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 In his article "Losing Marriage, Losing The Faith," Rod Dreher writes - "A reader who is an Evangelical Millennial, and who has spent a good bit of time in youth ministry, read my interview today with John Stonestreet of the Colson Center, in which Stonestreet talked about preparing the next generation to live faithfully." Dreher goes on to quote a reader, an Evangelical youth leader, who says that young Evangelicals (ages 18-25) now see marriage as an "optional lifestyle" and think one shouldn't make marriage an "idol" - an obvious excuse for living in fornication. And they also see having children as an optional commodity rather than an obligation: in other words, a fun accessory to add to the things you have and the fun you experience. But who ever said that life's main purpose is having sex and fun? The sad thing is that according to a chart in the article, Evangelicals have beem holding their own in numerical growth better than other Christian groups, and a key element in this growth is marriage and raising children in the faith. But according to the above youth leader, now younger Evangelicals are slipping (or sleeping). Dreher cites Mary Eberstadt's book How The West Really Lost God, saying - "religion is like a language: you can learn it only in community, starting with the community of the family. When both the family and the community become fragmented and fail, the transmission of religion to the next generation becomes far more difficult. All it takes is the failure of a single generation to hand down a tradition for that tradition to disappear from the life of a family and, in turn, of a community." Get the whole story: read the full article & get our free weekly newsletter: subscribe below! |