Is the US merely tagging behind its European neighbors on a road to a thoroughly secular, social democracy? As the Obama Administration stretches its fingers into education, health care and failing companies, the question lingers ominously. But columnist Cheryl Wetzstein notes that, when it comes to faith and family, we’re not quite there yet. She supports her point with research highlighted at our Oct. 29th conference, Religious Practice and the Family. Wetzstein’s column in today’s Washington Times reads: Earlier this year, American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray wrote a warning …
Generation Y is widely defined as the 77 million Americans born between 1977 and 1997 — and as any good demographic sample would, it’s being analyzed. A Denver Post blogger opines on why Gen Y’ers are moving back in with their parents. JD Power and Associates dissects Gen Y’s buying patterns and suggests that the recession is making them grapple with a “Quarter-Life Crisis.” Today’s “emerging adults” enjoy more options for work, marriage and location than perhaps any previous generation. But with that freedom come anxiety and confusion. And sociologists …
Research and policy proposals to make sense of the teenage years tend to address concerns such as educational achievement, sexuality, drug abuse and suicide. Noted sociologist and University of Notre Dame professor Christian Smith has spent much of his career delving into a curiously overlooked aspect of teenage life — religion. His research offers insights into teenage beliefs while addressing common questions from parents and youth pastors: Do today’s teens remain loyal to their parents’ faith? Are they abandoning traditional religious institutions to search for a newer, more “authentic” spirituality?
