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July 27th, 2013
08:33 AM ET
Why millennials are leaving the church
(CNN) - At 32, I barely qualify as a millennial. I wrote my first essay with a pen and paper, but by the time I graduated from college, I owned a cell phone and used Google as a verb. I still remember the home phone numbers of my old high school friends, but don’t ask me to recite my husband’s without checking my contacts first. I own mix tapes that include selections from Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but I’ve never planned a trip without Travelocity. Despite having one foot in Generation X, I tend to identify most strongly with the attitudes and the ethos of the millennial generation, and because of this, I’m often asked to speak to my fellow evangelical leaders about why millennials are leaving the church. Armed with the latest surveys, along with personal testimonies from friends and readers, I explain how young adults perceive evangelical Christianity to be too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. I point to research that shows young evangelicals often feel they have to choose between their intellectual integrity and their faith, between science and Christianity, between compassion and holiness. I talk about how the evangelical obsession with sex can make Christian living seem like little more than sticking to a list of rules, and how millennials long for faith communities in which they are safe asking tough questions and wrestling with doubt. Invariably, after I’ve finished my presentation and opened the floor to questions, a pastor raises his hand and says, “So what you’re saying is we need hipper worship bands. …” And I proceed to bang my head against the podium. Time and again, the assumption among Christian leaders, and evangelical leaders in particular, is that the key to drawing twenty-somethings back to church is simply to make a few style updates - edgier music, more casual services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall, a pastor who wears skinny jeans, an updated Web site that includes online giving. But here’s the thing: Having been advertised to our whole lives, we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters, and we’re not easily impressed with consumerism or performances. In fact, I would argue that church-as-performance is just one more thing driving us away from the church, and evangelicalism in particular. Many of us, myself included, are finding ourselves increasingly drawn to high church traditions - Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Episcopal Church, etc. - precisely because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so unconcerned with being “cool,” and we find that refreshingly authentic. What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance. We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against. We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers. We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation. We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities. 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. You can’t hand us a latte and then go about business as usual and expect us to stick around. 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. Like every generation before ours and every generation after, deep down, we long for Jesus. Now these trends are obviously true not only for millennials but also for many folks from other generations. Whenever I write about this topic, I hear from forty-somethings and grandmothers, Generation Xers and retirees, who send me messages in all caps that read “ME TOO!” So I don’t want to portray the divide as wider than it is. But I would encourage church leaders eager to win millennials back to sit down and really talk with them about what they’re looking for and what they would like to contribute to a faith community. Their answers might surprise you. Rachel Held Evans is the author of "Evolving in Monkey Town" and "A Year of Biblical Womanhood." She blogs at rachelheldevans.com. The views expressed in this column belong to Rachel Held Evans. soundoff (9,864 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Opinion by Rachel Held Evans, Special to CNN
Maybe millennials are leaving the church because JESUS IS FAKE? Just an idea.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/really-listening-to-atheists-taking-nonbelief-seriously/278069/
So many of the comments on this thread seem to be engaging in the age-old "Does God exist?" question, which is actually...not what this article is about. It makes as much sense to read an article about how the feminist movement should respond to the "Lean In" philosophy and posting a rant about how women are superior/inferior to men. Related, but ultimately not relevant to the ideas within the text you've just read.
On the whole, millenials in the church don't care about whether their friends/neighbors/coworkers are believers/non-believers/questioners. It's really not that big a deal to us. Faith is an individual calling, and whatever a person has faith in – be it God, science, humanism, nature, or some combination of the above – should be respected. This article does a good job of pointing out the changing face of religious belief in this country, and shouldn't be attacked because the author happens to hold a particular belief system. Nowhere in the article does she attack people who don't believe. Can we all be respectful of her beliefs while we're at it?
Christians have NEVER been respectful of the beliefs of others. There's absolutely no reason to give them anything that they have never offered in return. They have ALWAYS been a hateful religion, and now that they no longer have the political power to lock us in a dungeon (or burn us at the stake), NOW they want to play nice? Naaa, I don't think we'll be doing that.
Oh, really. NEVER? If you want to attack, then at least don't make it ad hominem. It's intellectually lazy at the very least.
The article is about "Why millennials are leaving the church". So, you are saying that "Because the teachings of the church are nonsense." is not a relevant theory?
Of course that's a relevant theory, but she's addressing ministers who aren't doing a good job of reaching out to their congregants who do believe. And who want to be a part of a body of faith. If they don't, then they would hardly be concerned with the state of worship in their local church.
"What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance."
this lady, like many christians, realizes that while the bible teaches some great things about love, it also teach pretty horrible stuff. like to kill all g.ays for instance. so people like her want to distance themselves from all the evil of christianity, but keep the good parts. too bad she doesn't realize you don't need to believe in an invisible sky fairy to be a good person.
It seems pretty obvious that the author wants a "faith" tailor-made to reflect her own beliefs and feelings. Welcome to the world of market-based religion. Ironically, the very thing she criticizes is the thing she wants most, i.e. a religion based on "appeal" and "consensus".
Invisible friends and fairy tales are the playthings of children. It is long past time we as a society put our toys away.
CNN another promote for anti-religion///Believe in God and your article won't change my mind ///
another? 90% of the articles are pro-christianity, so stop your crying and just scroll down the belief blog picking out all the stories that kiss christianity's @sss.
It would have helped if you'd actually read the article.
Interesting article! I particularly liked where Rachel said "we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters". I'm presuming she also believes in talking serpents, virgin births and dead people coming back alive....
don't forget the talking donkey - just like in Shrek! and a guy lives in the belly of a fish for 3 days - just like in Pinocchio! and there unicorns, dragons and satyrs in the bible too! dr. seuss books have less mythological creatures.
My invisible pink unicorn believes all of that; however, her BS meter broke awhile back so who really knows.
If young people want to leave in droves, then go..When you find all the answers which you seem to know inform the world of your arrival..until then to each his own...
I was raised a Christian in west Tennessee in the 50's, and in the 60's when my number came up in the draft, I went to the minister of my church to ask if he would support my application to be a conscientious objector and be able to teach in a school for disturbed girls instead of joining the military. He said I had an obligation to fight for my country, and when I asked him about the verses in the bible about loving your enemies, he said that although this is true, you still need to basically kill them. At that point I told him I had studied about people like him in the bible, that he was one of the hypocrites that was referenced there by Jesus, and he'd never see me in his church again. Christianity has not changed a lot since those days, at least in many parts of the country, and as long as the hypocrisy exists in the church, it is going to continue to attract people who are hypocrites, as they find safe haven there. This has been going on for at least the 2000 years of recorded Christianity, and if there is ever going to be acceptance of the church by people who are trying to live their lives consciously, people who find safe haven in the unconscious hypocrisy that the current Christian church allows to exist are going to be the people who run that church and Christianity in general. Of course there are exceptions to this, but IMHO there needs to be a bit of internal purging and housecleaning in the Christian church. I know Christians who live in a conscious way, and don't condone or support the hypocrisy of the church, and don't try to apologize for it either. They do, however, work on the housecleaning needed, and the fire and brimstone pastors are being put out to pasture. I don't know that is is ever going to make a difference, as I am sure this isn't the first time this has happened in the last 2000 years. There are a lot of people in every religion who confuse the scriptures with the law (legal law), and in mixing the two together, try to rule other people. People who live by the spirit of the scriptures, and not the rule of the scriptures, just seem to not be confused by this, and genuinely try to live a good life.
except the scriptures tell you to kill g.ays, disobedient children and non-virgin brides. you are cherry-picking the bible, taking the good parts and pretending the bad parts don't exist. if you actually lived by the scriptures, you should be killing all non-believers as the bible commands.
you do NOT live by the scriptures.
People who live by the spirit of the scriptures, and not the rule of the scriptures,
oh, in other words, people who do good regardless of what the scriptures tell them?
http://margaretannharvey.blogspot.ca/2011/11/ending-culture-war.html
No one cares about your blog.
F O A D
Religions don't own the copyright or playbook on what it means to be kind, accepting, loving, good parents, brothers, sisters... The sooner people open their eyes to this, the sooner we can get beyond this relic of of pre-history and advance the world society as one in unity. Reading articles like this depresses me knowing how deeply rooted this centuries-old man-made fallacy is and how vigorously it is defended. Religion is a tool of oppression and division – not unification or enlightenment. It simply does more harm than good. I as a non-religous man do more for society than my blessed brethren. Atheists are not the enemy. Ironically, your enemy is other religions. RUN AWAY RUN AWAY!
Only for the new members of this blog:
For those interested in the translations of the NT and associated scriptures:
Early Christian Writings, earlychristianwritings.com/
– a list of early Christian doc-uments to include the year of publication–
30-60 CE Passion Narrative
40-80 Lost Sayings Gospel Q
50-60 1 Thessalonians
50-60 Philippians
50-60 Galatians
50-60 1 Corinthians
50-60 2 Corinthians
50-60 Romans
50-60 Philemon
50-80 Colossians
50-90 Signs Gospel
50-95 Book of Hebrews
50-120 Didache
50-140 Gospel of Thomas
50-140 Oxyrhynchus 1224 Gospel
50-200 Sophia of Jesus Christ
65-80 Gospel of Mark
70-100 Epistle of James
70-120 Egerton Gospel
70-160 Gospel of Peter
70-160 Secret Mark
70-200 Fayyum Fragment
70-200 Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
73-200 Mara Bar Serapion
80-100 2 Thessalonians
80-100 Ephesians
80-100 Gospel of Matthew
80-110 1 Peter
80-120 Epistle of Barnabas
80-130 Gospel of Luke
80-130 Acts of the Apostles
80-140 1 Clement
80-150 Gospel of the Egyptians
80-150 Gospel of the Hebrews
80-250 Christian Sibyllines
90-95 Apocalypse of John
90-120 Gospel of John
90-120 1 John
90-120 2 John
90-120 3 John
90-120 Epistle of Jude
93 Flavius Josephus
100-150 1 Timothy
100-150 2 Timothy
100-150 T-itus
100-150 Apocalypse of Peter
100-150 Secret Book of James
100-150 Preaching of Peter
100-160 Gospel of the Ebionites
100-160 Gospel of the Nazoreans
100-160 Shepherd of Hermas
100-160 2 Peter
For those who are not interested in reading the above references, a summary:
The Apostles' Creed 2013: (updated by yours truly and based on the studies of historians and theologians of the past 200 years)
Should I believe in a god whose existence cannot be proven
and said god if he/she/it exists resides in an unproven,
human-created, spirit state of bliss called heaven??
I believe there was a 1st century CE, Jewish, simple,
preacher-man who was conceived by a Jewish carpenter
named Joseph living in Nazareth and born of a young Jewish
girl named Mary. (Some say he was a mamzer.)
Jesus was summarily crucified for being a temple rabble-rouser by
the Roman troops in Jerusalem serving under Pontius Pilate,
He was buried in an unmarked grave and still lies
a-mouldering in the ground somewhere outside of
Jerusalem.
Said Jesus' story was embellished and "mythicized" by
many semi-fiction writers. A descent into Hell, a bodily resurrection
and ascension stories were promulgated to compete with the
Caesar myths. Said stories were so popular that they
grew into a religion known today as Catholicism/Christianity
and featuring dark-age, daily wine to blood and bread to body rituals
called the eucharistic sacrifice of the non-atoning Jesus.
Amen
The oldest non-supernatural tales of Jesus revolve around the Merkabah son of the hairdresser Miriam who was stoned and hanged for tattooing himself. Reading the events of his trial, it's clearly fertile ground for imagination and tales of adventure and sorcery. And some of the tales make it obvious that the magic tricks of Jesus, Simon, and Judas are illusions. Even Peter insinuates that Simon is flying on a wire rig when he wrote of his death in Rome.
I'm an atheist that has no issue with belief in god. Belief in most religions I've seen is absurd. The big Abrahamic religions are especially nuts. They are so obviously man made. I'm not saying there is no value to the philosophies and lessons in them, but in the 21st century we shouldn't regard them as truth.
agreed.
the core of the problem is that teaching there is a god is teaching ignorance.
I am not sure a person using the screen name Bootyfunk is the most qualified to speak on intelligence
your name fits - you should apologize for even being here.
If you believe that those beliefs are obviously wrong, why don't you have an issue with them? I certainly have an issue with people who teach their children that religious fairy tails are reality, resulting in a world filled with adults who base their views and politics on fantasies.
Jake,
I recommend a remedial reading comprehension class at a local community college.
bostontola – I recommend you focus on trying to explain your self-contradicting post before you start dishing out advice to people much smarter than you.
Jake,
Nothing contradictory in the post. I may be wrong about your reading comprehension skills, perhaps its your critical thinking skills.
bostontola – You're clearly wrong about a lot of things. If you want to continue to try to insult me rather than responding to my post, that's fine with me. The question remains – why are you ok with belief in god when you state that it's obviously man made? If you really focus, you just might be able to respond with something that actually addresses the question.
Jake,
You made the accusations first. Ok, I'll spell it out for you. I never said god was man made, I said the religions are man made. The particular god withing each religion is man made, but there may be a god, I can't know there isn't one, therefore I have no problem if someone believes in a god. Deists believe in god but that all we see is natural. The religions around the world are clearly man made and filled with factual errors. I distinguish god from religion. I personally believe there is no god, but I have no issue with those that do. Now you show me the contradiction.
See, that wasn’t so hard now was it? In my opinion, it is contradictory to say you’re an atheist, but are ok with people who believe in god. Perhaps you’re more of an agnostic if you think there is a realistic chance that there is a god. To me, if you claim to be an atheist, as I do, you believe that there is no reasonable possibility that there is a god. Sure, there may be a one in a trillion chance there is, but you don’t give that chance any real credibility and you seriously question that sanity of anyone who does. That, to me, is fundamentally connected to being an atheist and so I find it contradictory to say you’re an atheist who has no issue with people who believe in something that, as an atheist, by definition, you consider to be completely implausible.
Jake,
Read you last post. You tell me what I might be? You define what it is to be an atheist? You sound like the religious leaders I have an issue with. There is no contradiction in my position. If you find one, I suggest it is due to your own bias. That bias is preventing you from from objectivity.
Nope, I don't define it, the dictionary does. I explained the contradiction pretty clearly. If you don't get it, so be it.
Show me the dictionary that defines an atheist as someone who has an issue with people who believe in god, then I'll concede. Otherwise you are just wrong, no contradiction.
If you're not capable of logically connecting two different points, I don't know what to tell you. Atheists believe there is enough evidence, or lack-there-of, to conclude that there is no god. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that atheists would question others, who have access to the same information, who come to a different conclusion. This isn't rocket-science. It is contradictory to believe in gravity and have no issue with those who think they can fly.
Jake,
You have descended to the absurd. Your analogy is fallacious. Do you think every atheist has an issue with anyone that believes in god? Then you are wrong. Proof, there are atheists that replied to this post that agreed. Therefore your position is false. You sound like some kind of orthodox atheism police. You have no authority, because there is no atheist authority. You are no different than a religious zealot.
There's nothing absurd about the analogy. You haven't explained why you have no issue with people who believe something that, if you really are an atheist, you believe to be clearly untrue. Your position simply makes no sense and you haven't even attempted to explain it. Do you also have no issue with people who believe in unicorns?
Jake, you really do have poor critical thinking skills. Unicorns are in the same set as the gods of man's religions. They were made up by men. As I said, those are ridiculous. That doesn't mean there aren't other hard to imagine creatures somewhere in the universe, maybe more bizarre than a unicorn. Your logical skills leave much to be desired.
bostontola – You can insult me all you want, but if you use that energy to focus on addressing the holes in your position, you'd have a better chance of making a valid point. I don't need to add anything to the discussion as I've already clearly explained why your position makes no sense and you've made no progress disputing that fact.
Your assertion doesn't make it a fact. You clearly don't even know what a fact is. Pathetic.
Your complete failure to address your senseless position and insistence on continuing to try to insult me instead is what is truly pathetic.
You're right.
"Like every generation before ours and every generation after, deep down, we long for Jesus."
Is it even possible to be more delusional?
exactly, speak for yourself. i long for jesus to go away and to take christianity with him. i long for my brothers and sisters of the world to put away the ignorance of religion and live in peace together.
To be fair, I think that this article concerns people who actively want to be involved in a church. There's no discussion of proselytizing; she's talking about people who belong to a faith and who still want to be. Given the context, the statement isn't delusional – it's actually a fair assumption to make about the intended audience.
Whoever she's referring to, it's delusional to think people in the past (before religion was made up, for example), "longed for Jesus". It's also delusional to think that people in the distant future will "long for Jesus", as if people are going to go on believing these stories forever.
Well, if they belong to the particular population she's addressing (i.e. people who want to belong to a church), then they will share in this belief. Likewise, there have been generations previous to this one in which people have expressed just the longing she mentions here. Just because everyone does not share in this belief doesn't mean it's not a valid one. I'm not an evangelical, but no matter how small the population of people who feel this way is, I feel that it should be respected.
I don't think it is to be respected as long as they're brain-washing children to believe things that are blatantly untrue or at a minimum, are not supported by any evidence whatsoever. It's a form of child abuse in my opinion and they don't get off the hook for abusing children just because their religion tells them it's ok.
I think stepping out of religion is the right answer. Stepping out, we find that we have made god in our image, that the teachings of Jesus are there because they are in us first. We can have the spirituality without the religion. Other religions offer other truths, the Hindus believe that everyone finds their own path to the truth, regardless of the particular god they follow. Such a belief would help us overcome the judgmental nature that comes with having to worship only Jesus. We benefit by stepping out of religion to enjoy the spirituality that we all share of community and helping each other. To that end, arguments about religion and god tear us apart.
"To that end, arguments about religion and god tear us apart."
being a bit of a hypocrite, aren't you? and you're being a bit melodramatic. talking about religion doesn't tear us apart - religion does.
nothing expressed that has not been around for centuries. science and math are evil in the minds of the powers that be, and churches are full of government employees seeking salvation from their daily human rights abuses, you can be a parishioner but you really aren't if you dont fit the category of government employee or super gossiper . so long .
That's an interesting point of view.
Keep Your Eyes On The Prize
Whenever you take your eyes off the target, you lose direction.
As Christians, our focus shall always be Jesus Christ Himself and Faith in Him for He is our Lord and Savior who did everything on our behalf. We should not concern ourselves with something else. When the Church is about Rules & Regulations anymore, people turn away.
Here is an example story from the Bible:
Luke 10:38-42
Martha and Mary
"38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”"
Scripture Is From:
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
http://www.biblegateway.com/
jesus promoted slavery. he tells christians to beat disobedient slaves "with many stripes." the entire bible promotes slavery throughout. there are rules for beating your slaves, how much to pay for them, which countries you can take slaves from, even how to sell your own daughter into slavery.
the bible is a fairy tale, and a bad one at that. they plagiarized most of the stories from previous religions/mythologies. the jesus myth included.
no such thing as demons. let's try having a grown-up discussion.
that was @ Austin
We are all slaves to God, or slaves to sin. Your choice.
Another crock from Ken....Everything doesn't revolve around a fairy tale....except Santa Clause of course....
Cool! Now tell us about the one with the perfect man and woman and the magic talking snake! Or, how about the one about the big boat with 2 of EVERY ANIMAL ON EARTH on it!