From a recent Baptist Press article: “The idea that young adults are abandoning their faith in droves may be widely accepted but isn’t fully accurate. So says a Focus on the Family study that casts light on trends among young adults that may contradict doomsday predictions for the Christian faith.
The study, titled “Millennial Faith Participation and Retention,” tracked the religious trends of Millennials (usually those born between 1980 and 2000) and found that only a fraction are leaving their childhood faith—usually because they may not have had much of one to begin with.
The study utilizes data from the Pew research sources and the National Science Foundation’s annual General Social Survey.
About a fifth (18 percent) of young adults raised in homes with any measure of religious influence are now unaffiliated with a specific faith, according to the Focus on the Family analysis. Sixty (60) percent of Millennials, meanwhile, categorize themselves as “keeping faith.”
Of those who are unaffiliated, only 11 percent said they had a strong faith as a child and lived in a home where a vibrant faith was practiced and taught. In other words, the vast majority of young adults leaving Christianity never had a strong faith to start with.
“This is not a crisis of faith, per se, but of parenting,” the Focus on the Family study noted.
“Parents who provide a home where faith is vibrantly practiced—even imperfectly—are remarkably likely to create young adults who remain serious Christians, even as they sometimes go through bumpy spots in the road,” the study said. “[N]ot surprisingly, homes modeling lukewarm faith do not create enduring faith in children.”
The study also found that 20 percent of young adults are switching faiths, with most of the transition being from one Christian denomination to another.” (Click to read the full article.)
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