Deeper Waters: Youth Ministry Seminar

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Deeper Waters Youth Ministry Seminar
Report on National Study on Youth and Religion
by Mr. Kevin Bohli 3/1/05
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Purpose of Study

• This study focused on 13-17 year olds to
• Research the shape and influence of religion and
  spirituality in the lives of U.S. adolescents.
• 2. Identify effective practices in the religious,
  moral, and social formation of young people
• 3. Describe the extent to which young people
  participate in and benefit from the programs and
  opportunities that religious denominations are
  offering to their youth.

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Method of Study
From July 2002-January 2004 -3,370 phone
interviews, (average of) 30 minutes with parent,
52 minutes with teen. -Random-Digit Dial -Then
267 youth selected for in-depth, face to face
interviews up to 3 hours long.
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Each American teenager is, let us remind
ourselves, a specific human person with very real
feelings and desires, problems and
accomplishments, unchangeable histories and
unknown futures. -Dr. Christian Smith
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NSYR Interview Sites (n267)
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Religious Affiliations Percentage in NSYR
Protestant 52 Hindu 0.1
Catholic 23 Christian Science 0.1
Mormon 2.5 Native American 0.1
Jewish 1.5 Unitarian Universalist 0.1
Jehovahs Witness 0.6 Misc. other 0.2
Muslim 0.5 Dont know 1.8
Eastern Orthodox 0.3 Not religious 16
Buddhist 0.3 Two faiths 2.8
Pagan or Wiccan 0.3
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Finding 1
Religion has a significant presence in the lives
of many U.S. teens today.
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14 year old, white Conservative Protestant boy
from North Dakota Church makes me learn more
about God and Jesus, but thats about it. It
doesnt have any effect on my life.
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Finding 2
Contrary to many popular assumptions and
stereotypes, the character of teenage religiosity
in the US is extraordinarily conventional.
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Finding 3
Religious education is failing if by that we
mean helping people understand what they believe.
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Many teenagers know abundant details about the
lives of favorite musicians and television stars
or about what it takes to get into a good
college, but most are not very clear on who Moses
and Jesus were. -Dr. Christian Smith
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17 year old, white Catholic boy from Wisconsin
My religious beliefs, whats good and bad, like
you know, if you kill or rape someone, I think
youre screwed, give up on life cause its
over. Then he added, Ill never stop being
Catholic, even if I stop believing in God, Ill
still be Catholic.
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14 year old, white conservative Protestant girl
from Idaho Interviewer When you think of God,
what image do you have of God? Teen yawning I
What is God like? T Um, good. Powerful. I Okay,
anything else? T Tall I Tall? T Big I Do you
think God is active in peoples lives or not? T
Ah, I dont know. I Youre not sure?
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T Different people have different views of
him. I What about your view? T What do you
mean? I Do you think God is active in your
life? T In my life? Yeah. I Yeah? hmm. Would
you say you feel close to God or not really? T
Yeah, I feel close. yawns I Where do you get
your ideas about God? T The Bible, my mom,
church. Experience. I What kind of
experience? T Hes just done a lot of good in my
life, so. I Like, what are examples of that? T
I dont know.
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I Well, Id love to hear. What good has God
done in your life? T I, well, I have a house,
parents, I have the internet, I have a phone, I
have cable.
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15 year old conservative Protestant Hispanic boy
from Texas Im sure God exists and like,
helps people and answers their prayers, thats
pretty much it. Do you believe in Jesus?
Ah, yesI think (little laugh). I dont know, I
dont know.
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Finding 4
Most U.S. teens have a difficult to impossible
time explaining what they believe, what it means,
and what the implications of their beliefs are
for their lives.
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17 year old mainline Lutheran boy from
Colorado Uh, well, I dont know, um, well, I
dont really know. Being a Lutheran,
confirmation was a big thing but I didnt really
know what it was and I still dont. I really
dont know what being a Lutheran means.
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15 year old mainline Methodist girl from Michigan
who attends two church services every Sunday,
Sunday School, youth group, and Wednesday night
Bible study offered regarding her own personal
religious beliefs Teen Pause I dont really
know how to answer that. Interviewer Are there
any beliefs at all that are important to you?
Really generally. T Pause I dont know. I
Take your time if you want. T I think that you
should just, if youre gonna do something wrong
then you should always ask forgiveness and hes
gonna forgive you no matter what, cause he gave
up his only son to take all the sins for you, so.
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17 year old, white Catholic boy from Indiana
Um, I think if youre a good person and like,
you know you dont break any huge, if, if you
live your life around the basic structure, you
know. I mean nobodys perfect so youre gonna do
bad things. But like, the whole 10 Commandments
and stuff, pretty much a good person, then when
you get judged you get to have another life. If
you ask forgiveness and pray a lot you have a
pretty good chance, just cause, you know, the
whole forgiving God thing.
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Indeed, it was our distinct sense that for many
of the teens we interviewed, our interview was
the first time that any adult had ever asked them
what they believed and how it mattered in their
life. -Dr. Christian Smith
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Finding 5
Regardless of the denomination, most U.S. teens
are Moralistic Therapeutic Deists
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Moralistic Just dont be a jerk, thats all
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Therapeutic Makes you feel good.
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15 year old Hispanic conservative Protestant girl
from Florida God is like someone who is
always there for you, I dont know, its like God
is God. Hes just like somebody thatll always
help you go through whatever youre going
through. When I became a Christian I was just
praying and it always made me feel better.
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14 year old Jewish girl from Washington I
guess for me Judaism is more about how you live
your life. Part of the guidelines are like how
to live and I guess be happy with who you are,
cause if youre out there helping someone,
youre gonna feel good about yourself, you know?
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Deism
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14 year old white Catholic boy from
Pennsylvania Cause God made us and if you
ask him for something, I believe he gives it to
you. Yeah, he hasnt let me down yet. God is a
spirit that grants you anything you want, but not
anything bad.
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16 year old white mainline Protestant boy from
Texas Well, God is almighty, I guess yawns.
But I think hes on vacation right now because of
all the crap thats happening in the world,
cause it wasnt like this back when he was
famous.
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The Creed of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

• A god exists who created and orders the world.
• God wants us to be good and fair.
• Central goal of life is to be happy and feel good
  about oneself.
• God does not need to be particularly involved in
  ones life, except when needed to resolve a
  problem.
• Good people go to heaven when they die.

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Finding 6
Contrary to popular misguided cultural
stereotypes and frequent parental misperceptions,
the single most important social influence on the
religious and spiritual lives of adolescents is
their parents.
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Finding 7
The greater the supply of religiously grounded
relationships, activities, programs,
opportunities and challenges, the more likely
teenagers will be religiously engaged and
invested.
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Congregations that prioritize ministry to youth
and support for parents, invest in trained and
skilled youth ministers and make serious efforts
to engage and teach adolescents seem much more
likely to draw youth into religious lives. -Dr.
Christian Smith
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Finding 8
Religion is just one factor in the larger social
and institutional context that forms the lives of
teens. However, religion is at a
social-structurally weak position compared to
school, sports, internet, television.
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17 year old white Catholic boy from Connecticut
Im sure when I get older Ill have to do more
with religion, but its something that becomes
a lot more important later on, you know, like
when youre about to die.
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Finding 9
Highly religious teens appear to be doing much
better in life than less religious teens.
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At the very least, what appears to be clearly
not true is the idea that the religious teenagers
are essentially no different from non-religious
teenagers. -Dr. Christian Smith
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Catholic teenagers, who represent nearly
one-quarter of all U.S. teens, stand out among
the U.S. Christian teenagers as consistently
scoring lower on most measures of
religiosity. -Dr. Christian Smith
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U.S. CP MP BP RC J LDS NR
Made a personal commitment to live for God. 55 79 60 74 41 21 69 13
Shared own religious faith with someone not of faith 43 56 51 41 37 58 72 --
Youth Group participation rate (involved in YG/YG available) 52 64 64 44 32 41 75 --
Only one religion is true 29 46 26 31 19 9 67 5
Okay to practice religions besides own 51 36 59 40 58 78 36 70
Evangelization people should leave everyone else alone 43 27 39 42 55 75 15 66
Okay to pick and choose beliefs without accepting whole faith 46 36 53 34 54 71 31 62
Believers need to be involved in a religious congregation 32 35 27 45 32 20 60 14
This question was only asked of teens who
attend Mass more than twice a year.
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Large segments of Catholic youth, for example,
are far from convinced about the existence of
angels (42 percent report maybe or not at all),
miracles (45 percent), life after death (55
percent), or the existence of evil spirits (71
percent). On the other hand, 57 percent maybe or
definitely believe in reincarnation, 46 percent
in astrology, 48 percent in communicating with
the dead, and 32 percent in psychics and
fortunetellers. There is an immense amount of
slippage here between the official Catholic
Catechism and the actual professed beliefs of
Catholic teenagers.
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Sexual activity of Catholic youth
41 of all Catholic youth report having
been Physically involved with someone. Of
those, Have participated in oral sex 40 of
junior high 63 of high school Average age of
first experience is 15 Have participated in
Sexual Intercourse 14 of junior high 61 of
high school Average age of first experience is
15 Average number of times is 3.
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Alcohol use of Catholic youth
79 of junior-high have never consumed
alcohol 50 of high school have never consumed
alcohol Males drink more often than
females Youth Group and RE participants drink
less than non-participants. Catholic school
students drink more than non-Catholic school
students.
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Marijuana use of Catholic youth
88 of junior-high have never tried marijuana 71
of high school have never tried
marijuana Catholic School students, Youth Group
and RE participants use marijuana less than
non-participants.
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Catholic parents

• much less likely than all of their Protestant
  counterparts to participate in organized
  activities at Church such as Bible studies,
  potluck meals, music practices, and small groups.
• After regression analysis
• The lower levels of Church attendance by US
  Catholic teens and the lower levels of importance
  of faith can be explained by lower levels of
  their parents.

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Catholic Churches

• Simply put, the U.S. Catholic Church appears in
  its infrastructure to invest fewer resources into
  youth ministry and education than do many other
  Christian traditions and denominations in the
  U.S.
• Catholic parents are much less likely than all
  of their Protestant counterparts to say that
  ministry to teenagers is a very important
  priority in their church congregation.

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U.S. Catholics have gone from being a relatively
small, working class, and highly segregated
population of largely white Europeans who trusted
social institutions, especially their pre-Vatican
II Church, and stressed the importance of obeying
Church teachings, to becoming a larger, more
privileged population that is more highly
integrated into American society and culture,
more skeptical of all institutions, including the
post-Vatican II Church, and more inclined to
stress the importance of thinking for
themselves. - Sociologist James Davidson in
American Catholics and American Catholicism
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NSYR Top 10 Recommendations

• 1. Stop accepting what the world is saying about
  teens.
• 2. To get more youth serious about their faith,
  we must get more parents serious about their
  faith.
• 3. Do not be shy about teaching religion
• 4. Adults should be aware that better adult
  teaching of youth will require stronger adult
  relationships with youth.
• 5. Educators must work on articulation

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NSYR Top 10 Recommendations

• 6. Use teens inclination towards individualism to
  show them how very conventional they are actually
  acting, how unexciting in their faith life.
• 7. Teach youth the difference between
• a. Serious, articulate, confident personal and
  congregational faith
• b. Respectful, civil discourse in the pluralistic
  public square
• c. Obnoxious, offensive faith talk that merely
  turns people off.
• 8. Religious communities should attend to their
  faith particularities.
• 9. Recognize the instrumentalist view of faith as
  a double edged sword. May increase attendance,
  but comes at a cost.
• 10. Turn off the damn TV!

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I see no hope for the future of our people if
they are dependent on the frivolous youth of
today, for certainly all youth are reckless
beyond words. When I was young, we were taught to
be discreet and respectful of elders, but the
present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient
of restraint. -Hesiod, 800 B.C., Greek Poet
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To learn more

• Soul Searching The Religious and Spiritual Lives
  of American Teenagers by Christian Smith and
  Melinda Lundquist Denton (available on
  Amazon.com)
• National Study of Youth and Religion Analysis of
  the Population of Catholic Teenagers and Their
  Parents by Charlotte McCorquodale, Victoria
  Shepp, Leigh Sterten. (available at
  www.NFCYM.org)
• Go to website www.youthandreligion.org