Two recent surveys show that young people are moving away from religion and moving toward a more open spirituality.
Forty-six percent of Ohio State students said they believe in something other than monotheism, or one god, according to a campus Christian group.
Roughly half of OSU students said they believe Jesus is or was savior and creator.
The findings are from a survey of 671 students conducted by Real Life OSU, the university’s ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.
Real Life students and staff conducted surveys from three campus locations for one week, said Brett Bodine, Real Life staff member.
Real Life members at each location engaged students as they approached an interactive display. Other Real Life members went out to survey other students in the area. Approximately two-thirds of survey respondents were randomly selected students, Bodine said. The other respondents willingly approached and filled out the survey at Real Life’s interactive displays.
The survey’s five main questions came from a national Campus Crusade for Christ survey. Data, along with suggestions for improvements, will be sent to Campus Crusade’s national headquarters.
But the survey wasn’t all about the numbers.
They weren’t unimportant, Bodine said, but the larger emphasis was on creating dialogue about spirituality, “often a taboo topic in our society.” Each of the five survey questions had follow-up questions designed to create discussion.
“We feel that these are some of the most important questions that people can ask, and that the way they’re answered greatly shapes the way they view and interact with the world,” Bodine said.
Because Real Life wants to create “dispassionate dialogue,” such conversations are meant to “elevate these questions in the minds of students,” Bodine said in an e-mail.
The Real Life OSU survey comes just weeks after an April 27 story from USA Today that featured a different religious study.
LifeWay Christian Resources conducted a study of 18- to 29-year-olds and found that 72 percent consider themselves “more spiritual than religious.” LifeWay also found that 65 percent rarely or never attend worship service. Sixty-seven percent said they don’t read the Bible or other religious texts.
Steven Taylor said he isn’t surprised by statistics that point to young people losing interest in religion. Taylor, a third-year in finance and real estate, said he feels it’s a cultural issue. He said young people today don’t have the religious background that previous generations had, so college students have little incentive to discover religion on their own.
Bodine said that although he sees many students come to campus with some spiritual background, he thinks students often feel they don’t have anyone to discuss big issues with. He said that for many students, if they don’t talk about it with family, they won’t talk about it anywhere.
“We’re definitely seeing that on campus,” he said. “It’s an increasing trend.”
Bodine and Real Life President Susan Manchester said they consider themselves spiritual resources for students. Bodine said his conversations when conducting surveys lasted between 30 and 45 minutes. He found that once students were engaged, they were open and comfortable discussing their faith. However, he said he noticed that students often perceive a wall around the topic of religion.
Manchester said she agrees that many young people consider themselves more spiritual than religious. It’s a matter of connotation, she said.
“I think that calling yourself religious seems kind of uptight and too traditional,” but to be spiritual is more freeing, she said. “I can call myself spiritual and find my identity in that.”
The other connotation of religion is organization and hierarchy, Bodine said. Because of our individualistic culture, those are terms “we naturally bristle against,” he said.
Manchester said that for students who have had a negative experience with religion, it can be difficult for them to see that there are other options.
“If students have seen religion as an oppressive force in their lives and they see it as something that’s not dynamically influencing the lives of people around them,” she said, “it makes sense why they wouldn’t want to pursue it.
“People who grow up in the church sometimes can start to view God as a killjoy — someone who is very distant, who has a ton of rules to follow, and who wants to suppress your happiness as much as possible.”
Part of her responsibility as a spiritual resource, she said, is engaging students with a God that is dynamic and influential.
