"Record Number" Of Youths Leaving Church & Questioning Ethics

(CNN) -- Republican conservatives should be worried. Evangelical churches that frequently support conservative candidates are finally admitting something the rest of us have known for some time: Their young adult members are abandoning church in significant numbers and taking their voting power with them.

David Kinnaman, the 38-year-old president of the Barna Group, an evangelical research firm, is the latest to sound the alarm. In his new book, "You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith," he says that 18- to 29-year-olds have fallen down a "black hole" of church attendance. There is a 43% drop in Christian church attendance between the teen and early adult years, he says.

• Seven in 10 millennials say sex between an unmarried man and woman is morally acceptable (PDF). (According to Kinnaman, young Christians are as sexually active as non-Christians.)

• Most women in their early 20s who give birth are unmarried.

• More than six in 10 millennials (including 49% of Republican millennials) support same-sex marriages.

• Six in 10 millennials say abortion should be legal (PDF), a higher proportion than found in the general population. A higher percentage say abortion services should be available in local communities.

Millennials also part ways with conservative orthodoxy on wealth distribution and caring for the environment. According to a report in The Christian Science Monitor, three out of four say that wealthy corporations and financiers have too much power and that taxes should be raised on the very wealthy, and two out of three say financial institutions should be regulated more closely. In addition, most say that creationists' view on evolution is outdated.

Sounds a lot like Democratic ideology to me.

I come from a strong religious background, and from an area famous for using religion to bully people.  I'm glad to see our young people stop, pause, and think it through.  There are many conclusions they can come to, but the moment of pride is when they use common sense and independent thinking to reach their decisions.

Politically speaking, this can mean a lot of changes.  The "voting army" of Republicans may be on the decline.  It also means that religious behavior won't be associated so strongly with Republicans.  After all, there are plenty of spiritual Dems out there.  Most important of all, these young people are able to see these issues as separate topics instead of a bundle, which is a major weakness in the Republican design.

We have educated, free-thinking individuals coming up as a next generation who believes in equality and fairness.  That is the biggest threat to the elitist, compartmentalizing disposition of the GOP.  They are less likely to fall for the "if you don't believe my every word you are my enemy" strategy employed thus far, and are actually likely to be turned off and disgusted by the open discrimination we see when Republicans rally to restore DADT and dismiss the working poor.  The closing paragraph says it the best:

And that's a good thing. As the most diverse generation ever, they've shown themselves to be better than their elders at seeking areas of common ground and making compromises. They're also more optimistic: Despite the economic instability of their generation, more than two-thirds believe they can achieve success regardless of race, ethnicity or social class. All of us, whether we're churched or unchurched, could use that kind of faith.

Can I get an amen?