Fading faith? Survey shows generation gap in religious devotion

SALT LAKE CITY — Studies suggest today's current crop of young adults — labeled the \"Millennial Generation\" — is less religious than preceding generations.

But a closer look suggests they really may not be much different than preceding generations at the same age.

Whatever the case, religious leaders haven't lost faith in the Millennials.

Millennials were born in 1981 or after and will be coming of age in the early 2000s — the new millennium. They follow past generations: \"Gen X\" (birth years between 1965 and 1980), \"Boomer\" (1946-1964), \"Silent\" (1928-1945) and \"Greatest\" (born before 1928).

__IMAGE1__In a collection of national surveys compiled by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considered less religious than their older counterparts. More than one in four Millennials — or 26 percent — say they are unaffiliated in religion (see survey results).

The forum survey is at pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=510.

Millennials, it seems, are less inclined to pray, to regularly attend worship services or to participate in other religious practices than are other generations today.

But when the Pew Forum looked at survey results from past generations in their respective young-adult stages, the Millennial numbers aren't always drastically different.

For example, 40 percent of Millennials say religion is very important in their lives while 60 percent of Boomers agree now with that statement. But only 39 percent thought so back in the late 1970s.

Another Boomer example, 37 percent of Millennials say they are a \"strong\" member of their religion, compared to 43 percent of Boomers today.

But the Boomers' percent in the late 1970s was just 31.

And it's not just the Boomers. Some 41 percent of Millennials say they participate in daily prayer, while Gen X respondents have 54 percent now praying daily, compared to just 42 percent in the late 1990s.

The Rev. Michael J. Imperiale of First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City sees Millennials as a generational rebound or pendulum shift from the past, saying Gen X followed the late baby boomers' sex, drugs, and rock and roll with a generation that was more traditional, conservative and driven with high expectations.

In turn, the Millennials are more liberal politically and socially and more accepting of individuals and their rights and beliefs, he added.

\"They say they're spiritual, but they don't want much to do with religion, especially organized religion,\" the Rev. Imperiale said. \"They want to