"The Spiritual Challenges of Our Youth"

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

Many years ago, I was sailing half a year on commercial ships engaged in worldwide trade and spending the other half of the year as a professor of nautical science at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. I did this for many years. I remember every year when a new class had been at the Academy for several months, some professors would grumble that “this group of midshipmen is terrible. They don’t know anything, and they are poor students as compared to past students.” (And this happened year after year.)

Well, this seems to be in keeping with what we hear about with every new generation from older generations. According to past generations, the new generation never seems to measure up. “They are spoiled and they just aren’t going to be able to cope,” – it is said.

Well, I have never agreed with these accusations. As far as I can tell, each new generation, albeit different than the previous ones, somehow manages to survive and even excel, and the world changes in profound ways – sometimes for the better.

After decades of doing a lot of other things in my life, I am back to teaching young folks again. This time at Nichols College in Dudley MA. I teach “Leadership” in the fall and “World Religions” in the spring. And yes – I do think Generation Z, as it is called, will succeed, and I believe they will again change the world – hopefully for the better.

That said, I do have my worries This generation, more than any other in the past, is buried by technology – especially by their cellphone and social media.

I usually have about 30 students in each of my classes. I can tell you just before class starts, and I look around the room, 100% of my students are sitting at their desk, looking at their phone. What are they doing? They are looking at their social media accounts. Yes – some of them use Facebook but nearly all of Generation Z uses TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. They look at these many hours a day. Once class starts, I do not allow any student to be on their phone. This is really tough for many students, and a lot of students always try to sneak a peek at their phone during class. Just as soon as the class is dismissed, and even before they leave the classroom, nearly every student checks their phone.

So, what are the students looking at? Mostly they are finding out what their friends are doing. Gen Z “posts” just about everything they do each day with pictures and descriptions. It doesn’t have to be important events in their lives – they post just anything that is happening to them. Surveys show that upwards of 80% of young people admit they are addicted to their phone and could not do without it. This tracks with what I see with my students. Most spend at least 6 hours a day on their phone – looking at information that is basically useless to them. For sure, this is something new for a whole generation, and it does concern me. Keep in mind, social media is saturated with ads, and it constantly sends information to the user using algorithms based on their past user history. This includes news information and opinions from other sources. (Explain).

This means that young people are constantly comparing themselves to their peers. In many cases this causes anxiety and depression particularly when others exaggerate what is happening to them, what they are accomplishing, or what they are buying, acquiring, or wearing. It is no surprise that the suicide rate among young people is higher than previous generations. The reason? Cellphones.

I think one of my major concerns with all of this is that this is contributing to Generation Z losing an important potential piece of themselves and this is their spiritual awareness. Remember what I have said in the past – there is a difference between spirituality and religion. Religion is a defined set of beliefs and practices with rules, doctrines, creeds and dogmas. Spirituality includes the idea of relationships with the mystery and interconnectedness of ourselves with each other, with life, and with our universe. To some, spirituality also includes a relationship with the divine or the sacred in some manner. (And some of us see the sacred in each other, in life, and in the universe as a whole.) To be sure, people can be both religious and spiritual – but many are not.

As I have said in the past, I think all humans exist in three dimensions: their body, their mind and their spirit. To be happy, a person must have a balance between these three. To be sure, the importance of these three differs in people and it changes throughout one’s life based on life experiences.

The problem as I see with Generation Z, is that all their time on social media consumes so much of their waking moments, it hinders their time spent in actual community with others. Students tell me they often prefer texting their friends or responding on social media rather than actually talking to their friends in person or by calling them on the telephone. In other words, Gen Z doesn’t use their cellphone as a telephone as often as it is used for texting and social media purposes.

All of this can alter their attention span as they are encouraged to look at one posting, then to the next, to the next in almost a frenzy. I can tell you, for sure, the attention span of young people is often very limited. I see this in class all the time. Students become so eager to check out the next social media post, they have difficulty focusing on the moment.

It takes time and effort and practice and personal ritual for any person to develop their own spirituality. It is a very personal thing. Can this be done in a church? Yes – but for some people like me it generally means long walks on the beaches of Cape Cod or a hike through the woods or some quiet time in meditation. If your main focus is urgently to check out the latest on your social media feed, it is very difficult to take the time needed to meditate, to pray, to go to church or to walk in nature and to be fully present in the moment.

Now – to be sure, interest in and the practice of religion and spirituality has changed throughout history depending on what is happening in the world. In the 16th century, for example, the Protestant Reformation introduced profound changes in how people viewed religion. Reformers broke with the iron grip of the Catholic Church and a host of splinter Christian religions formed based on what various individual leaders believed should be the main focus of Christianity.

Martin Luther established the Lutheran religion. He emphasized “justification through faith apart from works of law” as he said. This meant people would be “saved” (meaning they would go to heaven) based only on their faith in Jesus as the savior of the world. Nothing else was really that important. Rituals, practices and human actions, including charity, were just not considered as important.

John Calvin promoted the idea that “For those he foreknew he justified and those he justified, he glorified” – meaning before he created the world, God decided who would go to heaven and who would go to hell and there was nothing you could do about it. This was the idea of “predestination” and it found its way into the Puritan movement, the Presbyterian and eventually into Congregational churches – although they have radically changed their thinking on this in the last few centuries. Calvin saw no value in the world. His philosophy was that the world is merely the workshop of the devil.

And, from the Reformation, many other Christian movements formed. What this also did is it caused a lot of intellectuals in Europe to lose some or all of their faith in Christian ideas. Spirituality, for these people became less important or not important at all.

Curiously, most of the Protestant religions became less spiritual too. The emphasis was in the infallibility of the Bible. Where Catholics had intensely emphasized personal spirituality and a personal connection with God through rituals and sacraments – the Protestant religions emphasized absolute adherence to the Bible which then dictated how a person should live their life – at least according to the particular Protestant religion. The hardcore Protestant religions were not spiritual in my view.

Another huge impact on religion and spirituality was the Enlightenment and the rise of science in the 18 th century. Reason and rationalism became important elements of philosophy and how people explained the world. Biblical explanations such as the story of creation in the Book of Genesis made little sense to many people.

The result was that church attendance, in many cases, actually waned in parts of Europe as countries became gradually more secular over the next few centuries. In America, church attendance remained high but often people attended out of fear – not because they were feeling particularly spiritual. Religious decline in the United States didn’t really happen until the last 20 th century, but most American religions did not emphasize a personal spirituality in any case. Rather, the emphasis was on the Bible and adhering to doctrines, dogmas and rules as defined by a minister’s interpretation of what the Bible said.

In America, the Unitarian and Universalist movements saw the rise of “Humanism.” Humanism did not deny the role of a God, but it downplayed the whole concept, Instead, it promoted reason and rationalism. Curiously, this was influenced by the science of the time which stated that the universe had no beginning. It was a “steady state” that had always existed – therefore, there was no need of a creator God. This humanist approach dominated both the Unitarian and the Universalist movements in the 20 th century, and it is why the two movements merged in the 1960s. Of course, subsequent science has proved this Steady State Theory is completely wrong. The universe did have a beginning we now call “The Big Bang.”

A lot changed in America and Europe in the 1960s. The rise of the “counterculture movement” became critical of “the establishment” which included mainstream religions. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Europe became more secular than religious. In America, church attendance dropped. At the same time, at least in America, there was the rise of a new kind of spirituality in the form of the “New Age” movement which included an eclectic blend of eastern religions, higher consciousness practices, and alternative beliefs with some movements leading to communal living, occult practices and psychedelic drugs.

Another powerful influence in America has been the rise of materialism and its importance in people’s lives. Of course, human beings have sought material comfort since humans first walked the earth, and there have always been greedy people. But, there has been a rampant increase in this in recent decades. America is a rich country and, unfortunately, many people define their success and their self-worth as a human being by what they own and by their financial success. As Professor Sri Manchiraju, Ph.D. notes in a 2019 article: “American culture is dubbed as the land of “Coca-Cola culture,” which has long been associated with its materialistic culture; its fixation on money, possessions, and fame among other accouterments. In fact, the very notion of “the good life” revolves around consumption activities.” This materialism has profoundly influenced Generation Z because they are surrounded by it every day.

So, without knowing it, Generation Z – our young adults have been heavily influenced by secularism and materialism. On top of this is the powerful impact of social media which heavily promotes materialism. Through social media, young people constantly compare themselves to others – what they have versus what their friends have. And then there is the effect of so-called “influencers.” These are people who use social media to promote purchasing decisions, various opinions, behaviors and more. They are, most often, paid by advertising companies, political organizations and even religious organizations.

Many influencers (who are mostly young people) can become very wealthy by successfully capturing numerous followers on their platforms. Influencers are greatly admired by Gen Z because of their success and their wealth. They trust their advice and ideas without doing any research to back up what they say. Keep in mind, this includes advice on what to buy, where to go, what to do and what to believe.

Amazingly nearly 60% of Gen Zers would like to be influencers themselves especially because they see it as a way to make a lot of money.

Is there little wonder why Generation Z is in the place they are in? Why they compare themselves so often to others from a material standpoint? Why they are so-called “nones” meaning they have no religion? Why they lack spirituality and, in so many cases, don’t even know what it is?

He is another concern. It turns out that conservative evangelical organizations are using social media influencers to target young people – Generation Z – to join their churches and organizations – and it is working. I think this is the case for two reasons. The first is that these organizations know very well the impact influencers have on young people. Therefore, they use young people to be influencers and content creators as they lure young people into their fold. Secondly, because so many young people have never been particularly religious or they find the religion of their parents irrelevant, without knowing it, they feel a void in their being, which is their spiritual component. Evangelical churches do a great job recruiting young people to fill this void. Services include contemporary bands and music and activities that young people enjoy. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but there is a downside.

Often, conservative churches promote rigid religious doctrines that don’t make a lot of sense to young people. And Gen Zers often become disenchanted with the political, social, environmental, sexual and gender-based issues promoted by conservative evangelical churches. Surveys show that many Gen Zers join these organizations for the reasons I have noted only to leave later. This leaves them in the spiritual wilderness, often with a sour disposition on religion and spirituality in general. This can create a void in their life which they may try to fill with materialism and other destructive behaviors. It certainly creates an imbalance in their lives between body, mind and spirit.

In my view – this is a big problem. So, what can we do about it? The answer is, I think we have the ability to influence Gen Z, but the fruits of that influence may be a while in coming. It turns out that a lot of UU values are shared by young adults including UU commitments to social justice, environmental concerns, the promotion of women’s rights and those of the LGBTQ community. As far as the spiritual side, it has been my experience that many young adults also adhere to the UU spiritual values of a personal search for religious truth, our lack of dogmas and creeds, and our willingness to consider all the world’s religions and spiritual philosophies. This is similar to many older adults who do not attend church or adhere to a particular religion. So often when I explain Unitarian Universalism to people who are unaware of it, the response I hear is something like, “oh this sounds like what I believe.” I think many Gen Zers fit into this category too.

Nearly all of us have some exposure to young people. This may be children or grandchildren. It may be nieces and nephews. It may be through friends and acquaintances. What seems to be also true of young adults is they seem to be willing to listen to older adults particularly when they hear things that align with their own ideas and values.

I’m lucky in the fact I teach World Religions to a lot of young people. At the very beginning of the semester, my students very first assignment is to take a selfie of themselves – so I can memorize their face and name. They are to also tell me about themselves, their religion – if any and tell how important their religion is to them. Finally, they are to look up Unitarian Universalism and explain what it is and what its beliefs and values are. I tell them they need to understand this, so they know where I am coming from.

To date, I have never had a student who ever even heard about Unitarian Universalism and keep in mind, a majority of my students come from Massachusetts and the surrounding states. Massachusetts is the state with the most UU congregations of any state in America. I find that my students are surprised at what Unitarian Universalism is, and, in nearly every case, my students tell me they relate to who we are in various ways. This hardly means they are going to start attending a UU congregation, but it does mean they know who we are as they grow older and pass through the stages of life. I rather think because of this, some will one day join a UU congregation as they realize and understand they are missing a spiritual component in their life.

My point is that all of us need to tell people who we are and what we believe. Marketing 101 says if people do not know what your product is all about, they won’t buy it. Unitarian Universalism has a poor track record of spreading the word on who we are and what we believe – which is why so many people have never heard of us.

Here at UUMH, I think we are trying to do this through the work of our Communication Committee, our Thrift Shop, Bring a Friend Sundays and even activities such as Scout Sunday. We all need to do more.

Through the people in our lives, we all have the ability, and I think an obligation, to tell people why we are Unitarian Universalists and what we believe – and this includes young adults.

Generation Z is in a challenging place for all the reasons I have mentioned. I haven’t even touched on greater challenges such are the implementation of quantum computing and artificial intelligence which offer great promise and very scary possibilities. To balance their lives, Gen Z certainly needs to nurture their spiritual side was they grow through the stages of life. We can all help with this.

Reverend Christopher McMahon

February 8, 2026

UU Chatham