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Recently, pollsters have confirmed what many of us already know: a large number of Christian students leave the church once they graduate from high school. Barna has the number at 61%. Lifeway has it at 70%. Even if we take Barna's lower number and then subtract another 10% just to be conservative, we're still left with a situation where we are losing half our kids. But let's NOT be conservative because it looks like the situation could be worse. According to political scientists Robert Putman (Harvard) and David Campbell (Notre Dame) in their book, American Grace, young Americans are dropping out of religion at a rate 5-6 times the historic rate (30-40% have no religion today versus 5-10% a generation ago). The Church definitely has a challenge on its hands. So what are the causes? Well, there are a number of reasons young people leave. Moral reasons. Sociological reasons. But it seems clear they also leave for intellectual reasons (Drew Dyck has some important thoughts on the interplay between the reasons young people give for leaving). In his book Soul Searching, sociologist Christian Smith found that students reported leaving the religion of their upbringing primarily due to "intellectual skepticism and doubt." Certainly Christian students who cannot give a reason for their hope in Christ to everyone who asks (I Peter 3:15) will be ill-equipped to deal with the intellectual minefield that is the modern secular college campus.
Here's part of my solution: start exposing our Christian students BEFORE they leave for college. Let's bring up their doubts BEFORE they do and then create a safe place to talk about those doubts. Recently, I did just that at a local Christian high school in Southern California by pretending to be an atheist college professor. You can see how the Christians students did, as I recorded the dialogue:
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Comments
Your inoculation strategy suggests that the Christian faith is only viable in highly controlled environments, where it is given special advantages over competing ideas. When exposed to the real world, it rarely flourishes and often doesn't even survive. All this artificial life support may indicate a defect in the particular version of the faith that conservative evangelicals like yourself are trying to promote. It might be good for you to reconsider the merits of what you are wanting others to believe. Why is it that your beliefs seem to do best in the absence of education?
I think intellectual skepticism is one big portion of the problem, and I'm glad you see that and exercise kids to be able to grow a faith that is consistent with intellectual honesty, rather than one that is at odds with it. As you are aware, Brett, it's not that conservative evangelical beliefs in general are incompatible with intellectual thought and scrutiny, even though certain of those beliefs (e.g., 6-day fiat creation) definitely are. The problem is that we don't value a healthy skepticism anymore, one that works out one's faith with fear and trembling. The result is a hollow, weak faith that crumbles at the slightest breeze, and secular colleges can blow a gale.
Another problem I've seen is that of integrity. It's related to the question of intellectual honesty in that kids simply don't believe "science is just wrong". Nor do they believe their leaders when their leaders say one thing and act out another. Kids want transparency and real people leading them, people who relate to them rather than trying to simply impart the One True Way of Thinking About Things.
Finally, one of the most egregious problems I've seen in the church that leads to college-aged kids leaving is segregation in the church. When a child grows up in the church with everything tailored specifically for him or her--from the nursery to "children's church" to junior high group to high school group--and the church downplays opportunities to integrate the ENTIRE body, a child reaches the college years without the ability to participate in anything that isn't strictly within their comfort zone. Hymns in church? Liturgical prayer? This boring preacher? They get fed up (because they think church is all about them BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT WE'VE TOLD THEM) and split.
Just my thoughts. :-)
Great thoughts PCG. I think you touch on a very important issue with your third point. Seems like we've taken our cue from the culture with regards to segregation. As a result, many of our youth have no meaningful relationships with adults outside of mom & dad and maybe a relative or two.
Isn't there something a bit backwards about starting with a conclusion (Christianity is true) and then looking for ammunition (reasons) to support that conclusion? While I respect the acknowledgement that beliefs need to be supported by reason, it seems like your approach is hopelessly biased. It reminds me of Augustine's approach of "faith seeking understanding" where we are told that evidence will follow after acceptance of religions presuppositions (I was raised by Mormons, and they use the same approach). It just seems problematic in principle. This is why as a skeptic (agnostic-atheist), I will raise my children to study the facts and make up their own mind - I will never assert conclusions about the existence of god(s) or truth claims of a particular religion. The problem with religious education is that all of the questions their teachers ask have a mountain of implicit assumptions:
"Why did God command Abraham to kill Isaac?"
"Why did God give Joseph Smith a revelation on this date?"
"Why did Allah select Mohammad to be his last great prophet?"
etc...
For these questions to make sense, especially for a younger child, the assumptions have to be accepted first. A lot of good could be accomplished if we added the prefix, "According to X, ..." before we hammer our kids with this stuff. Is that too much to ask from the religious community?
VEry informative post! Thanks!
Intellectual skepticism is one of the major reasons they walk away. Most Christian students are not equipped to resist rabidly anti-Christian college professors who are intent on converting their students to atheism. - payday cash advance
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Just recently a survey came out that number of people who go to church drops, I think the christian community must do something on this. - Scott Sohr