“Souls in Transition” -- Then and Now

One could be excused for wondering how today’s Emerging Adults compare to those of yesteryears.  Chris Smith has been surveying the current EA cohort since only 2003 but the National Opinion Research Center has been conducting the General Social Survey since 1972.  The GSS doesn’t focus as much detail on the religious lives of it respondents but there’s enough data for Smith to tease out an interesting (and somewhat surprising) conclusion: “On the whole, 18- to 24-year Americans have not since 1972 become dramatically less religious or more secular.”  (Souls in Transition at 99)

Smith utilized only four factors surveyed by the GSS: belief in life after death, attends weekly services, self-identify as religiously liberal, and profession of “no religion.”  The latter two increased a bit but were largely offset by a small increase in belief in life after death.  However, as I noted here, the data becomes more interesting when religious traditions are disaggregated.  IOW, evangelical and black Protestant EAs increased their attendance in weekly religious services while Catholic and liberal Protestant EAs showed a significant decline.  Those who identified themselves as “strong” followers of their religious tradition also increased among black and evangelical Protestants while Catholics revealed a dramatic drop.  I think the single most notable change from 1972 to 2006 was the significant increase among black Protestants who believe the Bible is the inspired or literal word of God (from about 84% to 96%).  Most peculiar, I think, is the substantial increase in belief in life after death among both black Protestant and Catholic EAs.  Not quite sure what to make of that one; what were they thinking back in '72?

Given the kvetching that we regularly hear about how bad things are today, this data recalled to mind a passage from the Hebrew Scriptures: “Don’t long for ‘the good old days.’ This is not wise.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10).