ShareThisWith every good intention, some American parents deliberately deprive their children of exposure to religion for fear of indoctrinating them. They reason that when the kids are old enough, they can choose for themselves whether or not to embrace a religious faith.
The problem with this approach to child-rearing is that, once they achieve adulthood, the children are unequipped to choose or reject a faith they never had.
Of course, children raised in their parents' faith often rebel against it, dropping out during their teens, but only to reconsider and return to religion as adults. In fact, most children raised in non-religious families become believers as adults, but only after an arduous search for faith.
A recent poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life confirms the attraction of religious faith to the unchurched. The overwhelming motive for the young adults' conversion to faith is their realization of spiritual needs that are not being met in their everyday lives.
In The New York Times, Charles M. Blow argues against atheism, that "while science, logic and reason are on the side of the nonreligious, the cold, hard facts are just so cold and hard." Author Dale McGowan believes that most of those who turn (or return) to religion "are not looking for a dogma or a doctrine, but for transcendence from the everyday."
In the Pew poll, the most-often-cited reason for young adults to settle on their current faith is that they simply enjoy church services and style of worship.
Nearly half of American adults have changed their religious affiliation at least once. This does not suggest that Americans suffer from fragile or fickle faith. Rather, the faithful feel freer than ever to move from one denomination to another.
Only 6 percent of Americans raised as Catholics have become Protestants. But one in six Americans raised as Protestants now worships in a different Protestant denomination.
The great majority of those Americans who were raised either Catholic or Protestant, then dropped out, confess that their childhood faith was never strong. Seven in 10 of them admit they just gradually drifted away from their parents' faith.
Those Americans raised in one Protestant denomination but then switched to another typically offer one of two explanations: They either moved to a new community or married a Protestant raised in a different denomination. Often, such a couple compromises by joining a denomination in which neither of them was raised.
Another recent Pew poll reveals that our current economic recession has not affected Americans' churchgoing habits. Weekly church attendance remains high, suggesting that the faithful do not blame hard times on God, but continue to rely on him.
(David Yount's latest book is "Celebrating the Single Life: Keys to Successful Living on Your Own" (Praeger). He answers readers at P.O. Box 2758, Woodbridge, VA 22195 and dyount31(at)verizon.net.)
AMAZING GRACE
