College students need help to keep their faith

[SecularMotion]

Despite the fact that up to 80 percent of high school seniors indicate their plan to remain faithful and to practice some form of worship during college, the Fuller Youth Institute has found that almost a third of college students say their institute of higher learning is not helpful in keeping or growing their faith.

- - - -

Yet “Young Americans are dropping out of religion at an alarming rate of five to six times the historic rate (30 to 40 percent have no religion today, versus 5 to 10 percent a generation ago).” That’s the conclusion of political scientists Robert P. Putnam and David E. Campbell, presenting research from their book “American Grace” at the May 2009 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, according to a 2010 Christianity Today article.

Nonbelief among young Americans is growing. In a 2009 survey, 22 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds claimed “none” when asked about their religious affiliations - up from 11 percent in 1990.

Respect for Christianity, in particular, has been in decline among young people. In a 2007 study of teens and young adults, Christian research firm the Barna Group found that 16- to 29-year-olds were “more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/2/hicks-college-students-need-help-to-keep-their-fai/

[tanyev]

1. That's why you need just enough larnin' to be able to read the Bible and no more.

[haikugal]

2. Yep...

[Warren Stupidity]

8. Even that is a fairly modern idea.

Up until the Reformation, reading the bible is what priests did. The peasants were allowed to listen to selected readings.

[mzteris]

3. educated intelligent people

usually reject superstitions when given the opportunity.

Sometimes it takes long long years before you can break free of the brainwashing induced by being brought up "in the Church" and in a community whose lives revolve around "buhlieving". Finding out that you don't HAVE TO BELIEVE is extremely liberating. Realizing that all those "questions" you have aren't wrong, that you're not evil for thinking "something's wrong with this whole story". You stop blaming yourself for not being worthy or for your lack of faith, you understand that it takes an incredible amount of denial of facts and science to hold those "beliefs" in your head when deep down, you know they're completely fabricated.

Pardon the expression, but thank god. The sooner "religion" - ALL OF THEM! - are eradicated from the human consciousness, the better. Look at all the evil done in the name of religion. Yes "some" people "do good" because of religion, but I'd venture to say, weigh the evil versus the good and you'll see the former far outweighs the latter. And people who "do good" because they WANT to, rather than being coerced into due to greed or fear - are far more moral than any proponent of any religion anywhere, anytime.

[marsis]

4. Well

thank god, and I thought America was getting dumber.

[LiberalFighter]

5. It's not the responsibility of higher institutions to encourage students to their religion.

It is just a false excuse students make as classes do not interfere with their religion. I'm sure there are plenty of worship places on campus as well as in the local community.

From the article I would say that the reason that more lose their faith is because the students are better educated and get the connection or disconnection of the facts related to religion. Not sure but it may also be happening at universities that are private and church supported. The church may be at fault too in not doing a better job of encouraging faith. Of course, when the studies and discoveries reveal the truth it does make it more difficult for them.

[Igel]

13. This is complicated.

A teacher I observed was even-handed.

He said very disparaging things about Islam in class, but also about Buddhism and Xianity. (No Jews, never came up.)

He also had no use for the idea of protecting Mexican/Guatemalan/various Latino cultures (his view was that their physical culture expressed their "inner" culture). He said the same thing about most others, too: If "black" culture (defined as the cultural viewpoint and norms of the blacks in his school) valued education, fairness, etc., etc., he wouldn't be failing so many students.

I'm sure that this will be decried.

But the universities I went to were (a) proud of cultural diversity, so long as the culture wasn't the dominant one in the US; (b) proud of religious diversity, and had the chancellor at iftar dinners, but frowned upon the smudges from Ash Wednesday. In other words, they encouraged *some* religious views and *some* cultures, protecting them and nurturing them as good. Others they were against (Xians tried to form a club and get student activity money, like the Muslim Students Assoc., the Jewish Students Assoc., the Hindu Students Assoc., the Buddhist Students Assoc. but they were decried as religious--unlike the MSA, which had rented a room for juma'a services and coopted a bathroom for ritual ablutions; the Jewish students, with Hillel; the Hindu students; etc.)

This will probably get defended, even though most would also say that a state-run university shouldn't be playing cultural and religious favorites any more than the high school teacher. There's a set of conflicting values at play and they're ranked differently by context. But nobody wants to say that the values conflict, or that there's hypocrisy in their reranking to favor one group but not another.

I rather like the teacher's attitude, in many respects. He could, however, have been far less blunt and "in your face" about it.

[frebrd]

6. They don't need to "keep their faith"....

they need to reason their way out of it.

I'm glad to hear that more of them are doing so.

[Old and In the Way]

7. Not surprising.

There's a negative correlation between increasing education and decreasing belief. Any polling on how helpful churches are with fostering science education? When RW political opportunists like Haggee, Falwell, Robertson, and people of their ilk have become the dominant face of Christianity in this country, is it any surprise that young people don't want to be associated with this institution?

[darkstar3]

9. The last paragraph you quote here is worded in a very interesting manner.

"Respect for Christianity" is how it starts, and yet the statements afterward have absolutely nothing to do with respect. Once again we find the idea that "respecting" ones faith actually means accepting it.

[struggle4progress]

10. I had thought the Washington Times had gone under, but I see it is still firmly in Moonie hands

It's always been part of Moon's game to build ties with the American rightwing, by pushing some of their views, and the Washington Times has been part of that game for decades

I recommend the following attitude: if it's from the Washington Times, don't waste breath arguinbg with it

[trotsky]

16. It's no fun to read that one's religion is slowly dying, I'm sure.

But to claim that it's part of the vast right-wing conspiracy, well, that's just sad.

[backscatter712]

11. I fail to see the problem with this.

Young people go to college, get an education, get smarter, and figure out that the Bible's nothing more than Bronze Age fairy tales. Explain why this is bad.

[frogmarch]

12. What a dorky article

It implies that the decline of respect for (i.e. adherence to) Christianity is to blame for many social problems.

At the same time, behaviors and attitudes on college campuses cause justifiable concern. Administrators spend disproportionate amounts of time dealing with the emotional and physical toll of binge drinking, date rape and depression - evidence that the “best years” of our children’s lives often are marred by experiences and emotional problems that speak to a larger, more elemental yearning.

Given that it’s August, parents across America are making the trek to the local big-box stores to pick up items that will make a dorm room feel more like home. We’ll load up the minivan or the sport utility vehicle with beanbag chairs and extra-long twin sheets and new computer printers that come with bonus reams of paper.

But shame on us if we’re not packing the tools to stay sane and safe - a well-formed conscience, a grounded faith based on whatever beliefs we espouse and have chosen to instill, and especially a commitment to pray for and with our young adults as they head out into the larger world.

Yes, shame on us if we send the younguns off to school without their Bibles. Without them they're sure to rape or be raped on dates, binge drink and be depressed, unlike their Bible-toting friends. Jeezus. :crazy:

[Ninjaneer]

14. And here I thought we were losing the war on stupid. What a plesant surprise! n/t

[deacon_sephiroth]

15. best news I've heard all day

I'm feeling a little better today now