In any discussion about the future of
religion in America, especially as it relates to stalled growth in
churches and denominations, those outside our religious communities find
one theory especially compelling. This is the idea: that young
Evangelicals are frustrated with Christian orthodoxy’s strict standards
of sexual morality. We’re told that these young Evangelicals will soon
revolutionize our churches with liberalized views on same-sex marriage,
premarital sex, gender identity, and so on. But a new study by a
University of Texas sociologist finds that Evangelical Christians ages
18 to 39 are resisting liberalizing trends in the culture.
The suggestion of a shift in attitudes does sound plausible. Indeed, one of us
has warned for years that conservative Evangelicals are often
“slow-motion sexual revolutionaries,” adjusting to the ambient culture
on, for instance, divorce in ways that have harmed our witness and
compromised the Biblical message. How much more vulnerable would
Evangelicals be in a culture that is shifting roller-coaster fast on the
definition of marriage itself and related issues? But recent data
suggest otherwise. Continue at Russell Moore
