WALSH: The Real Reason Young People Are Leaving The Church

I don’t know if I can still be considered a “young person” as I approach the age of 32, but at least I can say I have recent experience in being a young person. From that experience I know that young people tend to have two sets of qualities that seem to be in competition with each other.

On one hand, they can be frivolous, shallow, and easily distracted. On the other, they can be radical, militant, idealistic, revolutionary, eager to join a cause, and hungry for change. The Church has had so much trouble connecting with the younger demographics because it has tried to appeal to the former qualities. It has hoped to use bad rock music, a casual atmosphere, pop culture references, and a general spirit of irreverence and worldliness as a means to entice the next generation into the pews. It has exploited all of the worst and most transitory aspects of youth, and all it has done is alienate the very people it deformed itself to attract.