Boomers 'Boomerang' Back To Faith

By >Michael Thompson, Contributing writer

Baby boomers who are finding faith often are called "baby boomerangs" because they are not making new discoveries. Rather, they are going back to where they started.

Some 96 percent had religious instruction during their early years, writes syndicated columnist Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries International.

Why did so many baby boomers make an exodus from faith? Anderson and other analysts cite two main reasons.

First, religion had less meaning as modern society became more secular. Second, modern communications multiplied the number of world views that a boomer encounters.

Time magazine reported a decade ago on religion and baby boomers. Some 4 in 10 boomers were dropouts from formal religion, but about half of them were returning to religious practice, said Wade Clark Roof, a sociologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Why have so many boomers made a pilgrimage back to religion? Theories abound. The most common explanation is that a midlife crisis often comes into play. A boomer's youthful anticipation develops into anxiety. Questions arise: Is this all there is to life? Has moderate wealth made me happier? Has technology improved my quality of life? Who will care for me in my old age? Will anyone care for me?

This religion isn't their grandparents' religion. Roof asserts that even while boomers return to God, they are "usually less tied to tradition and less dependable as church members than the loyalists. They also are more liberal, which deepens rifts over issues like abortion and homosexuality."

But Roof explores only one side of the equation. Anderson notes that millions of boomers who have become born-again evangelicals are "loyalists" who are rooted strongly in tradition, to the point where political candidates target them for support. Groups such as Promise Keepers, which reaches out to men, are religiously fundamental.

Most boomers who strayed during their younger years did not become hopeless atheists. Some turned to social activity as their god, joining discussion groups and self-help groups. Others turned to transcendental meditation, especially after George Harrison of the Beatles picked up a sitar and started to pluck away.

Baby boomers are "grazers at a spiritual smorgasbord" who often attend more than one house of worship, says David Kinnaman of Barna Research Group in Ventura, Calif. He is vice president of a market research firm that specializes in faith and culture.

"They're not loyal to specific churches like their parents were, and they don't want to just sit there as passive participants," Kinnaman says. "They want it to be interactive."

Anderson welcomes a return to religion among boomers, but he is dismayed by what he perceives as a shallow aspect.

"This have-it-your-way, salad-bar spirituality has been high on choices and options but low on spiritual commitment," he says. "Although there are those who try to follow the demanding precepts of traditional religion, most baby boomers find refreshment in a vague religiosity which does not interfere in any way with how they live."