Why is “None” the Fastest Growing religious Identification Among Latinos?
It Starts with Freedom of Choice
The new found freedom of choice that the immigrant enjoys in our nation is not only a liberating experience to life style and economics but also presents a challenge for immigrant parents, their children and the Christian community. As immigrant parents hasten to help their children assimilate into our nation’s social and cultural systems they are hard pressed to understand enough of our society themselves to be able to pass on their religious and cultural heritage within the context of the American society. Let alone expose their children to the religious heritage characterized in their country of origin. As a result the first generation born in the United States is often encouraged to assimilate quickly with an emphasis on language and custom acquisition, while religion is neglected. We cannot deny that our culture is opposed to Christian values, and the influences bombarding our children’s moral development can be deadly. And I am sure many would agree that it is important to have children develop biblical world views. But do we truly understand how critical it is to start developing a child’s biblical worldview from the very earliest years of life. In our present day American society this problem is complex: parents who, themselves, did not receive early spiritual training leave their children’s training to the church. Yet the church often focuses on older children-not realizing that a child’s moral development is set by the age of nine. In the Latino community the problem is compounded with the fact that parents, Latino churches and children are often operating in different spheres of our society. Parents are struggling to adapt to American customs while living in neighborhoods which promote the customs of their native country, the Latino church is often a replica of the church of the native country of the dominate population of the community it is ministering to, and the children of that community are moving away from both their parents culture and the Latino church, growing deeper and deeper into the American secular society.
These young individuals find themselves in a constant struggle with the acquisition of language and social skills necessary to navigate though American society. In addition, first generation Latina/os must come to terms with the fact that the faster and deeper they assimilate into American society the wider the gap between themselves and the cultural and religious customs of their parents and their parent’s native country. I can vividly remember as a young boy the day my mother, an immigrant from Puerto Rico, and I came to the realization that my dominate language and cultural bent were English and American. Realizing my mother could no longer assist me with my English school work, I sensed on that day a feeling of helplessness in her and in turn I felt a deep separation and loss between my mother and myself.
With very little guidance from our parents first born generation Latinas/os are left to themselves to navigate through the American society. This young generation relies heavily on the commercial and secular messages generated through our public school system, commercial television and secular society messages to develop the skills and acquire the knowledge needed which allow them to participate in the American culture. It is not difficult to see that as God is driven further away from so many segments of our society that those who confide in the public secular educational system will be hard press to learn of God or be exposed to any form of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must realize that we are speaking of a significant portion of our society.
The number of Hispanic students in the nation’s public schools nearly doubled from 1990 to 2006, accounting for 60% of the total growth in public school enrollments over that period. There are now approximately 10 million Hispanic students in the nation’s public kindergarten and its elementary and high schools; they make up about one-in-five public school students in the United States. In 1990, just one-in-eight public school students were Hispanic.
Additionally;
“Strong growth in Hispanic enrollment is expected to continue for decades, according to a recently released U.S. Census Bureau population projection. The bureau projects that the Hispanic school-age population will increase by 166% by 2050 (to 28 million from 11 million in 2006), while the non-Hispanic school-age population will grow by just 4% (to 45 million from 43 million) over this same period. In 2050, there will be more school-age Hispanic children than school-age non-Hispanic white children.”
Time and time again we see the secular segment of our society removing symbols, customs and references to God at every possible point. As much as these practices are disturbing to me the lack of the Christian Church in evangelizing and impacting our society is more so. The seemingly slow recognition and/or deficiency of a purposeful course of action to address the struggle of the Latino, in particular by the Evangelical Church are of greater concern.
Part 3; Some suggestions of how we can address; “None” the Fastest Growing religious Identification Among Latinos
