(no subject)

Something feels off about today. Or this week. I can't quite put my finger on it. Some combination of the crazy American political goings on, the strangely nice weather, the rumors of rootkits in Sony CDs and IM worms, people's reactions to yesterday's LJ news post, and my strange dream last night...I don't know. I just have an odd feeling. Maybe it's just Daylight Saving Time fucking with me.

I went on a binge last night for no apparent reason, reading everything I could about Burning Man. It seems fascinating. Like Philly Folk Fest, but much bigger, much harsher, and without the music stages to provide a distraction for people who don't realize that it's more about community than the music. I honestly don't know if I could handle no free water and no waste pickup, though, let alone no food sales and 60-degree temperature swings. There seems to be a big Jewish community there too: the Black Rock City JCC. (Which had an article published about it.) The pictures of Shabbat there are quite compelling. I'm intrigued, and not at all surprised that the names Rabbi Seidenberg and Rabbi Waskow seem to keep popping up in my searches. Do any of you actually know anything about Burning Man? It seems to have quite a reputation, but I can't quite figure out what that reputation is. Have any of you ever gone, considered going, or known anyone who went?

Enough of that. Now, time to turn on my work music (Aural Moon prog rock: Open the URL http://live.str3am.com:2010/ in your favorite streaming audio player; it's quality music, but just uninteresting enough that you don't need to focus on it while working) and start sending out resumes. None of the jobs out there look appealing, which speaks to how much I don't know what I want. But the best solution is still to send out resumes, and send I shall.

Or maybe I'll go to the gym. This expensive place 3 blocks from here just sent me a free 14-day trial in the mail. Hard to pass up. I'll just act all interested in joining for 13 and a half days. I can do that.

OMG!

One of my favorite topics to read and think about these days is religious outreach. I'm not entirely sure why I'm so fascinated by something that really just boils down to marketing strategy, but it's compelling anyway. The idea of trying to bring in unaffiliated people to your way of thinking, or your church, or your social-event-nominally-religiously-affiliated; and doing it in this hyper-secular country (and my part of the country in particular); can seem like the most futile of uphill battles. But we try anyway, and as much as I'm a part of it, I don't understand why.

Of course I'm talking about mostly (though not exclusively) Jewish stuff, since that's where my interests and my leisure time lie. I attended a panel discussion at my synagogue two months ago, featuring the editor of a major national Jewish periodical, about fixing the Conservative movement of Judaism. Everyone kept talking about all the failings as it exists now. How, basically, there's nothing for anyone but traditional Jewish families. Intermarried couples aren't welcomed. Gay people, though not as marginalized as in many other religious denominations, aren't as welcomed as they could be. There's nothing for young people. There's nothing for people who want a vibrant religious experience.

After this discussion, and not for the first time, my synagogue's new Men's Club president discussed the outreach problem with me. Why he came to me I'm not certain, but he wanted to know if I had any ideas about how our synagogue in particular could improve outreach. How we can draw in the people who our doors are always open to, but who don't bother to come. It's an interesting problem, no? I told him I had some articles to send him. Among other things, I had in mind Profile of an Unaffiliated Jew, which I think I've mentioned before here.

Really, I think the root of my interest here is that I'm in the particular demographic group that is hard to reach, and that is the most misunderstood. We 20-somethings, on the whole, are so much more religious than our institutions give us credit for! This has come up time and time again for me, even the rare times that I'm surrounded by a peer group that I didn't meet in a progressive Jewish environment. We young people are religious! We just don't want to be preached to. Or something else; it's different for everyone, I guess. But the groups that are trying to reach out to us just don't understand us well enough to do so, or they're a victim of such inertia that they can't see how we fit into what they already have, and neither can we.

I've been reading this fascinating poll. It's a full-blown research study with a great name: OMG!: How Generation Y is Redefining Faith in the iPod Era [warning: PDF link]. I'm only partway through it so far, but it's painting a picture of a religiously identified youth (people currently aged 19-26 were surveyed a year ago) that has a strong sense of self, has a diverse social network, finds a role for spirituality in life alongside all of life's other questions, and above all, isn't disappearing.

I don't know what the answer is. Hell, I don't know what the question is. But it sure makes for interesting reading.


And now, with the knowledge that not all of you out there are in this age group, or are Jewish, or are even in a place religiously that makes these questions make sense at all, even though I attempted to cover every possibility; and with the knowledge that the results here won't really mean anything at all; I'd like to take a poll.

Note: When I say "belong to a particular structure/movement" below, what I meant to say is "belong to a particular institutional structure within my religion (such as a local church/synagogue/mosque), or am a member of a movement within my religion". (The LiveJournal poll thing won't let me say that much. That's probably a wise decision on its part.)

[Poll #604025]

(And by the way, the nine choices in this poll are the reason I hate the question, "Are you religious?")