Judy Woodruff Discusses the Generation Next Project

JIM LEHRER:

The parents, let's start with that. Did most young people — and now we're talking 16-year-olds to 25-year-olds — was their first taste of religion from their parents?

JUDY WOODRUFF:

No question about it, Jim. You know, for all the talk about rebellion and so forth among the young, most young people — and you see this anecdotally, you see it in the surveys and the studies that have been done — follow their parents, especially during their young years and their teenage years.

Now, when they get into their 20s, when they move away from home, either because they're in school or they're on their own, that's when they may turn in a different direction. And what you just heard in that piece is that a number of them are unaffiliated. That's the fancy word for saying…

JIM LEHRER:

What does that mean?

JUDY WOODRUFF:

That means that they are not identified with any particular church.

JIM LEHRER:

They don't go to church at all?

JUDY WOODRUFF:

They don't go to church or they don't feel affiliated with any particular church.

Or, with the most interesting thing that's going on right now, and it depends on which study you look at, 30 percent or 40 percent of them, the single largest group, describe themselves as evangelical Christians, born-again Christians.

There's something very interesting going on. Now, we can talk a little bit later about what that means…

JIM LEHRER:

Sure. But born-again means they were not born as born-agains. They have literally been born-again as young people, not as children of parents, right?

JUDY WOODRUFF:

That's right. But, now, a number of them have come up in those families, and they've remained faithful in those born-again evangelical churches.

But you've seen an influx of young people. You heard Charles Mitchell, born a Catholic, went to mass every week or several times a week. As an adult, he turned away from the church, and then he was attracted to the evangelical faith.