Americans aged between 20 and 40 are abandoning their Christian faith at a faster rate than has happened in previous generations, according to Drew Dyck in an article posted last week on the Christianity Today website. Some argue that there is no major cause for alarm, as in past generations people have left organised religion when the separated from their families, but returned when they started families of their own.
However, Dyck argues that the problem is much deeper this time round. Young adults are dropping religion at five to six times the rate which applied previously. Young adulthood now lasts for a much longer period, as people are delaying marriage, career and children until much later in life, making it much less likely that they will ever be impelled by sociological forces into a religious recommitment. And the broader culture has changed so much that the cultural forces which in the past pulled people back to the faith have now weakened or dissipated.
One of the reasons young adults are falling away from the faith, according to Dyck, is that American teenagers, instead of practising authentic faith, typically practise “Moral Therapeutic Deism” in which God is a distant creator who blesses people who are “good, nice and fair”. Prayer and thoughtful engagement will be necessary to stem the current exodus.