The Least Religious Generation?

Orthodox Jewish twenty-somethings (YU News)

I am not usually disposed to reading material published by Christians - for Christians. But I was intrigued by a link on Gil Student’s Torah Musings. A link to a book review by Drew Moser in Christianity Today. It is entitled The Twenty something Soul. Which is about a category of Christians they call ‘The Least Religious Generation’.

In the course of that review, Moser notes that the book’s authors distilled their work into several  major claims. The following of which I think applies to Jewish twenty-somethings as well: 

Today’s American twenty-somethings adopt one of four approaches to faith: They prioritize it, they reject it, they sideline it, or they practice an “eclectic spirituality.”

American twenty-something spirituality groups into two camps: traditionally religious and nontraditional.

Those American twenty-somethings who prioritize religious and spiritual life are more likely to engage in a certain set of practices: marriage, parenthood, college graduation, employment, voting, community engagement, and social involvement.

American twenty-somethings view institutions differently than their elders: As the authors explain, “Today’s twenty-somethings experience the world less as sets of institutions prescribing standard life scripts and more as nodes on a network from which they can freely choose cultural symbols, strategies, and interpretations.” 

I don’t think this analysis is all that arguable.  As applied to us, the questions that occurred to me are: Why is this the case in our day? And what does all this mean for our future?

First I don’t think there are any other approaches to faith than prioritizing it, rejecting it, sidelining it, or practicing an “eclectic spirituality.”

I also agree that of those who profess any religious belief at all fall into 2 categories: traditionally religious and nontraditional. The eclectic approach falls into the nontraditional category since by eclectic I assume they mean picking and choosing rituals that have personal meaning and rejecting those which don’t.

The rest of us are traditional. We feel obligated to follow all of God’s laws as transmitted in the bible and interpreted by our sages throughout history (to the preset day). We do not believe in rejecting anything and try to follow those laws, even though many often fall short.

What about the claim that American twenty-somethings who prioritize religious and spiritual life are more likely to engage in a marriage, parenthood, college graduation, employment, voting, community engagement, and social involvement?

I am not familiar with any statistics in this regard. But it makes sense to me that the more religious one is, the more likely they are to be committed to those things. The idea that there is a power greater than ourselves that requires standards of behavior. Those standards are generated by biblical commandments that are certainly conducive to marriage, parenthood,  and community engagement.

I would however dispute that college graduation, employment, voting, community engagement, and social involvement is more conducive to religious people than it is to those that aren’t. Obviously the idea of pursuing social justice is as much a humanistic ideal as it is a religious ideal.

There is one thing that does seem to apply more to twenty-somethings than it does to the rest of us. They do not seem to vest as much importance to traditional religious institutions. They are far more likely to see them as ‘nodes on a network from which they can freely choose cultural symbols, strategies, and interpretations’.

This does not mean that all religious twenty-somethings have devalued religious institutions. Clearly that is not the case in much of the Charedi world. This is best demonstrated by the out-sized reverence they have people they see as the ‘institution’ called the Gedolim. The very same Gedolim that insist on perpetuating the educational paradigm in which the vast majority participate.

But the fact is that the age in which we live no longer allows for the kind of isolation that promotes that kind of loyalty. There is just too much information out there that one way or another influences us all. No matter how much we try and filter it out.

I further believe that most of the religious world doesn’t even try all that much to filter out everything. Which means that are ideas out there that do not align with the dogma they are indoctrinated with - practically from birth.  

There are of course different levels of ‘nonalignment’. Some of which is outright contradictory to our faith. That is indeed a danger that we are all exposed to, the solution of which is beyond the scope of this post. I do however believe that the vast majority of Orthodox Jews will retain their core beliefs despite what is ‘thrown at them’ by technology. But most of us are influenced by differing streams of thought that do not deny our core beliefs and yet challenge some of the non essential dogma ‘thrown at us’ by various religious institutions.

That is the reason that many twenty-somethings in the Orthodox world are no longer convinced by the dogma in which they were indoctrinated. This is certainly true of non Charedim. But I believe its is increasingly become true in the Charedi world as well.

I think this is a fair analysis of the status of our young people (twenty-somethings). Is that a good thing? For the most part, yes I do. I believe that as long as their core beliefs are not shaken (which I believe is mostly the case), discovering other approaches to God broadens our religious base. And allows those of us with questions that go unanswered by the dogma in which we were raised – to be answered by those that do not abide by that dogma. And that makes twenty-somethings a more religious generation. Not the least religious generation.