On October 14, Steve Smith, former director of CAPS, presented at the GE Inspiring Teaching Workshop on why many young adults struggle with questions of faith. Smith placed the question within the larger context of research on emerging adulthood and the unique characteristics of “Gen Z.”
This generation of students is unique in many ways from previous generations. As a whole, young people in America today are racially and ethnically more diverse. They are also more diverse in their expression of sexual identity, and they are “digital natives” with no memory of the time before smartphones. Furthermore, Gen Z adults are more likely to support progressive social views and are on track to be the best-educated generation in history. This generation also tends to be less religiously affiliated.
Gen Z members of the Church follow some of these national trends. They tend to have more progressive views than the Church as a whole and can be more open to questioning. Because of this, young adult members may have more of a tendency to wonder if they fit and, more than ever, they can affiliate with people they might perceive to be more like-minded. Mental health challenges in the form of anxiety and depression afflict young members of the Church just as they do the population at large and this too can impact their ability to feel at home in the Church.
Dr. Smith asked, what can we do to help? He urged the participants of the workshop to start by suspending assumptions that questioning is necessarily evidence that the questioner is doing something wrong. Taking questions seriously and engaging with young adults, even if we must admit sometimes we do not ourselves have the answer is important. Helping students avoid an either/or type logic can foster a more nuanced understanding. We need to do what we can to help students experience peace as this allows for a dialogue to continue as they (and we) continue to work on our faith and our understanding.
For a recording of the workshop, click the below button.