The departure from evangelical Christianity, viewed from within the fold

February 13, 2013 5:56 AM

Top 10 reasons our kids leave church. "The statistics are jaw-droppingly horrific: 70% of youth stop attending church when they graduate from High School. Nearly a decade later, about half return to church ... For all the talk of “our greatest resource”, “our treasure”, and the multi-million dollar Dave and Buster’s/Starbucks knockoffs we build and fill with black walls and wailing rock bands… the church has failed them. Miserably."
posted by escabeche (15 comments total)

11. They don't like the hate.
posted by tommasz at 6:04 AM on February 13, 2013 [10 favorites]

When they leave home, they realize that they can be “spiritually fulfilled” and get the same subjective self-improvement principles (and warm-fuzzies) from [...] volunteering at a shelter.

But they're not doing it for his specific god, so this is AWFUL and TERRIBLE.
posted by dmd at 6:05 AM on February 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

Mayhap they grew up, but then, as adults with children of their own returned to church because they were raised that way, and are worried their children will be somehow damaged without growing up in with a religious background?

Here's a hint, the kids will be fine without it, it just takes more effort to raise a kid to be responsible for their actions when you don't have the invisible sky god to fall back on.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:05 AM on February 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

I just cannot believe that he did that whole thing without mentioning the fact, available in pretty much any news story on the subject, that Christian kids have gay friends and are tired of the hate being preached against them. "Hate the sin, love the sinner" just doesn't cut it anymore.
posted by texorama at 6:08 AM on February 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

This Websense category is filtered: Marijuana.

?????????????????
posted by MangyCarface at 6:08 AM on February 13, 2013

I agree with the fact that people leave because it isn't intellectually challenging. If when I was younger and going to church there had been an emphasis on philosophical refutations of atheism, I would have been far more interested in what was going on.
posted by josher71 at 6:08 AM on February 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

11.con't Specifically, they don't like the homophobia.

70% of youth stop attending church when they graduate from High School. Nearly a decade later, about half return to church.

May they return with pitchforks and torches.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:10 AM on February 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

There are and will be churches with a strong young adult presence. As time goes on, those churches will gain more prominence.
posted by CrazyJoel at 6:11 AM on February 13, 2013

You can almost (but not quite) read this like a counter-Reformation. The message here is that "evangelical" churches ought to be more like the Catholic Church: stop trying to "fit in;" preach the gospel; marry the deeds to the creed.

Of course, the Catholic Church isn't exactly thriving among youth, either.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:13 AM on February 13, 2013

Pathetic rearguard actions are not going to stem the precipitous decline in church attendance in the US.
posted by Pararrayos at 6:15 AM on February 13, 2013

70% of youth stop attending church when they graduate from High School.

Obviously this is the handiwork of the liberal/gay/baby-killer agenda and must be fought by electing more god-fearing men to office!
posted by Thorzdad at 6:16 AM on February 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Last night I watched a documentary on HBO called Mea Maxima Culpa, which details certain sex abuse scandals in the Catholic church over the last few generations. It didn't exactly inspire me to think that Catholicism has any hope of a future with young people in the way it has handled that situation.
posted by gagglezoomer at 6:16 AM on February 13, 2013

The statistics are jaw-droppingly horrific: 70% of youth stop attending church when they graduate from High School. Nearly a decade later, about half return to church

That IS horrific. How can we prevent those kids from returning to church??
posted by DU at 6:16 AM on February 13, 2013 [6 favorites]

If what he's saying is true, then Christianity really is in an unenviable position.

1. Church is irrelevant and boring
2. Make church relevant and entertaining!
3. But lots of other things are also relevant and entertaining.
4. Lose members
5. …?

What's next? Go back to being irrelevant and boring? I don't see the upside to that. But maybe this is inescapable if the religion really is irrelevant by its very nature, which I think is the case.
posted by fontor at 6:17 AM on February 13, 2013

There is just no need for god anymore, and young people know it. Education has been key in this. It is funny how they have had enough of the gaybashing. As Ghandi said, I came to England and heard about the love of god and the love of christians but I saw neither practised. If I had I would have changed my religion.
posted by marienbad at 6:18 AM on February 13, 2013