The Young and the Restless? The Liberalization of Young Evangelicals

• Published in: Journal for the scientific study of religion Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 517 - 532
• Main Author: Farrell, Justin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.09.2011; Wiley Subscription Services; Wiley; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adulthood; Age differences; Attitudes; Christianity; Conservatism; Contemporary period; emerging adulthood; Ethics; Ethnicity; evangelical; Evangelicalism; Evangelism; General subjects; History and sciences of religions; Identity; Liberalism; Liberalization; Life Stage Transitions; Marriage; Moral authority; Morality; Perceptions; politics; Pornography; Premarital Sex; Protestants; Religion; Religious traditions; Same sex marriage; sexuality; Sociological studies; Theology; U.S.A; Youth; United States of America; Evangelical; Youth; Politics; Sociology of religion; Sexuality
• ISSN: 0021-8294; 1468-5906
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5906.2011.01589.x

This study examines popular and scholarly perceptions that young American evangelicals are becoming more liberal than older evangelicals. Young evangelicals are more likely to have more liberal attitudes on same-sex marriage, premarital sex, cohabitating, and pornography, but not abortion. This analysis is situated within the theoretical context of emerging adulthood, and considers higher education, delayed marriage, and shifts in moral authority as potential mediating factors accounting for age differences. A new method for ope rationalizing evangelical as a religious identity is suggested and three different classification schemes are examined: religious tradition, self-identified evangelicals, and theologically conservative Protestants. The data come from the 2006 Panel Study of American Religion and Ethnicity.