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Conversion, deconversion, and disenagement

Conversion, deconversion, and disenagement. Deconversion: move from one religion to another (But how about becoming skeptics, agnostics, or atheists?) Disengagment: detach from mainstream religion What are the similarities and difference between deconversion and disengagement?. Current trend.

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Conversion, deconversion, and disenagement

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  1. Conversion, deconversion, and disenagement

  2. Deconversion: move from one religion to another (But how about becoming skeptics, agnostics, or atheists?) • Disengagment: detach from mainstream religion • What are the similarities and difference between deconversion and disengagement?

  3. Current trend • Chaves (2011): Religious trends in US • The portion of Americans who never attend church has increased from 13% in 1990 to 22% in 2008. • Fewer people grow up in a religious household (from 70% for those born before 1900 to about 45% born after 1970) • Parental factor is crucial (Vaidyanthan, 2011)

  4. Seth grew in a Christian family in Oklahoma • Nothing made sense when getting older • God in the OT condones rape and genocide • Oral Roberts University: God would like Oral Roberts unless he gets $1 million

  5. Losing my religion and found peace • Lobdell, W. (2009). Losing my religion: How I lost my faith reporting on religion in America and found unexpected peace. New York: Harper. • Dr. William Lobdellwas a Christian who investigated the Catholic sex abuse cases. He reported that in one case a mother sent her daughter to a Catholic retreat camp. The young girl was raped by a group of priests and was pregnant. • The church told the mother that her daughter was a “bad” girl, and then covered this up by sending the young girl out of the country.

  6. He also reported that he attended a church meeting. In the meeting the members voted to name a church after an abusing priest (The priest had admitted the crime). A policeman was among the audience. He stood up and yelled, “I am a cop. I see criminals every day. Shame on you! All of you are Christians. But no one ever mentioned the victims. And now you want to name a church after a criminal!” • Dr. William Lobdelldescribed that this experience is his “road to Damascus” (in a reversed fashion). Later he lost his religion and found “unexpected peace.”

  7. You lost me • The author of “Unchristian” • Use empirical data and statistical methods, not just guessing or use a preconceived theory • 18-29 years old

  8. Three types of devonversion or disengagement • Nomads: • wander around the church and maintain their church connections and relationships • not fully committed, inconsistent • Prodigal • Deny the faith for various reasons • e.g. sexual conducts, intellectual challenges • 4 out of 5 evangelicals have sex, just like the general population • Exile • Like Daniel, wants to be faithful to God in “Babylon” (a non-Christian culture) • would like to transform the culture, but without support from the church.

  9. Is college a faith killer? • No. The tendency of deconversion happens around the senior year of high school. • About 60 percent of young people who went to church as teens drop out after high school. • Christians are too confident that they know the answers (52%) • Churches are out of step with the science world we live in (41%) • Christianity is anti-science (34%) • I have turned off by the creation-evolution debate (34%) • Christianity makes complex things simple (29%) • Christianity is anti-intellectual (26%)

  10. Recent study • Yu & Hui (2014): Top 10 predictors of deconversion and disengagement • Most are related to church experience • Two are about psychological factors (stimulation and universalism) • One is an intellectual issue (Creationism)

  11. Assignment • Talk to a person who changed his religious belief (e.g. from Christian to Buddhist, from Hindu to Christian, from Christian to atheist…etc.) about his or her deconversion experience. • Do not debate with him or her. Just listen and try to understand his or her thought process. • What are the reasons of his or her deconversion? Intellectual? Life crisis? • Present your findings in class

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