Article in Today's NY Times?

Question

"Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers"

I posted the link below for everyone to read. I'm curious to hear why you think this is happening.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/us/06evangelical.html?hp&ex=1160193600&en=5519ede029c494c4&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Answer 1

I haven't noticed this trend. If anything I have observed the opposite.

Answer 2

After reading the article what I see is the usual anxiety and fear that runs rampant in evangelical Christian circles. This time it is anxiety about their group continuing to exist. It is, as usual, an overblown and unrealistic fear.

A teenager's function is to question until they form certain beliefs and attitudes about their life. This makes rigid thinking elders go into a panic.

Society is changing, it always changes and their will always be people, of whatever age, who end up believing in evangelical Christianity. The end of the article insinuates this.

To me this is neither a good thing or a bad thing, as long as they stay away from forming government policy.

Answer 3

People are wising up. The messages being preached and the realities that these kids are experiencing do not align, and unless the church does something to fix that (which it won't) it will continue to shoot it's own foot. I am an Atheist, but I was raised in a Church, so the hardline Atheist theory of brainwashing is kind of out the window, and this even furthers that. What I wonder is whether or not the Evangelicals are disappointed that the Atheists are wrong?

Answer 4

Partly peer pressure, if you have to know the truth in the matter. Partly to rebel. Kids decide they don't like their church because mom and dad make them go and they have to behave. They'd rather be out with their friends. So, they rebel and suddenly, life without God is great. You can do whatever you want, and there is no huge spector in the sky to say no. Then they look at their friends who are still religious, and convince them that their new beliefs are cool. OR they make fun of the still-active christians. That happens a lot in high school.

Think about it. It takes a lot of personal time to be faithful to Christianity. You have to go to church, you have to try your hardest to live by the bible. No one these days wants to do this. They want to do what they want, and God is such a downer. Don't drink until you're legal, cause that is concidered a sin. Don't have sex until marriage (despite the fact that he swears he'll respect you in the morning and all your friends think that's archiac). Be modest. Don't wear revealing clothes despite the fashion of the times. All these rules that kids don't want to follow when falling away from the church means a freedom that they desire.

Answer 5

Ha!

"For the next two days, the teenagers in the arena pogoed to Christian bands, pledged to lead their friends to Christ and sang an anthem with the chorus, 'We won’t be silent.'"

wtf is with that?

Alright you're going to get the perspective of a 19 year old atheist right here.

The reason (in my opinion) that they're pulling away, is because it's a lot easier to. You learn things in school, you're no longer scared by religious scare tactics, the pieces fall in place and you no longer think that Christianity is right. It's what happened to me after a few years of looking into it.

One thing that is starting to get to me about Christianity is that they're trying to make it into a pop culture fad. Yeah we're hip and cool too! Look at us play something like hardcore metal but not really and it has uplifting lyrics! These kinds of attempts are just insulting to both the music industry and the religion.

These kinds of things are just blatant attempts to get teenagers to stay within their ministries so they can leech money out of them. They don't care about their well being, or what will happen to them when they die, they're just afraid of losing some of their fanbase. That's all it is.

Answer 6

This looks like the same event I wrote a blog entry about a few months ago. See the first link below for what I wrote. As for the specifics, I said that the problem is that there's too much emphasis on special events and gatherings of thousands of Christians, but not nearly enough emphasis on the daily walk of faith that shapes our lives the most. It's much the same as going to church on Sundays but then forgetting about God the rest of the week. We need to emphasis our faith as the foundation of our lives, not just a one-day-a-week thing we do.

Answer 7

Christians Teenagers listening to Christian Rock Bands and a Christian event....Thousands of Christian teenagers giving their lives to God...hmmm

..OH I GET IT NOW...

You see, these "pastors" are more interested in HOSTING events like that to pass the hat....MONEY is a terrible thing to these churches.....when they are not getting any of the action...

Sorry to be so cynical to some evangelicals but what is more important is the fact that these children are making a spiritual decision to be with GOD and not some denomination.....

ONLY the New York Times would think this is bad news...

Answer 8

You know, I was one of those kids once. I've even attended the event described within. And oh man. Their problem is, they're trying too hard. They're trying way too hard to make Christianity "cool". Between that and kids really sincerely wanting a religion, that is portrayed at such events as a highly idealistic thing, going to church and seeing terrible role models sitting in the pews...it all comes across as fake. It's not the religion driving them away, it's the religious.

Answer 9

The situation is, that the church doesn't want to progress. Christ said there is nothing we won't find out about before He returns.
By trying to protect the young, the church is keeping them
ignorant.
Then, when they find out about the realities of spiritual things, they think the church has lied to them, and they turn thier backs on the church.
Our Holy Writings don't warn of spiritual thngs because they
are imaginary, but because they are real. We need to educate
the young. These things have dangers.
The bottom line is that wicked people use knowledge to control
others. While righteous people use knowledge to gain
self-control.

Answer 10

(Haven't read it yet, so sorry if this misses the point, but...) Ever since there was rock music, there were churches trying to use it "to reach kids". In the late 1960s the very conservative church I went to brought in a little group with an acoustic guitar, a keyboard, and drums.

This is happening because religions survive only to the extent to which they attract new adherents and keep the current ones. It's evolution in action.

Answer 11

I think our teens has had the most pressure in all of history for defending their beliefs. Let's face it there is an enemy out there (satan) that is looking to devour believers. The reason your seeing him become more aggresive today is because he knows his time is short on this earth ( he will be cast into the lake of fire along with his followers) and he's doing everything in his power to destroy as many believers as he can.