It’s no secret that youth are leaving church, but why are they leaving? The Barna Group, a research organization specializing in matters of faith, has conducted a study that it believes provides a few answers. The Barna study, which spanned five years, found that nearly 60 percent of youth leave the church for good or for an extended period of time after age 15. About a third of these departing youth between the ages of 18 and 29 say church is boring, while one in four say it tends to demonize everything that’s not churchy. One in six of these youth say they feel the church judges them for their past mistakes. Sexual issues tend to drive a wedge between young adults and churches, to Many young Christians don’t necessarily believe homosexuality is a sin, and 40 percent of young Catholics say their church’s teachings on sexuality and birth control is out dated. “Churches are not prepared to handle the new normal, says David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group. “However, the world for young adults is changing in significant ways, such as their remarkable access to the world and worldviews via technology, their alienation from various institutions and their skepticism toward external sources of authority, including Christianity and the Bible.” (Religion News Service)