Last week NPR reported that fewer young adults believe in God.
I did not hear the entire program but began to think about what non-belief might mean -- and it might mean something positive!
If some significant number of young adults are rejecting the notion of God as depicted in much of Biblical literature and as poorly taught in most religious education and formation classes ... good.
If they are rejecting the wrathful, judgmental, vindictive God whose power seems more central than passion, who walks and talks like you and me and hangs out in burning bushes, mountain tops and destroys the innocent along with the guilty ... good for them.
If they are saying, "We're not so sure about the 'meaning of God,' but we are clear about ethics, justice and morality," I'm encouraged.
If they are agreeing with the 12th century philosopher Maimonides who suggested, "We cannot define God; we can only state that God is 'not only,'" they are beginning to think critically as I (among many) would wish for young adults.
If they are saying they want to dwell in the mysterium (something too many of us have not communicated very well) rather than wrestle with the mayhem and sense of being manipulated by a divine puppeteer, great!
And what if they are saying, "We are aware of the limitations of language and the senses ... and we truly do want to live in a place and time infused with a something more, but it has to leave room for doubt and debate, despair without remedied repair and an emotional sea that can rise and fall ... just because it rises and falls."
If this is even part of their mantra, then they are not non-believers but seekers and searchers challenging a mostly Jewish-Christian leadership to hang the hyperbole and to bring out the salt, bread, water, fish and figs and to write a new chapter ... maybe a whole book.
Albert Micah Lewis is rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Traverse City.
