Recently a friend forwarded an article link to me. Like many emails with forwards, I pretty much ignored the link until I could get to it. When I finally made the time in my schedule to read the article…well, I was disturbed…and now I can’t stop thinking about it.
The article referred to statistics based on a National Study of Youth and Religion, the largest study of faith and young people in United States history. Maybe that is why the results disturbed me so much.
Kenda Creasy Dean is the author of Almost Christian a book based on this study. She describes students as “almost Christian” which means they believe in God, but they don’t believe in Christian doctrines. They are drawn to the “cult of niceness.” It is the whole God loves you and wants you to be happy mindset. Being nice is a great thing to be, but it doesn’t have much to do with Jesus according to this study.
Even Dean admits, “The problem is that it’s an incredibly selfish way to look at faith.”
Researchers have labeled this form of almost Christian “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” Whatever you want to call it, it basically means that faith is there to help you feel good. Otherwise God stays out of the way.
As I’ve continued to ponder this article and the research behind it, I find myself asking some tough questions.
How do I explain to my girls that their faith matters?
How do I live in such a way that they see by example that faith matters?
How much of my faith is based on the true biblical Jesus?
Do I live and act like Jesus? Do I live out what I believe?
Is my faith really that radical or do I look like all the other “almost Christians?”
And if those questions aren’t enough to fill up every waking moment, I start thinking about the impact of generations of “almost Christians” on the church and on the world.
I don’t know about you, but I know there are some things I need to do that are counter to this “almost Christian” church culture. I need to talk more about specific Christian beliefs with my girls. I need to compare and contrast what is being taught (even in Christian settings) with the truth of the Bible. There is a wide pool of Christians that surround my girls in our church and community, but sometimes I really wonder how deep that pool really goes.
Psalm 145:4 says, “One generation will declare Your works to the next and will proclaim Your mighty acts.”
What are you doing in your girls' ministry to help girls grow into a deep faith in Christ? How are you helping them avoid the a shallow faith that, in the end, does not have much substance?
Unfortunately, I think this has a lot to do with the lie we have been told that states that if we are to truly "love" someone as Christ commands then we are to "tolerate" their behaviors because that is how God made them. After all, that is the "nice" thing to do.
The truth is that the bible specifically speaks against drunkeness, debauchery, homosexuality, divorce (without Biblical just cause), rage, on and on. Yet, we are told to embrace not only the people who continuously engage in these sins but to accept it and not make a fuss about it.
Our kids need to know the truth. God does love all of us. He gives us all the same grace. We have to stop neglecting his love by accepting his word and not man's ways.
I've read similar books on these subjects. It is sad to think what our children's children may deal with in the future.