Why Are Youth Leaving The Church?

[Tacenda]

I've found through long experience that most, if not all, of the historical criticism of the Church is absolutely not correct.  But since most don't get into the history of the Church, it can be hard to defend.

 

I don't or didn't have that much interest in Church history and so it's taken years for me to develop the proper defenses for these criticisms and I've had a lot of help as well. But with all the bad of the internet has come the good, a link in my siggy to defending against polygamy/polyandry criticisms for example. Or fairwiki.org.  etc.

 

I have begun to discuss these things in my home and I bring them up in Church on Sundays where possible, especially among the youth, so they hear it from a believer and they hear the defense and the facts more properly presented.

 

It's going to take awhile, but eventually we will all be able to counter this stuff without having to chase anti Mormon rabbits down long and winding holes.

Hopefully you are indeed stating facts, so as not to misinform.  Which will probably compound mistrust. 

 

Which of the statements VGJ mentions are incorrect?  Or of the words I bolded?

[Nofear]

Some people discover past stuff on the internet like the similarity between the temple endowment and masonry, some of the racist things Brigham Young said, and the lack of BOM era artifacts. So there's a lot on youtube and online that can drive someone away from the church easily. Church history can be very damning to someone's testimony of the church, because several things in the past were wrong or bad, then some figure how can you trust everything else not to be mistakes too?

 

The Package Deal Fallacy is indeed something that afflicts humanity, including Mormons. However, I quite suspect our history with its human foibles is not all that a significant contributor to youth falling away. Indeed, in most of my ad hoc experience, those who cite supposed historical difficulties usually do so to excuse and justify their rational to leave the Church as opposed to it being causative. Though, they do not always present it that way.

[The Nehor]

Last month, I attended a short  stage production of  “A Christmas Carol” at one of our local theme parks.  After it was over, the production’s “greeter”  actually wished the departing audience “Happy Holidays,” rather than “Merry Christmas!”  Besides pretty much missing the story’s entire point,  it apparently never occurred to her (or at least, not to her supervisors) than it is extremely doubtful that anyone who chose to attend “A Christmas Carol” would be offended by the words “Merry Christmas.”  And if they were, the production, itself, would have already offended them so much that it is hard to see how one more “Merry Christmas” would have made any difference.  .

To be fair "A Christmas Carol" is a pretty secular tale. The idea of greed being toxic is not distinctly Christian. The emphasis is not on a realization about the Savior's role but the barrenness of a man's life. Instead of the dove of the Holy Ghost it is about the cooked turkey. Instead of Angels the story is filled with vague spirits. The damned Marley does not match any hell I know of. Him coming back to warn Scrooge is almost the antithesis of the story the Savior told about Lazarus and the rich man.

The story is sweet and even inspiring at times but it is based around Christian morals and not Christ or Christianity.

[carbon dioxide]

Some people discover past stuff on the internet like the similarity between the temple endowment and masonry, some of the racist things Brigham Young said, and the lack of BOM era artifacts. So there's a lot on youtube and online that can drive someone away from the church easily. Church history can be very damning to someone's testimony of the church, because several things in the past were wrong or bad, then some figure how can you trust everything else not to be mistakes too?

We live in a society where people like easy, quick answers and they accept a false answer that comes fast over a true answer that takes time.  They fail to realize that a person can put forth a lie in 25-50 words and to correct the lie might require 1000 words.  Takes too much time so they just hold onto the lie and move on.

[carbon dioxide]

I read an article on why young people are leaving religion more and more today and one point they raised was really important that gets neglected.  They pointed out that women are more involved in their careers than spending time with their families.   Women have traditionally been more religious than men.  They are often the spiritual anchor of the family.  They tend to keep the men going to church rather than watching football.  They are a bigger influence on the kids on whether the kids go to church.  Now that women are focusing less time at home and more on careers, they care less on the spiritual stuff.  So the kids grow up in a home that is less religious and they carry on with it into their adulthood.  Satan is smart.  Satan knows that the women are the key.  If Satan get the women, he can get the men and the kids.

[Thinking]

They tend to keep the men going to church rather than watching football.

 

More women are watching football despite some of the negative off-the-field issues.

[Stone holm]

I distill it all down to this: A lack of miracles, specifically a lack of miracles in people's lives or obvious ones in those around them.

 

It all comes down to having an intact family with heterosexual parents, family prayer, family dinner, FHE, and a commitment to attend and serve in the Church including Young Men and Young Women activities from an early age. Without those, we don't cultivate the Spirit and hence don't have or we can't see miracles.

 

Hence the assault on the family as we all well know, because that will keep people from exaltation.

 

Someone coming from that basis is far more likely to have the strength and the incentive to overcome boredom or 'intellectual' attacks.

Or perhaps my generation turned to religion thinking somehow it would restore our faith in progress and make the world a better place as we saw our parents society and dreams begin to unravel. But instead we simply created a demand for conformity and tossed aside our real hope for spiritual awareness in exchange for beardless faces and business suits, and the rising generation looked and saw an empty basket, and turned elsewhere for answers.