spiritual young adults

 

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Despite the staggering statistics on our non-belief, I am continually awed and humbled by millennials’ faith.

religion subtle

———-

I love being a millennial.

We are creative, daring, playful and intelligent.

We are making the most of a deeply troubled world and finding new ways to express ourselves and spread love at every turn.

Antonia Blumberg

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Ok.

 

 

 

 

This post is mostly to share this millennial “letter to faith leaders” which is awesome <see full letter below … after my rant/ramblings> which I came across awhile back.

 

 

 

But, first, some rant and rambling thoughts on religion and millennials.

 

 

 

First.

 

 

The label ‘millennials’ and what it seems to mean to religious leaders.

 

 

I am tired of seeing all these religion presentations addressing “how to engage the millennials.”

 

It’s crazy.

 

 

The issue is not about being relevant to young people … it is about addressing relevant issues.

 

 

Quit worrying about ‘millennials’ and worry about issues.

 

 

religion belief

 

Second.

 

 

Ah.

 

About ‘being relevant to young people.’

 

Yikes.

 

I am tired of seeing all these religion presentations on ‘how to engage young people.’

 

 

Things like ‘go to them.’

 

Coffee shop meetings.

=

Happy hour gatherings.

 

 

Shit.

 

Any social gatherings.

 

 

Look <part 1>.

 

 

I am not opposed to social interaction but it seems to me that engaging with religion has some tie to the, or a, church.

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A place of worship.

 

 

I am not suggesting you cannot have faith without a physical place of worship but I will suggest that HAVING a place of worship is an underpinning to faith.

 

 

 

Look <part 2>.

 

 

I don’t want to get into some debate on churches and idolatry and religious politics … I am simply suggesting having some coffee talk is not engaging someone in religious spirit.

 

It simply ignores the bigger issue.

 

 

 

 

Third.

 

 

Dear Religion, please, stop with the apologies.

 

no excuses-no-apologies-no-regrets

In fact.

 

Just say ‘no’ to apologies.

 

 

I am tired of seeing religious presentations, and discussion, issuing apologies.

 

 

Does religion have its flaws?

 

 

Sure <what doesn’t>.

 

 

At its core … religion is faith.

 

 

Can the faith be used incorrectly or abused?

 

Sure.

 

 

But I have a choice … apologize for my flaws or celebrate my attributes.

 

 

Stop apologizing. Stop defending. Stop compromising.

 

 

Start celebrating. Start promising. Start reminding people of the relationship between faith & hope.

 

 

 

Ok.

 

 

Done with my rant like thoughts.

 

 

Let me share a wonderful letter to faith leaders from a young lady named Antonia Blumberg.

 

 

Fabulous piece of writing and thinking.

 

 

 

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A Millennial’s Open Letter to Faith Leaders:

Antonia Blumberg

thinking ideas

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Over the weekend I attended an interfaith conference on climate change and the role of religious communities in caring for the Earth. Some of my idols were there — leaders, teachers and activists who live the tenets of faith-based action that inspire me to do the work that I do.

I felt honored to walk among them.

But as the weekend progressed and speakers took to the podium one by one, I began to feel a creeping sense of unease.

Where were all the young people?

Where were the millennials?

I waited hour after hour expecting a representative of my generation (defined by Pew as 18-33 year olds) would approach the stage. But the moment never came. I left at the end of it feeling grateful for the genuine interfaith fervor I had witnessed but sad for the missed opportunity to engage millennials on a topic they feel passionate about.

You may have heard: Millennials are leaving religion.

Roughly one-third of us are unaffiliated with any religion — the highest percentage of any generation, at any point, recorded by the Pew Research Center.

We’re leaving for different reasons, probably in large part our fatigue with outdated social mores. But I imagine it also has something to do with our marginalization in many religious organizations.

Rachel Held Evans, a prominent Christian blogger who is 33 and says she identifies as a millennial, has written about this dilemma. In her own faith, evangelical Christianity, Held Evans says young people are leaving the church because they find it to be “too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”

She goes further to say that “style updates” aren’t going to fix the problem. We don’t want church rock bands and fair-trade coffee — because such offerings only makes us feel pandered to and not really valued for our contributions.

What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance,” Held Evans writes.

What is more, we want a voice in our faith communities.

Held Evans offers the simple suggestion that religious leaders actually sit down with millennials and ask them what they are looking for and what they would like to offer.

I could not agree more.

Despite the staggering statistics on our non-belief, I am continually awed and humbled by millennials’ faith. Throughout my work with religious communities in college, my interfaith activism, my own explorations of faith and now my work as a religion writer I have had the pleasure of knowing dozens of spiritual young adults. They come from all religious and spiritual traditions, from all over the world, from diverse races and ethnicities.

pew religion survey all

We are not passive receptacles of ancient wisdom but active practitioners of faith in a world that seems to grow less certain and more hostile by the minute.

We are optimistic, freedom-loving and largely liberal.

We forge new networks of social connection and, although many of us avoid traditional religion, nearly 80 percent of us believe in miracles.

Including millennials in a conversation about faith-based climate activism — and any other spiritual and social topic for that matter — is not only logical but necessary. We make up a quarter of the U.S. population at 77 million strong, and we have come of age in post-9/11 world where religious literacy is more crucial than ever.

Not only that, but we are a generation raised on green education, recycling programs and environmental awareness. We are deeply committed to caring for the Earth — as demonstrated by the more-than-50,000 students who turned out for the People’s Climate March on Sunday.

Despite our best intentions, millennials are routinely written off by older generations as superficial, lazy and entitled. We often get blasted for our lack of civic fervor (especially when people forget that the youth vote was instrumental in electing the current president.) But these stereotypes miss the crucial ways in which we are engaged — including our faith.

I love being a millennial. We are creative, daring, playful and intelligent. We are making the most of a deeply troubled world and finding new ways to express ourselves and spread love at every turn.

If any religious leader or conference organizer would like to invite us to the table to discuss matters of faith, ecology, politics and social justice, we would be happy to join. It would no doubt be a fruitful discussion.

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<originally found in Huffington Post:

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/antonia-blumberg/millennial-letter-faith-leaders_b_5868294.html?utm_hp_ref=religion >

 

 

hopeful street art

Lastly.

 

 

Just a note from me.

 

 

For the vast majority of 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, Islam is a religion of peace.

 

 

 

For the vast majority of 13.9 million Jews around the world, Judaism is seen as a religion of peace.

 

 

 

For the vast majority of 2 billion Christians around the world, Christianity is a religion of peace.

 

religions together

 

Yet people of each of those religions have committed atrocities in the names of their respective religious texts.

 

 

 

What is happening in the mid-East and beyond is more tribalism than religion, as it has pitted those of the same religion against each other.

 

 

 

Violence has been vocally condemned by leaders and followers of all the major religions.

 

 

 

Difference in faith will always create friction … but friction does not always translate into violence.

 

We should never confuse friction & violence.

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