The critical importance of parents, then, is why Smith and Denton suggested that "the best way to get most youth more involved in and serious about their faith communities is to get their parents more involved in and serious about their faith communities" (emphasis in original).

That would mean, they said, that instead of thinking of youth ministry in isolation, "our findings suggest that overall youth ministry would probably best be pursued in a larger context of family ministry, that parents should be viewed as indispensable partners in the religious formation of youth."

In the end, they insisted, parents "most likely will get from teens what they as adults themselves are."

Church's Failure

As for their churchgoing lives outside the home, teenagers actually have a positive view of their religious communities. Soul Searching revealed that "the vast majority of teens find their religious congregation to be a warm and welcoming place for youth."

Most churchgoing teens, for example, viewed adults in their congregations as sincere believers and not at all hypocritical. These youth had also had positive experiences when speaking with their minister "about a personal question or problem." And with regard to matters such as family problems, alcohol or troubles at school, "most attending teens (70 percent) rate their congregation as a very good or fairly good place to talk about such serious issues."

But this does not contradict the main thesis of Soul Searching, which is that many teens view religion as a therapeutic endeavor, more for their own personal growth and development than as something which brings them into closer communion with God. In this view of Christianity, repentance and faith in Christ have been replaced by feeling good about oneself and being a good person; absolute truth is exchanged for relativism; and knowledge of biblical doctrine is displaced by the rather ethereal view that all religious belief -- or even no religious belief -- is basically the same.