hi

Still here. Lots going on. A interest only equity out refinance of our house in NJ; purchase of a rowhome in Graduate Hospital area of Philadelphia, L is already in South Jersey, traveling back up to North Jersey for weekends. He will stay in the house during the week and reverse commute to South Jersey, and we will stay here until the 17 year old graduates from high school in the summer of 2010. Because of the interest only refinance, needing to provide housing for L during the week, the real estate market and mortgage rates, the after tax cost to us is roughly the same. Also, last weekend I was approved by the Powell House committee to be the incoming clerk for next year, officially starting after NYYM July summer sessions at Silver Bay. Sometimes life comes at you fast.

But I saw an article today that verified what I have come to believe about faith getting confused with politics, and I wanted to post it.

Young Americans Losing Their Religion

....Historically, the percentage of Americans who said they had no religious affiliation (pollsters refer to this group as the "nones") has been very small -- hovering between 5 percent and 10 percent. However, Putnam says the percentage of "nones" has now skyrocketed to between 30 percent and 40 percent among younger Americans.

Putnam calls this a "stunning development." He gave reporters a first glimpse of his data Tuesday at a conference on religion organized by the Pew Forum on Faith in Public Life.

The research will be included in a forthcoming book, called "American Grace."

This trend started in the 1990s and continues through today. It includes people in both Generation X and Y.

While these young "nones" may not belong to a church, they are not necessarily atheists.

"Many of them are people who would otherwise be in church," Putnam said. "They have the same attitidues and values as people who are in church, but they grew up in a period in which being religious meant being politically conservative, especially on social issues."

Putnam says that in the past two decades, many young people began to view organized religion as a source of "intolerance and rigidity and doctrinaire political views," and therefore stopped going to church.

The findings and the article echo pieces of my own journey with church and organized religion. That dissatisfaction is what brought me to Friends.

Comments

[Chris Mohr]

I'm reading Tom Sine's The New Conspirators, about the upcoming generation of faith leaders in the "emerging, missional, mosaic, and new monastic" streams of Christianity. There's something about the Pew findings that resonates with what Sine is writing about.... and which helps explain the continued growth of those streams.

[neritia]

i miss you!