Christian Smith’s research while affiliated with University of Notre Dame and other places

Life for emerging adults is vastly different today than it was for their counterparts even a generation ago. Young people are waiting longer to marry, to have children, and to choose a career direction. As a result, they enjoy more freedom, opportunities, and personal growth than ever before. But the transition to adulthood is also more complex, disjointed, and confusing. This book draws on 230 in-depth interviews with a broad cross-section of emerging adults (ages between eighteen and twenty-three) to investigate the difficulties young people face today, the underlying causes of those difficulties, and the consequences both for individuals and for American society as a whole. Rampant consumer capitalism, ongoing failures in education, hyper-individualism, postmodernist moral relativism, and other aspects of American culture are all contributing to the chaotic terrain that emerging adults must cross. The book identifies five major problems facing very many young people today: confused moral reasoning, routine intoxication, materialistic life goals, regrettable sexual experiences, and disengagement from civic and political life. The trouble does not lie only with the emerging adults or their poor individual decisions but has much deeper roots in mainstream American culture-a culture which emerging adults have largely inherited rather than created. Older adults, the book argues, must recognize that much of the responsibility for the pain and confusion young people face lies with them. Rejecting both sky-is-falling alarmism on the one hand and complacent disregard on the other, the book suggests the need for what it calls "realistic concern"-and a reconsideration of our cultural priorities and practices-that will help emerging adults more skillfully engage unique challenges they face.

A wide-held assumption is that increased religiousness is associated with stronger perceptions of a conflict between religion and science. This article examines this assumption using four distinct questions asked on the third wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Results indicate a variety of viewpoints for constructing the relationship between science and religion, rather than a simple conflict-compatibility continuum. Further, findings suggest that increased religiousness among emerging adults is associated with a stronger agreement in science and religion’s compatibility, rather than conflict. Incorporating New Age or non-Western spiritual tradition and a strict adherence to fundamentalist Christian doctrine are associated with complex configurations of beliefs on the relationship between religion and science. Collectively, the findings among emerging adults contradict traditional assumptions about how religious experiences influence beliefs, suggesting that such social factors may influence beliefs and attitudes uniquely at different points in the lifecourse or across generations. More broadly, the findings speak to the ongoing debate about the extent to which differing social experiences may produce consistent or discordant sets of beliefs and values, and in turn how particular configurations may impact strategies of action across a range of life domains.

How important is religion for young people in America today? What are the major influences on their developing spiritual lives? How do religious beliefs and practices change as young people enter into adulthood? This book explores these questions and many others as it tells the definitive story of the religious and spiritual lives of emerging adults, ages eighteen to twenty-four, in the U.S. today. Based on candid interviews with thousands of young people tracked over a five-year period, this book reveals how the religious practices of the teenagers portrayed in a previous book Soul Searching have been strengthened, challenged, and often changed as the young people have moved into adulthood. The book vividly describes as well the broader cultural world of today's emerging adults, how that culture shapes their religious outlooks, and what the consequences are for religious faith and practice in America more generally. Some of the book's findings are surprising. Parents turn out to be the single most important influence on the religious outcomes in the lives of young adults. On the other hand, teenage participation in evangelization missions and youth groups does not predict a high level of religiosity just a few years later. Moreover, the common wisdom that religiosity declines sharply during the young adult years is shown to be greatly exaggerated.

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of congregationally-based youth programs in one geographically specified area in northern Indiana. A response rate of 98.9 percent (N=269) from congregations to a survey and 42 additional in-person interviews with youth ministers were conducted to compile data on the characteristics of congregations, youth attendance, youth groups, and youth ministers across denominational categories. Results of the study support the hypothesis that youth programming differs across denominations. Findings also highlight the need for high response rates and representative sampling methodologies to provide a valid view of congregationally-based youth programming.

This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the primary goal of this book, which is to better understand and explain American Christians' lack of generosity, from a sociological perspective. It then assesses the claim that people, including Christians, are often selfish and greedy. The chapter then explains how the approach it used to measure the amount of money American Christians give to their churches and charities.

This chapter examines various data sources on charitable giving in the United States to establish six crucial facts about the giving of American Christians. These are that at least one out of five American Christians - twenty percent of all American Christians - gives literally nothing to church, para-church, or nonreligious charities; the vast majority of American Christians give very little to church, para-church, or nonreligious charities; American Christians do not give their dollars evenly among themselves, but, rather, a small minority of generous givers among them contributes most of the total Christian dollars given; higher income earning American Christians - like Americans generally - give little to no more money as a percentage of household income than lower income earning Christians; despite a massive growth of real per capita income over the 20th century, the average percentage share of income given by American Christians not only did not grow actually declined slightly during this time period; and the vast majority of the money that American Christians do give to religion is spent in and for their own local communities of faith - little is spent on missions, development, and poverty relief outside of local congregations, particularly outside the United States.

This chapter considers nine hypotheses potentially explaining the low levels of financial giving by American Christians. It argues that Most American Christians do not give generously for a combination of reasons. The first is that many have not seriously confronted and grappled with the theological and moral teachings of their traditions to give generously - they are only vaguely aware of or perhaps even avoid those teachings. Second, most American Christians do not give generously because many of their churches settle for low expectations of financial giving. Third, some American Christians do not give generously in part because they lack a complete confidence in the trustworthiness of the churches and charitable organizations to which they do or would give money. Fourth, most American Christians do not give generously because, due to the total privatization and lack of accountability of such issues, there are few or no real consequences or costs to stingy, intermittent, or no giving. Fifth, most American Christians do not give generously because most tend to practice giving on an occasional and situational basis, not as a disciplined, structured, routine practice.

Passing the Plate shows that few American Christians donate generously to religious and charitable causes -- a parsimony that seriously undermines the work of churches and ministries. Far from the 10 percent of one's income that tithing requires, American Christians' financial giving typically amounts, by some measures, to less than one percent of annual earnings. And a startling one out of five self-identified Christians gives nothing at all. This eye-opening book explores the reasons behind such ungenerous giving, the potential world-changing benefits of greater financial giving, and what can be done to improve matters. If American Christians gave more generously, say the authors, any number of worthy projects -- from the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS to the promotion of inter-religious understanding to the upgrading of world missions -- could be funded at astounding levels. Analyzing a wide range of social surveys and government and denominational statistical datasets and drawing on in-depth interviews with Christian pastors and church members in seven different states, the book identifies a crucial set of factors that appear to depress religious financial support -- among them the powerful allure of a mass-consumerist culture and its impact on Americans' priorities, parishioners' suspicions of waste and abuse by nonprofit administrators, clergy's hesitations to boldly ask for money, and the lack of structure and routine in the way most American Christians give away money. In their conclusion, the authors suggest practical steps that clergy and lay leaders might take to counteract these tendencies and better educate their congregations about the transformative effects of generous giving. By illuminating the social and psychological forces that shape charitable giving, Passing the Plate is sure to spark a much-needed debate on a critical issue that is of much interest to church-goers, religious leaders, philanthropists, and social scientists.

This concluding chapter begins with a synthesis of the discussions in the previous chapters. It then offers a set of informed conjectures, based on the findings of the previous chapters, about changes that leaders concerned about generous financial giving might consider implementing in ways appropriate to their situations. The lessons provided by this book that help inform or remind us about the human condition and the social lives of people are then considered.

This chapter focuses on how American Christians can make a difference through generous financial giving. It is estimated that if committed Christians in the United States gave ten percent of their after-tax income - fully but no more than ten percent - that would provide an extra $46 billion per year of resources with which to fund needs and priorities such as churches, organizations, ministries, programs, and global development and relief. If the extra money of the minority who is willing and able to give more than ten percent of their income is added to the faithful ten percent given by ninety percent of committed Christians, there would be an additional$34.6 billion in giving by committed American Christians each year.