- "In our in-depth interviews with U.S. teenagers, we also found the vast majority of them to be incredibly inarticulate about their faith, their religious beliefs and practices, and it's meaning or place in their lives." (p.131)
- "Many of the youth we interviewed were quite conversant when it came to their views on salient issues in their lives about which they had been educated and had practice discussing, such as the dangers of drug abuse and STD's." (p. 133)
- "American parents use religion instrumentally to achieve prosocial outcomes for their children, to help their kids be more healthy, saffe and successful in life." (p. 148)
- "What very few U.S. teens seem to believe, to put it one way, is that religion is about orienting people to the authoritative will and purposes of God or about serious, life-changing participation in the practices of the community of people who inherit the religiocultural and ethical tradition. As far as we could discern, what most teens appear to believe instead is that religion is about God responding to the authoritative desires and feelings of people." (p. 149)
- "The overwhelming number of U.S. teens engage and value religion, not for the sake of God, or the common good of a just society, or for composing through identity and observance of a distinctive community of people, but for the instrumental good it does them." (p. 150)
If all of this is true, how would one go about bringing change to a population who are in it for themselves instead of others?
I also voted yesterday. And my daughter had a featured solo in her High School's spring choral concert.
I'm a proud dad -- with lots of questions.
