Young people deplore the values of Christianity, which they say they view as judgmental, moralizing, and even a little creepy. The Anglican Church in England is an excellent example. British people overwhelmingly support LGBTQ equality, but the Archbishop of Canterbury is an outspoken homophobic bigot. When he told the same-sex spouses of Episcopal priests and bishops in the United States that they were not welcome at the Lamdeth Conference a couple years ago, young people gasped in shock. And they hated him for it.

If that kind of evil treatment of LGBTQ people is Christian, say young people, then we’re giving a middle finger to the Church.

And that’s just one issue. I know a lot of young people in England. To a person, they tell me the Anglican Church horrifies them. The teachings and practices they hear talked about horrify them. They view Anglican leaders as hopelessly conservative and socially backward, as people to stand clear of.

I doubt very much the Anglican Church plans on doing anything serious to correct that. I report on religious news regarding LGBTQ issues pretty much every day, and I can’t help but notice that the Anglican Church is routinely in the news in a negative homophobic way. British young people won’t put up with that. They just won’t.

It might even be too late for the Church to try to get its act together. I have a hard time imagining my young friends in the UK changing the solidly negative opinions they formed about the Church while they were very young.