What is happening to today's Christian youth? The differences between the churchgoing kids of the past and today's churchgoing youth have become quite stark, according to the American Family Association (AFA).
The group pins the blame for this on three misconceptions that are leading today's children away from Christianity.
"Studies are continuing to confirm that vast swaths of churchgoing kids know very little about their Christian faith," Ed Vitagliano, AFA's executive vice president, said on their website. "Instead, American Christianity has devolved into what two sociologists called 'moralistic therapeutic deism.'"
He shared the book called "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers," which was written by sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton. The book includes detailed studies on teenagers and religion.
From it, Vitagliano was able to come up with a list of three things that are misleading the youth of today.
First, Christian teenagers are now "moralistic," which means that they associate faith with "mere human goodness."
"Any authentic Bible-believing Christian, however, knows that goodness is neither an inherent human trait nor, even if it was, is it sufficient for a saving relationship with God," Vitagliano said.
Next, the youth of today want religion to be "therapeutic" and are completely missing the whole point of discipleship. They view going to church as a religious form of therapy instead of a kinship with God.
"Somewhere along the line, churchgoing kids have missed the point about the Christian faith. Rather than it being a relationship with God by which a disciple is joined to Christ, follows Him, and becomes more and more like Him, the modern, younger evangelical has this view of religion: 'It makes me feel happy,'" he explained.
Finally, kids today also believe in "deism," which makes God vague and hard to reach. Today's youth sees God as someone who created the world and defined the general moral order. However, they don't see God as Someone who gets personally involved in their affairs.
Because of this, kids relate more with their favourite musicians or TV stars rather than biblical figures like Jesus and Moses.
"What we are witnessing is a spiritual catastrophe in the making. For those Christians who viewed the recent election as a reprieve, they are probably right. But it was not a permanent end to the spiritual war engulfing our nation," Vitagliano warned. "If we are not careful and if we don't change the way we do business within the four walls of American church life, it won't matter what happens outside them."
