Young Evangelicals leaving church, going liberal, new book says
CNN opines on the new book by Barna Group president, David Kinnaman, which addresses why young Evangelicals are rapidly leaving church never to return. Their departure from congregations parallels their departure from Evangelical values:
Seven in 10 millennials say sex between an unmarried man and woman is morally acceptable (PDF). (According to Kinnaman, young Christians are as sexually active as non-Christians.)
• Most women in their early 20s who give birth are unmarried.
• More than six in 10 millennials (including 49% of Republican millennials) support same-sex marriages.
• Six in 10 millennials say abortion should be legal (PDF), a higher proportion than found in the general population. A higher percentage say abortion services should be available in local communities.
Millennials also part ways with conservative orthodoxy on wealth distribution and caring for the environment. According to a report in The Christian Science Monitor, three out of four say that wealthy corporations and financiers have too much power and that taxes should be raised on the very wealthy, and two out of three say financial institutions should be regulated more closely. In addition, most say that creationists’ view on evolution is outdated.
The editorialist, Laura Stepp, adds, “Sounds a lot like Democratic ideology to me.” She’s right about that, although her answer to the question “why?” is oversimplified:
These young dropouts value the sense of community their churches provide but are tired of being told how they should live their lives. They don’t appreciate being condemned for living with a partner, straight or gay, outside of marriage or opting for abortion to terminate an unplanned pregnancy.
It’s more than that. It involves an entire culture of indoctrination about worldview, including sexual mores (and notice, all of the bullet-points above are about sex), that begins early in public school, and explodes into manifestation when a child is given freedom from parental supervision for the first time at college. Stepp’s anecdote reveals this clearly:
Brittany, a 24-year-old veterinary technician, is an example of the newly disaffected. In high school, she attended a conservative Episcopal church in northern Virginia. She enrolled in college thinking of herself as a conservative and not wanting to have sex until she was married. Her views changed when she met her boyfriend. She began to question the theology of her home church on a number of social issues.
The story might as well have said, “Brittany said she believed in biblical values until she got alone with her boyfriend for the first time, got passionately aroused, had no accountability, and had sex. Then she needed a new values system to justify her desire to continue premarital sex and help her not feel guilty.”
There is much more to this story, of course, but liberal indoctrination that begins in childhood is a huge element. Public schooling was designed very early to disaffect children from their parents’ religion. As Charles Francis Potter famously wrote already in 1930:
Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American school is a school of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school’s meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?
By the time they arrive at college, these kids may still be members of the church, fans of Tim Tebo, and even quoting Bible verses on the surface, but inside they’ve already been converted to “Democratic ideology”—because their parents entrusted the vast majority of their development to liberals long ago.
Continue Reading on www.cnn.com
Can you say apostate? It explains exactly what is going on.
It explains that our youth are now thinking for themselves. Finally, and it's not ging to stop, the whole world is changing.
No one should be surprised after two generations of so called "parents" have abdicated their responsibilities and turned our mush-brained youth over to a marxist system of "publik edukashun." These are the same group who will be manning the death panels in Obamacare to decide when Granny is no longer viable and deserves to be put down. We are in deeper chit than you can believe, and the hell of it is that we were warned and did not listen.
What else can you expect when our 'public' schools have been turned into 'Socialist' academies? Our youth get no moral guidance at home and they know nothing about the history of America. They are taught that we are greedy capitalists rather than rugged individualists. They do not prize patriotism and are taught the Bible is fiction. Unfortunately, they will be judged for their ignorance.
The parents are obviously on board with the new ideas, I can't believe anyone out there still thinks that the health plan will shut off Granny. That's just propergander.
I homeschooled my two children. Graduated one from high school and my son returned to school in 10th grade. All my material was christ centered and we attended church twice a week and Awanas on Mon. nights. We served Jesus with our whole heart, read thru the bible twice and my family with mother and father remains intact.
We were brutally judged by "well meaning christians" for friviolous matters like piercings and hand gestures. We were punished and made to feel like God would never forgive us our sins because we were so bad. My kids could not take it and to this day refuse the christian walk and do their own thing.
I raised my kids to honor me and God and their dad and they do none of it. It is so hard to resist evil now adays. But to have christians persecute you is the worst. I just wanted to coach a soccer team and they gave me such hell for it, since th.ey ran out my kids I am surprized I still call myself a christian. Bitter probably. But growing with Jesus as my savior and NOT some back stabbing popularity hungry starved christian.
All this tells us is that we must re-affirm proper values in our our children and every child over which we have influence. This tells us further that the mass media is putting a stranglehold on our youth. Remember, the digital pathway into the world is also a potential path into darkness and poor choices. Family and values first, through which God is forever interwoven.
Your talking communism teachings, you think you can force inteligent beings to follow outdated ideas? That's what going on in the world. Once the youth are left alone to think, they are coming to conclusions that go against their parents teachings. Just like freedom spreading all around the world. The word is out there, all the words, so now our youth have all the oppions to look at and make an intelligent decission.
"Train up a child in the way they should go…..". Satan follows God's word better than Christians! There are no godly churches, just institutions.
Blame the parents. The Baby Boomer generation that gave us Woodstock and a $15 trillion dollar federal debt has now given us these lost children…..most of whom voted and might vote again for Obama.
I hope they do, Obamma is looking out for the 99%
The problem is so many youth are ill-equipped to handle tough questions posed to them by liberal universities and college campuses. Arm them with the knowledge to combat liberal ideology and heavy influence (both directly and indirectly) of raging evolutionism, and these children would be much better off.
At the same time, many churches are stuck in centuries-old doctrines that are easily refuted, and shallow leadership that doesn't believe in growing and thinking. This is a booming technology age, and people have questions. Your local pastor isn't going to be able to just write everything off and give some pat answer to deep theological issues. Inquisitive minds will continue searching, and when they do, they will find a smattering of atheist-slanted information on the internet. Then they will begin to doubt, because it will be drilled into them, that if their local church is wrong about THIS, then they must be wrong about EVERYTHING, leading us to the conclusion that there is no God.
That's how it happens folks. How decent Christian kids turn agnostic and straight into atheists, then onward into misotheists. All because their church and family didn't prepare them to be able to give answers.
Genuine Christians, Believers, Followers of Christ don't suddenly (or gradually) just become agnostic or unbelievers; They're either all in or they were never 'there' to begin with. Born again means just that; New birth; dead to self, alive in Christ.
Christ Himself said that the lukewarm He will spit out of His mouth. Seems pretty clear.
There is no such thing as OSAS, the Bible gives many clear examples and even warnings of those who are genuinely saved, becoming unsaved. It is a myth that quickly disappears when you take into account the whole Bible, namely verses that are often skipped over, and rarely delved into.
Any real suggestions Rev?
Well, american, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Start them off with homeschooling and keep them away from public indoctrination 7 hours per day, 5 days per week, 9 months of the year learning mainly from their peers. But for most people this isn't feasible, so….
CMI, CRI, and CSE have a plethora of resources to arm people against atheist fallacies and evolutionistic nonsense. 'Refuting Evoltion' vol 1&2 by Dr. Jonathan Sarfati is just one example of excellent preparation and household favorite, as well as 'The Evolution Cruncher' by Vance Ferrell. You will have to build a small library of anti-evolutionist and anti-liberal logic such as 'How To Argue With A Liberal And Win' by Joel McDurmon is an excellent resource as well, it's clear and to the point with facts. Finally, there are a large number of good books by American Vision that go into great detail PROVING Americas Christian heritage all the way to Supreme Court rulings, like 'Americas Christian History the untold story' by Gary Demar.
As far as what the churches need to do… Firstly I instruct pastors to DROP the DOGMA and be ready to take some bitter medicine. Fundamentalists can be the hardest to get through to when it comes to things like the authorship of the Bible–how and when it was written. Getting through to people that it didn't just land in King James' lap in 1611 is imperative, and knowing the first through third century churches were divided on a number of things is a hard pill to swallow.
It took the multiple councils of Nicea, Carthage, and Dort before inspiration was settled, and by then there were divisions still on doctrine. A few of the church 'fathers' even believed some completely ridiculous things regarding scripture…If your child knows the complete history of Christianity and doesn't hold dogmatic beliefs, when your neighborhood misotheist tries to convert them, they won't be able to get through one of the first doors of doubt.
I give entire lessons about this, and other doors of doubt that get young evangelicals to throw the baby out with the bath water. Thinking that if their church is wrong about SOMETHING then they're wrong about EVERYTHING, hence there is no God. Sometimes it's simply time to find a better church, because they are stuck in the 1820s, when "Thou shalt not question" was the 11th commandment.
In my experience the church needs to go more on the defense, ready to take on angry atheists with solid logic and data on 3 fronts…Science, History, and Ideology, because these are the holes that Christians get sucked through. The guards have been sleeping and the gates have been open far too long.
The problem is not just apologetics as you infer. These young people are interested in relationship. They want to see Christianity in action and the church doesn't offer that except on short term missions trips. You want to impact this messed-up generation? Send them to and support YWAM. Parents need to put their kids through a DTS that will handle the basic of faith and couple it with community bent of serving in Jesus' name.
Refer to Communist Goals (1963), and read 25-29. Congressional record–Appendex,pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963current communist goals. So many of these goals are the same as the Democratic party that the American Communist Party (ACP) no longer feels the need to run candidates for the office of president.
You are so right about this! They announced to us in writing many years ago just exactly what they were going to do and how they were going to do it, and as a people, we shrugged it off and ignored it and let them do it, and we are now at the point of complete takeover of our beloved country. I have been watching it happen for more than 50 years, and have been warning people throughout this entire time, and now it is accomplished. The church in America is in such a backslidden state that it no longer has any power to stop it or reverse it. It is now up to individual Christians to hunker down and serve Christ with a clear consciience and in the power of His love.
I have a passion for, and have focused all my teaching on, equipping the young people of today with their own "Armor of God" For too long, we have been satisfied with letting our children wear the armor of their parents…sadly, that armor, in too many cases, is rusty and worn, perhaps ill-fitting because they are actually trying to wear their parents armor, which probably didn't fit them either.
Join me in teaching them…equipping them…encouraging them. Good place to start, _Mind_Your_Faith_, by David A. Horner. I have given away four copies of this book just this week, and I am going to incorporate a number of his ideas in next semester's class. Particluarly valuable is his assessment of Le Chambon!
Thanks for the book recommendation!
The" Lord, Lord but we prophesied in your name" which is followed by "I never Knew you"!!!!! comes to mind. How tragic.
Doesn't surprise me with the tainted values of those found in TV programs, movies, entertainers, UTube, Facebook, being brainwashed in public schools, and parents without morals openly displaying them. It also fits with the end times prophecies that tell us "in the end times even the elect will be deceived" by Satanic influence.
This is a perfect example of the "falling away" that the Bible says will happen in the end times. So-called "Christian churches and schools" are following the New Age teachings of the Emergent Church, of Rick Warren, of the "contemplative prayer", of so-called "spiritual formation" and other such cultic beliefs. Evangelicals are turning away from seven day Creation, biblical teaching, and biblical morality to follow the teachings of Baal, i.e. Satan. Many so-called saved evangelicals are heading for a sinner's hell faster than they realize thinking that God does not care. It is time for true Christians to rise up!!
I am curious, where are the millions of homeschooled kids who have been taught Biblical values at home? I do know that some of them find there way into public high schools and fall victim to public school peer pressure. But a percentage remained in Christian schools and colleges. Some homeschool through high school. So are these kids being poled? Are Christian college students being poled, or just secular university students? Being and remaining Christian is a faith walk in more ways than one. A Christian young person must have faith that even when they have never experienced sex or marriage, they believe that if they stay true to their virginity, when they do get married, they will be amazed to find out what a blessing and joy this brings to their married sex life. It is a lack of faith that propels them into early sex without marriage. Are parents making the case for great sex in marriage, that is worth waiting for? Kids are the victims of creepy sex ed. in public schools. As a former Planned Parenthood executive explained, "We break down the natural modesty between the sexes early on, we make them laugh at their parents' beliefs, we give them condoms that have holes in them, and we may have a customer for life…the average girl can have up to 3 or more abortions in her lifetime…$$$$" Heard this on a radio interview.
Mother of 4, the problem with many of those homeschooled is that 1) there is an overall lack of vision as to why the homeschool movement exists in an overall sense 2) homeschool kids have great inculcation in many cases but the churches they are practically forced into are run by government school hacks and diffuse the proper learning they have gotten via "youth groups" and shallow "seeker-friendly", churches 3) the theology that MOST have to end up swallowing is the old dispie-pop, I'll fly away, rapture-capture crap that reduces Christianity to mere personal piety (Bill Gothard and his ilk).
Oh, and Rocky, this has NOTHING to do with "the great falling away"…in fact, that "theology" is one of the major reasons FOR the left wingnutism hoisted on the "christian youth".
We are indeed products of our environment, with our environment being nurtured by our government. This frequently against our wishes.
Everybody always gets to where their going simply by taking the road that leads them there.
?
Just when I start to think that I've heard and read every stupid statement ever conjured by man or spirit, Galen comes along – saying the MOST SUPER-STUPIDOUS THING I've EVER heard and TOTALLY REDEEMS ALL OTHER IMBECILES! Congratulations!
that is what happens when the socialists teach these young kids.
1) Youth are socially engineered by CFR planners.
http://www.henrymakow.com/confirmedrockefeller_pl… http://www.henrymakow.com/freud_sabbatean.html http://www.henrymakow.com/homo_international_cont… http://www.henrymakow.com/how_to_control_the_worl…
2) CNN fakes polls to shape reality, not report it. FOX is no better.
http://citizenfitz09.blogspot.com/2011/03/classic… http://wellaware1.com http://www.henrymakow.com/the_left-right_politica…
3) CNN reports no faith revivals unless scandalous. Likewise only government “budget” problems not actual massive accumulated wealth.
http://cafr1.com/BehindTheShellGame.html
This degenerate society has reached the end of its life. It needs to be taken out of its misery — and ours.
Take up your KNIVES, brethren, and STRIKE DOWN the apostates, the weaklings, the impure, the race-traitors. Their DEATHS will hasten the DOWNFALL of this Godforsaken land, and its reconquest by TRUE CHRISTIANS.
It’s time to stop “letting it happen.” You can stop it with a THRUST of your BLADE. CLEAVE the unclean, the infidel, the apostate from his miserable life and FREE YOUR GOD FROM HELL!
Only you, doing what must be done, can do this. Only you, by striking down those you know in your heart to be unworthy of life and of this world, can save THE CHRIST from destruction.
SAVE YOUR GOD! SAVE YOUR WORLD! SAVE YOURSELF!
Kill the ungodly. Strike now; do not stop for anything. Only your willingness to take up His work will save any of us.
Christ waits on your courage.
Episcopal is typically NOT evangelical, it's mainline. Not a good pick to demo Barna stats. I'm with YWAM and when we get this gen it takes quite a bit of effort to produce even on long term missionary. That's why I put my efforts into first gen internationals who often are persecuted for their faith and it means something to them. This upcoming gen will get a taste of discomfort soon enough. They will have to get to the end of themselves which frankly will be a long road. The parents abdicating their kids to pop culture as a trade off for status are partly to blame. They don't think they have options but to joint the urban rat race and sacrifice their kids to media and peers, but it's not true.
Well, I can think of many reasons why the mellenials are leaving the church. I won’t restate the typical arguments, many of which have been posted on this thread already. I can only glean from my own expiriences, after all expirience is the second greatest teacher. I tried on those reformed, conservative shoes. I tried to fit in and keep those laws which they cherry picked from the OT, but instead of the church bearing one anothers burdens, being humble of spirit and operating in a spirit of love (greatest commandment Jesus stated) ect.; I felt, saw and expirienced polar a opposite spirit and demeanor. The church ooerates on the premiss instead of help the youth understand/lead by example; its whoever screams at them the loudest with the most out of control spirit is deemed as tje most spiritual. Most of these consevative churches know how to eat their young. To summerize a long explanation, the church lacks balance.
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