Gen Z is keeping the faith. Just don’t expect to see them at worship.
Young people’s trust in religious institutions is low, but trust in relationships with religious people is still extremely high. Read the article from Religion News Service here.
Generation Z is changing what faith looks like, adjusting traditions and exploring beliefs away from traditional institutions.
At 18, Sam still identifies himself as a Catholic. But if it partly defines him, it doesn’t limit him. “I regularly practice centering prayer and was involved in a centering prayer group, which wasn’t technically Catholic,” he recently told us as we researched Gen Z’s attitudes toward faith.
“But through that, I discovered a lot of other kinds of inner spiritual traditions,” Sam continued. “I like to say, when you’re finding God in silence, it doesn’t really matter what you call God: It’s the same God. The Sufi tradition in Islam, I find, resonates with my experiences. Also, the contemplative tradition and different Indian practices of nonduality and mindfulness, Buddhism, all these things.”
Given the decline in attendance at houses of worship and the so-called rise of nones, it might come as a surprise that the majority of young people say they are spiritual and/or religious. According to those who participated in Springtide Research Institute’s State of Religion and Young People 2020, 78% of people ages 13-25 consider themselves at least slightly spiritual, including 60% of unaffiliated young people (atheists, agnostics and nones). And 71% say they are at least slightly religious, including 38% of the unaffiliated.