..." the Barna Group, a Christian-affiliated polling organization, recently completed a five-year project which has morphed into a book called You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Church.
The study focused on young adults who were regular Christian churchgoers during their early teenage years, but became disconnected from church life after the age of 15. According to Barna, 59% of young Christians disengage either permanently or for an extended period of time from church life around this age. There was, predictably, no single reason for young adults’ disaffection with the churches where they grew up. But the study managed to isolate six main reasons why Millennials (age 18-29) tend to leave Christian churches as they grow up: a sense that young adults were receiving an unsatisfying or “shallow” version of Christianity, feelings that the church was overprotective, the perception of judgmental attitudes around sex and sexuality, churches’ unfriendliness to members grappling with doubt, the sense that Christianity was too exclusive, and finally, the tense relationship between Christianity and science...."
..."But buried within Barna’s category of “sex and sexuality” is something quite specific: churches’ stances on gay and lesbian issues. Research from earlier this summer reveals that nearly 7-in-10 (69%) Millennials agree that religious groups are alienating young people by being too judgmental about these issues. ..."
No comments:
Post a Comment