In one of the largest estimations of how many people identify as non-heterosexual, a 120-page study from a Christian University reveals nearly four in ten young adults count themselves as LGBTQ.
Religion and culture researcher, evangelical pollster, and now professor at Arizona Christian University in Phoenix, George Barna‘s Cultural Research Center has just published a report focused on Millennials.
Among its findings: 39% of those 18-24 identify as LGBTQ, and 25% of those 25-37 do as well. Overall, “nearly one-third of the Millennial cohort (30 percent) describes itself as LGBTQ.” Barna says that represents “roughly three times the proportion identified among the combined older adults of the nation.”
One-third of Millennials say they believe in God.
40 percent identify as liberal or progressive, just 29 percent as conservative.
“A record-breaking 40 percent of young adults fit the ‘Don’ts’ category,” says Barna, which he defines as “People who don’t know if God exists, don’t care if God exists, or don’t believe that He exists.”
There are more statistical surprises in Barna’s report.
The largest groups who identify as LGBTQ are those he lists as “no college” (34%), and live in the Midwest (35%).
And while 38% have no religion, more than one in four (28%) are Born-Again Christian, and 30% have children under the age of 18.
Last month Barna, as Right Wing Watch’s Peter Montgomery reported, “told religious-right activists at the Family Research Council’s ‘Pray Vote Stand’ summit … that it is their duty to try to indoctrinate other people’s children into a ‘biblical worldview.'”
So it’s not surprising Barna’s report includes a good deal of non-statistical editorializing.
On the increasing number of people who identify as LGBTQ he says: “Given the moral and political implications of such an identity, that self-characterization alone raises a range of emotional challenges.”
“Challenges to our mental health are to be expected,” Barna continues. “After all, most adults – and especially younger adults – now believe there is no absolute moral truth. A minority accept the Bible as a true and reliable guide for determining right and wrong. Only one-third of Millennials say they choose to always respect God and other people. No wonder young adults are feeling anxious, depressed and unsafe. Their own attitudes and those of other Americans have created an environment that cannot help but produce such feelings. Without any anchors for truth, emotions, decision-making, relational boundaries, or purpose, a sense of anomie and disconnectedness is only natural.”
Barna, who is also a senior research fellow at the Family Research Council’s Center for Christian Ethics and Biblical Worldview, (FRC appears on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of anti-LGBTQ hate groups) doesn’t hold the rest of society, certainly not anti-LGBTQ hate groups or anti-LGBTQ faith-based groups, including conservative houses of worship, responsible for any of that.
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