The podcast On Being recently had an episode featuring Nathan Schneider that I found really interesting. Nathan writes about spirituality and social movements around the web, so right up my alley, and in this episode he talked about the “nones” – religiously unaffiliated people, particularly younger ones – and their relationship with organized religion, particularly during the Occupy movement and social activism that has come out of it. I wanted to share a little bit that I found particularly interesting:
People I’ve found outside of these spaces, of these churches, were intensely interested in these questions, had very good questions that they were trying to think through and work through. They didn’t feel like they could really commit themselves to these institutions, um, but they were curious, and they were looking for something. …
When young people in this secular social political movement started turning their attention to churches, and sometimes actually for instance protesting in front of churches, it wasn’t that they were protesting that this was a church or the things that a church would claim to believe. What they were actually saying was church act like a church.
And these were people who, you know, many of whom had never really had a — been a part of a church community or another kind of religious community or if they had, they’d had some experience of alienation. But the general identity was that of the Nones. Right? … But it was so striking to me that that was the cry, Act like a church.
He goes on to talk about how the weird feelings young “Nones” have with organized religion has to do with distrust of institutions, but still wanting to be able to address spiritual questions and to activate that kind of community and those kinds of ideals for social good.
That rings true with my experience, just among myself and people I know, and it raises some interesting questions. Can organized religion do something to bring those people into the fold? And should it?
In the podcast, they suggest that millennials – the young “Nones” – will be a force for change in organized religion as they give up their noncommittal, spiritually drifting ways and join a church. There’s some reason to believe that might happen a bit – church attendance does tend to drop off among young people and then go back up once they settle down and have kids – I don’t think, demographically, there’s reason to expect young people today to have a big increase in church membership or denominational affiliation as they grow up.
So churches can do outreach to try to bring it young people. In the context of my denomination, I know we do a lot of that. Or maybe, all these “nones” – people who want to engage with spiritual questions, who have ideals and want communities in which to act them out, could start coming up with new ways to make that happen. UU World has reported on some “spiritually innovative” churches that kind of leave the congregational model aside, and while I think I might be more one for Sunday morning liturgy, I’m really interested to see how these go.
Definitely listen to the whole podcast if you have the chance – in addition to talking about church stuff, he talks about racism in social movements and what the structure of the internet says about social power, so it’s all pretty neat. And I’d love to hear if his thoughts ring true with any of my “none” friends’ experiences!