A way of seeing, thinking, and acting inspired by questions about what things mean: Where did we comes from? What is our destiny? What is true? What is false? What is my duty or obligation? What is the meaning of suffering? What is the meaning of death? How shall we live?
(Ezekiel 33:10)
As young people many of us are born into our parents’ religion and follow it, but some people turn away and leave religion altogether. Many young people are confused about their religion and begin to question it. But many do believe in a god or gods. The question is, how do young people feel religion relates to them in this day and age?
The Pentecostal church has been around since the late 1700s and it is a branch of Christianity that has become well known for involving young people in the service. They believe that the spirit of God is able to live in human beings and it is part of their belief that it is God's desire for every person to have God living inside them.
Joseph Mullings, 22, an Assistant Pastor at Restoration Revival Fellowship Pentecostal Church in north-west London, has been part of the church all his life, but he wasn’t always sure about his religion.
"At the age of 11 I was in a bad crowd, my elder brothers didn’t stay in the church and I was already a petty thief. I remember trying to be as bad as my mates were. I can’t remember what led me to say 'I want to be baptised' but at the time I felt the tugging at my heart saying 'this is your time to get out and change your ways'."
Commitment
Tim Lawrence, is an 18-year-old Wiccan who has had similar experiences to Joseph, becoming serious about religion before his adolescence. We were taken aback by such commitment and maturity at a young age.
"I was agnostic before I discovered Wicca. I'd grown quite despondent with Christianity from which I was raised, but I'd stopped going to the Church when I was a kid. I didn’t like my new school, didn't like the way the world was turning so I just found Wicca and it gave me something to hang onto."
Wicca is a nature-based religion. The beliefs and practices are both between individuals and traditions. Wicca is a variety of witchcraft founded on both religious and magical concepts.
Tim and Joseph spoke about how young people are active in their respective religions.
"We celebrate nature, celebrate ourselves, and celebrate whatever we are." says Tim. "We give praise to anything beautiful in the world; lots of Wiccans write poetry, write songs, most are quite creative."
Joseph says the way young people get involved at his church is through participation. "We've got young people who will lead the singing, lead the worship and some of them are even preaching already."
Challenging
Being part of any religion is challenging but how do young people deal with the ongoing commitment as a young person today.
Ali, 13, and Akram, 15, follow the Pillars of Islam which is the term given to the five duties expected of every Muslim. Islam has been around since the seventh century and it follows the teachings of the prophet Muhammad through the Qur'an. It is the second largest religion in the world. For them Islam is an important and essential part of life. Ali says, "Religion, to me, is the way I do things everyday".
Akram says, "To follow five prayers a day is kind of difficult when you are waking up in the morning bare (very) early". And Ali agrees, "It’s hard when you are in school and you’re gonna miss prayers because you are in your lesson."
Strict rules
As an Assistant Pastor, Joseph understands how difficult it can be following such strict rules.
"It’s very hard as a young person to be in church every Sunday. We have beliefs about dating and whether you have sex before marriage. Young people take a lot of risks and what we do in the Pentecostal Church is warn young people of the dangers of multiple relationships, the depression that comes after an abortion or even a miscarriage."
However some young people can look beyond the strict rules and are willing to find something greater and more meaningful to their life through religion, whether it is Wicca or Islam.
Ali says "young people can gain self respect, knowledge and they’ll learn what’s good and not so good."
While Tim believes Wicca "can add stability to a young person's life just because it sort of says 'take it easy' and discover yourself around your own parameters not around a dogma."
Tolerance
Each person we interviewed had a respect for their own religion but they also spoke highly of other religions and stressed tolerance.
For Ali, respect is an important part of tolerance: "You’ve got to respect yours and other people’s religions. If you're taking the fun out of other people's religions they’ll be doing the same with yours."
Tim says, "I don’t necessarily think any other religion is wrong. I think other religions all seem to be focused on one particular point. Christianity is about obtaining a good afterlife but Wicca is more about this life, the afterlife isn’t mentioned that much because this life is vastly more important to Wiccans, enjoying this life and creating something beautiful in this life for yourself and others."
Christianity, Islam and Wicca are three religions which all seem to be very different on the outside. And although they have differences in the way they are practiced, after interviewing young people from them, we realised that they are, in the end, about the same things; being happy, having morals, and embracing the idea that there is a greater being, whether it be God, or (in the case of Wicca) a joint God and Goddess.
About this story
This story was produced by Sarah Jones, 18, Ebony Goodin, 16, Kamal Akerbousse, 17 and Mojda Hashemyan, 19.
