I listened to this very interesting Radio West broadcast recently all about a survey given to millennials mormons on what they believe and how it could shape the future of the religion. A few highlights were:
1) Millenial Mo's still have very high rates of belief in the literal claims. Only 17 percent say they actually have doubt of the truthfulness. They still believe in BOA, and historicity of mormon scripture, etc.
2) The majority still believe that the pre-1978 practices of restriction to blacks was inspired. (which if true leads me to wonder what that implication of that really means. Why do they think god would want to change his mind? Are millenials quietly just as racist as previous generations just not as impolite?)
3) The podcast also brings up the Nov 2015 policy change (lgbtq families) and that there will be deep ramifications for the future. The shunning and declaring certain people to be apostates who haven't declared apostasy, is unsettling. (the great mistake that the leadership made <in my view> is that they didn't try to explain their viewpoint. It was all done quietly, just a switch in the CHOI, They didn't show any data of children saying their parents were bad, or what effects lgbtq acceptance has on children. They just pretended that no one thinks for themselves and that members will just obey). Members should have had a voice in deciding who is mormon and who isn't.
4) The podcast also mentions that the biggest reason millennials reported that they are dissatisfied. It is that the church is too judgmental. That the glorious 1950s post WW2 religious adherence and nostalgia has waned in all churches (especially among catholics). Families have shrunk, marriages have declined. And mormondom's focus on families may not taste as well now to various kinds of people that are in untraditional situations. Far different than the in years past.

So what do you think? Is the leadership tuned into the needs of millenials and what they will want in future decades?

“Is the leadership tuned into the needs of millenials and what they will want in future decades?”

How could these 80-year-old spring chickens not be?

I think the survey means that if a millennial is still in the church then they are brainwashed. 17% stay for social reasons. Kids born into other cults should be similarly afflicted.

My intuition tells me there is a higher rate than 17% who suspect TSCC isn't what it's hyped to be. It makes me wonder who comes up with these numbers. Still, 17% is higher perhaps than what it may have been 20-30 years ago. I can't help but believe there are more Millenials who've left the morg than who've stayed.

If TSCC is only counting the ones who've stayed then that's all who are left to count.

The rest are already out.

Add, there's a dumbing down of the intelligentsia inside the cult. When all that is left are yes people who go along to get along, the critical thinking has been done and analytical thinkers as well as the unorthodox have already found the exit signs.

TSCC is in danger of annihilating itself from within because it's suffocating in its own delusion.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2019 10:38AM by Amyjo.

Exactly. The 17% figure must apply to a small subset of millennial Mormons.

The church claims 15 million members but the number who are active believers is less than a third of that. Which means that somewhere north of 67% are already non-believers. The vast majority of Millennials, like Mormons in general, have already left.

The 17% who doubt must therefore apply to minority of TBM millennials who remain active.

The Millennial Mormons I interact with seem most concerned with the extreme judgementalism and the cultish emphasis on conformity.

Very true, and this was the ending segment of the podcast that judgmentalism is number one reason people report leaving. The question naturally follows what can be done about it? It's complex problem that doesn't seem to have an answer. And the fact that the GA's don't have the lived experience of feeling marganilized (because they've always had things go their way), they probably don't understand. They sit in their offices and hear presentations all day about the big bad world. And perhaps it is seen as some sort of entertainment, it's their country club. As evidenced and portrayed in the mormon-wiki-leaks videos.

People don't feel welcome in increasing numbers and it doesn't bode well.

active Mormons is going to be heavily skewed in the direction of responses that you would expect from people who are still drinking the Kool-Aid. The responses seem to indicate that the respondents have not even really thought about anything and probably are generally not familiar with the content of the essays that the church itself has published in recent years. Anyone who has no questions about the BoA, is just a mindless follower/repeater.

I would be interested in knowing the activity rates of BIC millennials vs. the activity rates of Baby Boomer BICs when they were at the same age.

I would also be curious to know the rate of millennial conversions vs. the rate of baby boomer conversions at comparable ages. (For example, how many baby boomers were joining when they were between the ages of 21~30 years old versus the number of millennials who convert when they're in the same age bracket.)

I cannot even fathom today's Millenial generation converting to Mormonism or the generation after. I think that's the Z generation, otherwise known as Centennials.

Generation Z will be even more free thinking and diverse as speculated in the podcast. They have an even different view of authority from what the lost generation and the boomers displayed. For them they will want GA's that listen to their concerns. That are personable. Where as previous generations settled for austere men in big black suits (who knew everything) that only showed up twice a year.

The push for women in leadership will likely get stronger as well.

Yessiree dedee. The Times. They are a changin'.