No Template

Professor Timothy Beal analyzes why young Americans are turning away from churches and synagogues. [bold added]

A big part of the answer is that there is less social pressure to identify as religious, especially among young adults. In fact, a young adult today is more likely to feel social pressure to justify being religious than being None. Another factor is the rise of families in which the parents identify with different religions: Children in such families are often raised with exposure to both identities and left to decide for themselves which to adopt. In many cases, they eventually choose neither.

And part of the answer is that many of the personal and social functions traditionally performed by religious institutions are now being served by new communities that we might call “alt-religious.”....

(WSJ graphic)

Based on my own experience with hundreds of young adult Nones in my classes over more than two decades, I’ve found that the specific “religious teachings” and related “positions” they object to most often concern sexuality and science. Many of them question what they perceive as religion’s negative views about women’s reproductive rights and non-heteronormative sexuality, especially same-sex marriage and transgender rights. And they question religious teachings that appear to fly in the face of scientific research, especially with regard to evolutionary theory and climate change.

It's safe to say that all traditional churches--except perhaps the Mormons and Baptists--are experiencing attrition. In our own parish we've been moderately successful in attracting young families who wish to have their children experience positive peer-to-peer interaction outside of school and sports. As other priorities intrude, the children fall away in middle and high school. A few return to visit while on college break, but we rarely see them afterwards.

When our young adults form families--which occurs later and in smaller numbers than previous generations--they do go back to church but in other locales because most of them have moved. Our own church benefits from newly arrived young professionals who themselves went to Sunday School, but on balance we lose more than we gain.

So we teach them, wish them well as they go into the world, and hope something sticks 20 years later in a land far away. It doesn't seem like a good business plan, but then again there's no template for writing one with a 2,000-year horizon.

Maybe they'll be on the vestry in 40 years.

Update - 11/21/19: On the other hand, the real problem could be poor font choices. OK, it's satire.

U.S.—A new Pew Research Center study found that the main reason millennials are abandoning the church in droves is because of terrible font choices.

The study surveyed thousands of millennials who have left the faith all across the country. While a few left because the church wasn't adequately addressing their questions or confronting the culture's challenges to Christianity head-on, over 92% said they left because of the cringe-inducing fonts churches use on their bulletins, signs, PowerPoint presentations, and websites.

"When millennials see Comic Sans used next to Papyrus and a bunch of random gradients and drop shadows, they realize the church has nothing to offer them," said Dr. Gary Wendersmith, head of the survey. "They begin to question everything, and their faith unravels." In fact, Wendersmith says the use of Comic Sans is one of the top reasons people become atheists.

"Millennials are asking, 'How can God be both all-good and all-powerful if He would allow a font like Papyrus to even exist?" he continued. "And the church just continues to design fliers, slides, and signs as though it were still 1990."

"I mean, can we at least get rid of the freakin' Papyrus, for the love of all that is good!?"

Concerned churches all around the country responded to the findings, saying they will address millennials' concerns by adding more drop shadows and rainbow fonts.