Recent sociological studies are revealing a growing scandal within American Christianity. Many of our churchgoing teens are not Christian or, perhaps, are marginal believers who profess religious ideas that represent an astonishing departure from historic Christianity.
In fact, large swaths of our teens hold to views that are decidedly pagan, according to study results from University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton.
The pair of researchers reported their findings in a stunning book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. They said, for example, that "57 percent of Catholic youth maybe or definitely believe in reincarnation, 46 percent in astrology, 48 percent in communicating with the dead, and 32 percent in psychics and fortune-tellers .
On the other hand, 33 percent of conservative Protestant youth maybe or definitely believe in reincarnation, 33 percent in astrology, 31 percent in communicating with the dead, and 21 percent in psychics and fortune tellers."
When compared to the clear teachings of Scripture and Christianity, Smith and Denton said numbers like these were "astounding."
Just as disturbing, according to the Barna Research Group, a polling firm that focuses on religious trends in the U.S., 63 percent of self-professed Christian teens do not believe that Jesus is the Son of the one true God, and 58 percent believe all faiths teach equally-valued truths.
How did this spiritual sickness happen -- and, equally as important, how can it be cured? Many of the problems and solutions can be found in the same places.
Home-Grown Religion
If "home is where the heart is," then home is also where the religious heart of a young person is often shaped.
While many parents probably doubt that they have much influence on their teenagers -especially as compared to that of friends or the media -- the opposite is actually true, Smith and Denton said.
"Most teenagers and their parents may not realize it, but a lot of research in the sociology of religion suggests that the most important social influence in shaping young people's religious lives is the religious life modeled and taught by their parents," the researchers said.
Even in the research for Soul Searching, Smith and Denton found "that the importance of faith for teenagers fairly closely tracks the importance of faith for their parents. Parents for whom religious faith is quite important are thus likely to be raising teenagers for whom faith is quite important, while parents whose faith is not important are likely to be raising teenagers for whom faith is also not important."
