Archive for the ‘youth’ Category


A child reads a Bible at home. Photo by Josh Applegate/Unsplash/Creative Commons January 19, 2021 By Jesse Smith Produced in collaboration with the Religion News Service. (RNS) — American churches have long been concerned about retaining the young people who have grown up in their pews. Christian denominations’ websites and publications are filled with analyses of why young adults[ READ FULL COLUMN ]
[Read Full Column...]

A study in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion strongly associated queer identity with a decision to attend church less frequently or stop going altogether.
[Read Full Column...]

New studies on religious tattoos explore the relation between faith and a practice associated with sex, drugs and copious amounts of alcohol. The results are mixed.
[Read Full Column...]

Summertime, and the livin’ seems easy on the glut of network shows featuring young men and women with sculpted bodies celebrating the narcissistic quest to determine who is the most desirable of all. But as we look away from the magic mirror of fantasy answers to the Cinderella question, consider how harmful it can be to the mental health and self-worth of those trying to live up to near-impossible cultural ideals of beauty. New research suggests faith may provide an answer.
[Read Full Column...]

Where have all the young adults gone? Not as far from religion as one might think, according to a new study finding large numbers of twentysomethings are combining a spiritual life with religious practice.
[Read Full Column...]

Making difficult parenting decisions – on issues ranging from fathers being open to parental leave to parents embracing family faith activities – may enrich a child’s life in multiple ways into young adulthood and beyond, some new studies suggest. “Religious firmness integrated with religious flexibility is more likely to result in a balanced, healthy style of religious parenting,” one study concluded.,
[Read Full Column...]

Many of you may have never heard of Sylvia and John Ronsvalle or Cal and Rose Samra.
But for more than three decades each has followed a calling: Sylvia and John’s research holds up moral imperatives on issues such as child hunger; Rose and Cal promote shared joy with religious humor across traditions.
