religion – Culture Critically

Conclusion: The value of experience in discussing religious practice

by: James N. Gilmore, Malaysia Barr, Eliza Moore, Marie Quaranta

Throughout this series, we have been using self-reflective approaches to describe different experiences with religious practice. Rather than offering broader analyses of young adults, we’ve focused on the particulars of our individual experiences. Our inspiration here was, in part, Raymond Williams’s essay “Culture is Ordinary,” which thinks about the concept of culture as much from Williams’s own adolescence as it does from the more abstract vantage point of Marxism’s development

Our goal was to explore the value of individuality and experience in writing about cultural practice, drawing from our own histories, anecdotes, and moments of revelation to “make sense of” difficult ideas about how people negotiate their religious identities in early adulthood through different institutions. Through writing these posts and sharing them with one another, we have affirmed for ourselves the value of using our own lives as the basis of critical engagement with the institutions we live through.

In developing these posts, we also landed on a triad of culture-subculture-counterculture to help distinguish how these cultural practices related to each other. We positioned institutional churches as a dominant “culture,” recognizing the power many of them still hold and the their important place in the lives of many religious people. Our subcultural and countercultural practices exist, then, in relation to the institutional church, which becomes positioned at the center of how religious practice is represented and understood. This triangle of terms is interrelated; each depends on the other and helps demonstrate something of the complexity of cultural practices.

Finally, we realized the through line across the three posts was community, and the ways human relationships—for better or for worse—were crucial factors in shaping what kind of religious practices and communities people wanted to belong to. Regardless of where one is located in this triad—and, indeed, there are certainly many other subcultures and countercultures, not to mention other sorts of cultures we simply didn’t have the opportunity to consider—it seems that these efforts at creating community were, for us, primary drivers in what sustained religious belonging.

We started this series with a discussion about how religion helps people make sense of life and helps create a structure of meaning to the world. While it certainly does these things in many ways, a common thread we’ve identified is that the communal bonds formed through cultural practice are key for young adults looking for belonging. This series was extremely rewarding to produce, as it allowed us a unique opportunity to see what we could do with reflecting on very meaningful elements of our lives and stitch them together into a broader understanding of how people navigate religious communities as a form of culture.

Astrology Rising: Why young people are drawn to the stars

by Marie Quaranta

The decline in religion is far more than a statistic. Even though the prevalence of people practicing religion around the world has taken a hit it is not by coincidence or accident. While the motivations for people to leave an organized religion are varied, here is my own. I grew up in a Catholic household. Some might associate this with very strict and conservative parents, however that was far from how I was raised. My mother was something of a hippie who was forced into Catholic school by her Hungarian immigrant parents. Even though she rebelled against religion at a young age she always seemed to come back to it and wanted the same for her children. My mother’s slogan was always, “I’d rather my children rebel against the church than me!” As such, my siblings and I were caravanned to church every Sunday and bible study each Wednesday. I hated it but at least my best friend was also forced to be there.

Everything changed when my parents got divorced. Suddenly my mother also dreaded going to mass each Sunday. We no longer stayed after mass to chat with people and make the rounds. As a child this was amazing: it meant we got to go home and watch cartoons together. However, as I got older my mother opened up about how the entire church shunned her when news of her divorce spread. You would think she had killed her husband the way people looked at her. Other married women shuffled away from her as if her divorce would wear off on them.

I soon began to resent these people who treated my mother so poorly. How could someone preach love and acceptance and then turn their back on one another? I no longer found the teachings to be meaningful, but rather hypocritical. Everything that was preached seemed so out of touch with the way people acted. We must, so this logic went, love thy neighbor but at the same time refuse to accept divorced persons and any member of the LGBTQ+ as a part of our community. Right after my confirmation, an official sacrament accepting responsibility for your faith and destiny, I stopped attending mass, as did the rest of my family.

My family began new traditions instead. It was mandatory that everyone was home on Sunday afternoon and evening to spend time with family. My mother never had to enforce this rule, it was just something we were all happy to do. We had deep conversations at dinner about politics, what we believed in, and our aspirations in life. My family replaced a church service with communing together over food and positivity.

Soon my sister and I became interested in astrology. We loved figuring out what our charts meant and how it could be reflected in our day to day lives. We got the rest of our family involved, and surprisingly they all loved it. It seemed like the cosmic powers somehow really did understand all of us. For my family, astrology became, in a sense, countercultural. It didn’t take the place of religion or subvert it in the way some countercultures do, but it opened up an alternate space, a way of thinking about the world that didn’t reproduce the hypocrisies of organized churchgoing. It seemed like many other people began to see the merits of astrology. I wondered if this had something to do with the growing distrust and distaste for organized religion. For me, astrology did not provide a substitute for religion but rather another way of thinking about the world without the hypocrisy of the institutional church. For the rest of this paper I will try to process why so many people, especially youth like myself, have turned away from institutional forms of religion and turned to their own definition of spirituality and astrology.

Church attendance has been steadily declining in the United States. The trend began long before I, a member of Gen Z, made the switch. Each generation in the U.S. has steadily become less religiously affiliated starting with the Silent Generation. The primary shift away from religion could be attributed to Baby Boomers and some early Gen X growing up in the 70s alongside the final wave of hippie culture. The U.S. was ripe with protest and challenging traditional beliefs at this time. Women, African Americans, Native Americans, the LGBTQ+, and so many more marginalized groups were fighting for equality and acceptance. Anti War sentiments were strong and there began to be a call to action to save the environment. Organized religion did not make many progressive changes at the time. In fact, societal progression often made organized religion take deeper roots in their conservative traditional mindset. There are a lot of parallels between the protest and activism of the 1970s and the 2010s. The years were ripe with political unrest, social movements, distrust in government, and calls for environmental progress. This set the stage for a similar rebellion against organized religion, as institutions of all sorts were not seen as trustworthy, and indeed as interfering with the lives of people.

So why astrology? What would make young people turn to the stars? I can dissect this choice into a few reasons, somewhat based on my own personal experience. To begin, the rise in popularity of astrology was never meant to replace organized religion. The two are not mutually exclusive. However, younger generations may be drawn to astrology over a structured church atmosphere because it is open and accepting. There is no set rule of how to act, look, or practice astrology. You would not be considered a ‘bad’ follower of astrology if you only like to look at your horoscope once a month or whenever it comes up in conversation. People are free to be themselves and let the spirituality of astrology turn into whatever they need. As Malaysia and Eliza noted in their posts, one of the greatest strengths of organized religion is the community it provides. That community is great for those who have not been exiled or disenfranchised from it, like with my own mother. I have not felt welcomed in my church since the day I realized the hidden cruelness of those within the community. This experience is not just mine; it is very common for people who do not fit into the traditional boxes presented by rigid religions.

To replace the community traditional organized religion provided, young people turned to one of the things they know best: technology. Social media has begun a place to form groups of many kinds, and it has given a place for astrology lovers to unite. These short snippets of astrology can easily fit into everyday life without much strain or feeling like a chore. Instead, they have been made to be fun and engaging by youths for youths. Organized religion which seems so often arbitrarily based on the words of an ancient dead man makes turning to the stars no longer seem so far fetched.

Many Instagram pages are dedicated to making aesthetically pleasing astrology posts. Some accounts take a more factual approach with daily readings and explanations of what mercury being in retrograde actually means. The Instagram platform has become a place for astrology experts to share their knowledge and reach millions of people. There are a plethora of smaller accounts posting this content but some of the largest are @horoscopes.astrology (358 K followers), @themoontarot (952K followers), and @costarastrology (1.9 M followers). CoStar’s bio perfectly describes what accounts like this offer: a “hyper-personalized, social astrology experience.” Each facet of your chart is explored and explained on a regular basis to provide guidance, clarity, and goals. Accounts like these are for more of the dedicated practitioners of astrology who want to understand how stars and planets interplay with everyday life.

On a less serious note, Gen Z’s love for memes has also taken a hold over astrology. Accounts like @thezodiacstea (1.2 M followers), @sanctuarywrld (1.3 M followers), and @glossyzodiac (4.9 M followers) are the leaders of this astrology subculture. By far the most popular @glossyzodiac, has combined popular culture, memes, and astrology to create an engaging comedic account that has inspired many others. The posts on @glossyzodiac include some of Gen Z’s fashion icons, music idols, and favorite childhood TV shows. The account has been able to respond quickly to trends because they are members of the generations making them. It is appealing to newcomers of astrology because zodiac signs are explained in comedic lighthearted terms rather than strict rules.

@Sanctuarywrld which seems to combine both memes and relatable content with highly meaningful posts. The post shown to the left demonstrates a comedic way to live your life in response to astrological events. They focus heavily on the astrological community, as seen by its location front and center on their highlight reels. Even if their account is lighthearted and whimsical, they have gone out of their way to support social movements like Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ rights.

Astrology can be easy, fast, and fun or it can be deep, meaningful, and spiritual. At the end of the day, the common thread is that astrology is whatever someone makes of it. A community is formed around the common interest in astrology that is accepting and open rather than judgemental and closed minded. Following the stars or looking at your horoscope does not have to be a chore or a negative aspect of life because there is no enforcement or leader higher than the rest. Everyone can be equals exploring what the world means and how it works together. The decline in church attendance and the rise of astrology in popular culture demonstrate, potentially, a shift in beliefs. There is a common trend, no matter the generation, of youth culture fighting back against dominant older cultures. These days, young people want open forums and fewer groundless rules. They want a short sweet interpretable message rather than a long meaning that is set in stone and repetitive. They want honesty and sincerity, not a group of people under the facade of a loving community. Astrology has become a rebuttal to everything that organized religion is not. In these ways, it serves as a countercultural site playing out across social networking platforms and other online and physical practices. Youth culture wants to look to the stars and the future rather than staying locked in our ancient past.

A Relational Approach to Religion: My Experience with a Christian Non-profit

by Eliza Moore, Communication major

Growing up in South Carolina, I have been around religion and the church my whole life. I attended church services weekly, usually supplemented with a youth group or other various activities. While I did not necessarily have a bad experience with the church, what drew me more to Christianity was a non-profit ministry organization called Young Life. I was drawn to Young Life from an early age and started attending in early middle school. I enjoyed that it was catered to my age and was more focused on events. From the music to the message, all of it was more simplistic and I was able to grasp what Jesus actually meant for me personally. The way messages were shared was more applicable to my life and was spoken in a way that made sense to me as a middle schooler. Each week, Young Life’s main event “club” has a short talk at the end about the story from the Bible. At the end of each club, a leader stands up and gives a “talk” which is essentially a brief message about a story in the Bible. They are written in simplistic terms so anyone is able to understand what the leader is trying to convey. At this age, I often left church confused and quite honestly found it boring. Young Life club was vastly different from anything I had experienced in a church service. Club talks helped me understand what the Bible said about Christianity because they were always spoken in terms I could understand and comprehend. They were also spoken by college-aged leaders that I felt more comfortable listening to than my older male preacher. I felt like I could be myself around them because they weren’t as far from my stage of life, and could empathize with things I was going through. They were inviting, approachable, and welcoming. I was always included and invited into what they were speaking about, something vastly different from what I experienced as a youth in the church.

I additionally became involved because it was inclusive and anyone from my school was able to attend. I became even more involved in high school, as I was continually welcomed into this community. I served at a camp for a summer and was active in the events. This helped develop a relationship-driven version of religion in my life because I had people surrounding me and guiding me into what I was searching for in religion: purpose. In a quest to find a sense of meaning in my life, I have found that a relational approach has been the most consequential in giving me a sense of purpose. In the church I heard about a distant God that did not have much involvement in my personal life. Young Life described Jesus as a person who pursued me and wanted to befriend me. This changed my entire view of religion.

The “relational approach” of Young Life is essentially to meet kids where they are. Whether this is in a lunchroom, or at a sporting event, Young Life leaders were present in the same places I was. Young Life provided me with people that pushed me to discover what my purpose was, and created environments where I could discuss and delve into my purpose with others.

My leaders were greatly involved in my life and served a large role in my personal faith. They came to my track meets, planned fun events for me, and went out of their way to spend time with me. This form of “religion” stood out to me compared to what I had experienced in the church because it was relationally driven. My experiences with the church were primarily hearing a sermon or message then leaving. This form of ritual communication didn’t stick with me throughout the week. I often left what I heard in church inside the building, making my religion defined to a Sunday. It boxed my narrow view of religion into one day a week. Young Life offered me friends that wanted to walk alongside me throughout the entire week, as I was told about a God who was not just present on Sundays.

This could be viewed as a “subcultural” as it is distinct from but related to the dominant cultural practices of Christianity. While Young Life is separate from the institutional church, it serves a supporting role in creating a subcultural space specifically for the youth.

Because of my positive experiences with Young Life in high school, I am now a volunteer leader at a local high school. My motivation behind becoming a leader is to show high schoolers the care and intention my leaders showed me, and hope to show them a less rigid Christianity than what is pushed in so many churches. With a team of other college leaders, I help plan, promote, and facilitate weekly events while building relationships with high schoolers within the school.

The most impactful element of being a volunteer leader thus far has been taking some of my high school friends to camp. Each year, Young Life camps across the nation host a week-long camp experience for high schoolers and middle schoolers to attend. While camp has many fun activities and games, the purpose of camp is to share the story of the gospel over the course of a week. This is executed through daily “clubs” that end with a message, each sequentially going through a section of the gospel story as the week goes on. I have found this approach to Christianity different from others because it introduces kids to the story of the Gospel while still showing them that life as a Christian can still be fun and exciting. Young Life camp is also leader-centered. The leaders run daily “cabin time” discussions after the “talks” that help answer kid’s questions and guide them through what the speaker talks about. The leader also guides activities and games, while building relationships with the kids in their cabin. My experience as a leader at camp was impactful because I feel like I was able to build deeper relationships with my high school friends and carry those relationships into their lives at home as well. Typically, religious-affiliated summer camps hire counselors that befriend campers throughout the summer, then go home to a different place. I have found Young Life camp to be effective because leaders continue to be a part of a camper’s high school experience after the week of camp is over. I was able to hear about the lives of certain kids, then continue to be invested in their life when we got home.

Young Life has a mission to explain the gospel story in terms that students will understand. While this is accomplished in how the speakers communicate, it is also accomplished through creating an environment that high schoolers feel comfortable in. I think Young Life’s approach to religion is different from most religious institutions because it involves having fun and doing things catered to what they enjoy. It doesn’t just push a particular agenda; it invites kids into an exciting and inviting atmosphere. I have found great value in how Young Life has emphasized relationships in how it approaches Christianity.

I spoke with some consistent attendants of Pickens High Young Life, the high school where I lead. I asked them why they were drawn to Young Life and why they kept coming back. The consistent theme that arose from these conversations was that they were drawn relational aspect of Young Life. One student said she attends regularly because has been able to “form relationships with people I can’t find anywhere else; they have become my family.” Another high schooler said she is drawn to Young Life because it is “a place I feel comfortable, I never feel too embarrassed to participate.” I think these statements emphasize the relational approach Young Life has to religion. It is structured around building a sense of community within the school.

I have found many Christian non-profits to be useful in coming alongside the church by accomplishing a mission for a specific audience. The relational approach of Young Life to accomplish their “mission” has shaped my view of religion and what role I want it to play in my life. While Young Life has not pushed me away from the institutional church, it has helped me to better understand what Christianity means to my personal faith and provided me with a sense of community within my school. I was given the space to have fun and be myself as well as the space to be vulnerable with other people from my school. Because Young Life had such a large impact on my life, I became a leader to show other high schoolers that religion isn’t necessarily a rigid, monotonous practice that I experienced in the church I attended. I now consider my approach to religion relational because of the influence Young Life has had on my life. Its subcultural space serves a unique purpose because it places value on how youth are able to connect and grow with each other in a quest for purpose.

Your Path: Religious Choice Points for the Young Adult

by Malaysia Barr

Growing up I remember sitting on my grandfather’s lap and feeling important. He is a deacon at our church and all deacons sit together in one section. I felt so special and knew from a young age that I wanted to be special like my grandfather.

As I got older, I began to take on more responsibilities in the church. I was in the youth choir, assistant youth Sunday school superintendent, and I was a junior usher. I sang in the choir from the age of 7 to 18, and I was the president from age 15. I loved the choir because it gave me a sense of belonging and all of my friends were in it. As assistant youth Sunday school superintendent–I was in charge of Sunday school activities. While in this position, I learned to speak and lead. I also learned that I have a passion for teaching, as I taught Sunday school on special days (like youth day). While I served as a junior usher, I learned the importance of serving others. Church for me was (and still is) a place of comfort, growth, and community. There was seldom a Sunday I missed, and most everyone I knew attended a church service every Sunday. I have so much love for many people in my church and met some of the most influential people there. I have also grown as a person there: spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Without it as a part of my foundation, I would not be the same person I am today. For many, church is a part of their weekly routine.

When I came to college, I did not have a secure church and life reflected that. I felt lost and I did not know who or where to turn to when things went wrong. My mental space was not the same and I honestly did not feel myself. After I found a church in Clemson, I started to see my love for church and community come back. This has allowed a newfound peace to come back into my life, something I greatly appreciate.

However, I have noticed that when I go back home to my home church I don’t view it the same. Maybe it’s because I am growing as a person and in my own personal relationship with Christ, but it was admittedly hard for me to get back into my church. I also see that in my church there is a demographic missing: young adults. Hardly anyone my age is in church and that makes it hard for me to want to be engaged some Sundays. I still go, but even this can be out of habit because it is somewhat expected of me. I know that if I do not go, my family would look at me crazily and probably say: “Malaysia if you’re not sick, you have to go to church. It’s only right.” And while my family has not had to say this to me- part of me knows that I’m going out of routine. Going to church on Sunday is something I’ve always done with no questions asked. But it’s not a bad thing! I do enjoy going to hear the sermon of the day and seeing members I have not seen in months. I know that this ritual is needed for me to keep the relationships I’ve made in church the same. The community I’ve made will always keep me coming back, whether I want to or not some days.

What strikes me as odd, though, is that I am not alone in feeling this way. Many of my peers (from Clemson and back home) feel that the church that once served them no longer does so. This is interesting to me for several reasons. One of the biggest is how can we (as the church and body of Christ) engage more young adults? Another reason is that in my personal journey as a Christian I questioned the traditions in my church and whether or not they aligned with Scripture. As I questioned this, I realized that this was normal- many people question routine things as they get older.

As I discussed the matter with some friends, common themes stood out:

As a young adult, finding yourself means omitting God in some cases.
Foundations will always be important, but branching out and building means more.
The collective traditions of the church do not serve the individual.

For theme one, it is important to emphasize that as a child becomes an adult- their expressions of themselves change from how their family sees them. From 18-25, when a person is a young adult, they are constantly trying to figure out who they are in the grand scheme of things. I can attest to this. When I was eighteen, I rebelled against my parents as I allowed what I perceived as my newfound adulthood to completely reprogram my way of thinking. I wanted nothing to do with what my parents had taught me. Instead, I wanted to forge my own path that included my own ideologies. I believe this is what many young people want. They want so badly to find their own way, they abandon those things that their parents had taught them. This could be the abandonment of a hairstyle, a food item, or something as deeply rooted as a religious mindset. Many young adults–as they want to pave their own distinctive way–decide to let go of their religious identities, which does not only include Christianity but any number of religions. Because Christianity is so deeply rooted in America and in the traditional American identity, it is no surprise that many young adults decide to reject the religion altogether. For some, this means rejecting the teaching that Sunday school, a private Christian school, or what their bedtime prayers taught them. This was not the case with me. As I entered college and truly began to navigate faith on my own, I believe that God used the Sunday school teachings I learned to help guide me and mold me as I became a young adult.

If theme one is about the rejection of childhood ideologies, then the second theme is about growing into oneself while still keeping adolescent lessons close. Now that I am a young college student who takes many courses, I often see what I did in high school as a foundation for what I am learning now. I took a statistics course my freshman year, and almost immediately saw an overlap in my high school precalculus class. What I learned back in high school has allowed me to branch out into my college courses. I believe that many young adults have a similar experience with faith. As they transition into college, many youths have various foundations (educational, familial, etc). One foundation could be religion. Some young adults spent lots of time in a church setting as they grew up. They know the ins and outs of how religion is supposed to work based on how it has been taught to them. However, as they transition into young adults and start their own journeys, this notion changes. They start to see more, experience more and become more and more individualized. This impacts how they worship and their relationship to their home church. With their foundations at the home church secure, the young adult only wants to branch out and build something of their own. This often manifests itself as the young person decreases regular attendance of their home church for another place of worship or completely severs ties with the church completely. This comes from their desire to branch out and build something of their own, even in terms of worship and faith.

Finally, some young adults feel that the traditions of church do not serve them as they get older. For many Christian denominations (Catholic, Baptist. Lutheran, Pentecostal, etc), there is an expected order of worship. This can look like kneeling, reciting a certain prayer, or having the choir all dress the same. Traditions are important in the church because it allows for the older generation to teach the younger generation. However, traditions become problematic when they refuse to adjust to the times. Most church traditions were instated when the church was instilled, and for many denominations, that goes back 100 years. However- culture has changed since the forming of the church. For the young adult, this manifests itself in their everyday lives. An example of this would be the music. Personally, I grew up in a small town predominantly black Baptist church. In this church, the music was what we call “old school worship”: hand-clapping, foot-stomping, organ playing music. And while this music is not bad at all, it makes it hard for a lot of the younger generation to want to be engaged because the music I know today is completely different from what my grandparents listened to. Another example of traditions becoming bad is the sermon itself. While the Sunday sermon is there to correct and encourage, sometimes it can hinder people and discourage them from coming. This is because some clergy members are only equipped to reach a certain demographic of people. Take for example the stereotypical strong, dominant, male pastor. He can easily relate to the issues that a man faces. But what about when a woman has an issue that has her on the verge of tears. How would he handle that? These two examples are just a few of the many ways traditions in church can be disheartening to young adults.

While some people feel that the traditions of the church are not useful, there are some who think the exact opposite. Many of the people I grew up with, still attend church to this day. And as we get older and reflect on our times in the youth choir- we see that the traditions of the church served us well. In my case, the church has helped me to”do as asked when asked”. This means that anytime I am called upon to lead, I’ll do it with a quickness because growing up in church taught me how to serve. Not only has it helped me in this way, it has also allowed me to help those younger than me. When I left for college and came back, my sister had taken a lot of my previous roles in church. Because I knew how to do them, I helped her to adapt to the newness of the position she was stepping into. This is not only in my case but in others. Some young adults lead service for the younger children in their church, helping them to grow in various ways.

Young adults face change every day. Whether it’s a change in music choice or workout schedule- change for the young adult is going to happen. With this change, comes the desire to branch out and be their own person. And they will do that, even if it means leaving their foundations. This constant negotiation of choosing what is important and not important will always affect the life of the young adult. It’s a normal process that all will go through, if not with religion, it could be anything else. In any case, individualism for the young adult is at the forefront of their being, and they will get it by any means necessary. For me, I think back to those times when I sat on my granddad’s lap in church- feeling big and strong. I felt individualized then because it was my choice to be with him. As it was then, it is my choice to remain as a churchgoer- because it strengthens my individualism. It makes me who I am, and helps me to evolve into who I want to be.