Teens' rising spirituality features a worrisome side

Kingsport Times-News

Teens' rising spirituality features a worrisome side
Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Contrary to the negative images often portrayed in national media, local religious leaders say area teens seem to be on the brink of a spiritual reawakening. That local impression is shared by many of their colleagues across the nation who report similar anecdotal evidence of increased teen involvement and interest in the search for spiritual fulfillment.

 

"Some of the things I see that have changed are the levels of spiritual maturity. Today's teens take church as a whole more seriously," says Kyle Mott, youth minister of Northeast Church of Christ.

 

Across the state line, Associate Pastor Jeff DeBoard at First Baptist Church of Gate City, Va., gives a similarly upbeat assessment.

 

"I feel that young people today are searching for absolute truth that can only come through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ," he says. "I believe God is raising up a very conservative generation of youth who have a sincere desire to worship God and search his word for direction and understanding."

 

Reports by the Barna Research Group, the gold standard in data about the nation's religious life, do, indeed, show that young adults are searching for spiritual meaning in their lives. But beneath the general spike in spirituality Barna documents, there also lurks some rather disturbing findings.

 

While a majority of teens continue to profess faith, George Barna's research shows it is definitely not the faith of their fathers. Indeed, the majority of Christian teens hold many beliefs that stand in stark contrast to mainline Christian orthodoxy.

 

While approximately 60 percent of teens agree with the statement, "The Bible is totally accurate in all of its teachings," and 56 percent say their religious faith is "very important" to them, slightly more than half of all teens also report believing that Jesus committed sins while he was on Earth. A clear majority - approximately 60 percent - also agree with the statement that "good works will get me to heaven." Such a belief, of course, is antithetical to the central theme of justification by grace through faith that is the central connecting theological thread of all Protestant belief since the Reformation.

 

Fire and brimstone isn't popular with teens either. Approximately two-thirds of teens say that Satan is "symbolic, not real."

On an even more alarming practical level, Barna finds that only 6 percent of all teens believe there are moral absolutes. Even among self-identified, "born-again" teens, only nine percent believe moral truth is absolute.

 

"When you ask even Christian kids, ‘How can you say A is true as well as B, which is the antithesis of A?' their typical response is, ‘I'm not sure how it works, but it works for me,' " says Barna, president of the Ventura, Calif.-based research company that bears his name. "It's personal, pragmatic and fairly superficial."

 

If adults wonder how so many Christian teens could possess these increasingly relativistic, even schizophrenic, spiritual values, they may want to look in the mirror.

 

George Barna also reports that the percentage of born-again Christians who have been divorced (27 percent) actually beats the national average by two percentage points. "While it may be alarming to discover that born-again Christians are more likely than others to experience a divorce, that pattern has been in place for quite some time."

 

The changing attitudes and conduct of the Christian community concerning divorce is but one example of the ripples of moral consequence affecting church membership and wider society. The acceptance or opposition to homosexual unions is another example of the moral dilemma facing more and more denominations.

 

It's encouraging to hear religious leaders praise teen interest in church activities. In a world where even fundamental values seem fleeting, a life dedicated to a purpose greater than ourselves can be an anchor against a rising tide of moral relativism. And, as Barna's research shows, the human temptation to drift with that tide, whether young or old, is enormous.

 

Copyright 2004 Kingsport Times-News.