Is God STILL Dead?

By Dan DeFrancesco

While most college students spend Sunday mornings sleeping off their hangover’s SUNY Plattsburgh junior Tucker Glass goes to a place most people his age haven’t stepped foot in in a long while.
Church.

“It’s just how I was raised,” said Glass. “I can’t imagine not going.”

On April 8, 1966 Time featured a cover asking “Is God dead?” coupled with an article in which the magazine analyzed whether religion had indeed “died” in America. While faith may still be alive when it comes to the general population, it certainly is on life support with one age group: young adults.

According to a study done by LifeWay research in 2007, of young adult Protestants, ages 18 to 22, over two-thirds do not attend church at least twice a month. Not only did the LifeWay survey discover that young adults stopped attending church, they didn’t come back either. The report showed that 34% had not returned to church by age 30.

Protestant’s aren’t the only ones suffering in regards to youth attendance. Marianne Wilson, Youth and Family ministry director of the First Presbyterian Church in Plattsburgh, NY, also has seen a poor turnout among young adults. Wilson believes younger people no longer feel connected with the church.

“It’s almost as if they graduate from church,” said Wilson. “They are no longer being forced to come and they decide, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Wilson felt that once children become confirmed, the final step in Catholic and Presbyterian religious education, they begin to drift away from the church. This point is only multiplied when the child gets their license and finally leaves home to attend college.

“Parents are giving you more freedom,” said Wilson. “They get to decide if that’s something they want to do every Sunday.”

Although Father John Yonkovig of St. Peter’s Catholic church in Plattsburgh, NY said he would always enjoy having more young people involved in his parish he still feels he has a good number of high school and college aged students very involved in his parish.

“Sometimes it’s quality not quantity,’ said Yonkovig.

Yonkovig said that the later adolescence period of a person’s life is a typical time of testing values, one of those being their faith. Young people, Yonkovig said, are inquisitive and interested in exploring different things in their life.

He did, however, say that often times after graduation and marriage young people seemed to find their way back to church.

“We find in their mid to late twenties they come back when they have children,” said Yonkovig. “Faith gives them a framework and a values system.”

Ron Rene, a pastoral minister at the Newman Center in Plattsburgh, NY, has worked across the country at several different churches and finds a similar trend to what Yonkovig describes. He explained young adults losing faith as the questioning stage, one of the eight stages of faith.

“Their away from home and they discover new limits,” said Rene of young people.

The Newman Center, located on Broad Street, is the closest church to the SUNY Plattsburgh campus and the one most geared toward college students. Currently Rene said there are 67 students who attend mass regularly, which is held on Sundays at 11 a.m.

The center holds several events to bring in young adults. Although the church is Catholic, a meeting entitled the Newman association is open to persons of any religion and held every Friday at 5:30 p.m. followed by a dinner.

When asked what he would say to young people to encourage them to come back to their faith, Rene paused before quoting the late Pope John Paul II.

“Do not be afraid to follow Jesus,” said Rene. “It’s not easy, god gives us the strength.”

Yonkovig stressed that coming back to church would allow a young person to see that the world is much bigger than they may realize. Faith, he said, gives us an understanding about life.

“At the end of life it’s not about me it’s all about love,” said Yonkovig. “Involvement with the church stretches us to love the people of this world.”