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Up one levelNot Losing Their Religion
Conventional wisdom has long held that the young adult years are marked by a growing autonomy and movement, not only away from home, but away from organized religion as well. Churches have responded by waiting for their young people — especially those who had attended college — to come back to church, as they often did after marrying and starting families. Recent research, however, challenges the perception that young adulthood is a time of “losing my religion.” ...
What We Don't Know Matters
Stephen Prothero, chair of the religion department at Boston University, has written an essential book in which he argues that religious illiteracy threatens the very notion of an informed electorate. Not only do Americans understand very little about other people’s religions, he claims, but “most Americans lack the most basic understanding of their own religious traditions." ...
I'm a preacher's kid. What's your excuse?
I suppose I should begin by explaining myself. When I wrote the requested biography that sidebars this column, I referred to myself as a “self-proclaimed church brat.” I can imagine some elevated eyebrows wondering what that reference was about...