Kolek planning to go pro
You picked two of the three reasons my millennial daughter left the Roman Catholic church. The third is the cover up of sexual abuse.
Brother Galway:On the first, we do see our culture as the "best." I think everybody does. Many Scoopers propose maximum means to improve. I've been guilty of that a time or two. But most of us still love our country and the inherent values we stand for -- even though we don't often live up to our ideals.On the second, I'm not blaming the Millennials, Gen X or even Gen Z for whatever problems exist in Christian Churches. Quite the contrary, I'm arguing that most Christian Churches haven't tailored their message for their target audience. In my faith's case, we have certain doctrinal issues that are primary and not changeable. It's how we view God and each other. We also have a boatload of rituals that may have made sense 400 years ago but should either be changed or eliminated to address the new reality of God's people. For example, my faith's views of the role of women are largely primitive and frankly, ignorant in places. They reflect a division of labor that hasn't existed in at least since World War II.The role of women, views on homosexuality are the kinds of things that an inclusive Christian religion must re-evaluate as it appeals to the next generations.
This isn't just limited to the Catholic Church. I have a really good friend who is a pastor at a mainline Protestant church - one that is much more tolerant of homosexuality and performs same sex marriages. She says that it is a constant struggle keeping millennials and GenZers involved in the Church - even her own GenZ son. So this isn't just about issues unique to the Catholic Church. I think there is a fundamental change in how organized religion is a part of those generation's lives.
Great discussion guys. I’m non-religious but I’ve long found religions, especially the continuing evolution of mainstream religions, to be fascinating topics.
Fair, maybe I misinterpreted your point regarding millennials and I apologize. I've made it my mission of late to stop taking millennial scapegoating from your generation and am just pointing out most of us have kids and a mortgage now days and aren't exactly the group people generally mean when they still view us as job hopping Facebook addicts.
TAMUI do know, Newsie is right on you knowing ball.
Yeah I'm in the same boat. I think we, as a society, are missing something bringing our neighborhoods/towns together into a gathering place where we're forced to intermingle. Taking the weird religious stuff away, churches were a great way to bring a community together.It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 20-40 years as religion continues to die out in the West. There will be community connectivity that's lost for sure.
It’s possible that God focused religions are being replaced by new religions like conservatism, liberalism, capitalism, communism. Each of these will continue to bring community together while simultaneously tearing the same community apart. Religion will never die, it will only evolve.
These issues aren't even unique to conservative Christian crowds. My wife and I were both raised Catholic. Mrs. TAMU wandered away from the church entirely and I was barely sticking with it because I didn't connect with any of the parishes near me. We talked it out and decided to search outside the Catholic church and ended up connecting and getting really involved with a Congregationalist church. Very progressive, open and affirming (church speak for pro-lgbtq+), does a lot of anti-racism work. Even before the pandemic, the congregation was mostly 50+ years old despite being in a college town and actively trying to appeal to gen z and young millennials. After the pandemic, the few gen zers and young millennials that used to come are gone, mostly because they've continued to utilize remote church. We're still trying to figure out how to try to bring our younger members back.
Ding ding ding. Time to face the fact that we now live in a post-God world. The enlightenment and scientific revolution began its demise; it shook the foundations for organized religions’ ability to control people. And the technological and cultural revolutions killed it for good. People aren’t going back to churches not because of bad politics (that hadn’t helped), but because so much of the modern world has moved past God itself. Recall that the era of a monotheistic, all-knowing, all-controlling “god” only arose in the last few thousand years. That’s nothing in the grand scheme of human history—and we’re simply at the end of the end of that era. But to Jumpstreets point, people will always worship some kind of god or gods. It can be capitalism, it can be our phones, it can be food, it can be exercise, it can be anything. But whether you like it or not, organized religion as we know it is done. Two or three generations hence, churches will be little more than museums (in Europe, they already are). And by the way, this is all ok.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 20-40 years as religion continues to die out in the West. There will be community connectivity that's lost for sure.
Ding ding ding. Time to face the fact that we now live in a post-God world. The enlightenment and scientific revolution began its demise; it shook the foundations for organized religions’ ability to control people. And the technological and cultural revolutions killed it for good. People aren’t going back to churches not because of bad politics (that hadn’t helped), but because so much of the modern world has moved past God itself. Recall that the era of a monotheistic, all-knowing, all-controlling “god” only arose in the last few thousand years. That’s nothing in the grand scheme of human history—and we’re simply at the end of the end of that era.