Des Moines Register
04-16-06
Easter also calls the wanderers
SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
Today, the most holy day for Christians, 19-year-old Kyle Sieck will attend
Catholic Mass with his parents. He's doing it more out of respect for them than
from his own spiritual commitment.
Sieck spent his childhood ending six weeks of Lenten sacrifice by going to
church on Easter Sunday. But the University of Iowa sophomore studying
philosophy and geography is no longer a practicing Catholic. He doesn't go to
church and questions the lessons he learned in childhood.
"I listened and paid attention to my religious instruction, but I'm an analytical
person," Sieck said. "(The more you learn) the more you're caught in the middle
between what you were forced to believe as a child and your growing
understanding about the religious implications in how the world works. You begin
to see things in a different light."
Easter is a celebration of the most joyful tenet of Christianity — that Christ rose
after death as a sign that those who follow him will have eternal life. The holiday
is also a touchstone for young Christians who have wandered from their faith.
Church leaders see the spectacle and tradition of the holy day as an opportunity
to entice straying Christians or nonbelievers back to church.
To that end, many congregations put up billboards, send out postcards, buy
newspaper ads and encourage their members to invite those who have fallen
away back to church.
"They're some of the largest services in the year," said the Rev. Stephen Carter,
pastor of Des Moines' Bread of Life Church, Church of God in Christ. "It's a John
3:16 moment, an opportunity to reach out to those who would like to know God in
a more personal way."
From nonbeliever to priest
The Rev. Chris Pisut of West Des Moines understands Sieck's position. Today
he is a Catholic priest in the conservative John Paul II mold, even though when
he was in college, he told people he didn't believe in God.
Pisut lost his faith for a while when the call to the priesthood he felt in elementary
school gave way to a secular lifestyle.
"Looking back, there was a sort of apathy and laziness on my part," Pisut said. "I
indulged my desires. I wanted to enjoy life in a world where not everyone thought
it was cool to be religious."
Sieck and Pisut are not unusual. The Barna Research Group has documented
that young people often stray from their faith roots.
"From age 20 to 29, most individuals face many life-shaping decisions: whether
to finish college; what career to pursue; where to live; whether or not to get
married; who to marry; if and when to have children — among many other crucial
choices," says a 2003 report for the Barna group, which performs statistical
surveys on church issues.
"In our culture of hyper-individualism, those decisions are being increasingly
shaped by people's desire to determine their own personal fulfillment and
purpose in life. For many 20-somethings, allegiance to Christian churches is a
casualty of their efforts to create their own version of fulfillment," the Barna group
says.
Hector Avalos, a professor of religious studies at Iowa State University, is
used to seeing young people re-examine their faith.
"In Iowa, many students come to college from small towns where they received
only one perspective on faith," Avalos said. "They get here and see religion is
more complicated than that. There are more choices, more diversity. They leave
their religious tradition and explore others. Some drop out. Some take a cafe
approach to religion and tailor their beliefs to their own needs."
Churches hope to reach unchurched young adults of the world, as well as people
such as James Biehn, 29, of Des Moines. Biehn was raised Methodist, took a
timeout from religion in college, went back to church after he graduated, but
dropped out of organized religion when some in the faith community began
supporting the war with Iraq.
What some churches saw as patriotism, Biehn saw as denying Christ's teachings
about peace. He's into transcendental meditation today.
"I was always taught that Christianity was about love and acceptance, a belief in
the goodness of all people," Biehn said. "I started drifting away from church in
2003 when I saw society using religion to support the war in Iraq. That reaction
wasn't what I thought it would be. And it was not something I wanted to be part
of."
"New meaning"
James and Lucinda Hurst of Des Moines used to celebrate Easter with their
children with colored eggs and bunnies. The resurrection of Christ wasn't a part
of their holiday. The interracial couple began looking for a spiritual home, but
were discouraged that the churches they visited were all white or all black, until
they found Cornerstone Family Church, a multicultural congregation.
"When I walked through the door, I knew this is the way it is supposed to be,"
Lucinda Hurst, 30, said. "I was raised in church, but we were out in the world,
doing our own thing. We weren't being very good parents. We went at the
invitation of a friend and when we got here we knew it was a place where we
needed to be."
James Hurst, 31, had been searching spiritually. A student at Iowa State, he was
disillusioned by religious history and considered studying Islam. But the visit to
Cornerstone reversed his slide from Christianity. Three weeks after the couple
began attending church there, he answered an altar call. They've been involved
in youth ministry ever since.
"For us, Easter has new meaning than it ever did in the past," James Hurst said.
"I was the skeptic when it came to this kind of thing. I want people to know that if,
like me, they have a place in their lives that feels empty, there is hope. All they
have to do is take that all important, seemingly treacherous step to give their
lives over spiritually. I know now, even when I was out there doing my own thing,
God was looking after me."
Ryan Cosgrove, 21, a junior at Grand View College, was raised in a Pentecostal
church but didn't continue that faith path in college.
"It was a gradual thing; I was surrounded by a lot of classes not conducive to
maintaining the beliefs forced on me when I was younger," Cosgrove said. "If I
had a strong faith, I probably would have been OK, but I didn't."
Invited to attend a Lutheran church by a woman he was dating, Cosgrove found
a faith tradition he could reconcile with the things he was learning in college. On
April 30, he is to be confirmed as Lutheran.
"It was a searching period, but I've come around," Cosgrove said.
Sieck won't rule out a reversal of his current state of faith. But if it happens, it will
be on his own terms.
"I think religion is a good thing that helps a lot of people live a better life," Sieck
said. "I respect that. It's just not for me. I don't know if I will go back."
Especially Easter
The Rev. Milton Cole-Duvall of West Des Moines, an Episcopal priest, said he's
heard other pastors complain about the people who go to church only on
Christmas and Easter.
"For me, I rejoice people came whenever they came. On Easter we gather to
celebrate with those in our midst and trust in God's Holy Spirit to do the rest," he
said.
Cole-Duvall believes the Easter message is especially significant for young
adults wandering in a spiritual desert in their college years. "What they're going
through is just part of growing, knowing and becoming," he said. "The good news
is that God is very patient and all-loving. It really doesn't matter when you decide
to participate in God's banquet. What is important is that you answer the call."