Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers

[BruceChris]

"Their alarm has been stoked by a highly suspect claim that if current trends continue, only 4 percent of teenagers will be “Bible-believing Christians” as adults. That would be a sharp decline compared with 35 percent of the current generation of baby boomers, and before that, 65 percent of the World War II generation."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/us/06evangelical.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1160107200&en=4bc2ab121e996b11&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

I have always believed that when the younger generation responds to the world that their elders are trying to pass on to them by rejecting it, ridiculing it, or engaging in unpleasant or self-destructive behavior, that no matter how incoherant their message is, they are basically telling us that there is something seriously wrong with the world that they are moving into.

P&L, BC

[Giancarlo]

I think this is a very good trend, because more people would embrace the values of secularism and learn to respect other people.

[Pablo Rafael]

I think this is a very good trend, because more people would embrace the values of secularism and learn to respect other people.

Giancarlo, I don't know whether I can agree with you.

I think it is a good trend if it means that people leave behind the confines of the legalistic and dogmatic thinking which is so pervasive in the thinking of the Christian right.
I think it would be a good trend if it would break the hold that religious fundamentalists have on our government.
It would also be a good trend if it increased respect toward others.

If it means leaving behind the Bible and the teachings of God's grace that is given to us through faith, it is a bad trend. The true teachings of the Bible are of the greatest value. It's to bad many "Christians" don't know about them.

This trend may very well be true. I see in postings here in the Soulforce forums how many people have struggled and broken away from fundamentalist upbringings. It is so common to hear that religion was oppressive and legalistic. In my own step family that is the case. I have five step brothers and sisters. (My mom and step dad married after all the kids were grown.) They were all raised in a very strict, legalistic environment. They were "going to hell" if they broke the rules. Of the five kids only one has any connection with religion and that only marginally. My step brother is also gay; that, I think, forced him out of the church. Fortunately, I have not had much connection with fundamentalism and have not had the heavy-handedness of that philosophy.

Maybe we are seeing the death of fundamentalism and the birth of true Christianity in our nation. If so, there is hope on the horizon.

Tu Amigo, Pablo

[dewdrop_world]

If it means leaving behind the Bible and the teachings of God's grace that is given to us through faith, it is a bad trend. The true teachings of the Bible are of the greatest value. It's to bad many "Christians" don't know about them.
Interestingly, conservatives at places like the UMC forums keep crowing about the way that so-called "liberal" churches are hemorrhaging members while "conservative" churches are growing (like weeds?). (There was also a fellow over there who would always challenge them to produce statistics proving it... they never could. Yet they keep on...)

But suppose for the sake of argument that people are heading toward more conservative religion. The conservative view is that people are looking for a secure rock to stand on, which liberals can't provide. I see a difference in that a faith based on absolutes is always at risk -- if one of the premises falls short, the whole system might fail (and this, not coincidentally, is exactly the reason why fundamentalists insist on absolute literalism and inerracy -- "if we can't believe in every word, there is nothing to believe in"). A faith that has confidence in the midst of doubt is not subject to that risk.

Liberal Christians might not be good enough at articulating this. I have heard so many boring, dead, pathetically tired homilies that people can't be blamed if they find comfort but not sustenance in liberal religion and wonder if that's all there is. We do have a message but we haven't figured out how to communicate it well yet (and those who do communicate it with passion get labeled heretics!), and fundamentalists are experts at exploiting this inadequacy.

Very important to work on this.
James

[Giancarlo]

Giancarlo, I don't know whether I can agree with you.


I really want to see people move away from religion because I'm atheist and I want to secularism to win. That's the way to really respect civil rights.

If it means leaving behind the Bible and the teachings of God's grace that is given to us through faith, it is a bad trend. The true teachings of the Bible are of the greatest value. It's to bad many "Christians" don't know about them.

For who? I'm atheist, and I do not think they are true at all. In fact I think they are quite dangerous to oneself.



Maybe we are seeing the death of fundamentalism and the birth of true Christianity in our nation. If so, there is hope on the horizon.

Tu Amigo, Pablo

I don't want to see this at all. I want to see more people change over to atheism, because that will lead to a rise of secularism, only naturally. People of even moderate christianity would want to see their religious views in government.