Latter-day Saint Youth Keep Surprising Us

[sock puppet]

So the data is that among self-identified Latter-Day Saints, the fraction of young people is higher than it is among self-identified members of other religions and denominations...

One thing that's always bothered me about 'self-identified' attributes is the extreme pressure among LDS groups to pretend things are better, at least from their religion's standpoint, than they are. Maybe that's a common religious trait, but I don't think so. Mormons are strongly pushed to overrepresent positivity, compliance with religious requests, even personal attributes that reflect on their religion. It would be interesting to see if anyone has looked into that sort of bias in a survey like this.

And Mormons claims it's not a cult. Sheesh!

[Gadianton]

MG, let's carefully examine this sentence that you wrote:

Interestingly this fits the picture of faith being given a 'new look' by those that had/have previously seen Christianity, and religion in general, as being the opium of the masses and an artifact of a bygone age/era

So what you're saying is that those who thought Christianity is outdated and just a drug now are abuzz about Mormon youth who have made faith relevant in the AI age?

Even if it's true, what you're literally saying is that religion as the opium for the masses has been a dead idea in recent times, but now the Mormon youth have shown us what it means to be high on belief again with fervor we haven't seen since Hitler youth!

[I Have Questions]

In the following news article…

Saturday, Nov. 1st Deseret News Opinion/Perspective

Regards,
MG

It’s an opinion piece, not a news article.

[I Have Questions]

5. More engaged in sharing the gospel
48Comments
Currently, 84,000 full-time missionaries are serving among young members of the Church of Jesus Christ, which is 12,000 more than were serving in 2023 and 7,000 more than the year before.

Regards,
MG

So the claim here is that there are more LDS Youth participating in a formal programme for going out to preach their version of religion, that the youth of religions that don’t have formal programmes for going out to preach their version of religion, and who don’t keep a tally of those youth engaged in preaching their version of religion.

The opinion piece seems to be a thinly veiled humble brag.

[sock puppet]

The opinion piece relies in part on 2005 data

https://foundations.BYU.edu/00000189-04 ... enerations

which shows that an important delta was emerging from 1995 to 2005. While church attendance by LDS high school seniors continued relatively high, there was over that 10 year period a drop in those LDS H.S. seniors that considered religion important. Easier to appease LDS parents by going to church, and there see some friends, and keep your doubts to yourself.

Compared with 54% of non-Latter-day Saints age 18 to 25 in America who say religion is important to some degree (28% who say “very important”), 85% of Latter-day Saint young adults in the same age bracket say their faith is important (53% saying “very important”).

And while 27% of non-Latter-day Saint respondents say religion is “not at all important,” for Latter-day Saints it’s in the single digits (7%).

In another interesting result, about a third (31%) of Latter-day Saints age 18 to 25 say they have been “born again” even though that verbiage is not as central a part of the Latter-day Saint tradition (for non-Latter-day Saints, 27% say it).

Compared to non-LDS? Of course, that number includes those that do not believe. Much more interesting would be the comparisons to other believers. Besides, when you are inside the LDS bubble, you tend to see it as the end-all.

[huckelberry]

So LDS youth go to church more often and consider it more important than the general population of American youth. Somehow I do not find that even faintly surprising.

[Marcus]

So LDS youth go to church more often and consider it more important than the general population of American youth. Somehow I do not find that even faintly surprising.

Lds youth SAY that. Speaking from experience, there is considerable pressure on lds youth to SAY what they think their lds leaders want them to SAY. In my opinion, it is a level of pressure that far exceeds what non-lds youth experience.

[huckelberry]

So LDS youth go to church more often and consider it more important than the general population of American youth. Somehow I do not find that even faintly surprising.

LDS youth SAY that. Speaking from experience, there is considerable pressure on LDS youth to SAY what they think their LDS leaders want them to SAY. In my opinion, it is a level of pressure that far exceeds what non-lds youth experience.

Marcus, what you note here is clear. There may be a few groups that also have similar expectations that is far removed from any general average. The group , rest of Americans, would include people raised with casual, little or no religious expectations. Some of course would have grown with clear religious expectations. In constructing a comparison it would be difficult to isolate out youth raised with strong religious expectations. Because of its size and diversity even comparing to self identified Catholics would be dubious comparison I think (Though a lot closer)

[malkie]

LDS youth SAY that. Speaking from experience, there is considerable pressure on LDS youth to SAY what they think their LDS leaders want them to SAY. In my opinion, it is a level of pressure that far exceeds what non-lds youth experience.

Marcus, what you note here is clear. There may be a few groups that also have similar expectations that is far removed from any general average. The group , rest of Americans, would include people raised with casual, little or no religious expectations. Some of course would have grown with clear religious expectations. In constructing a comparison it would be difficult to isolate out youth raised with strong religious expectations. Because of its size and diversity even comparing to self identified Catholics would be dubious comparison I think (Though a lot closer)

Might a comparison to Jehovah's Witnesses be closer? I'm thinking mostly of the (as far as I know) non-optional proselyting.

During our times in Mexico, we had JWs come by at least once a week. I briefly talked to them in my broken Spanish a couple of times, while my wife "hid" and told them we weren't interested. Eventually what go them to stop was when I told them: "Somos Mormones!"

[MG 2.0]

Another observation to be made in regards to the youth of the LDS Church choosing Christ in greater numbers is the growth of the number of missions and missionaries serving:

https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2 ... -for-2025/

The MTC in Provo is going through an expansion process to keep up with the numbers of missionaries going into the field.

Regards,
MG