Jana Reiss’ – Millenials/Church Changes

Fascinating observations! The church is changing … but maybe not enough … and maybe no amount of change would be enough for a generation that is just not that into bureaucracy and institutional loyalty.

Excellent article.

In the Book of Mormon, it describes Alma, Jr.’s generation as unfaithful. When you look at the overall socio-political situation of the time, however, it could be argued that they just didn’t see things the way their parents and grandparents did – that their worlds simply were so different that it made it hard for the new generation to accept and buy into the previous paradigm.

I see that right now – and, to a degree, from the 60’s. My kids just see the world very differently than my and my parents’ generations. I see it as a wonderful thing, but it is hard for organizations to see it that way – especially those led by people 2-3 generations removed from my kids’ generations.

I see radical changes coming, since I believe they are necessary, but I am not willing to bet on the timeline.

I am on the very tail end of what are normally considered the Millennials. For me, the recent changes have made it easier for me to be “active”. Before the change to the 2-hour block, I was only attending sacrament meeting. After the change, I figured I could make it through just one more hour, so now I guess I’m technically fully active again. None of the changes have helped with my faith crisis, but they have temporarily delayed my slide into inactivity by making it easier to stay. It also gives me some hope that other things can change in the near future.

The generational differences with church leadership are very real. Watching conference I sometimes joke that the general authorities don’t even speak the same language as me, since they use a WW2-era dialect of English. As much as they try to be relatable, it’s very clear that they really don’t understand me, and I don’t understand them.

I think major change is inevitable. Even in the last few years I’ve been at BYU, I’ve noticed some significant changes in the culture. Students are becoming much more open about expressing pro-LGBT and feminist views. I want to be optimistic about the timeline. I think there will be many big changes within the next ten years or so. I think the church is already at a critical point where it needs to decide just how much it is willing to change to keep young people in the church.

This is a great perspective from a Millenial — I have one question — can you give examples of WWII English, and what the equivalent would be if the language was updated?

I think major change is inevitable. Even in the last few years I’ve been at BYU, I’ve noticed some significant changes in the culture. Students are becoming much more open about expressing pro-LGBT and feminist views. I want to be optimistic about the timeline. I think there will be many big changes within the next ten years or so. I think the church is already at a critical point where it needs to decide just how much it is willing to change to keep young people in the church.

I am the parent of four children who have graduated from or are currently enrolled at BYU (I’m including the one on a mission who did attend a year before his mission). I see what you’re saying, and I’m not sure that people who are not somewhat intimately involved with BYU see it. Nor do I think that some people realize how influential BYU is on church culture or how much it is a model of church culture (meaning what’s happening at BYU is what’s happening churchwide). And it’s not only the students at BYU who are changing, faculty and staff are also changing.

This is a great perspective from a Millenial — I have one question — can you give examples of WWII English, and what the equivalent would be if the language was updated?

Some small things that come to mind are pronouncing “wh” as “hw” as in the word “white” and using the word “whom”. My grandparents talk like that, but none of my peers do. There are also some words they use that are not common anymore, though I can’t think of specific examples off the top of my head. Sometimes during conference I need to consult the dictionary… Also, a lot of grammar has changed. Many of the classic rules from The Elements of Style are more or less obsolete with my generation, much to the dismay of English teachers.

These differences don’t have a huge effect on intelligibility, but they are a clear signal that we come from very different eras.

https://bycommonconsent.com/2019/06/19/book-review-jana-riess-the-next-mormons/#more-109181

Some quotes from the book review on common consent:

though church leaders have long worried about the corrupting influence of college campuses, it turns out that more education correlates with greater church retention and even orthodoxy. (The one exception cited is women with an advanced academic degree, who are actually more likely to leave, see pp. 106–107.)

I wonder if the type of women that might aspire to advanced degrees might be a poor fit for the church or if their experience in the church while working for and after attaining an advanced degree might make the church an increasing poor fit for them. Probably a mixture of both.

the statement “The LDS First Presidency members and apostles are God’s prophets on the earth today” has full confidence from 67% of Boomer/Silents, 55% of GenXers, and 53% of Millennials (p. 19).

Sounds like one third of the adult membership of any given US ward is not fully confident on that particular truth claim.

“Why does women’s religious leadership matter? … [W]omen who attend congregations in which women make up at least half of the religious leadership have higher levels of religious belief, identity, and ‘efficacy’ (confidence that their opinions matter in their congregations) than other women. This effect is not limited to how women feel and behave religiously, but extends to other areas of their lives. For example, the presence of women as religious leaders in female respondents’ childhoods contributed to better educational and socioeconomic outcomes for those women as adults, even after controlling for other factors. The positive results were particularly marked for women with more liberal theological and political views—the very ones who may be, in Mormonism at least, more likely to simply leave the church than to continue to chafe at restrictions they feel within it.” (100)

Women in leadership positions can be important developmentally for girls as they grow. However the more voice women are given the more they may use that voice to do something other than echo what the current male power structure tells them. The girls that need strong female voices the most would likely grow into the type of women that would find life in the church unfulfilling. Do we continue to clip their wings or do we give them the tools that they need to make changes to our organization or fly away as their perogative.

“Statistically, single people are more likely to leave Mormonism or become inactive than married people” (81) … Single members are made to feel that they genuinely don’t matter as much in the church and, further, that their entire lives are inferior—an unhappy prelude to a more joyous, realized life with spouse and children, which we’re told in the church is our raison d’être.

We do seem to place some uneccessary organizational and cultural limits on how much single people can contribute at church. But this appears to be bigger than that. Whatever a single person accomplishes in life is seen to be preparatory to the real divine labor of married life. When you elevate one group or demographic, you also diminish all other demographics.

My husband talks to other managers and work, no one knows how to assimilate Millennial style.

I teach a lot of millenials. They are on their own schedule. You never know if they will be in class or not. We were trained in how to relate to them, and here were a few things I remember:

1. They need regular, immediate feedback.

This is apparently due to all the liking and instant responding/commenting they get on social media.

2. A text thanking them is as meaningful to them as a card or a letter or face to face expression of appreciation.

3. They aren’t loyal to any employer. They say their parent’s loyalty rewarded with layoffs and hardship, so they tend to skip around jobs a lot.

4. They aren’t as interested in talking face to face as the older generation.

5. They don’t have a sense of duty or loyalty like say, Baby Boomers (not criticizing, just describing).

6. They have so much information coming at them, if they aren’t interested in something, they just don’t answer (ghosting), which some

baby boomers find offensive and disrespectful.

I am noticing other trends…note, these are trends, so please don’t call me out for making uncategorical statements…but I have seen a lot of millenials go through my classes over the last few years…

1. Regardless of political affiliation, they tend to have a concern for the environment.

2. There are trends toward minimalism rather than consumerism.

3. They tend to want to eat healthily, and have compassion for pigs, chickens, cows, and other sources of meat. They would rather all things be plant-based due to the lack of humanity they perceive in slaughter houses.

I have seen a kind of disrespect in their face to face interactions

a) they think nothing of pulling out their phone in the middle of a conversation and apparently ignoring you, or multi-tasking. But it seems like ignoring to me.

b) had one just stand up and leave in the middle of a statement I was making to him as we sat in front of the television. I had mentioned an old rock group the star of a video resembled. He replied, “I don’t know any of those people”. Then he left as I was explaining who they are, and then called to another person about whether they wanted to go do something. While I sat there flabbergasted.

c) They think us older generations are technologically illiterate.

d) with some of them, I find it hard to make any kind of a meaningful personal connection. Others, it’s fine.

e) they tend to be good at figuring out how to use poorly designed user interfaces on computers and phones. My son, 16 (probably not a millenial, but has features in common) is good at this. He’s helped me about of about 3 binds in the last 4 months when the user interface made no sense to me. He had to take some time to figure it out, but also found it annoying that I asked him.