As religious Marshall Street protesters yell about flames and fornication, they brazenly broadcast a broad fallacy: millennials hate God.

Fueling the fire, a new Pew Research Center study found that millennials pray less often and are less likely to believe in God than older Americans. If that’s not enough, research found that only 27 percent of millennials attend weekly religious services, in contrast to 51 percent of the Silent and Greatest generations.

Yet, interestingly, I haven’t heard any religious protesters shouting about the study’s other major finding: despite religious disaffiliation, millennials are equally as spiritual as previous generations.

Still, many God-fearing Americans don’t think unaffiliated spirituality is enough. Many critics mistakenly equate young people’s failure to formally commit to a religious institution with a perceived failure to lead a meaningful life. Despite popular belief, young people do not skip Sunday service because they’d rather be sleeping. In reality, they create meaning elsewhere.

The Pew research findings also show that almost half of Generation Y feels a deep sense of wonder about the universe at least once a week. Plus, the majority of young people ponder the purpose of life and feel a strong sense of gratitude on a weekly basis, demonstrating that many of religion’s teachings can be found outside the institution.

Still, haters are going to hate. Today’s young people have been coined “the entitlement generation” and, to drive the point home, books like “Generation Me” equate individualism to the tenth circle of Hell. Critics claim Generation Y is too self-absorbed to commit to an institution that requires such reverence and selflessness as organized religion. Apparently, millennials worship iPhones and Beyoncé, not God.

However, what many fail to realize is that many millennials are drawn to spirituality because they want to dictate for themselves the lives they want to lead, instead of unquestioningly accepting the one religion prescribed for them. This doesn’t imply self-absorption, but self-exploration.

“Spirituality connects you with something beyond yourself. That’s why the narcissism argument is wrong because even if all you connect to is the cosmic forces within yourself, you are still being challenged to go beyond your little self,” said Joanne Punzo Waghorne, a professor and director of graduate studies in the religion department at Syracuse University.

For youth, religion doesn’t seem as pragmatic as it does ritualistic. Still, spirituality should not be seen as something inherently separate from religion, but as another method to cultivate the soul. Freedom to define spirituality for oneself is what makes it meaningful to many through purposeful actions. Meditation works. Volunteering works. Art works.

Those who practice spirituality are free of the restrictions, judgments and barriers that seem arbitrary to millennials and tend to weigh down organized religion. Shouldn’t God be more concerned with who we are — our compassion, motivations and contributions — than with tallying premarital partners?

This is why some young people may even feel more enlightened than many religious leaders who don’t share progressive social values. While boasting unconditional love under God, some religious institutions are known to historically shame out-of-wedlock mothers, condemn divorcees and deny equal rights.

The hypocrisy is blinding. One would expect institutions that project such high values to be champions for movements toward equality and inclusion. Unfortunately, religion often lags behind, emphasizing traditions while spirituality transcends these rules.

This gives young people the power to create customized spiritual identities based off of moral and ethical foundations common to a variety of faiths.

For youth, the holy path illuminated by religion, though tried and true, is not the only one with meaning. Many millennials have already moved on from obsessing over religion’s fine print to embrace spirituality — and they may be surprised to find that the lives they create for themselves look a lot like what religion had in mind all along.

Alison Gala is a senior public relations major and Spanish minor. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at aegala@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @alison_gala.

Published on November 30, 2015 at 11:48 pm