When looking at the shifting or declining religiosity in the United States, it’s imperative to look at the two youngest generations for the “Why?” and “How?” Millennials are currently the largest living generation in the country, which begs the question of how and why they’re changing habits from their parents and grandparents.
Teddy raShaan (Reeves), curator of religion at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Becka Alper, senior researcher at Pew Research Center, will bring both qualitative and quantitative insights into their conversation at 2 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy for the Week Four Interfaith Lecture Series theme “Who Believes What, and Why That Matters — in association with Pew Research Center.”
“Really thinking long-term, what does it mean that faith is shifting in a country where faith has been at the epicenter?” Reeves asked. “Even in how our country was started … what they were running from, what they were trying to establish, thinking about that faith is changing in this space. Particularly, what does it mean to carry faith generationally moving forward?”
The United States cannot be talked about without talking about faith, he said. Amid the current political environment and religious conflict, faith is still at the epicenter.
“The trends are really showing that younger generations, or younger folks, in this country are less religious than (the) older,” Reeves said.
“That’s one of the major trends that Pew’s data has uncovered, and that religion and our country is shifting.”
Younger people are becoming less religious or less likely to affiliate with religion in a variety of ways, Alper said.
“They’re more likely to say they’re not affiliated with the religion,” Alper said. “This includes people who tell us they’re atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular. … (They’re) less likely to say religion is important in their life, and these have been ticking downward over time.”
Specifically from an African American lens, Reeves said African Americans are “overwhelmingly” more religious. While millennials and Gen-Z are not as tied to organized churches or traditions, they are still connected spiritually.
“When we’re thinking about just the number of churches we have in this country, we’re seeing declines in membership, we’re seeing church closures (and) we’re seeing selling of buildings,” Reeves said. “… From a very practical level, there’s a concern of what happens in this country if our two youngest generations are not engaged in religion — if we’re not engaged in the sustainability of religion as an institution (or) nonprofit.”
There are also moral and ethical implications when considering the decline in religion, Reeves said.
“We had, before, generations that had built morality and their ethics around some religious and spiritual beliefs,” Reeves said. “There was some commonality, even though issues of racism and sexism and homophobia and all of those things existed. Many people came from a start base level of morality, of right or wrong.”
Spirituality is “still very much part of the lexicon,” moreso in African American communities than white communities per se, Reeves said.
“Faith is not dying in our country; it’s evolving,” Reeves said. “Whether you’re Christian, whether you’re Muslim, whether you’re Jewish, wherever you find yourself, if that commonality is God … spirituality is still growing. There is still hope for the church. There’s still hope for the temple. There’s still hope for the mosque.”
Reeves also said he believes in meeting the younger generations where they’re at — that anything can be a spiritual place if people make it one.
“Wherever folks are gathering, wherever the community is happening, wherever individuals are building one another up to be better … that is the work of the spirit,” Reeves said. “I hope people walk away with a greater hope that spirituality is still growing and flourishing, that religion is still growing and flourishing.”
