Latter-day Saint Life

Why Millennials Were Built for Religion (+ Why We Need It More Than We Realize)

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"Religion just isn’t cool anymore," Greg Trimble writes for the Deseret NewsIt's our modern-day irony—so many Millennials see religion as stifling or judgmental andfeel misunderstood at church, while the one thing that couldhelp them fulfill their high ideals and feel a deeper connection with others, the world, and the divine is, in fact, religion.

As Trimble points out, the word "religion" comes from a Latin word meaning "to re-bind" or "to re-connect." In our world of online and digital connectivity, where we can have thousands of online "friends" whose interaction with us is limited to a like or the occasional comment, the need to reconnect with physicality, communities, friends, families, and God is more important than ever before.

Yet, with social anxiety, depression, and disconnectedness on the rise, so many of us first turn to Google to answer our most intimate questions. As Trimble notes, "The world began to rely on another god for answers to their deepest questions. The embodiment of this new god took the shape of a giant web. The World Wide Web. . . . We slowly became like those knowledgeable Greeks who were 'ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.' We became like the people of Athens whom Paul described as spending 'their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.'"

He continues:

"Meanwhile, the wisest and steadiest of voices have been pushed into the background, and the concept of religion — or binding and connecting with an unseen historical figure from the past — becomes more and more unbelievable.

"And what a sad, sad thing that is. Because millennials have a heart for causes. We have a heart for helping people. We have a heart for religion … for reconciliation, and for loving others. Only the world and its competing voices have told them that we’re too smart, too enlightened and too educated for that kind of nonsense.

"Millennials were built for religion. Their hearts were built for and to align with the cause of Christ more so than any other generation I’ve ever studied."

The simple solution to so much of the turmoil Millennials now experience, as Trimble notes, is to "come unto Christ"—to find a purpose that runs deeper than this life. And by coming to Christ, we will be drawn into His community—into a vast network of flawed, broken, and imperfect people, but ones who are trying to love, trying to uplift, trying to serve, and trying to connect with something larger than themselves.

Lead image from Getty Images

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