I was reading an article from FiveThirtyEight, entitled “Millennials Are Leaving Religion and Not Coming Back,” and a section of the post really jumped out at me:
“Millennials may be the symbols of a broader societal shift away from religion, but they didn’t start it on their own. Their parents are at least partly responsible for a widening generational gap in religious identity and beliefs; they were more likely than previous generations to raise their children without any connection to organized religion. According to the AEI survey, 17 percent of millennials said that they were not raised in any particular religion compared with only five percent of Baby Boomers. And fewer than one in three (32 percent) millennials say they attended weekly religious services with their family when they were young, compared with about half (49 percent) of Baby Boomers.
A parent’s religious identity (or lack thereof) can do a lot to shape a child’s religious habits and beliefs later in life. A 2016 Pew Research Center study found that regardless of the religion, those raised in households in which both parents shared the same religion still identified with that faith in adulthood. For instance, 84 percent of people raised by Protestant parents are still Protestant as adults. Similarly, people raised without religion are less apt to look for it as they grow older — that same Pew study found that 63 percent of people who grew up with two religiously unaffiliated parents were still nonreligious as adults.
But one finding in the survey signals that even millennials who grew up religious may be increasingly unlikely to return to religion. In the 1970s, most nonreligious Americans had a religious spouse and often, that partner would draw them back into regular religious practice. But now, a growing number of unaffiliated Americans are settling down with someone who isn’t religious — a process that may have been accelerated by the sheer number of secular romantic partners available, and the rise of online dating. Today, 74 percent of unaffiliated millennials have a nonreligious partner or spouse, while only 26 percent have a partner who is religious.”
In other words… when we raise our children with less emphasis on spiritual things than we had, they will be less likely to remain faithful. When they see us valuing the worldly over the spiritual, they will take that lesson to heart. And if they choose for their spouse someone who does not see religion as important, they will see religion as less important and may leave it completely.
BUT… if we’re raising our kids with the idea that our faith truly means something — that it is important enough to put first even at the expense of the daily activities of the world — our kids can and do stay faithful to the Lord.
But they’re watching. When t-ball practice is more important than worship, they see it. When prom is more important than being holy and chaste, they see it. When parents live vicariously through their children’s social lives with less emphasis on valuing their spiritual growth, they see it.
And when worshiping God is an obligation rather than a joy, they see that, too.
We need to do a lot better.
