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Generation Next: Who are the Millennials?


Generation Next: Who are the Millennials?
Millennials – today’s 18-29 year olds – are so-named because they began coming of age around 2000, the millennium. Currently representing one-quarter of the United States’ population, by 2020 they will make up 40 percent of the public, a sizable voting bloc. Who are they? What do they believe? Politicians, candidates, and grassroots’ organizations – of all political stripes – have taken aim, hoping to harness this energetic group who want to be involved and make a difference. Prior to his election, Pres. Barack Obama tapped into the power of this generation. Utilizing the online social media vehicles which Millennials have made so popular, the President captured 66 percent of the under-30 vote – “making the disparity between young voters and other age groups larger than in any presidential election since exit polling began in 1972.”
The Pew Forum has set out to explore who these twenty-somethings are in a yearlong series of reports covering their behaviors, values, and opinions – and comparing them to past generations. Overall, they are racially and ethnically diverse, politically progressive, and treat as commonplace the explosion of the digital age. They tend to be more supportive of homosexual marriage and believe in the concept of evolution. Past surveys showed Millennials and those over 65 to be strongly pro-life, while those aged 30-64 supported abortion. In 2009, however, this study showed a surprising shift had occurred, with the nation as a whole becoming more pro-life. 
Last week, the Pew Forum issued a report from their Millennials’ project that focused on religion among the Millennials. Overall, the report determined that these 18-29 year olds are less religiously active than older Americans, but they are fairly traditional in other ways. 
The report, relying on surveys done by Pew Research and other research centers since 1970, found a slide in religious affiliation from generation to generation. All but 5 percent born before 1928 (the Greatest Generation) reported a traditional religious affiliation, but 20 percent of Gen Xers (born from 1965-1980) and 26 percent of Millennials claimed no such religious ties. And yet, Millennials are as convinced of moral absolutes as their elders.  More than three-quarters of young adults believe in absolute standards of right and wrong – compared to 77 percent in older age groups.
Generational Divide Missing
When looking at a cross-generational section of religious affiliation, the Pew report found less striking differences. Comparing 18-29 year olds by decade, 77 percent claimed a religious affiliation in the 2000s, 84 percent in the 1990s, and 88 percent in the 1980s and 1970s. Across the generations, only a 5 percent margin separated those young adults attending services with 74 percent in the 1970s and 79 percent in the 2000s. Similarly, close margins also marked frequency of prayer, belief in God, and viewing the Bible as the literal word of God.  
Alexander Astin, a professor emeritus at UCLA who has studied college students and their attitudes since 1966, said the Pew findings mirrored his own studies showing a high rate of skepticism in young people. But he noted that evangelical Christians, whose numbers continue to grow, have high levels of belief in God and participation in church activities. Quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Astin concluded, “The nonbelievers have increased, but so have the believers. So the net result of that is probably not a great change in the proportion of people who believe in God.”
The Pew report echoed this, saying that the religious intensity of those young people who are affiliated with a religion has not waned across the decades. More than 37 percent of both Millennials and Gen Xers say they are “strong” members of their faith – comparable to the 31 percent of Baby Boomers who said the same when they were young. 
Interesting Anomaly
While past polling data has shown strong support for abortion, except in the youngest and oldest age groups, data for this poll showed a mellowing – evidencing more pro-life views. The views of those aged 30-64 now mirror the pro-life tendencies of the youngest group whose pro-life views remained solid. This lends credence to recent polls showing America is becoming more pro-life, and adds support to comments by Stephen Baldwin and Kevin McCullough last weekend in Washington, D.C., where CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference and XPAC (the Xtreme Political Action Conference) gathered 10,000 activists to map out a future course. 
Stephen Baldwin, in a Focus Action Update, said XPAC was about “the empowering of the younger people – even the unborn.” Kevin McCullough predicted this generation will overturn Roe v. Wade.  Surely, young adults have mastered the concept of life’s sanctity – beginning with the preborn. They are indeed the hope of the future.
Resources: 
·         Focus on the Family’s new Website aimed at Millennials – www.risingvoice.com – a community in which to connect, to discuss, to learn, and to become empowered to make a difference. 
·         TrueU, a project of the Truth Project, aimed at college students and college-bound teens to help “solidify their Christian faith with foundational apologetics training.” CFC will be presenting the seminar, TRUE-U: "A Fusion of Fact and Faith" in Fresno this Saturday, February 27. 
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