By Dr. Tracy F. Munsil, Executive Director
Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University
The Millennial generation is leading the wave toward a diminished, redefined role for religious faith in our nation.
New research from George Barna and the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University shows that younger Americans are deeply ambivalent about religious faith and attach little importance to the practices and truths of Christianity compared to generations before them.
Much like the syncretistic worldview adopted by a majority of their generation, the Millennial faith profile reflects a mixed bag of religious beliefs and behaviors—many of which are surprisingly embraced under the banner of Christianity, according to the report.
Gone are the days when Americans proudly proclaimed themselves to be people of faith, whose values and lifestyles were built upon the bedrock of biblical principles, the report said.
Instead, research from the groundbreaking report, Millennials in America: New Insights into the Generation of Growing Influence, shows that Millennials are swelling the nation’s fastest-growing “faith” group—the “Don’ts”—those who don’t know, don’t care or don’t believe that God exists—despite their claims of being Christian.
According to Barna, CRC Director of Research and author of the report, much of this is the result of the loss of the biblical worldview among younger American adults.
As Barna explained, “Given the research showing that 24 out of every 25 Millennials do not possess a biblical worldview, the most logical solution is to help them understand the role of worldview and then to embrace the biblical worldview.”
ACU President Len Munsil stressed how important building a biblical worldview is to address the profound challenges facing the Millennial generation, especially in the key trouble areas identified in the research.
“There’s nothing more important than thinking and living life according to biblical principles,” Munsil said. “This research is full of clear evidence that what is needed among young adults is a return to the biblical worldview. At ACU, this is one of our primary educational commitments—to grow each of our students in their understanding and application of the biblical worldview. Only by living life consistent with the biblical ethic will Millennials find peace, hope, purpose and contentment.”
Not only is this a commitment on the ACU campus, the University and CRC are helping to guide a larger national discussion of the future and faith of the Millennial generation.
Munsil announced that ACU and CRC are partnering with Foundations of Freedom to host a series of four Millennial Action panels, each designed to unpack one of four specific issues identified in the Millennials in America research—mental health, relationships, significance, and faith. The panels will be streamed live and are scheduled on four consecutive Mondays starting Jan. 10.
As Munsil explained, “It’s key to involve faith leaders across the nation in this discussion. It’s going to take a fully engaged effort to address the issues facing this next generation.”
He continued, “We know Dr. Barna’s research is reaching many national leaders—and we want to help bring these leaders together to identify concrete strategies to transform this next generation.”
This latest in-depth report looks specifically at Millennial faith and worldview and is the third in-depth analysis from Dr. Barna based on the research in the larger Millennials in America report.
The report’s generational analysis, based on a national survey of adults born between 1984 and 2002, identifies a number of troubling trends in the faith of young adults. According to the report:
- The population segment is generally ambivalent toward religious faith. Religious beliefs and experiences have much less influence on their life choices than those religious elements had in the lives of prior generations.
- The biblical foundations and definitions of Christianity are widely compromised or outright rejected by the generation, despite their tendency to refer to themselves as “Christians.”
- Despite a dramatic decline in belief in a transcendent, sovereign God, atheism has not been widely embraced by Millennials to fill that vacuum.
- Millennials place far less importance on church-based religious activity in their lives than previous generations.
- Concern about the afterlife has been replaced by an emphasis on living in the moment and making the most of this present life.
- Truth, a pivotal concept for the Christian faith, is viewed as the product of emotion rather than fact and is seen as flexible rather than predictable in the eyes of most young adults.
The research offers detailed data on each of these main points, but in general the research shows a new generational pattern of beliefs and practices emerging that will reshape Christianity in America for generations to come. In short, Millennials know and care less about the things of God than any generation—ever.
The research shows that much of the next generation’s ambivalence flows not from the person of Jesus Christ (they have a surprisingly positive view of Him) or from Christianity in general (65% say they are Christian).
According to the report, “Among Millennials the label “Christian” is not a statement of commitment to the namesake (Jesus Christ) or to embracing biblical beliefs and principles. Rather, that term has taken on the connotation of being a good person, regardless of religious beliefs.”
According to Barna, Millennials’ relative disinterest in religious faith “fits the young adult cultural ethos of ‘canceling’ institutions, ideologies and individuals that don’t fit with their personal expectations and perspectives.”
As the report notes, “Rather than getting bogged down in the details and distinctives related to faith systems that have characterized the thinking of older Americans, Millennials are simply instead opting out of traditional religion altogether.”
Although the research found positive views of Jesus and Christianity, the research shows increasingly negative views and high levels of distrust for organized religion, especially of pastors and church leaders. The report found that three out of four Millennials lack consistent trust in the words and decisions of Christian pastors.
Yet rather than adopting atheism as an alternative to traditional Christian belief (only 25% have a positive view of atheism), Millennials instead are agnostic or indifferent to religion.
As Barna noted in the report, ““Millennials are struggling to make sense of both this world and the next. They live in the crosshairs of cultural influencers whose extreme messages about independence and self-reliance conflict with the biblical themes of Christ-dependence and personal spiritual insufficiency.”
Unfortunately, the new faith practices rapidly being adopted by Millennials have significant consequences for young adults.
Barna explained. “The documented growth of angst and turmoil experienced by Millennials is an unavoidable result of denying God’s existence and sovereignty. Sadly, we have set up our young adults for failure.”
The findings are based on the Millennials in America survey, which was developed and implemented during August 2021, and was administered online to a nationwide representative sample of 600 respondents in the Millennial age bracket (18 to 36 years of age at the time of the survey).
The full third in-depth report, “Millennial Report 03: Indifference to God, Jesus and the Bible Drives Millennials’ Faith,” is available on the Cultural Research Center’s Research page.
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