The Need for Apologetics

Transcription

1 Philosophia Christi Vol. 17, No The Need for Apologetics What the Data Reveal about the Crisis of Faith among Young Christians in America Larry Barnett The Next Generation Project Greenwood, Indiana c.larry.barnett@gmail.com Over the past thirty years, American Christianity has experienced substantial decline, especially but not exclusively among younger Americans. This decline has been thoroughly documented by Gallup polling, large national research studies, and numerous other sources. But what exactly has caused the decline? Why has it become so much more difficult to engage younger Americans with the gospel? And what, if anything, can be done to change the situation? If the generational decline of Christianity is solely due to American moral decline, then a faithful response by Christians may be limited to consistently living out the Christian faith and praying for spiritual renewal. However, if the decline is largely due to weaknesses within American Christianity, then surely God expects us to make changes. In this essay, I offer evidence that conditions within the American church have substantially contributed to America s recent spiritual decline. We therefore have a moral duty to make an informed and faithful response to the problem, so we may more effectively transmit Christian faith to the next generation. There has been a recent tendency for some Christians to minimize the problem, for example, thinking of the decline as limited to Catholics and mainline Protestants or involving only the loss of nominal Christians (that is, those Christian in name only). But the evidence of decline in every sector is overwhelming, even though the decline has been heavier in some sectors of Christianity than others. While it is tempting to downplay the problems in the American church, I believe that to do so is both mistaken and dangerous. Abstract: While doubt is nothing new, it has now become much more harmful to Christian faith, and it is the major cause of the recent decline in American Christianity, according to new findings of the Next Generation Project. Given the serious threat posed to the next generation by unanswered questions and unresolved doubts, Christians must better meet our biblical obligations to doubters and those with questions (Jude 1:22, 1 Peter 3:15). If and only if we faithfully fulfill these duties answering their questions and offering them good reasons to believe we can expect a bright future for the American church.

2 474 Philosophia Christi Since the early 1980s, as the nonreligious share of the US population has soared, there have been fewer Christians in each decade and a steeper level of decline in each generation. (See figure 1.) The greatest decline has occurred among the millennial generation adults born after 1980 making millennials one-third less likely than their grandparents to identify with Christianity. 1 But the decline of Christianity in the United States has been pervasive, impacting Americans of all ages and races and at all income and educational levels. Losses have occurred nationwide among Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Evangelicals, and throughout the denominational spectrum. Figure 1. Evangelical Christianity has been in decline now for a decade or so, 2 while Catholics and mainline Protestants have experienced decline since the 1970s. For Christians of each type, decline continues through the present As of 2014, 56 percent of millennials identified with Christianity compared to 85 percent of the silent generation (born ) (Pew Research Center, America s Changing Religious Landscape, May 12, 2015, accessed October 15, 2015, org/files/2015/05/rls full-report.pdf (hereafter the Religious Landscape Study, 2014, or RLS 2014). 2. The General Social Survey (hereafter GSS) shows 10 percent decline in Evangelical Christianity following a long period of growth ( ). The Gallup organization reports affiliation for Baptists, Pentecostals, Churches of Christ, and nondenominational Christians whose combined affiliation has declined 23 percent since RLS 2014 found 1 percent decline in the share of the US population affiliated with Evangelical congregations between 2007 and (The RSL was not conducted prior to 2007.) 3. During this period, the Catholic share of the US adult population fell 13 percent (from 23.9 percent to 20.8 percent) while mainline Protestants fell 19 percent (from 18.1 percent to

3 Larry Barnett 475 Mainline Protestant losses now exceed 50 percent since the 1970s. 4 Because Evangelical decline has been more recent and less severe than in other branches of Christianity, it is tempting for Evangelicals to think of decline as someone else s problem. But the decline of American Christianity should concern us all. Like other branches of American Christianity, Evangelicals have experienced double digit losses 5 losses that would be even greater if not for an influx of former Catholics and mainline Protestants. Since 1973, for example, the share of the US population raised Catholic and now Evangelical has increased by about 9 million people nearly 3 percent of the American population. 6 This is about as many as the number of Americans raised Evangelical who have left Christianity during this same period. All branches of American Christianity have had the heaviest losses among young adults. Compared to the early 1970s, Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Evangelicals now have two to three times the loss rate among young adults raised in their churches. 7 Christians have also become much less effective at evangelizing young adults raised outside the church. In the early 1970s, young Americans raised in nonreligious households were, nevertheless, more likely than not to embrace Christianity prior to their thirtieth birthday, but their conversion rate has plummeted by more than 70 percent over the past four decades. 8 Declines in both Christian faith persistency and evangelistic effectiveness mean that millennials are one-third less likely than their grandparents to be Evangelical Christians. 9 So should Evangelicals be concerned about the decline of Christianity in the United States? Is it our problem too? We Evangelicals wish to reach as many as possible with the life-changing gospel of Jesus and to nurture a strong, enduring Christian faith in the next generation, so the recent deterioration seen in both faith persistency and evangelistic effectiveness should concern us, especially if, as I argue, deficits within the church have substantially contributed. Research by the Barna Group suggest this is the case, and my own research strongly supports this claim. Fortunately, there is also good 14.7 percent). Evangelical Christianity fell three percent, from 26.3 percent of the population to 25.4 percent (RLS 2014). 4. The General Social Survey estimates the proportion of Americans belonging to mainline Christianity as 33 percent in 1972 vs. 15 percent in See note According to the Next Generation Project s analysis of data from the General Social Survey. 7. GSS, From the early 1970s to today, losses among those raised Christian have increased as follows: Catholics, from 8 percent to 22 percent; mainline Protestants, from 9 percent to 22 percent; Evangelicals, from 8 percent to 19 percent. 8. The conversion rate for adults ages declined from 60 percent in the early 1970s ( ) to 17 percent in this decade ( ; GSS, ). 9. Evangelicals are 30 percent of the silent generation (born ) compared to 22 percent of older millennials (born ) and 19 percent of younger millennials (born ; RLS 2014).

4 476 Philosophia Christi evidence that a well-informed, faithful response to this crisis by American Christians holds great promise for a brighter future. We therefore have an obligation to understand the causes of America s spiritual decline and to respond accordingly. Research to Identify the Causes of Decline So why are more Americans than ever, and especially younger Americans, opting out of Christianity? Surprisingly little research has addressed this question, but this is the focus of the Next Generation Project (NextGen). 10 NextGen is a comprehensive research program to better understand the recent decline of Christianity in the United States, especially but not exclusively among young adults, and to identify the causes of decline and solutions to the problem. This research aims to inform pastors, congregations, and Christian leaders of how they can best respond to the crisis and reverse the current pattern of decline. Our research strongly implicates a neglect of apologetics in the American church as a root cause of the decline in American Christianity. Earlier research by the Barna Group identified doubt as one of the primary reasons millennials raised Christian disconnect from Christianity. Their president, David Kinnaman, wrote: I believe unexpressed doubt is one of the most powerful destroyers of faith. Our research reveals that many young people feel that the church is too small a container in which to carry their doubts. Fully one-third of young Christians (36 percent) agree that I don t feel that I can ask my most pressing life questions in church. 11 Both the Barna findings and my own informal interviews with young-adults-raised- Christian suggested that unresolved doubts and unanswered questions about Christianity are key factors in the movement of so many young adults away from Christianity. 12 Belief is an important aspect of one s relationship with God, but doubt by definition involves difficulty or hesitance in believing and can therefore interfere with this relationship. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we must have faith in order to fully please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. While doubt does not make it impossible to follow Jesus, it certainly can make it more difficult. I also suspected that unanswered questions about Christianity might have the same sort of negative impact as doubts (for example, how to reconcile scientific claims with biblical accounts). Based on the Barna findings, my informal observations, and the relevant New Testa- 10. I am the principal investigator of the Next Generation Project, David Kinnaman and Aly Hawkins, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church... and Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011), Kindle edition, location 3078 of 4347 (emphasis in original). 12. Interviews conducted

5 Larry Barnett 477 ment teaching, I hypothesized (predicted) that the recent generational decline of Christianity in the United States was caused by unanswered questions and unresolved doubts about Christianity. Our research team then put this hypothesis to the test using data from three large national studies. Research Strategy The Next Generation Project explores the causes of Christianity s decline using survey data collected by two major universities and a well-respected research center. All surveys were conducted on stratified random samples of the American population two surveys of adults only and a series of surveys of teens and their parents as youth transitioned into adulthood. This survey data was made available to the Next Generation Project through data sharing agreements with the respective research centers. 13 Data came from the General Social Survey (conducted by the University of Chicago), the Religious Landscape Study (conducted by the Pew Research Center), and the National Study of Youth and Religion (conducted by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill). The respective research teams were responsible for data collection only, and all analyses were performed independently by the Next Generation Project. 14 The varied research methodologies of these surveys allows us to explore the causes of Christianity s decline by three distinct and complementary approaches. Consistent findings across these three data sets would provide strong evidence to support the hypothesis. First, we examined America s decline using data from the General Social Survey ( ). 15 Since the early 1970s, the University of Chicago s National Opinion Research Council has conducted the General Social Survey every one to two years to monitor social changes in the United States. Consisting of nearly 60,000 interviews, the General Social Survey (GSS) includes questions on a wide array of social factors as well as the religious identity, beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors of the American population. 16 Because the GSS includes questions about thousands of gen- 13. Sometimes researchers share their raw data with other scientists and scholars for use in independent research projects. In fact, data-sharing to further scientific progress is one of the primary goals of the National Data Program for the Social Sciences, which conducts the General Social Survey. The Program exists, in part, to distribute up-to-date, important, high-quality data to social scientists, students, policy makers, and others (National Data Program for the Social Sciences, r+social+sciences/). 14. The Pew Research Center bears no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations of the data presented in this essay. 15. GSS , Cross-Sectional Cumulative Data, Release 4, accessed September 22, 2015, The GSS inquires about individuals religious affiliation, religious practices (e.g., prayer, Bible reading, church attendance, tithing, evangelism, etc.), religious attitudes (e.g., importance of faith, to what extent faith should impact other areas of life), religious experience (e.g., con-

6 478 Philosophia Christi eral social variables in addition to specifically religious ones, it provides detailed information on the relationship between people s faith and other aspects of their lives. Furthermore, the repeated administration of the GSS every one to two years since 1972 offers important insight on how America s religious commitments have changed over time. We completed extensive statistical analyses of GSS data to reveal the causes of Christianity s decline across time. Next, we explored generational differences in Christian commitment through data from the Religious Landscape Study (2007, 2014). 17 In each of two surveys, the Pew Research Center conducted over 35,000 interviews exploring Americans religious affiliation, beliefs, values, attitudes, and behavior, along with other social and demographic information. RLS data provides an in-depth look at the recent religious climate of the United States and allows for exploring age-related differences in faith commitments and factors related to these differences. Because the RLS uses a very large sample size, it allows for a fine-grained analysis within specific subpopulations (for example, allowing for exploration of decline and its causes among different sectors of Christianity, geographic regions, and so forth). Finally, we examined how doubts and other potential causes of disconnection from Christianity related to actual changes in the religious lives of teens as they transitioned into adulthood. The National Study of Youth and Religion (2003, 2005, 2008) was conducted by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. 18 The NSYR is a longitudinal (that is, time-series) study of teens and their families exploring their religious affiliation, beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and values during adolescence and into young adulthood. Because it is a longitudinal study in which the same persons are surveyed multiple times over a five-year period it allowed us to see whether the alleged causes of Christianity s recent decline actually corresponded to subsequent change in the religious lives of young Americans. version, whether individuals have been born again, etc.), childhood religious background, and specific religious beliefs. The GSS also has included several hundred more variables that while not specifically religious are related to religion, like empathy, altruism, morality, charitable giving, etc. In my opinion, GSS data is vastly underutilized by church leaders, because it contains a wealth of data that could answer questions important to pastors and denominational leaders. 17. The 2007 data file (dataset_religious_landscape_survey_data.sav, accessed October 22, 2013) is available from the Pew Research Center website, datasets/u-s-religious-landscape-survey/. 18. The data were downloaded from the Association of Religion Data Archives, www. TheARDA.com, and were collected by the principal investigators named below. The National Study of Youth and Religion, whose data were used by permission here, was generously funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., under the direction of Christian Smith of the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame and Lisa Pearce of the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

7 Larry Barnett 479 Doubts and Questions Explain Christianity s Decline Using data from these sources, we tested the hypothesis that the generational decline of Christianity in the United States is due to unanswered questions and unresolved doubts about Christianity. We explored this question first using data from the General Social Survey. Separate analyses were completed for those raised Catholic, mainline Protestant, Evangelical, or nonreligious, but since results were very similar for the three branches of Christianity, we report aggregated Christian data except as noted. 19 Across each decade from the 1980s to today, those without current questions or doubts about Christianity were very likely to embrace Christian faith. 20 And among nondoubters we found no generational differences in Christian commitment. As a specific example, while doubting millennials are less likely than older doubters to embrace Christianity, doubtfree millennials are no less likely than the oldest generation of Americans to identify with Christianity. 21 The situation was drastically different, however, among questioning-ordoubting adults from each type of religious background. Survey respondents were asked to report their doubts and questions about numerous specific beliefs God s existence, God s personal nature, the Bible as God s Word, and many others. 22 When specific doubts or questions were present, people were much less likely to identify as Christians, and this effect was much stronger in each successive decade. Over time, unresolved doubts and questions were increasingly likely to cause loss of faith, and this was true for the entire population not just millennials. Among Americans of all ages, we found doubters today ( ) to be much less likely to identify with Christianity than were doubters in the 1980s or early 1990s. 23 In addition, we found 19. There were too few adults raised in non-christian religions for analysis. We report data on Evangelicals in figure Among nondoubters, there was no decline over time in Christian affiliation. In each decade, over 90 percent of nondoubting adults raised Christian continued to identify with Christianity as adults and around 60 percent of nondoubting adults raised nonreligious converted to Christianity. 21. Persistency within Christianity was around 97 percent for doubt-free adults raised in Christian households, irrespective of generational membership. 22. Data goes back to the 1980s for doubts about the Bible as God s Word (1984), the existence of God (1988), and God s personal nature (1988). Other analyses are from 1991 survey years or later. Analyses were completed for thirteen specific questions and doubts about Christianity. Analyses by decade were performed for all variables included in the 1991 survey, namely, doubts about God s existence, God s personal nature, and the Bible as God s Word, along with whether there is an afterlife, heaven, or hell, whether miracles happen, and whether God is personally concerned about human beings. Only generational analyses were possible with items not incorporated until later years questions and doubts about the unique truthfulness of Christianity, evolution, the age of the universe, objective morality, and sin. 23. Doubt is now about two to three times as likely to lead adults raised Christian to leave Christianity. (The increased risk ranges from 181 percent to 323 percent.)

8 480 Philosophia Christi that doubters showed strong generational differences in the likelihood of rejecting Christianity, especially if they were raised in Christian households. For example, figure 2 shows by generation how specific doubts relate to the risk of leaving Christianity for adults raised Evangelical. This chart shows how likely members of each generation were to reject Christianity if they had doubts about the special creation of humankind, the existence of God, or the Bible as God s Word. The height of each bar shows the share of persons in each group who leave Christianity after being raised Evangelical. To be clear, they re not just changing churches or no longer attending but leaving Christianity entirely. Figure 2. Look first at the white bars and notice how short the white bar is for the greatest generation. Members of this generation with doubts about creation are very unlikely to leave Christianity only 5 percent likely. Their high persistency in Christianity (95 percent) is practically the same as among the doubt-free members of their generation. Notice, however, that for each successive generation, the height of the bar is higher, because doubt is increasingly likely to lead members of younger generations to leave Christianity. For example, the white bar to the right of the chart shows that 31 percent of millennials with doubts about creation leave Christianity. They are thus six times as likely as the members of greatest generation to leave the faith, even though they share the same doubts and the same type of religious background. The light grey bars and the dark grey bars relate to doubts about God s existence (light grey) and about the Bible as God s Word (dark grey). We found these two doubts to be the most hazardous of all doubts to Chris-

9 Larry Barnett 481 tian faith. They are most directly related to walking away from Christianity after a Christian upbringing. Look next at the dark grey bars, representing doubt about the Bible. Within the greatest generation, one out of five doubters left Christianity a rate much higher than the less than 2 percent loss rate among nondoubters from that generation. But look at the dark grey bar for the millennial generation: 66 percent of millennials-raised-evangelical with doubts about Scripture walk away from the faith! Doubts about Scripture were more than three times as hazardous to the faith of millennials as the same doubts were for the earlier generation. While doubt about the Bible s inspiration is quite harmful in all generations, it is much more harmful for younger Americans. Doubt about God s existence was also quite devastating for millennials, who were more than three times as likely to leave Christianity after an Evangelical upbringing as were doubting members of the greatest generation. The results shown for these three specific doubts are typical of what we found with questions and doubts generally: specific doubts of all varieties are more harmful to younger Americans. In addition to its effects on Christian identity, we found doubt is also a strong predictor of poorer spiritual health (for example, centrality of faith, worship attendance, prayer frequency, perceived closeness to God, and so forth). In fact, doubt was the single best predictor of non-christian affiliation and impaired spiritual health, compared to several hundred other factors either known or suspected to be related to Christian commitment and spiritual health, including lifestyle choices, politics, demographics, Christian upbringing, social influences, personality traits, and various other specific attitudes and behaviors. 24 In GSS data, the stronger effects of doubt in recent years and for younger Americans fully accounted for the observed decline of American Christianity. To further explore generational differences in Christian identity and spiritual health, we turned to data from the Religious Landscape Study (2007) Lifestyle choices (e.g., gay marriage, sexual attitudes and practices, abortion, alcohol and drug use, etc.); political views (liberal vs. conservative; Democrat, Republican, or Independent; red vs. blue state; geographic region; feelings on church and state separation); demographic factors (gender, income, age, education, immigration status, race and ethnicity, marital status, parents or not, how many children, etc.); religious environment and training (e.g., childhood religious background, parents religious views, peers religious views, frequency of childhood church attendance, type of church attended during childhood, youth group membership and attendance, and age of conversion); social influence (e.g., movies, television, Internet use, frequency of other social activities, number in peer group, other peer characteristics, Christian peers, Christian spouse, Christian parents, urban vs. rural vs. suburban, etc.); personality factors and individual differences (introversion/extraversion, attitudes, motivational factors, grades, and verbal achievement); ethical attitudes and behavior (sources of morality, honesty, fairness, attitudes toward moral absolutes vs. relative morality, tolerance for Hollywood s values, etc.). The total effects of doubt even outweighed the extent to which people valued their faith. 25. The Pew Research Center provided raw data only and bears no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations of the data presented in this essay.

10 482 Philosophia Christi Like the General Social Survey, the RLS assessed beliefs and doubts about God s existence, religious truth, absolute morality, creation, miracles, afterlife, heaven, hell, the Bible as God s Word, and God s personal nature. We found doubts about any of these were strongly related to whether or not those raised in Christian households professed Christianity as adults. As in the General Social Survey, we found that generational differences in Christian affiliation were fully accounted for by the adverse impact of doubt. Not only did younger Americans react more strongly to doubt for example making them more likely to renounce Christianity but we found no substantial differences in how many Christians belonged to each generation among those with few doubts. The degree of doubt s impact was strongly related to the number of doubts reported. (Doubts that have a larger impact, like doubts about God or the Bible, are usually accompanied by many other doubts.) We found that those with no doubts or with only a few doubts (for example, three or fewer out of ten) were very likely to embrace Christianity and to thrive spiritually. 26 Figure 3 shows the relationship of doubts to the risk of rejecting Christian faith after a Christian upbringing. The degree of risk is directly related to the number of doubts reported. Notice that when few doubts were reported (to the left side of the graph), there was a very low risk of rejecting Christianity. For example, those with three doubts or fewer have around 95 percent persistency in the Christian faith. However, doubts become more problematic as they increase in number. Figure We defined few relative to the median number of doubts for Evangelicals (three out of ten).

11 Larry Barnett 483 As in GSS data, we found that doubts were adverse to spiritual wellbeing, especially as the number of doubts increased. Those with numerous doubts tended to struggle spiritually, even when they managed to hold on to Christian identity. These doubters worshipped less frequently, prayed less often, and became isolated from other believers. By contrast, persons with three or fewer doubts thrived spiritually, and they still identified themselves as Christians 27 most of them born-again or Evangelical 28 and belonging to an Evangelical congregation. 29 Those with few doubts value their relationship with God, 30 and they report much more willingness to rely on their faith for moral decision-making. 31 They pray more often, read their Bibles more frequently, and attend church more frequently than those with more doubts. They re also much more likely to report a recent answer to prayer. Chances are, they ve shared their faith within the past month, 32 and they re likely to belong to a small group at church. 33 They re about twice as likely to be part of the worship team or to work with children or youth. Finally, they re concerned about the spiritual welfare of their children. They regularly read the Bible and pray with them, 34 and they take them to Sunday School or youth group. 35 Both the General Social Survey and the Religious Landscape Survey are cross-sectional research; in other words, a cross section of the population has been surveyed at a given point in time, either once only (as in the two independent surveys of the RLS) or in a series of surveys over time (GSS). While our findings in this data supported our hypothesis that the effects of doubt explain Christianity s decline, cross-sectional research provides only indirect evidence open to other interpretations. Does doubt cause movement away from Christianity (as I argue it does), or does non-christian affiliation cause doubt, or does yet another factor cause them both? We can test our hypothesis more directly by using another type of research. The National Study of Youth and Religion is a longitudinal study, 36 in which the same individuals are surveyed periodically over a period of time, percent percent percent percent describe their faith as very important percent say this is their primary consideration in discerning right and wrong percent percent percent percent send their child(ren) to Sunday school or another religious education program. 36. The data were downloaded from the Association of Religion Data Archives, www. TheARDA.com, and were collected by the principal investigators named below. The National Study of Youth and Religion, whose data were used by permission here, was generously funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., under the direction of Christian Smith, of the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame and Lisa Pearce, of the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

12 484 Philosophia Christi allowing researchers to explore changes within each individual. This type of study provides more direct evidence regarding cause and effect, because causes precede effects in time. If doubt causes movement away from Christianity, then the presence of doubt at an earlier time will make it more likely that individuals will later report having left Christianity. And this is precisely what we found. The National Study of Youth and Religion explores the religious lives of teens over a five-year period as they transition into young adulthood. Youth between the ages of thirteen and eighteen were interviewed in an initial survey and in two follow-up surveys (two and a half years and five years later). We hypothesized that higher levels of doubt would increase the risk of youth later leaving Christianity. This hypothesis was strongly supported. Doubts reported in either of the earlier surveys predicted loss of faith within the next two to five years. (See figure 4.) Youth who had no doubts about their faith were unlikely to have later left Christianity less than 10 percent, and those with a few doubts were similarly unlikely to leave. In contrast, those with many doubts were over four times as likely to walk away from their faith. Doubt greatly increases the risk of loss of faith. Figure 4. As with the other surveys, we investigated doubt s impact on spiritual well-being, and among teens as well, doubters struggled spiritually whether or not they renounced Christianity. They attended church less often, prayed less frequently, and read their Bibles less. They also reported feeling distant from God, and they were much less likely to share their faith with others.

13 Larry Barnett 485 Finally, we found in all three data sets that several personal characteristics can increase the harmful effects of doubt. Doubt has a stronger adverse impact on those who are (1) younger, (2) more highly educated, (3) widely knowledgeable, (4) high achieving, (5) more active online, or (6) who have more religiously diverse friends. Because I suspect informationseeking behavior to be the common denominator between these traits, I call persons with any of these characteristics high information seekers. Persons with one or more of these traits now constitute the vast majority of the US population, 37 and their numbers are growing rapidly. It seems the heightened effects of doubts on high information seekers explain why doubt has become so much more problematic in recent years. The United States higher education levels, increased religious diversity, and the rise of the Internet have created a high demand for information among most Americans. As recently as 1965, the typical American did not even complete high school. In contrast, more than two thirds of today s young adults pursue higher education. 38 Compared to the 1950s, Americans are now six times as likely to belong to a non Judeo-Christian religion, 39 and Internet use has soared since its introduction in the 1990s. The new challenges of evangelizing and spiritually nurturing high information seekers, and their high need for information, now make the apologetics role of the American church more important than ever. From a New Testament perspective, Christians have a duty to come to the aid of doubters (Jude 1:22). We must answer their questions and provide them good reasons to believe, thereby showing that we truly honor Christ Jesus as Lord (1 Peter 3:15). Unfortunately, the evidence strongly suggests that the American church has largely neglected these duties. Formerly, when Christianity was predominant in American culture, such neglect had few consequences, but now the effects are devastating. Christian teens today tell us few congregations excel at answering their faith-related questions. 40 But leaving questions unanswered can be a major source of doubt. We found teens with high levels of doubts were six times as likely as nondoubters to say their church failed to answer their most pressing 37. High information seekers include each of the last three generations of Americans plus anyone with one of the other named characteristic. Those who react more strongly to doubt now constitute nearly 90 percent of the adult US population, and within another decade or so, they will make up the entire population. 38. In 1965, the median adult education (ages twenty-five and over) was 11.8 years. (US Census Bureau. Table A-1. Years of School Completed by People 25 Years and Over, by Age and Sex: Selected Years 1940 to 2014, accessed November 6, 2015, hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/historical/taba-1.xlsx.) 39. In Depth: Topics A to Z: Religion, accessed November 6, 2015, com/poll/1690/religion.aspx. 40. Only about a third of teens report their church does an excellent job of helping them learn what they d like to about their faith. Furthermore, this is based on subjective factors only, and one suspects overreporting.

14 486 Philosophia Christi questions. 41 When we fail to answer their questions, doubters may remain in doubt for many years we found specific doubts to be very persistent over a five year period. Furthermore, chronic doubts easily lead to loss of faith. I ve interviewed scores of former Christians who describe an extended period of doubt during which they desperately struggled to hold on to their faith, and many similar stories are chronicled in You Lost Me. 42 If doubters fail to get answers from Christians, they are likely to search for information online. But finding good web-based information about Christianity can be an extreme challenge. While there are some excellent websites offering good evidence for Christianity, they are far too rare and can be difficult to find. The results of failed attempts to resolve doubts online can be disastrous. When several attempts to find good evidence for Christianity yield poor results, the information-seeker may well come to believe that there is no good evidence for Christianity, and I ve talked with many who have thus reached this conclusion. We found that doubting teens were twice as likely to abandon Christianity if they spent more time online. 43 And among teens raised in Christian households and struggling with doubt, sixty percent of active internet users (six or more hours per week) renounced Christianity within the next five years. The Next Generation project found that unanswered questions and unresolved doubts about Christianity fully accounted for Christianity s recent decline in the United States. In other words, there was no additional adverse impact on Christian faith of belonging to a younger generation after accounting for the effects of unresolved doubts and questions. Doubts and questions not only routinely led to departure from Christianity, but they also had a strong adverse impact on other facets of spiritual health including frequency of worship attendance, Bible reading, prayer, and so forth. Unresolved doubts and questions have become substantially more corrosive to Christian faith in recent decades, whether about God, the Bible, miracles, heaven, hell, creation, or any other area of belief. In our data, we found a clear and consistent picture of doubts and questions as primary causes of the recent losses from Christianity, with clear implications for how Christians should respond. The full findings and recommendations of the Next Generation Project are available elsewhere, 44 but in this essay I have attempted to lay out the implications of our findings regarding the critical importance of apologetics: Christianity s recent decline in the United States is primarily due to the unanswered questions and unresolved doubts people 41. Question wording: How good or not good a job does your church do in helping you learn what you want to know about your religion? Doubters were also six times as likely to report their church never made them think about important things. 42. Kinnaman and Hawkins, You Lost Me. 43. Teens reporting many doubts about Christianity and six or more hours of internet use per week. 44. See our website for details (

15 Larry Barnett 487 have about Christianity. It is thus absolutely necessary to effectively deal with these questions and doubts if the decline of American Christianity is to be reversed. However, if we will passionately pursue our duty to doubters answering their questions and offering them good reasons to believe then we can expect a bright future. The next generation is at stake.