The percentage of teenagers who attend religious services has increased in the past four years according to a Gallup Poll, with attendance highest among youth in the South.
A total of 53 percent of teenagers nationwide said they had attended church or synagogue in a seven-day period prior to the poll, 11 points higher than the figure recorded in a 1997 survey.
Regionally, however, the South was even higher than the national average, with 56.8 percent of teenagers answering yes to the question “Did you, yourself, happen to attend church or synagogue in the last seven days, or not?”
“That is way higher than any other region,” said Linda Lyons, youth editor for the Gallup Youth Survey.
Students in the Midwest reported the second highest level of church attendance of 41.1 percent, followed by their peers in the West (40 percent) and the East (34.8 percent).
Lyons said the information was obtained from telephone interviews with 501 teenagers ages 13-17 and was broken down by regions rather than individual states.
Trent Dollyhigh, minister to students at First Baptist Church in Opelika, said he believes the South leads in youth attending church because of the values residents of the region embrace.
‘More openness to Bible’
“There’s definitely more openness here to what the Bible has to say,” Dollyhigh said.”There’s a huge difference in the way kids are taught and brought up.”
Dollyhigh, who previously served a church in North Carolina, said there is a “political correctness” toward religion in areas outside the South, making it more difficult to get teenagers to take a stand.
Don Minton, minister to students at Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Homewood, said he has also seen an increase in youth attending church.
“I think they’re more interested in spiritual matters,” he said.
Minton said youth are searching for answers in life more these days. Both he and Dollyhigh said that is especially true following Sept. 11.
“There’s no question that’s got the kids’ attention,” Minton said.
“Kids are searching more than adults in some ways,” added Dollyhigh.
Minton added church is also more a part of life for youth in the South.
A Mobile youth minister agrees there has been an upswing in the member of youth attending church services. Andy Neely, minister to students at Spring Hill Baptist Church, Mobile, speculated that the increase may be fueled by a hunger for spiritual matters that is not limited just to teenagers.
“I think, to a certain extent, a lot of people are searching for a new kind of spirituality and I don’t know that that’s any different with our youth,” Neely said.
(TAB)
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