<p>Emerald, I can only speak for myself, and I'm not a big churchgoer. I've not had a lot of experience with people making me feel bad, or pressured. Maybe that's because the people I know do not attend the churches where there is a lot of prosthyletising. (sp?)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I like your Christ
I do not like your Christians
They are so unlike your Christ
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Um, yeah, that's the whole point, EK. :)</p>
<p>It's interesting. The main story is that religiosity (both self-reported belief, and actual practice) declines significantly for young adults as a group, but declines less for those who attend at least some college than for those who never enroll in college. Also, the phenomenon of college students "losing their faith" is much more rare than popular stereotypes suggest, and generally relates to risk factors that existed pre-college.</p>
<p>Um, yeah, that's the whole point, EK.</p>
<p>What it brings to mind to me- HH, is the strains that emphasize material wealth as proof of what "God wants them to have", I see little of the teachings of Jesus in those congregations.
<a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1533448-2,00.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1533448-2,00.html</a></p>
<p>The data, by the way, come mainly from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which involves repeated assessments over the period 1994-2002 with a nationally- representative base of about 21,000 young teens (initially, down to about 15,000 for the third set of interviews when they were in their mid-20s).</p>