their lives. Jesus doesn’t appear to be any more relevant today than he was for most people in his time.

“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that you whole body be thrown into hell,” he says in Matthew’s gospel. He was talking commitment, of course, using the hyperbole common in his tongue and era, not advocating self mutilation, but is that the kind of relevance Rachel is talking about?

Despite the plaster images of the sweet Jesus, he said and did a lot of tough things that are hard to swallow, and when today’s priests and ministers teach them, they often receive the same reception that Jesus did. (He was brutally executed, you may recall.)  What Jesus taught can address all those important life questions raised above, but it has to be conveyed in a way that makes sense to people in today’s world, wherever they are in their search for God. Sure, it’s not easy, but it can be done.

One factor in “relevancy” is people’s ignorance about religion. A 2010 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that large portions of Christians are ignorant of the basic beliefs of the faiths they were brought up in. The survey was conducted among atheists, agnostics, Jews, Mormons, Protestants and Catholics, and get this, despite the huge investment the U.S. Catholic church has made in its parochial schools and colleges and universities, Catholics scored at the bottom - below atheists and agnostics, Jews, Mormons and Protestants - on questions about religion.

A connection between faith and knowledge?

Obviously, there’s a connection between believing - and acting upon your beliefs - and ignorance. It’s a vicious cycle. Antipathy results in failure to seek knowledge about faith, and the less you know, the more antipathy you have. Ignorance, like familiarity, breeds contempt.

It’s not all about knowledge, of course. Faith, according to the Christian tradition, is a gift and some of the most humble, formally uneducated people have great faith and act upon it. It appears that this gift comes only to those who are open to it, however, and it’s hard to be open if most of what you watch on TV, read, and experience points in the opposite direction. If your social climate is hostile to it, if you can’t discuss it with your friends, if you are embarrassed to be associated with it, it’s hard to be a person of faith.

Church leaders, and church members, have to stop placing obstacles in people’s paths and demonstrate sincerely the joy and peace that can come from being a believer. People who have given up on God and their faith need to keep the door open and persevere in their search for God, conceding that the community of believers may actually have some answers. 

If you like this blog, please share it with family and friends.

TC