Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Speaking Of Young Christians...

This Huffington Post article tries to explain why they lose their faith.


Here's the nutshell account:

New research by the Barna Group finds they view churches as judgmental, overprotective, exclusive and unfriendly towards doubters. They also consider congregations antagonistic to science and say their Christian experience has been shallow.

Let's take a look at how these things break down exactly.

One in four 18- to 29-year-olds said "Christians demonize everything outside of the church."

Gee, maybe because some things are demonic. Really though, this is probably more reflective of wanting to sin and not get called on it.

One in three said "Church is boring."

Translation: Entertainment is most important.

One in six young Christians said they "have made mistakes and feel judged in church because of them."

This is everyone's fault. The odd thing is that it seems there's just as much judgement outside of religious congregations on this front. There's also the curious phenomenon of those outside Christianity judging (dare I say "demonizing"?) everything within it.

And 40 percent of 18- to 29-year-old Catholics said their church's doctrine on sexuality and birth control is "out of date."

Which is really just another species of wanting to sin freely.

Ultimately, the article misses the underlying cause behind all these reasons. It seems the real reason these young people lose their faith is because it tells them they aren't God. They aren't the center of the universe. Things are not ordered to their whims. They are not the final arbiters of what is good and evil.

Basically, non serviam.

2 comments:

John said...

Non serviam all the way down, to be sure. Isn't it all really non serviam all the way down?

I think the more interesting question is whether it's a growing rebellion among the youth. What do you think of this article? Seems connected in some aspects at least.

Throwback said...

I think so. The exaltation of the Almighty Me is definitely our nation's most prominent religious belief.