Jesus Story Book Bible Plus Faithful Discipline Does NOT Equal Salvation

By: American Decency Staff

I recently had someone ask me to try to answer the question of why so many young people are leaving the church. Yikes. Talk about a large, loaded, deep question. After this, I’ll take on the issue of life on Mars. But I’ll give it my best shot.

While there are others who are certainly more qualified to answer that question, I did grow up in church and have seen many of my friends leave the church, so I may have a bit of insight into the question. I’ve seen friends get hooked on heroin, get entangled in sexual affairs, get slapped with handcuffs, renounce God, and turn their backs on all things Jesus. Why does this happen?

I don’t have any shiny bar graphs or fancy regression analyses. I don’t have a Barna survey of 1,000 angsty, disaffected youth. I don’t have a three-ring binder full of demographic data about today’s youth.

But I’m not sure I need all those things, helpful as they are. I think the answer as to why the church is hemorrhaging young people might be simpler than we think.

It’s all about the affections. 

We no longer have a commonly accepted morality. People don’t go to church just because their parents went to church. “The Bible tells me so,” doesn’t mean much any more. We live in a society that increasingly locates ultimate authority within ourselves. My desires and my biology and my dreams are the ultimate authority. As long as what I want doesn’t hurt anyone else, it’s okay. You can’t tell me what to do and I can’t tell you what to do. Keep your morality out of my bedroom. To quote Sheryl Crow, “If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad.”

We may be able to keep our kids sheltered from this blunt-force existentialism for a while, but eventually they will come to a crossroads of intellect and desire. They will experience strong desires that run counter to what they have been taught at church and in the home. The idea of “it’s wrong” can only hold out so long against the onslaught of desires. If the mind thinks it’s wrong but the heart isn’t so convinced, the heart will win in the end.

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