Mark's Notebook


	To define recursion, we must first define recursion.

Compliant but Confused

Christianity Today Opinion

Tuesday 12 April 2005, 12:01 pm
Keywords: Christian Topics , News Articles

Unpacking some myths about today's teens.

by Andy Crouch

Book: "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers," by Christian Smith, Melinda Lundquist Denton.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/019518095X/qid=1113332422/sr=1-1/r
ef=sr_1_1/002-7269310-8141636?v=glance&s=books

No book in recent memory has as much potential to transform the practice of youth ministry as Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton's account of the findings of their National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Smith, a committed Christian who may be his generation's most significant sociologist of religion, carefully designed not only an in-depth phone survey of 3,290 teenagers and their parents, but also crafted 267 in-person interviews. The results overturn nearly every piece of conventional wisdom about teens and faith.

There is no generation gap.
Teens like church.
Teens are not "spiritual seekers."

When the researchers asked them about pop culture or sexually transmitted diseases, they could give sophisticated answers. They could talk about Will & Grace, but not grace. Of the 267 teens interviewed, only 12 mentioned "repentance" in connection with their faith; 7 mentioned the Resurrection; and 4 mentioned "discipleship." On the other hand, 112 mentioned "personally feeling, being, getting, or being made happy."

So what is the religion that teens hold in such high regard? Smith and Denton sum it up as "moralistic therapeutic deism" — the belief that religion is about doing good and being happy, watched over by a distant and benign Creator whose purpose is largely to help us feel better about ourselves.

And where do teenagers learn this faith that so closely reflects the American therapeutic culture, and so poorly reflects the Christian gospel? The evidence is overwhelming: There is no generation gap, and they love church. So they learned it from their parents—they learned it from their churches. Even their conservative Protestant churches. The fundamental axiom of youth ministry, Smith and Denton say, is, "We'll get what we are."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/004/25.98.html