Will Boomers
return to church?
The jury is still
out on that. But never say never because Boomers do like to buck the trends,
says a recent Christian Century article by Janice Lloyd.
Vern Bengston, a professor emeritus of
gerontology recently published “Families and Faith” based on a 35 year, six
generation longitudinal study of families in California. Bengston says that as we age, we have more
time to consider the meaning of our lives.
We also recognize the march of mortality as friends get sick and die and
grandchildren ask deep questions.
The “nones,” those
with no traditional religious affiliation are growing but they are a varied
group. Some are anti-religious but
others are still searching for a religious group that fits their experience.
Bengston is an
example of someone who has made a shift toward religion late in life.
“ I came from
a conservative religious family. When I started to question my faith during
college, my mother said if she had to do so she would pick Jesus over me. She
ended up rejecting me. It broke her heart and mine. I was an atheist for 35
years. But when I retired, I walked into a progressive church on Easter Sunday,
heard the choir singing and was utterly surprised by joy, as C.S. Lewis
described his own later-life religious experience. I haven’t stopped going to
church. If there is a heaven and if my mother is there, I think she’d say “I
told you so.”
