Is the Faith of the Next Generation in Trouble?

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” This challenge is at the heart of Kenda Creasy Dean’s book Almost Christian: What the faith of our Teenagers is telling the American church. Dean is convinced that the faith we are handing on to the next generation suggests just the opposite of what Lewis says. We are telling our young people that Christianity is only of moderate, maybe even minor importance, and the consequence of our bland religion is evident in the weak and dispassionate participation of the next generation in the church. Why should they bother?

Associate Professor of Youth, church and culture at Princeton Seminary, Kenda Creasy Dean was a research team member for the National Survey of Youth and Religion (NYSR) which conducted extensive surveys of 3,300 youth between 2002 and 2005. The survey is the most extensive religious survey of American youth to date. The results of the survey are disturbing. Here’s what the research team learned:

1. Most American teenagers have a positive view of religion (yay!) but otherwise don’t give it much thought. (… not so good.)
2. Teenagers largely reflect the faith of their parents.
3. Most teenagers lack the theological language to articulate their faith or to interpret their world through a faith understanding.
4. A minority of American teenagers (8%) say religious faith is important, and that it makes a difference in their lives. These are the devoted. They read the Bible, pray, attend church and say that their beliefs about God figure into their life decisions. (Too bad for mainline protestants, like my own Presbyterian church, that we are fourth on the list in this group of devoted teens, following Mormons, conservative Protestant and black Protestant youth.)
5. Perhaps most alarming, the NYSR found that most religious teenagers enact and espouse a religious outlook that doesn’t look like any traditional religion – Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. It almost appears as if a new religion has been created or perhaps cloned. The research team dubbed this new religion “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. “

The key faith assertions of this new religion are first, that we should be nice people. Secondly, that our purpose in life is to feel good about ourselves or be happy. And lastly Moralistic Therapeutic Deism affirms that God is in the background and at our beck and call when we are in need. Having created and set the world to rights in the beginning, God is available to get us out of jam if necessary and will take us to heaven at our end. Otherwise, it seems that God does not have much to say to or much to do with American youth. Certainly, God has no demands to make or expectations of believers. Dean suggests Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is “almost Christian.”

I found myself wanting to argue with Dean as I was reading the first half of her book in which she describes and decries the results of the NYSR research. Perhaps, I wanted to say, this elementary expression of faith is not so bad, just immature. On the surface Moralistic Therapeutic Deism sounds vaguely like Christianity. Of course God wants us to be nice. There’s nothing wrong with nice. We teach our youth the golden rule: “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you.” That sounds a lot like, “Be nice.” But Dean is correct in pointing out that God’s definition of nice is so much deeper than ours. God calls us to love those who are not nice, even our enemies. We are “to love one another as Christ loved us” (John 13:34) and Christ was willing to suffer greatly at the hands of those who would hurt him. Secondly, doesn’t God want us to be happy and to feel good about ourselves? God loves us, right? Wouldn’t God want us to be happy? This is also tricky. Certainly God loves us. God’s love is demonstrated for us in the cross when God gave his most beloved, precious child for our salvation. But God also holds a calling out to us to follow his son into service that is sometimes challenging and may require sacrifice of us. It is a path of meaningful purpose that ultimately brings joy as we serve our maker well, but it may not necessarily result in what our culture might call happiness. As to the assertion that God is available should we find ourselves in need, I am simply uncomfortable with the “God in my pocket” theology which suggests that God is all about satisfying my needs and issuing my ticket to heaven. Yes, we turn to God when we are in trouble and expect God to be present and compassionate, meeting our needs in ways that we might or might not understand. The God we worship certainly takes the children in his arms, but God still expects us to grow up and serve as responsible daughters and sons of the King. There’s work to be done! Finally and foundationally I have to agree with Dean’s description of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism as not really quite Christian. In the end there is no understanding for and appreciation of Jesus’ cross and the empty tomb in this religious expression. There simply is no Christianity without Christ.

Dean’s book is disturbing to me largely because I don’t want to believe there is anything wrong with the faith expressed by the young people I have known in the churches I have served. They have my heart, and it angers me to have their fledgling faith questioned. But it’s too easy to suggest their inability to articulate faith is due to their youth. It is irresponsible to attribute this “new religion” to simple differentiation. No. The question we need to be asking is not whether there is something wrong with our youth, but whether there is something wrong with the faith we have been communicating and enacting before them. After all, the NYSR says our teenager’s faith largely reflects the faith of their parents. That’s us. Is our young people’s devotion to Christ tepid because we in the church are only mildly committed ourselves? Do our youth articulate a feeble theology because we aren’t really sure what we believe? Have they disregarded the call to discipleship and seeking the Kingdom because we have been too busy seeking our personal interests?

There is a clear call here to those of us who care about youth ministry to examine who we are, what we believe, and how well we are living out our commitments to God before our young people who are watching with interest. Dean has some interesting suggestions for what might be next in youth ministry in the future. More about this in my next post!