With US youth losing religion, evangelicals struggle to spread ‘good news’

[cbayer]

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/ajam-presents-edgeofeighteen/articles/2014/9/4/religion-evangelicalsgoodnews.html

More young Americans are turning away from organized faith as millennials question the mix with politics

September 4, 2014 5:00AM ET
by Ben Piven


An annual event organized by the Dutch Evangelical broadcasting company EO attracts thousands of young people to pray and watch live performances by Christian-oriented bands.Piroschka Van De Wouw/EPA

“I have been given the task of sharing the gospel,” said Brandon McCauley, an 18-year-old who just finished his senior year at Lebanon High School in Ohio, where he ran a lunchtime Bible study program. “I am offering you the opportunity to experience Jesus Christ,” McCauley exhorted fellow students, as he debated whether to pursue the ministry instead of higher education.

“I like being different,” said McCauley, explaining his motivation to tell classmates that they will end up in hell if they aren’t saved. “If you sin, you deserve death,” McCauley yelled, before getting choked up and concluding, “I’m the reason that He had to die … I am accepting that You died on the cross for me.”

American adults under 30 increasingly identify with no religion whatsoever, but some teenagers on the edge of this demographic are enthusiastically embracing faith. As the fraction of unaffiliated, agnostic, and atheist surpasses one-third of young people, proselytizing denominations are trying to win over the so-called “nones.”

A landmark Pew Research from 2012 shows that attachment by young people to organized religious bodies is on the decline. Many of those who don’t belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque still practice religion informally to a certain extent. However, they have grown wary of the way that traditional institutions mix political power with the pursuit of otherworldly aims.

more at link

[intaglio]

1. Some of the women in the background seem less than impressed

I suspect the foreground three were selected to display their faith

[cbayer]

2. Young girls filled with rapture

and very aware of the camera, imo.

[msongs]

3. brainwashed teens desperately seeking some kind of peer support from drugs...err religion nt

[tecelote]

4. Too much science in school.

Facts and reality pull people away from superstitious beliefs.

[another_liberal]

5. Teaching children Christian superstitions should be considered child abuse.

In my opinion, they should at least be old enough to drive a car before the hucksters can start trying to indoctrinate them with that mind-numbing nonsense.

[vlyons]

6. It's not just Christianity's union with politics

that turns young people off. It's also its contradictions with science. I'm a Buddhist. My "religion" is more a psychology of how the mind works and an ethical framework for living. Buddhists don't proselytize, or at least we are not supposed to. You have to ask for teachings before they are given, because we understand that you have to ready to hear the dharma (Buddhist teaching). You're also supposed to use your mind to examine and carefully analyze any belief systems.

I just finished reading Zealot by Reza Aslan about the historical Jesus and the culture and politics current in the 1st Century CE. Jesus of Nazareth, assuming he was a historic figure and not a composite, is very different from Jesus Christ, who was a creation of St. Paul.

The real teachings of Jesus of Nazareth are to feed the poor, heal the sick, practice peace and tolerance, forgiveness of wrongs, and love thy neighbor. Pretty much the same as the ethical framework of Buddhism.

[Ratty]

7. Stories like this make me hopeful, but then I get depressed again

I watched God Loves Uganda on PBS about the impact of US evangelicals on the rise of Uganda's anti-gay policies and the most striking and depressing aspect of the show was how young all of the missionaries were and how vile their attitudes were - all couched in terms of god's love of course. They looked like college freshman, all of them.

You hear about how right wing fundamentalism will eventually die after the older generation dies out and that makes sense but then you see documentaries like this and realize the old bastards are passing their bigotry and stupidity onto their children and I just get depressed again. Enrollment at fundamentalist christian colleges like Liberty University climbs every year.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/god-loves-uganda/film.html

[temporary311]

8. Funny.

I'd figure a less religious younger generation is the good news.