Category: Youth Ministry
“The almost Christian formation of teens.”
This article by Kenda Creasy Dean offers an interesting review of the symbiotic relationship of culture and Christianity. Some of her words convict as well as resonate with me. Though she is more Christocentric than I, nevertheless, her critique of what is happening in many congregations is on point, dare I say prophetic, as well as the work of the National Study of Youth and Religion and the primary investigators Smith and Denton. They identify what they call “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” as the symbiote devouring host Christianity that is more about consumption than spirituality. This is a lengthy read for an online article, but worth the time.
Faith, nice and easy
The almost Christian formation of teens
by Kenda Creasy DeanIn short, the study provides a window on how American young people have learned a well-intentioned but ultimately banal version of Christianity that’s been offered to them in American churches. Most youth seem to accept this bland view of faith as all there is—as something nice to have, like a bank account, something you have in case you need to draw from it in the future. What Christian adults have not told them is that this account of Christianity is bankrupt. We have not invested in their accounts: we “teach” young people baseball, but we “expose” them to faith. We provide coaching and opportunities for youth to develop and improve their pitches and their SAT scores, but we blithely assume that religious identity will happen by osmosis and will emerge “when youth are ready” (a confidence we generally lack when it comes to, say, algebra). The result? Teenagers who don’t have the soul strength necessary to recognize, wrestle with and resist the symbiotes in our midst—probably because we lack this strength ourselves.
Education?
Does everyone in our nation have a right to receive a college degree? No. Citizens of this nation have the right to access a quality education (through public education) that prepares one to live and participate in a pluralistic culture, but no one is “entitled” to a college education. We need more people with a liberal arts educational background that begins in high school. An aside: an educated laity is the reformation wave that requires Christianity (all religions) to evolve. The current trend in Discipledom about educational requirements for service in “ordained” ministry is disturbing. The denomination seems intent on preparing persons for ministry in one location, for one congregation, or ethnic group rather than on behalf of the whole Church. That was ecumenical and took Christian unity seriously.
One of the problems our nation is living through is the lack of creative problem solving because the narcissism of gaining and keeping political power through fear profiteering, by a ruling class, has become precedent. The Senate is a prime example. President Obama can set the post-partisan example, but the children in Congress have not followed the example. Hiring a partisan Chief of Staff did not set a good example. Instead of making a clear break by bringing in outsiders prepared to work for the common good and raising the bar for dialogue and leadership, the President was sucked in by institutional business as usual. The ruling class can afford this, but the rest of us cannot.
Education over the last twenty years has become a hurdle to jump, a diploma one is owed just for putting in the time, rather than understood as a path to a better job, meaningful life, and sifting mechanism to help citizens find a niche in culture. Anti-intellectualism has led to “Reality TV” and an entertainment culture that numbs citizens before a politician, religious leader, or corporation appears on the screen to tell you whose fault it is that you cannot . . . Currently, nameless, faceless immigrants, legal and not, are the persons who are the reason you cannot . . . It is fear profiteering that is keeping financial elites and power brokers, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, in power because many citizens cannot think for ourselves nor take the time to educate themselves about the best ways to solve the nation’s problems. Bob Herbert, in his column for the New York Times, provides a harsh prophetic voice about our culture, our problems, and education. Click the title to read the article.
Putting Our Brains on Hold
Bob Herbert | The New York Times | August 8, 2010The latest dismal news on the leadership front comes from the College Board, which tells us that the U.S., once the world’s leader in the percentage of young people with college degrees, has fallen to 12th among 36 developed nations.
At a time when a college education is needed more than ever to establish and maintain a middle-class standard of living, America’s young people are moving in exactly the wrong direction. A well-educated population also is crucially important if the U.S. is to succeed in an increasingly competitive global environment.