Religions should embrace technology to attract youth!

Jyeshtha Shuddha Navmi

USA: Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed has suggested embracing of technology savvy measures to bring spirituality and religion to the youth, many of whom appear to find it boring.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that in order to bring back the alienated youth, religious organizations and leaders could make use of social networking sites and other channels like MySpace, Facebook, Habbo, hi5, Twitter, Skyrock, Tagged, Bebo, Netlog, MyHeritage, Odnoklassniki, Sonico, VKontakte, YouTube, Flickr, etc. Utilize smartphones with Symbian, BlackBerry, iPhone, etc., and use portals in various languages to reach young people who did not seem to have spirituality on their priority lists in this age of complexities and distractions, Zed stressed.

Rajan Zed further said that digital world could help spread the good message of religion and spirituality. Use new technologies to create a dialogue and worldwide communities and make greater but responsible use of Internet. Religious organizations and leaders were mostly to be blamed for the alienation of youth, Zed said and urged them to make spirituality and religion more attractive to youth. 

Culture of youth was different today and we should plan, tailor and prioritize our initiatives, programs and projects accordingly. Parents should also take spirituality and religion seriously and help the religious organizations in better engaging the youth in spirituality. Conventional style of dealing with spirituality and religion did not appear to be effectively working with today’s youth. Make it more exciting and challenging, Zed suggested.

Rajan Zed was of the view that comparative religion should be part of high school curriculums worldwide, which in addition to making the youth superb spirituality and religion consumers, would also make them better world citizens and pluralistic in this increasingly diverse society.

If religious leaders and organizations did not attend to this challenge more effectively in this consumerist society, we could lose our youth to the other marketplace players, which were more powerful, attractive and vocal than religion and spirituality, Zed said.

Youth was not hostile to religion. Religious leaders and organizations needed rethinking and reflection and come up with creative and new practices, norms, and ideas to make their product more competitive. Show sincerity and honesty in your discussions with youth and enhance your understanding of their subculture, Rajan Zed argued in the statement.

A spiritual world would be a better place to live than a non-spiritual world, Zed added.

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