Young adults are seeking refuge in religion after terrorist attacks

Date: Sunday, October 7, 2001; Page: C1

YOUNG ADULTS ARE SEEKING REFUGE IN RELIGION AFTER TERRORIST ATTACKS

By Colleen Carroll; Of The Post-Dispatch

For a generation renowned for its unfocused spiritual search, Sept. 11 may have become a defining moment. Many young adults here have turned to organized religion to cope with its aftermath.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks, students at Washington University spontaneously converged on the campus quad for impromptu Christian prayer huddles and recitation of the Kaddish, a traditional Jewish prayer for the dead. Muslim students who frequent Friday prayer services on campus saw their ranks double.

At St. Louis University, several Catholic Masses at the 1,200-seat St. Francis Xavier (College) Church were so packed that students spilled out onto the church's steps -- and stayed there for the duration of the service.

From the Baptist Student Union at the University of Missouri at St. Louis to the metro meeting of Campus Crusade for Christ that attracts college students from St. Charles to south St. Louis County, the reports are uniform: Attendance at religious events has multiplied in the past month.

Whether that trend has staying power remains to be seen. But religious leaders are encouraged.

"People are asking questions, and they want real answers that make sense," said Dan Allen, 33, St. Louis metro director for Campus Crusade. "I think that this is a very spiritually seeking generation."

At Jesuit Hall at St. Louis University last week, a band of several dozen students assembled for an informal, late night discussion about the Catholic Church's teaching on just-war theory. Then they shuffled downstairs to a dimly lit chapel where they knelt before an ornate gold receptacle holding

a small white host, which Catholics believe contains the presence of Jesus Christ. Ignoring the roar of traffic outside on Grand Avenue, they bowed their heads in silent adoration of the Eucharist.

Candlelight flickered off the face of senior Katie Burke, 22, as she closed her eyes and led a rosary "for the intentions of peace and justice in our world, our community and in our own hearts."

Far from turning her against religion, Burke said, the terrorist attacks made her consider what she is "really living for."

"For me, it's been a cause for hope," she said. The attacks led her to reflect on the Christian belief in an afterlife: "I believe in Jesus. I believe in what he's promised. So there's my hope."

At the Washington University School of Law, Muslim Arsalan Iftikhar, 24, had a similar reaction to the "horrific events" of last month.

"This is something that has solidified my faith in God," said Iftikhar, who said he has been thinking more deeply about Islam and his dependence on God. "It really made me look inside."

At the First Evangelical Free Church in west St. Louis County, young-adult pastor Kevin Bauer has seen numbers swell in recent weeks, pa rticularly among the young singles who gather to worship on Thursday nights. Last week, nearly five dozen young professionals crammed into a room with too few folding chairs to accommodate them. As the lights dimmed, worship leader and Boeing engineer Greg Milford, 25, closed his eyes and led them in a rousing rendition of "Amazing Grace."

Young men in jeans and khakis lined the walls, swaying as they sang. Others leaned forward in their seats, resting their chins on their chests and clasping their hands in prayer. One woman simply closed her eyes, rocking gently to the rhythm as the others around her sang, "'Twas grace that

taught my heart to fear / And grace my fears relieved."

"Dear Heavenly Father," said Milford, clutching a lime green electric guitar as he led the group in prayer, "tonight we're here together to praise you. Since you are for us, there's nothing we need to be afraid of. You've overcome this world."

Bauer, 33, said the growth he has seen in young worshippers at First Evangelical makes sense. His generation grew up in times of relative peace and prosperity, Bauer said, which made it easy to believe that traditional religion's objective standards of good and evil were antiquated concepts.

"It's shaken that mind-set a little bit," he said. "This has helped people to realize that there is evil out there. And if there is evil, there is good."

The search for goodness in religion started long before terrorism erupted on the East Coast, many religious leaders say. Gallup polls of teen -agers in 1991 - who are the young adults of today -found that 70 percent rejected the notion that religion is "not an important part of the modern world," and teen-agers in 1992 labeled themselves "religious" by a nearly identical percentage.

More recent numbers suggest similar sentiments among today's teen-agers and college students: The federally financed National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health has found that two-thirds of teen-agers identify themselves as "religious" or "very religious."

Those numbers contrast sharply with the conventional wisdom that young Americans are "spiritual but not religious," and prone to a do-it-yourself spirituality that eschews religious institutions and universal moral standards. Indeed, local clerics and students confirm that many young adults are reluctant to commit to religion or to value one set of religious beliefs over another. But they hasten to add that disasters have a way of sharpening spiritual focus, and religion has a knack for answering the questions that arise in times of trauma.

"Religion offers a way not to explain it but to find some comfort," said Daniel Picker, 20, a junior who attended services at the St. Louis Hillel at Washington University after the attacks.

Picker, who also gathered at the campus interfaith prayer service on the night of Sept. 11, said organized religion offers a sense of community that individualistic spirituality does not.

Said Picker, "We're stronger together than fragmented."