THE ATHEIST BIGOTRY OF LOW EXPECTATIONS (via mc):

An Inspired Strategy: Is Religion a Tonic for Kids? You Better Believe It, Say Teens and Scholars (Laura Sessions Stepp, March 21, 2004, Washington Post)

Late last year, a commission convened by Dartmouth Medical School, among others, studied years of research on kids, including brain-imaging studies, and concluded that young people who are religious are better off in significant ways than their secular peers. They are less likely than nonbelievers to smoke and drink and more likely to eat well; less likely to commit crimes and more likely to wear seat belts; less likely to be depressed and more likely to be satisfied with their families and school.

"Religion has a unique net effect on adolescents above and beyond factors like race, parental education and family income," says Brad Wilcox, a University of Virginia sociologist and panel member. Poor children who are religious will do better than poor children who are not religious, he adds -- and in some cases better than nonreligious middle-class children.

Meanwhile, a social groundswell may be underway, as a larger proportion of teenagers than a decade ago say religion is important. In 2001, about three out of five teenagers said religion was "pretty important" or "very important" to them -- a significant increase, according to Child Trends, a research organization that analyzes federal data. The biggest jump occurred not among poor and unambitious teenagers -- the stereotyped believers -- but among young achievers who anticipated finishing four years of college. [...]

The commission members said that religious congregations benefit teenagers by affirming who they are, expecting a lot from them and giving them opportunities to show what they can do. These are not exactly earthshaking observations; as the panel noted, the same could be said of clubs, sports teams and other youth organizations (such as the YMCA, which helped fund the study). What sets religious groups apart, however -- and makes a surprisingly big difference to kids, according to the panel -- is that they promote a "direct personal relationship with the Divine." [...]

On Sundays you can find Kimbrey [Pierce, a Columbia high school senior,] and 100 or more young people hanging out at Glen Mar United Methodist Church, an Ellicott City congregation that doubled its membership in the 1980s and again in the 1990s and now counts 1,500 active members.

Senior pastor Anders Lunt realized long ago that the way to grow a church was to attract baby boomers and the way to attract boomers was through their kids. The church youth program took off six years ago when its first full-time youth director, D.C. Veale, was hired.

Veale, a bearded, Tolkienesque figure in his early thirties, recruited adults to help him with a struggling group of fewer than 20 regular members. Today he calls on about 30 adult volunteers to lead a youth choir, handbell choir and rock band, a video tech team, plays and scavenger hunts, Bible groups, community service projects and mission trips.

Youths also play major parts in more traditional worship, teaching Sunday school, reading scripture, and three times a year preaching sermons so popular that people squeeze in at the back of the sanctuary and spill out into the front hall.

Lunt has instructed his Howard County congregation that no place is off-limits to the young. When babies cry during a sermon, he has been known to stop mid-sentence to assure parents it's okay.

"I have been in churches where there are no children," the congenial, sandy-haired pastor will say, "and those are awful places."

The corollary, of course, is that in the secularized nations of Europe, people expect nothing of themselves, everything of government, and there are no children--those are increasingly awful places.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 21, 2004 10:02 AM