Two Provocative Studies on Christian Belief and Affiliation

This week I read two articles.

• One reminded me that the Christian faith has intellectual content and thus that people leave the faith when it fails to come up with durable and convincing answers.
• The other highlighted that we often choose our religion for non-spiritual reasons, that many retrofit our religion to fit our political and social commitments.

(Incidentally, this week I’m taking a brief repose from the Soul Dialogues, although there are certainly connections.)

J. Warner Wallace, "Young Christians are leaving the church--Here's why"

Let’s look at the first: J. Warner Wallace wrote this, 

“When asked why they didn’t believe, many said their views about God had 'evolved' and some reported having a 'crisis of faith.'" 

He concludes by championing the idea that we need a “forensic faith” in which we offer a response to “intellectual skepticism.” (I’m using his italics.)

Bottom line: He overstates that “nones” leave the faith because of intellectual reasons, but rightly highlights that there is some cognitive content to Christianity. As a general conclusion, I find it hard to disagree with this statement: 

“It’s time for believers to accept their responsibility to explain what Christianity proposes and why these propositions are true, especially when interacting with young people who have legitimate questions.” 

Perry Bacon, Jr. 

"Americans Are Shifting The Rest Of Their Identity To Match Their Politics"

And then Perry Bacon Jr. writes, 

“We generally think of a person’s race or religion as being fixed — and that those parts of identity (being black, say, or evangelical Christian) drive political views. Most African-Americans vote Democratic. Most evangelical Christians vote Republican. But New York University political scientist Patrick Egan has written a new paper showing evidence that identity and politics operate in the opposite direction too — people shift the non-political parts of their identity, including ethnicity and religion, to align better with being a Democrat or a Republican.”

Bottom line: Religious identity is becoming less and less important in our country, which makes sense of the “nones” as a phenomenon—the 35-40% of emerging adults with no religious affiliation. Many, who lean left ethically and politically, are deciding not to affiliate because the church seems increasingly associated with the conservative views generally and with Republican Party specifically. 

How do we bring these together?

It’s not completely clear to me how to bring these together, except to affirm that yes, we do need intellectual foundations for belief, and yes, sometimes religious affiliation is not as important as other affiliations. (And, yes, as we see our country become less and less religious, this latter finding suggests that our country will continue to head in that direction.)

What do you think?

A final thought

With all that in mind, I'll offer this tentative conclusion: My own observation (derived from other studies and from my interviews) is that most emerging adults do not leave or reject Christian faith solely, or primarily, based on intellectual content. (Nor do most atheists.) It seems to be that we as human beings wind together emotional grounds ("heart," as many call it) for ascribing to some form of belief or worldview or personal philosophy with some measure of intellectual or cognitive grounds ("mind"). Importantly, this also includes our tribal affiliations. 

The United States is, in my experience, privileging the mind less and less. But it would be illogical to conclude that there is no place for intellectual engagement with Christianity. That's one reason I was interviewed on an apologetics podcast, Deeper Waters, on Saturday. 

I, for one, would not be a follower of Christ without those who think well and deeply about their faith and take the time to communicate their reasons to believe.