“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 Dean

In 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.

, 08/09/2010. Category: DOC Thoughts, Youth Ministry.

Anger to Bargaining

It has almost been a decade since our national shock and long grief process began.  Unfortunately, as a nation we have not grieved well: strike the Taliban, invade Iraq, war profiteers, military stop-loss, thousands more dead and injured, unknown numbers orphaned, a transfer of wealth from poor and middle class families to corporations waging war, a change in language from mercenary to contractor,  and an embrace of racism and scapegoating in the name of national security.  It appears that almost ten years on the nation leaders continue to act and lead out of anger and bargaining in the grief process rather than helping the nation’s citizens remember and act out of our better selves.

This article is another example of misplaced anger and those trying to utilize that misplaced anger to gain political advantage and the almighty dollar.  Some TV christian evangelists speak of the immorality of the nation.    This is certainly the best modern example to date of that claim.  Have we forgotten the Japanese interment camps?

Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition
by Laurie Goodstein | The New York Times | August 7, 2010

While a high-profile battle rages over a mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, heated confrontations have also broken out in communities across the country where mosques are proposed for far less hallowed locations.

In Murfreesboro, Tenn., Republican candidates have denounced plans for a large Muslim center proposed near a subdivision, and hundreds of protesters have turned out for a march and a county meeting.

, 08/08/2010. Category: Culture.
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