Generation X: Praying to No One?

[katty]

more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tara-stiles/generation-x-praying-to-n_b_199959.html

EXCERPT:

-Have we really lost our religion? Is it something we desperately need to find, like our keys? Or have we purposefully let go of it when it was time, like tossing an empty Starbucks cup in the trash? Maybe we've simply had our fill in our childhoods, and see no point to return to those buildings for weekly worship while dropping 10% of our income into a wicker basket.

This is news? Sounds more like common sense to me. Each generation is radically different from the previous, or at least would like to think so. Most of us Generation X and Y-ers aren't going to work the same job for 30 years, collect a retirement package at age 65, pass go, move to Florida, and live happily ever after. All that social security we are paying into probably won't pan out for us. We traded in fat-free for organic, baggy button-downs for t-shirts, and religion for self-reflection and private practice.

My generation is waking up to faiths that preach to be kind to everyone and serve the poor, while rebuilding their multi-million dollar churches every year and abusing children. We don't always lose faith in God. We have lost it in the people clenching the velvet ropes. We see the sham, the ridiculousness, the corruptness that spiritual power raises in people. We don't need a building that runs like a corporation to talk to God. Heaven save us if we start meditating and realize that God is within us. All of us. Everything you need to know is right there inside of you. Meditation is free, you don't have to be anywhere in particular to practice, and you might just start to lose lots of things that you don't need anymore. Our generation is waking up to how things actually are.

[Mythsaje]

1. God doesn't matter

Even if there IS a God (and I lean more toward a Taoist/Pantheist viewpoint) it doesn't and shouldn't matter to us. People matter. LIFE matters.

God can take care of itself.

Fuck religion.

[Divine Discontent]

11. I like this part of the whole article

"We don't always lose faith in God. We have lost it in the people clenching the velvet ropes. We see the sham, the ridiculousness, the corruptness that spiritual power raises in people. We don't need a building that runs like a corporation to talk to God. Heaven save us if we start meditating and realize that God is within us. All of us. Everything you need to know is right there inside of you."

God bless us all

[konnichi wa]

13. The 'velvet ropes' line made me think of banks, which treat us like chattel and airports

which treat us like cattle

[Divine Discontent]

30. ooh, good 1! eom

[roguevalley]

28. this phariseeism is what led to John the Baptist and Jesus. I think

its a good thing that the bad guys are being rejected. God will be fine.

[Divine Discontent]

29. nice points! :) eom

[Arugula Latte]

2. This is good news.

Maybe there is hope that eventually a larger chunk of Americans will embrace rationality.

[vixengrl]

40. A non-ironic "amen".

I think it would do good not just for religious matters, but for secular matters, if more people rejected the idea of "received truths" and figured things out for themselves by looking at facts--and thinking about them. (It's a shame, but I think this is a novel approach for some segments of the country.)

[Echo In Light]

3. "I'm glad to see young people leaving the church and finding god." Lenny Bruce

[katty]

4. luv that quote

[shadowknows69]

12. Bingo. Maybe Lenny was God?

[Echo In Light]

16. Ha..dunno about that. But here's a good one - -

[RagAss]

35. Lenny was plugged into truth....if that makes you God...so be it !

[dgibby]

37. No, that's George Carlin.

[Arugula Latte]

5. This part is interesting:

Putnam says that in the past two decades, many young people began to view organized religion as a source of "intolerance and rigidity and doctrinaire political views," and therefore stopped going to church. "This movement away from organized religion may have enormous consequences for American culture and politics for years to come."

Another example of the GOP's embrace of fundy whackjobs helping them win a few battles but lose a long-term culture war?

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. FYI

unlike religion, social security is not faith-based. It will be there unless YOU let it go away.

Don't listen to the pundits - look at the numbers.

[OHDEM]

7. I prefer spirituality to religious dogma.

It seems more honest for one's beliefs to be personal and private. The religious types are always sitting in judgement of everyone else and they're never just happy to live their own beliefs - they need for force it on everybody else.

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. I don't remember them being a particularly religious band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-fmMmh4cAM
King Rocker? Mentions Elvis and John Lennon, but not the King of Kings

[Mist]

9. So many (including myself) have found organized religion to be more about

the organization part than the spiritual part. It seems to me that one can more easily find spirituality away from "mainstream" churches than in them. So much of what churches do are concerned with money and power. Some spiritual example!

[katty]

14. yes-too much churchianity

[Arugula Latte]

17. For a lot of younger people, it seems like getting out in nature serves their spiritual needs.

[Javaman]

22. saving the planet will become the new religion

as it should.

[imdjh]

10. I'd say that this actually started around 1900, but it comes and goes

It comes and goes, but always comes back a little less than it started.

My grandparents, born between 1897 and 1912 (I was the late in life child of a late in life child :) ) were not as religious as their parents. They appear to have believed in God, and in a Christian context (though my grandfathers were Masons) but nothing like their parents. They played cards, they danced, and three of them had the very rare alcoholic beverage. All were officially members of churches, but my grandfathers could only be described as civic members, while my grandmothers were members more out of tradition than anything else. None attended every week, and as they got older and times changed, they rarely attended, especially after their children were grown. My own parents took us to church every week, but when the last of us turned 16 their attendance dropped off too. I know that my dad would rather have been dipped in tar than to get dressed for church on a hot summer day, but he did.

[Lilith Velkor]

18. My great grandparents were SEVERE Bible thumpers.

All of their children, grandchildren, great- and great-great-grandchildren range from agnostic to atheist, except for one or two Pagans.

Go figure.

[ejpoeta]

15. i think it's more like this.... as a gen x'er....

i believe in god, i don't believe in religion.

[proteus_lives]

26. Same as me.

I believe in God but organized religion always rubbed me the wrong way.

(fellow gen-x'er)

[callous taoboy]

19. Religion is tearing the team I work with apart:

I would never have even known how super fundamentalist 4 of the members are but they have bees in their bonnets about their religion and think the rest of us are godless monsters.

[Javaman]

21. embrace your godless monsterness. :) LOL nt

[Javaman]

20. man created god. once that is understood, the rest is easy. nt

[FiveGoodMen]

24. Ah, but making the masses understand that ... THAT is NOT easy.

[noamnety]

23. Thank you for posting this - your timing is perfect.

I've just finished typing a response to my instructor in a graduate level education course - who last night posted an icky little screed about how common sense starting disappearing when we stopping posting the ten commandments in public buildings.

I'm not anti-religious, but I'm anti-that-type-of-religion, and seeing "common sense" used the way it is here is helping me regain some faith (hehe, so to speak).

[katty]

25. sure, i wld prefer it if the golden rule was practiced more....

'do unto others and you would have them do unto you'

[riverdeep]

27. It would be great if more people left the realm of religion.

Religion is one of the most irrational forces on the planet. But, you need to replace it with something. If you don't, a vacuum develops and it's usually filled with mindless hedonism. Some of the functions religion serves are practical. For example, the community gathers and meets every week. That simple act of formality actually serves an important role in cementing the bonds that take place between neighbors. Having everyone do their own thing might not be a replacement.

Anyway, in parts of Europe, religious participation is much less and they seem to be doing ok.

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

31. Thank you for posting this...

I consider science the way out and religion the way to become more of an asshole.

[Deja Q]

32. I wonder what the core imeptus was... our claimed greed? Or the rug being removed?

I loved the final paragraph you excerpted.

I know what I need, however, especially in terms of remaining in the job market if I ever have to find another employer.

[SteelPenguin]

33. Unitarian Universalism

I wish more people would learn about the UU's. I've talked to so many Generation X'ers who WANT to go to church with their new families, but they just hate all the churches, particularly how conservative and political many of the christian churches have gotten.

The article even says it. They're looking for something, but they just don't like what they see and can't find what they want.

Yet when they describe what they're looking for I repeatedly say "check out Unitarian Universalism"

You want to excercise your spirituality, but you're agnostic, or athiest, or a liberal christian? You want to join a church that practices gay marriage, regardless of whether it's legal or not according to the state? You want to join a church that works actively to improve the community both local and globally rather than spend millions on their churches? You want to belong to a community of liberal free-thinkers? UU might be for You.

[katty]

34. UU is a good group-was married at the UU - wonderful ceremony

[marmar]

36. I'm a GenXer and I really do believe in some sort of supernatural force....

.... call it God, or energy, or whatever. ..... I just despise organized religion. It has f**ked up the world long enough.

[walldude]

38. Religion and Spirituality are two different things...

People aren't turning from god. They are turning from the false prophets of the churches that claim to speak gods word while standing at pulpits in multi-million dollar churches, driving expensive car, eating off of gold plated silverware and wearing funny hats. Frankly if these churches really cared about GOD they would be happy about this development, as I am sure god is. If there is a god.

[Mike 03]

39. Great. I'm in Gen X and who is praying for us.

By the way, I'm a Buddhist.