Don't put me in a box!

Leading up to our event, Practicing Justice, Living Faith: Connecting Spiritual Life and Social Action, we are featuring on our blog posts by young adults whose faith informs how they are working for justice.  These posts are personal reflections and not necessarily the specific views of JRLC.  

I have had conversations with people in faith based non-profits, religious organizations, congregations I personally attend, even secular non-profit organizations that revolved around the question of where are the young adults.  Where are the twenty-somethings who are committed to an idea, faith, issue, anything and actively act on that commitment?  I have even heard criticisms that my generation exhibits a lack of interest in civic participation and a desire to NOT affiliate themselves or be "labeled" as something.  

Well as a twenty-something who is working for a faith-based non-profit, is personally concerned with issues of equality, poverty, hunger, democracy, social privilege, and more, and has a personal faith that informs my worldview and work for social change, I don't consider myself an anomaly.  In my life I know many active and concerned young people who take intentional steps to make their world a better place.

I do agree that I have perceived a hesitation among my generation to claim specific affiliations or titles like "Lutheran" or "Republican/Democrat" or "Feminist" or "Capitalist".  I can't tell you how many conversations I have had with peers where someone has said something like "I believe in women's equality, but I wouldn't call myself a feminist."   

My personal take on this phenomenon is that my peers and I have been educated to see the world in interconnected and intersecting ways.  For instance, when addressing an issue like hunger or homelessness one must also consider the influences of poverty, socio-economics, race, gender, even history and potentially city planning.  I don't see issues as two sided or politics broken down by party lines or my personal faith determined by the boundaries of specific religious teachings, and I am thus reluctant to take on a label that will narrow this worldview into one movement, or party, or denomination.  

Generally, we don't like being put in a box, even it the box aligns with our concerns, beliefs and passions, which I think can be a challenge for organizations that could be perceived as working within a box (whether they actually do or not). I believe in many ways this can be true for (what I have often heard labeled) organized religion.  For many young people I know, in some ways myself included, we feel inhibited by the boundaries our faith traditions draw around social issues and feel nervous to associate ourselves with those boundaries.  

But in my life, I believe my faith and personal interpretation of the religious teaching I was raised with (I was raised by two ELCA Lutheran pastors, attended a Lutheran college, and am currently serving in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, so I guess you could say I am Lutheran) compel me to dedicate myself to and work for social justice even if that goes beyond the lines that my denomination has drawn. I value the belief system I grew up in and know that it has been solid foundation in my life, but it has also taught me that in many ways it is healthy and necessary to question even that foundation.

Rachel Herzfeldt-Kamprath