Reimagining Religion: Gen Z is Personalizing How They Practice Faith

Generation Z is the least religious generation to date. Over one-third of those born between 1995 and 2012 are irreligious, a significant amount compared to 23 percent of Generation X, 17 percent of Baby Boomers, and 11 percent of the Silent Generation.

“I’ve accepted the fact that there is going to be nothing past this life, and that’s it,” says AUP junior Madison Coakley, once a Christian but now an atheist. “After my first year of college, I was still going to church regularly and participating in community events. Then, I started traveling and having more conversations about religion, and that exposed me to some different viewpoints.”

Although Christianity is still the dominant religion in the West, its presence in the United States is waning. In its place, irreligion is on the rise. In her article “Religion, Irreligion and the Difference Place Makes,” researcher Tina Block defines irreligion as “behaviors, actions, and discourses that counter, in passive or active ways, specifically religious orderings.” Block goes on to say that it “includes, but does not equate to, atheism.” Indeed, some individuals consider themselves non-religious while still maintaining a nominal or cultural attachment to religion. For example, “passive” Christians might celebrate Christmas without ever having prayed or been to church. Atheism, on the other hand, relates to the “active” opposition to religion, which 13 percent of Generation Z identifies with.

For many, spirituality has become an alternative to traditional religion.

Agnosticism, which AUP senior Ali Benzerara has practiced since leaving the Mormon Church several years ago, asserts that it is impossible for human beings to know the origins of the universe definitively or whether a divine being exists. He became agnostic after 16 years as a Mormon .

Benzerara says that the misalignment between the church’s values and actions was what made him leave. “They’d talk about [things] such as accepting everybody as God’s child, treating everyone as thy brother or thy neighbor, but then there was still so much judgment within the church. I’m not saying that about every aspect or everyone that was in the church, but to me. I just felt like it wasn’t as inclusive as they preached,” he says.

As the most racially, religiously and ethnically diverse generation, inclusivity is deeply important to Generation Z. Social issues like gay marriage, gender equality, and justice for ethnic minorities have dominated the political scene for the past decade—largely thanks to the passion of young people. However, they have received significant pushback from traditional religious groups such as Evangelical Christians, who constitute a fourth of the U.S.’s population and helped to push conservative presidential candidate Donald Trump to victory in 2016. Such conflicts between traditional and progressive standpoints strengthen the perception that, as Coakley explained, inclusivity and Christianity have not always gone together.

“You have this community of people who love you, and you have God who loves you the most. When you’re in a trying time, it’s like, ‘You know what? It’s all right because God loves me,’ and I think that’s a really nice thing to remember,” Coakley says. However, one of the things she struggles with is how Christianity can become selective. “I have a lot of friends that will say they’re Christian,” she says, “but then there are things that they don’t believe and others that they do that are conflicting and completely against the Bible.”

For many, spirituality has become an alternative to traditional religion. While religion operates through organization and connects masses of people, spirituality is more introspective and focuses on a person’s path to self-discovery. The two work together but the latter can still thrive by itself. Approximately one-third of young Americans view themselves as spiritual but not religious, according to Pew Research. The root of spirituality lies in introspection, which for many manifests into practices like yoga, meditation, following astrology, or connecting with nature.

“I practice spirituality as often as I can,” says Benzerara. “I believe in things like karma, energy and the law of attraction—basic, good morals. I see a lot of people around our age who don’t necessarily follow religion in the sense of how their parents would. I see people keeping in mind what they’ve learned as they were growing up in religion, but being more spiritual rather than religious.”

“What we see are almost new designer religions in this generation,” reiterated researcher Mark Gray to Reuters. “People are kind of picking and choosing different religious and spiritual beliefs and piecing together their own belief systems.”

That’s not to say there is not still a significant amount of young people who draw guidance predominantly from one religion. Some members of Generation Z are observers of the trend occurring in their generation as opposed to participants. AUP junior Zeina Makarem, for instance, has been a Muslim her whole life. “My family, they’re very good with praying and the five pillars. So, I think it would be such a shame if I didn’t continue it because I always think that if God gives me so many good things, why would I not give back? I try to be as perfect as I can to reach a goal, but it’s a journey and everyone’s going to struggle,” she says.

Islam has played a role in helping Makarem through hard times, as it has done for many believers around the world. “It’s just that when things happen in life, and you return to the Qur’an, it helps you, and it guides you. I think it’s a very beautiful thing.”

Similarly devoted, AUP junior and Let’s Talk About GOD founder and president Baer Lanfried grew up in Christianity and had turned to agnosticism by the end of high school. Seeking to become a better person, psychedelics and fasting left him feeling out of touch with reality before his friend handed him a Bible and recommended he repent.

Lanfried recalls, “I went outside, opened up the Bible, and just got hit with, I don’t know, what I call God. I just encountered the Lord and I was on my face crying and laughing with joy. That was the most terror I’ve ever had in my life, and that was the most joy I’ve ever had in my life.”

Since then, Lanfried’s dedication to non-denominational Christianity has only strengthened, especially as far as spirituality is concerned.

“People are kind of picking and choosing different religious and spiritual beliefs and piecing together their own belief systems.”

“In the Western hemisphere, we’ve really skewed religion and reduced it down to this thing that’s just entirely void of the understanding of what it actually should be,” Lanfried explained. “I think if anybody grew up in Christianity and didn’t understand what it truly means, it’d make sense to leave. Don’t just follow these beliefs because they’re fed to you. It’s not right; it’s not what we’re made for, you know? I think many people are falling away because they’ve been fed something void of what religion actually is: the shell of Christianity without any substance.”

Compared to other religions like Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, Christianity has a particularly low retention rate among young people. Organizations like Church Clarity, a crowdsourced database of local congregations that volunteers score based on transparency, have made efforts to diminish the secrecy in churches that led to scandals like the recent slew of reports on sexual abuse in the church.

Still, there is an apparent disconnect between religion and the youth. In a survey done by Barna, 37 percent of Generation Z stated they believe it is not possible to know if God is real, and 29 percent said they have a hard time understanding why a good God would allow so much suffering in the world. Science also comes into question as nearly half of teens say their beliefs need to be supported by factual evidence, something many struggle to find in the religious texts.

“We’re getting smarter,” Coakley reasoned bluntly.

In the digital age, our understanding of the workings of our world has advanced significantly, but not necessarily in a way that aligns with traditional religious teachings. “In contrast to the methods of science, religion adjudicates truth not empirically, but via dogma, scripture and authority,” expanded Professor Jerry Coyne for The Conversation.

“Gen Z kids have access to many more resources, so if their parents are preaching one religion to them, they have the ability to fact check it and find its flaws,” notes Haley Bartel, a sophomore at The New School who practices Judaism. “They also have the ability to find communities of their own online, something previous generations haven’t necessarily been able to do.”

The internet has been particularly instrumental in allowing Generation Z to explore belief systems that may be out of their reach in their hometowns. Research reveals that social media in particular has been fundamental in helping atheists break away from religiously conservative communities to find other like-minded young people. As Makarem points out, though, there are some significant downsides to our culture-driven tendency to be online all the time.

“It’s an interesting time because if you look at history, a lot of decisions were made throughout the world because of religious influence, so I think it’ll be interesting to see what happens when Generation Z comes to power.”

“Not that it distances someone [from God] on purpose or anything, it’s just that you get distracted,” she explained. “To be a religious person or to be associated with one specific religion, you have to really connect. We may not need to reduce the time we spend on social media, but we should at least find some time in between to practice and alone with God.”

Some religious leaders, like pastor Judah Smith, have been trying to adapt to Generation Z’s tech-savviness. Many of his sermons are available to view online or through his app Churchome, described as a “community-based platform that brings the totality of the church experience to people around the world via their mobile devices.” Young Muslims are also encouraging inter-faith and inter-sect dialogue, pushing the boundaries of Islam’s interpretations. The result is social media accounts like @ queermuslims that promote equal rights and dating apps like Muzmatch that help single Muslims meet. Evolution is key to the survival of religions, even if they grow less recognizable to the traditional adherents.

For better or for worse, Generation Z’s shift away from traditional religion is not likely to slow down any time soon. “It’s an interesting time because if you look at history, a lot of decisions were made throughout the world because of religious influence, so I think it’ll be interesting to see what happens when Generation Z comes to power,” explains Benzerara.

From young people of various backgrounds, Generation Z’s influence on our world’s religious landscape has stirred up a variety of reactions. “I’ll say it concerns me to see this generation drifting away from religion because at some point they’ll need it,” Makarem says. Some like Bartel counter that, saying, “It’s a beneficial thing because it encourages independent thinking.” And still others, like Lanfried, believe that either way, “there’s a God that’s got this figured out.”

Generation Z is proving that the age-old conflict between religion and irreligion does not have to be so pronounced as in the past. Instead, they have found a way to practice faith without necessarily adhering to catagories, personalizing the belief systems they find most appealing. Gen Z’s break from tradition signifies a reimagination of the role religion plays in our lives, if any.

“Different faiths are all continuations of each other, and they’re all guiding you to be a good person,” summarizes Makarem, poignantly. In the end, regardless of labels, perhaps this commonality is something we can all appreciate.