Last week my manager Hilary asked me if Millennials were more or less religious than other generations. I obviously don’t have an answer to this, and with the number of different religions and varying degrees of orthodoxy among these religions it makes it pretty hard for anyone to have an answer.
I know that some religious organizations have tried to target Millennials as future members, but I’m not sure if Millennials are religious or not? But I do know that Millennials are definitely a different TYPE of religious than any other generation.
Just check out this amazing article on what CNN is calling “New Jews,” which they classify as “Generation X and Millennial (Gen Y) Jews — who are making one of the world’s oldest known monotheistic faiths and its culture work for them and others in a time when, more than ever, affiliation is a choice.”
“Unlike their parents and grandparents, who may have gathered to fight anti-Semitism, remember the Holocaust, rally around Israel and liberate Soviet Jews, many Gen X and Y Jews see their worlds as wide open.”
But this doesn’t necessarily mean that Millennials are less religious than previous generations, it just means that Millennials are reacting to and accepting religion in a different way.
Some great ways that Millennials are accepting religion today according to the article are:
1. Through music- Just check out JDub Records, the studio where Jewish rapper Matisyahu recorded his first CD, this studio records Jewish music exclusively. “When I’m on stage screaming, hitting my face with a microphone and pouring beer on my head, at least I’m singing about the Torah,” said Aleph, the founder of PunkTorah.”
2. Through philanthropy- Jewish Millennials are into philanthropy, but not necessarily toward Jewish causes. That’s why Jewish organizations are beginning to reach out to all causes, instead of those exclusively Jewish or Israeli.
3. Through the internet- Take a look at Jewcy, the online community of blogs that allows its users to network and connect with each other. Not exactly how Jews are used to networking with each other, but The Guardian called Jewcy “a cultural icon at the forefront of a new wave of Jewish culture and pride.”
These are just a few of the ways that I have seen Jewish Millennials accept their religion in a different way than other generations. But I would love to hear from some members of other religions/generations!
Do you think Millennials are more or less religious than previous generations?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I think that millennials are very spiritual, not religious. Through research done by The Barna Group for the United Methodist Church, we have learned that prayer and spirituality are very important. What millennials have rejected is the perceptions of organized religion around judgmental attitudes, hypocrisy, and tradition over substance.
Religion in the 21st century has taken on a very much more individual and personal expression rather than a corporate expression.