The Millennials are Coming! (actually already here)

Pastor Allen cited the Pew Foundation study of the "Millenials" (sometimes called Gen Y) in a recent sermon, so I decided to take a look at it. You can too, by going here.

Naturally, I found something to rant about. Although I can do that just about anywhere, it's especially fun to have hard data to rant with. So here goes.

One of the hundreds of graphs shows a breakdown of conservatives and liberals (I'm not going to defend this here, but Pew also provides clear evidence that these are fairly interchangeable with "Republicans" and "Democrats," respectively) by religious affiliation. Not surprisingly, evangelical Christians are most conservative. "Mainline Christians" are slightly more liberal in older age groups and considerably more liberal in younger age groups. Ditto Catholics.

Then comes the stat I want to rant about. Look at the "spread" (difference between liberals and conservatives) in each of the following groups:

White evangelical Protestants, under 30:......29% more conservative
White evangelical Protestants, over 30:.......30% more conservative
White mainline Protestants, under 30:..........9% more liberal
White mainline Protestants, over 30:...........4% more liberal
White Catholics, under 30:.....................8% more liberal
White Catholics, over 30:......................8% more liberal
Unaffiliated, under 30:.......................45% more liberal
Unaffiliated, over 30:........................40% more liberal

To put flesh on these stats, think of the first two planks in the Manhattan Declaration: traditional marriage and sanctity of life. None of the groups above would support these values (by a simple majority) except evangelical Protestants. And keep in mind that evangelical Protestants are not numerically significant either, especially in the the "under thirty" demographic.

And here's the rant: in which of the four categories (ignoring age group, for the moment) would we expect to find people who have attended Christian schools? Primarily in the evangelical Protestant group, and that's no surprise. But what is the authoritative voice (lacking any religious influence) of those who are unaffiliated, and how was it so successful in inculcating a liberal point of view?

That would be the catechetical teachings of public schooling. Public education is, for those with no other referent, the authoritative voice speaking to them and their chidlren - on values, politics, ethics, history, everything! And it is more effective (percentage wise) than Christianity has been with their constituent offspring. And where Christianity has been statistically somewhat more effective, it is among that segment more likely to have homeschooled or sent their children to a private Christian school.

I'm just saying...