Yesterday I was extremely fortunate to hear a presentation by Christian Smith on his latest sociological study on religious life in America. The name of his book is called "Soul Searching" and he and his team did a massive study of the religious attitudes of 13-17 year olds in the U.S.
I was totally geeked out by his work--I'm clueless with numbers and have zero patience for any real research, but if it weren't for that, I think I would totally dig being a sociologist. I took four legal-sized pages worth of notes, and I'll post some highlights here over the next couple of days, along with my own insightful and witty commentary.
First off: most teens are remarkably conventional about their religious practices. The myth of the grumpy teenager backlashing against everything their parents hold true and dear is just that, a myth. In fact, most teens view religion in a generally positive light--in part because it's not worth fighting about because it's just not that important.
So while there's no open rebellion against faith (and the study included all types of faiths, but the majority were Christians) that's in part because it operates like wallpaper in teens' lives--who fights over something that operates so benignly in the background?
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