{"id":2934,"date":"2023-08-29T07:28:44","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T11:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2934"},"modified":"2023-08-29T07:29:38","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T11:29:38","slug":"generation-to-generation-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/29\/generation-to-generation-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Generation to Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here<\/a>

Throughout the month of August, we\u2019re looking at Ecclesiastes, that strange and seemingly \u201cmodern\u201d Old Testament book that depicts what happens when humanity searches for ultimate meaning apart from God. <\/em>

\u201cRemember your Creator in the days of your youth\u2026\u201d (Ecclesiastes 12:1)

By and large, that\u2019s exactly what young people have always done. 

But things definitely appear to be changing.  In 2017, for the first time in American history, fewer than half of high school seniors said religious commitment was important to them.  Fewer than one in four 12th<\/sup> graders said they attended a religious gathering at least once a week.

The contrast to previous generations is stunning.  In the early 1970s, when Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) were young adults \u2013 this would be the heyday of bell bottoms, classic rock, experimental drug-taking, and the sexual revolution \u2013 90% attended a religious service at least once a week.  The members of Generation X (born 1965-1979) generally followed suit. 

But something changed with their kids.  Millennials (born 1980-1994) are, to date, the least religious group of young adults in our nation\u2019s history.  The only generation that might challenge them is so-called Gen Z (born 1995-2012), which is already on track to be even less interested in prayer, Bible study, and church attendance \u2013 the classic Christian markers of remembering one\u2019s Creator. 

Do these trends matter?

They matter if followers of Jesus hope to be followed by a fresh wave of disciples. 

Demographers have long known that adult conversions in America are rare.  Most people who fall in love with God do so before their early 20s.  As a rule, students in middle school, high school, and college are at least somewhat open-minded about life\u2019s most important questions:  Does God exist, and can I know him?  Is God safe, and can I trust him?  Is the universe better explained as a purposeless collocation of atomic particles, leaving humanity with no supernatural resources and no Entity to whom we\u2019re accountable?

Or does anyone even care?  \u201cMeaningless,\u201d says the Teacher, \u201ceverything is meaningless\u201d (Ecclesiastes 1:2). 

Only 2% of America\u2019s Christ-followers come to faith after age 25 \u2013 powerful evidence that worldviews are usually shaped early in life, and are hard to change after women and men enter \u201cthe real world.\u201d

What accounts for the current trend of younger generations taking a pass on religious commitment? 

In her new book Generations<\/em>, sociologist Jean M. Twenge suggests that surrendering oneself to God runs counter to the most cherished value of the Millennial generation \u2013 individualism.  Individualism means finding my own way.  It\u2019s like the universal solvent.  It dissolves everything in the cosmos except me<\/em>. 

Millennials are the most self-confident and optimistic group ever born on American soil.  They\u2019ve been told, time and again, that they are simply awesome.  \u201cI am special, I am special, look at me!\u201d virtually became the national anthem of preschools in the 1990s.  When Time<\/em> magazine ran a cover story on Millennial young adults in 2013, it was titled \u201cThe Me Me Me Generation.\u201d

Let\u2019s keep in mind these are generalities.  There are myriads of men and women born between 1980 and 1994 who aren\u2019t in lockstep with their peers.  Individualism, for that matter, is hardly a Millennial invention.  That core value was clearly championed and pioneered by their parents. 

It\u2019s just that Boomers and Gen Xers never had the chance to explore what we might call Millennial extremes \u2013 such as the fad in the 2000s of hiring fake paparazzi to follow you around all evening, snapping your picture in front of others to generate envy, then sending you home with your pics plastered all over the cover of a phony celebrity magazine.     

Yikes.<\/em>

What makes it hard for younger generations to \u201cremember their Creator\u201d? 

One Millennial told Twenge, \u201cWhatever you feel, it\u2019s personal.  Everybody has their own ideas of God and what God is\u2026 You have your own personal beliefs of what\u2019s acceptable for you and what\u2019s right for you personally.\u201d  Another added, \u201cI was not encouraged to think for myself.  [Religious rules are] literally, \u2018This is black. This is white.  Do this.  Don\u2019t do that.\u2019 And I can\u2019t hang with that.\u201d  God, or at least the church, had better not get in the way of my own opinions. 

For many of today\u2019s teens and young adults, the church\u2019s hesitancy to affirm LGBTQ relationships and its glacial slowness in acknowledging racial injustice are also dealbreakers.  

In the past, young church attenders might ask questions and register their protests, then hang around to hear the answers.  Today\u2019s kids seem to be saying, \u201cThis is for the birds,\u201d and choose not even to enter the discussion.   

Twenge sees no evidence of such attitudes changing in the near future.  What are some of the consequences? 

The decline of church involvement will mean a decline in the experience of community \u2013 of being face to face with other people in a common cause.  That\u2019s bad news especially for Gen Z (those who are currently 11 to 28 years old), who are manifesting never-before-seen levels of depression, loneliness, and self-harm.  Religious groups likewise provide America\u2019s most effective outreach to those who are poor and marginalized.  Their weakening would almost certainly lead to significant social setbacks.

If religious causes are falling out of favor with younger generations, what\u2019s taking their place?

Catch your breath. 

Twenge votes for political groups.  More and more, political parties feel like religious organizations.  They may even make use of the name of Jesus \u2013 although it can hardly be said either major party seems to grasp the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount.  Worse still, politics is becoming winner-take-all combat instead of the free exchange of ideas in the public square.  Twenge\u2019s 515-page book includes very few personal value judgments.  But on this matter, she offers an opinion: \u201cWorld history suggests that transferring religious beliefs into politics will not end well.\u201d

Ecclesiastes can be summarized in six words: Apart from God, Everything is Meaningless<\/em>. 

If people of all ages and stages are called to elevate devotion to God to life\u2019s highest priority, how can that possibly happen in an increasingly secularized culture?

God can make it happen.  God is the Actor whose presence supersedes every sociological trend of every generation.

As Father Richard Rohr points out, human transformation usually springs from either prayer or pain.  Jesus promises, \u201cAsk and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you\u201d (Matthew 7:7).  God is not on vacation.  God reveals himself to those who seek. 

Likewise, \u201cGod is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit\u201d (Psalm 34:18).  Very often it is trauma that finally opens the eyes of our hearts.

Perhaps you feel exasperated by some of the social, political, or religious opinions of America\u2019s younger generations, since they\u2019re not your own.

And perhaps you\u2019re done with parents who buy plane tickets for their whiny kids and end up sitting in your row.

It\u2019s also possible these can become great reminders to pray for those who come behind us \u2013 that they, by God\u2019s grace, can remember their Creator in the days of their youth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here Throughout the month of August, we\u2019re looking at Ecclesiastes, that strange and seemingly \u201cmodern\u201d Old Testament book that depicts what happens when humanity searches for ultimate meaning apart from God.  \u201cRemember your Creator in the days of your youth\u2026\u201d (Ecclesiastes 12:1) By and large, that\u2019s exactly what young people have always done. … Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[627,628],"class_list":["post-2934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eccllesiastes","tag-generations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2934"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2937,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2934\/revisions\/2937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}