https://www.psypost.org/millennials-are ... -into-why/“Religion isn’t just going away, it’s transforming,” Schnabel told PsyPost. “People aren’t just becoming secular due to reason or rationality — though they can definitely be relevant — they’re becoming fed up with religious organizations based on faith traditions that taught them to love others, care about more than money, and be moral and ethical people of integrity.”
“But then sometimes they don’t see the organizations living up to those values and they leave the organization but not always the faith tradition. Or they leave the faith tradition and they explore other ways of being people of integrity, often, though certainly not always, through spirituality.”
To understand these trends more fully, the researchers analyzed interview data from 54 participants whose religious involvement had significantly declined over the decade. These interviews revealed a recurring theme: many young people left institutional religion not because they stopped caring about spirituality, but because they felt a growing disconnect between their personal values and the teachings or practices of religious organizations. They spoke of churches that felt judgmental, hypocritical, or out of touch—particularly on issues of gender and sexuality. Participants described feeling alienated by institutions that seemed to limit, rather than support, their pursuit of authenticity, justice, and self-understanding.
A very interesting study that challenges the traditional narrative that apologists like DCP like to push. If you’ll recall, DCP has a lot of faith that people who leave the church either do so to sin, or do so because they lack the fortitude to follow the commandments.
But when you actually examine the data, it turns out that people aren’t happy giving their money and time to organized religions that don’t know how to practice being Christlike.
Turns out when religious institutions worship money, butt into the personal lives of non believers, and preach intolerance, the younger members walk out. Who woulda thunk it?
