Many Young Adults Are Turning To Witchcraft As A Way To Rebel

[redleghunter]

Full Title: Many Young Adults Are Turning To Witchcraft As A Way To Rebel Against Their Conservative Christian Upbringings

The Washington Standard
March 14th 2017

Young adults in America are far less likely to identify themselves as “Christians” than previous generations of Americans, but that does not mean that they have given up on searching for spiritual meaning in their lives. According to Wikipedia, one very popular form of witchcraft known as Wicca has been growing at a rate of more than 100 percent annually in recent years, and this has been happening at a time when Christianity has been in decline in the United States. Of course other pagan and occult groups have been exploding in popularity as well, and as you will see below, one of the primary reasons for this is because many young adults are seeking ways to rebel against their conservative Christian upbringings.

I have written much about how young adults in this country are far more politically liberal than their parents and grandparents, and this enormous cultural shift in values has a spiritual dimension to it as well.

A recent Barna Group study found that only 4 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 have a Biblical worldview.

Only 4 percent.

The shocking truth is that the values of most Millennials much more easily fit into pagan spirituality than they do into most evangelical Christian churches.
If you want to sleep around with as many people as possible, that is okay in witchcraft. If you want to take drugs and get high every day, that is okay in witchcraft. If you want to be a radical pro-abortion feminist, that is okay in witchcraft. If you want to be a gay transsexual exhibitionist, that is okay in witchcraft.

More at link:

Many Young Adults Are Turning To Witchcraft As A Way To Rebel Against Their Conservative Christian Upbringings - The Washington Standard


Poster comment: Perhaps this is why see such a surge in troubled youth on our prayer walls and Exploring Christianity.

 

[Tull]

In my day it was having long hair and listening to rock music,we are running out of ideas I guess.

 

[SnowyMacie]

As a millennial, I find the article completely ridiculous and unfounded. I know one wiccan, but hundreds of Christians my age. Almost all of whom feel some sort of disconnect with the church. I would be lying if I have said I haven't considered leaving the church, not the faith, but just not attend church anymore. It's true we're leaving the church in drones, and we are leaving the church because the church has failed and is continuing to fail to reach our generation. This article is just further proof that the church, especially evangelicalism, does not get us. We are not leaving church because we would rather go out and sin and embrace the world in all of it's most evil ways, but inauthenticity. My generation and those after me has an incredibly developed sense of when something is authentic versus a marketing tool with no backing, we have a very attuned, you know, meter. We cringe every time we see a ministry called "The Well", "Ignite", or (insert supposedly cool and relevant sounding name here), especially when it's obvious they're just doing it to sound "cool". In my experience and opinion, and every other millennial my age who's written on this reflects this idea: we don't want out of the church what the church thinks we want out of church. If I had to list the top three things my generation and younger wants out of church, it would be this: 1) Authenticity 2) Community 3) A God and Christianity that is not watered down to patriotic moralism and escapism (we want to hear about Jesus and how that matters to us and the world right here and now, not the moral decline of America and the world), not "more hip" and entertaining worship and a mini-coffeehouse (okay maybe this one, but it can't be for the sole purpose of attracting people). We don't want to go to church to be entertained, we want to go to church to meet God and each other. We aren't leaving the church because it's not "cool enough", or because we'd rather go out and sin, we're leaving the church because the church has failed and is continuing to fail to actually reach our generation and the generation before us.

To me, the article is simply trying to point the blame elsewhere and denying what is actually happening. There's nothing wrong with that, it's only human to do so. I don't think the church did anything against us, it's not like it intentionally drove us away, and I don't think you can really point a finger to anything specific other, but it was something that was mostly an internal situation. We're not all leaving the church, but those of us who are staying are or have gone towards the older and more traditional churches of Anglicanism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy because those churches have what we want out of the church.

 

[Archivist]

I know only a few Wiccans. But the ones I know are good and decent people.

 

[pakicetus]

Young adult here. That article has a kernel of truth, but it's basically a huge exaggeration, designed to scare people.

Many young adults are "turning to witchcraft"—if by "witchcraft," you mean Wicca (there is no actual witchcraft, because magic isn't real), and if by "many," you mean less than one percent.

The article links to a survey which claims only four percent of millennials have a "Biblical worldview." However, it also says only ten percent of Americans as a whole have a Biblical worldview. In other words, it sets incredibly high standards. Plus, I don't trust anyone to measure "Biblical worldview." This summary says it asked questions about "lying, cheating, stealing, the nature of God, and the consequences of unresolved sin." What about compassion for the poor, or the prisoner, or the immigrant? What about loving your neighbor? My guess is, millennials would score much higher on those questions.

I take particular issue with the idea that young people want to "sleep around with as many people as possible, get high and take drugs every day," and be "radical pro-abortion feminists." Statistically, millennials are having less sex than their elders did at their age. There's a big drug abuse problem right now—but it's among all demographic groups, including middle-aged upper-class white people. As for being "radical pro-abortion feminists," feminism and pro-choice views aren't the same thing. I'm a pro-life feminist. Young people are roughly as likely as their elders to be pro-life.

 

[Left]

Between witchcraft, minecraft, and world of warcraft, what is this world coming to?

 

[JackRT]

This really nothing new at all.

Socrates (died 399BC) wrote --- Our youth now love luxury, they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders, and love to chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their household. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.

 

[SilverBear]

Full Title: Many Young Adults Are Turning To Witchcraft As A Way To Rebel Against Their Conservative Christian Upbringings



The shocking truth is that the values of most Millennials much more easily fit into pagan spirituality than they do into most evangelical Christian churches.
If you want to sleep around with as many people as possible, that is okay in witchcraft. If you want to take drugs and get high every day, that is okay in witchcraft. If you want to be a radical pro-abortion feminist, that is okay in witchcraft. If you want to be a gay transsexual exhibitionist, that is okay in witchcraft.

I can only imagine the outrage the author of this (Michael Snyder) would feel if a Wiccan were to grossly misrepresent Christianity and Christians in the way he is misrepresenting them.

 

[redleghunter]

As a millennial, I find the article completely ridiculous and unfounded. I know one wiccan, but hundreds of Christians my age. Almost all of whom feel some sort of disconnect with the church. I would be lying if I have said I haven't considered leaving the church, not the faith, but just not attend church anymore. It's true we're leaving the church in drones, and we are leaving the church because the church has failed and is continuing to fail to reach our generation. This article is just further proof that the church, especially evangelicalism, does not get us. We are not leaving church because we would rather go out and sin and embrace the world in all of it's most evil ways, but inauthenticity. My generation and those after me has an incredibly developed sense of when something is authentic versus a marketing tool with no backing, we have a very attuned, you know, meter. We cringe every time we see a ministry called "The Well", "Ignite", or (insert supposedly cool and relevant sounding name here), especially when it's obvious they're just doing it to sound "cool". In my experience and opinion, and every other millennial my age who's written on this reflects this idea: we don't want out of the church what the church thinks we want out of church. If I had to list the top three things my generation and younger wants out of church, it would be this: 1) Authenticity 2) Community 3) A God and Christianity that is not watered down to patriotic moralism and escapism (we want to hear about Jesus and how that matters to us and the world right here and now, not the moral decline of America and the world), not "more hip" and entertaining worship and a mini-coffeehouse (okay maybe this one, but it can't be for the sole purpose of attracting people). We don't want to go to church to be entertained, we want to go to church to meet God and each other. We aren't leaving the church because it's not "cool enough", or because we'd rather go out and sin, we're leaving the church because the church has failed and is continuing to fail to actually reach our generation and the generation before us.

To me, the article is simply trying to point the blame elsewhere and denying what is actually happening. There's nothing wrong with that, it's only human to do so. I don't think the church did anything against us, it's not like it intentionally drove us away, and I don't think you can really point a finger to anything specific other, but it was something that was mostly an internal situation. We're not all leaving the church, but those of us who are staying are or have gone towards the older and more traditional churches of Anglicanism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy because those churches have what we want out of the church.

I'll look up the Barna survey cited.

 

[redleghunter]

As a millennial, I find the article completely ridiculous and unfounded. I know one wiccan, but hundreds of Christians my age. Almost all of whom feel some sort of disconnect with the church. I would be lying if I have said I haven't considered leaving the church, not the faith, but just not attend church anymore. It's true we're leaving the church in drones, and we are leaving the church because the church has failed and is continuing to fail to reach our generation. This article is just further proof that the church, especially evangelicalism, does not get us. We are not leaving church because we would rather go out and sin and embrace the world in all of it's most evil ways, but inauthenticity. My generation and those after me has an incredibly developed sense of when something is authentic versus a marketing tool with no backing, we have a very attuned, you know, meter. We cringe every time we see a ministry called "The Well", "Ignite", or (insert supposedly cool and relevant sounding name here), especially when it's obvious they're just doing it to sound "cool". In my experience and opinion, and every other millennial my age who's written on this reflects this idea: we don't want out of the church what the church thinks we want out of church. If I had to list the top three things my generation and younger wants out of church, it would be this: 1) Authenticity 2) Community 3) A God and Christianity that is not watered down to patriotic moralism and escapism (we want to hear about Jesus and how that matters to us and the world right here and now, not the moral decline of America and the world), not "more hip" and entertaining worship and a mini-coffeehouse (okay maybe this one, but it can't be for the sole purpose of attracting people). We don't want to go to church to be entertained, we want to go to church to meet God and each other. We aren't leaving the church because it's not "cool enough", or because we'd rather go out and sin, we're leaving the church because the church has failed and is continuing to fail to actually reach our generation and the generation before us.

To me, the article is simply trying to point the blame elsewhere and denying what is actually happening. There's nothing wrong with that, it's only human to do so. I don't think the church did anything against us, it's not like it intentionally drove us away, and I don't think you can really point a finger to anything specific other, but it was something that was mostly an internal situation. We're not all leaving the church, but those of us who are staying are or have gone towards the older and more traditional churches of Anglicanism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy because those churches have what we want out of the church.

What sort of outreach works in your observation?

 

[SnowyMacie]

What sort of outreach works in your observation?

Here's one of the best articles I've read...
59 Percent of Millennials Raised in a Church Have Dropped Out—And They're Trying to Tell Us Why

 

[pakicetus]

Here's one of the best articles I've read...
59 Percent of Millennials Raised in a Church Have Dropped Out—And They're Trying to Tell Us Why

I think this article's pretty good too: These Conservative Christians Are Opposed to Trump—And Suffering the Consequences It's not exclusively about young people, but it does detail "a generational divide in the church" and explain how a lot of people are feeling pressure to leave it.

I'm definitely not an expert on this problem, but I have some pieces of advice that might work for religious leaders who want more young adults to be Christians:

1. Make your message more about compassion. Too many religious people make lots of noises about compassion in the abstract, but are callous and judgmental toward actual people.

From what I can tell, this is how many people express Christian love: "Everyone deserves love and compassion. . . except people with tattoos, because they're 'low-class'; gay people, because they're 'perverts'; women (but not men!) who dress immodestly, because they're 'harlots'; Muslims, because the only ones I see on the news are the 0.0001% who are terrorists; drug addicts (except for smokers), because they made a stupid decision; mentally-ill people, because they're 'freaks,' or because mental illness comes from sin; poor people, because they're "white trash" or "ghetto trash" and they think they're entitled to basic necessities; and foreigners and immigrants, because they were born on the wrong arbitrary section of the Earth's crust. Anyone else who expects kindness is a 'special snowflake' who needs to get offended at the things that really matter, namely, the fact that I sometimes have to press 1 for English." Pretty soon, the exceptions outnumber the people you actually care about.

2. Practice what you preach. Be consistent. Most young people can see that too many of their elders apply Christian values selectively. The most visible example is the number of conservative, churchgoing Christians who defend Donald Trump even though he's the living embodiment of everything they're against.

If you don't like sexual perversion, don't give Donald Trump a pass when he brags about groping women and cheating on his wife.

If you think pride is a sin, don't let him spend $20,000 of charity money on a giant painting of himself.

If you're against divorce, remember that he has been divorced twice.

If you believe in the commandments against coveting, remember that he seems to be attracted to his daughter.

If you're against theft, you should care that he's refused to pay thousands of contractors. Thousands.

If gambling is wrong in your mind, you should care that he owns casinos.

If you believe dishonesty is a character flaw, speak out when he promises universal healthcare for years and then supports a healthcare plan that the White House itself says will throw 26 million people off their insurance.

Trump is incredibly unpopular among young people of all religions. I guarantee you, if the conservative church starts standing up for its values and leading the resistance to Donald Trump, more young people will take a look at its philosophy. As it is, a lot of us are wondering, "Why should we join a church of hypocrites?"

 

[Tull]

Pot meet kettle,instead of complaining about how others don't meet your high standards why not stand up and show us how its done,every generation thinks it has all the answers and previous generations are/were fools ,so go out there and fix everything,start your own church's while we older folks watch in awe and amazement as you do everything the church has failed to do for centuries and we will be thankful to witness the generation that finally got it right......LOL

Being full of ones self is part of youth and millenials are no different and if they live long enough one day they will be the old fools who will need the kids to fix everything for them.

 

[pakicetus]

Pot meet kettle,instead of complaining about how others don't meet your high standards

Are you responding to me? 'Cause the standards I described were low.

Anyway, I'm not trying to say my generation is better than yours. Your generation makes more money, and that's got to count for something, morally speaking. Redleghunter just asked how Christian churches could attract more young people, and it's hard to contribute an answer to that question without making some criticisms of your generation and its spirituality. If he asked, "How could evangelical atheists attract older people?" I might be pointing out some flaws in the strategies of young atheists.

 

[Tull]

John 6:44 says nothing about God being obligated to attract us but that by his will and power he draws us to him to be saved.....might as well say God is failing to attract people,not going to church because the people there are not as good,fashionable and up to date doen't realy make sense,many will be shocked when the discover Christianity is God centered not man centered.


The simple gospel is enough for those with ears to hear

 

[Spiritlight]

And the good news is when they get bored with the hocus pocus nonsense that doesn't work they might look for something else like Jesus that does work.

cheers

 

[pakicetus]

John 6:44 says nothing about God being obligated to attract us but that by his will and power he draws us to him to be saved.....

John was an apostle.

There are places in the world where there are almost no Christians. The populations where Christianity is common have all seen mass evangelism or forced conversion—in other words, efforts by human beings to make people Christian. Same with every other religion. I don't know why those are God's chosen methods to reveal himself, but history is very clear that God doesn't make people Christian without a lot of help from man.

might as well say God is failing to attract people,not going to church because the people there are not as good,fashionable and up to date doen't realy make sense,many will be shocked when the discover Christianity is God centered not man centered.

Nah. There are certain factors that affect whether people will believe any idea. If people like you, they're more likely to be persuaded by your beliefs. If they can relate to you and they think you mean what you say, you'll be even more persuasive. Young people will absolutely be more likely to listen to Christian evangelists when they're not convinced they're bigoted hypocrites.

 

[SpeckOdust]

I can only imagine the outrage the author of this (Michael Snyder) would feel if a Wiccan were to grossly misrepresent Christianity and Christians in the way he is misrepresenting them.

A lot of them already do that,by the way...Not all "Wiccans" mock Christianity,but,a good few do! I used to read Books about Witchcraft ,but, Someone stopped me from going further down that path! Yeah,Jesus stopped me...

Some Believers,turn away from the Church for Lack of the Supernatural in their experience as supposed-"Christians", because of the dryness of atmosphere and rigid format of Worship,perceived-coldness of some Christians and perceived-callousness of some Church-Members by fault-finding,whisperings,gossip...even slander!(nevermind all the other Sinful-conducts) .

 

[Tull]

John was an apostle.

Has nothing to do with it,so you dismiss what the bible says on the issue ?

Young people will absolutely be more likely to listen to Christian evangelists when they're not convinced they're bigoted hypocrites.

Young people will be more likely to listen when they see their own flaws and need of a savior instead of considering themselves superior to anyone who does not fit their definitions for all things....millennials practice their own forms of bigotry and hypocrisy but without enough life experience its easy to see why they consider themselves pure in the matter.

 

[JackRT]

by Bruce Bawer in his “Stealing Jesus” --- Labels like biblical Christian and Bible-believing Christian, which many conservative Christians attach to themselves, wrongly suggest that there is something unbiblical about the faith of liberal Christians. We might speak of "exclusionists" and "inclusionists," because conservative Christians, unlike liberal Christians, tend to define the word Christian in such a way as to exclude others -- including, in most cases, a large number of their fellow conservative Christians. But it seems to me that the difference between conservative and liberal Christianity may be most succinctly summed up by the difference between two key scriptural concepts: law and love. Simply stated, conservative Christianity focuses primarily on law, doctrine, and authority; liberal Christianity focuses on love, spiritual experience, and what Baptists call the priesthood of the believer. If conservative Christians emphasize the Great Commission -- the resurrected Christ's injunction, at the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, to "go to all nations and make them my disciples" -- liberal Christians place more emphasis on the Great Commandment, which in Luke's Gospel reads as follows: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

* The Church of Law holds that God loves only the "saved” and that they alone are truly his children; the Church of Love holds that God loves all human beings and that all are his children.

* The Church of Law sees Satan as a real creature, a tempter and deceiver from whom true Christians are defended by their faith but by whom atheists, members of other religions, and "false Christians" are deceived, and whose instruments they can become; for the Church of Love Satan is a metaphor for the potential for evil that exists in each person, Christian or otherwise, and that must be recognized and resisted.

* The Church of Law believes that individuals should be wary of trusting their own minds and emotions, for these can be manipulated by Satan, and that questions and doubts are to be resisted as the work of the Devil; the Church of Love believes that the mind is a gift of God and that God wants us to think for ourselves, to follow our consciences, to ask questions, and to listen for his still, small voice.

* The Church of Law sees "truth" as something established in the Bible and known for sure by true Christians; the Church of Love sees truth as something known wholly only by God toward which the belief statements of religions can only attempt to point the way.

* The Church of Law reads the Bible literally and considers it the ultimate source of truth; the Church of Love insists that the Bible must be read critically, intelligently, and with an understanding of its historical and cultural contexts.

* The Church of Law encourages a suspicion of aesthetic values and a literalistic mentality that tends to thwart spiritual experience; the Church of Love encourages a recognition of mystery and beauty as attributes of the holy.