The next generation of faith and public life

By Alexander Carpenter
Recently the Generation Next project at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released some new findings on emerging trends in religion and politics for 18-25 year-olds.
First, they point out that “forty-four percent of young American adults agree that religion is a very important part of their lives.”
Often this faith is tied to what the next generation grew up with, but increasingly, the study finds that many attitudes toward other religions are changing. What I find significant is that attitudes toward some of the hot button issues of the past couple of decades seem to be shifting away from interest in the agenda of the religious right.
For instance, study director Judy Woodruff points out:
“In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, nearly 60 percent of young adults feel that conservative Christians have gone too far in trying to impose their religious values on the country.
And even young evangelicals sometimes question their elders when it comes to issues like abortion and gay marriage. Support for Democratic candidates by young, white evangelicals jumped 10 percent this past election, a bigger increase than any other age group.”

Check out the PBS resources and streaming video here.
Also, Get Religion takes a critical eye to the paucity of specific examples.