Losing My Religion

Every fall Christian parents worry about sending their kids off to college only to have them come back as unbelievers. The fear of this happening is why many parents strongly encourage their children to attend Christian colleges or at least a school with a good Christian presence on campus. But this is not a guarantee either.

For sure, the Christian faith is attacked in academia. But according to a new study the cracks in a young person’s foundation of faith occur long before the day he or she sets foot on campus. That’s the message from a recent article in the Atlantic Monthly[1]

The author of the article is Larry Taunton. He is the Executive Director of the Fixed Point Foundation. Larry has often visited college campuses to debate atheists like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. After his interviews with many collegiate atheists he was surprised by why many young people left the faith. It wasn’t because of the lure of secular humanism or even Christian moral teachings. It was that the Christianity they left wasn’t Christian enough!

One young man named Phil said, “Church became all about ceremony, handholding and kumbaya.” During the interview it became clear where the turning point was for Phil. In an effort to attract more young people the church wanted the youth pastor to teach less and play more. The youth pastor was replaced by someone else “who didn’t know anything about the Bible.” And the church got what it wanted: the youth group grew. But Phil left.

Most of the young atheist left the faith not because their worldview had changed as much as a reaction to tepid Christianity. Students said that in church they learned about social justice, community involvement and being good. But they knew nothing about the good news. They knew nothing about the connection between Jesus Christ and a person’s life. They had questions—tough questions about God, sex, evolution vs. creation, the reliability of the biblical text, the purpose of life and on and on. But no one was speaking biblically about these questions from the pulpit; no one shared God’s Word anywhere! Many concluded that church was shallow. They got bored and left.

Christopher Hutchins was once asked why he did not verbally attack Mr. Taunton, the author of the article, in their debates. He answered “Because you [Taunton] believe it.” Michael, a political science major said something similar. “I really can’t consider a Christian a good, moral person if he isn’t trying to convert me.” A surprising number of students said the same thing.

 

The atheist illusionist and comedian Penn Jillette made a similar statement. “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” Quoting Michael, the political science student: “Christianity is something that if you really believed it, it would change your life and you would want to change [the lives] of others. I haven’t seen too much of that.”

We are not squeamish about proclaiming the truth and answering tough questions at the church I serve, Grace Ministry International. We've lost our religion to follow Christ. If you are in the greater Chicago area you are welcome to join us for worship Sundays at 10:30am at The Gorton Community Center, 400 East Illinois Road, Lake Forest, Illinois. Our Foundational Bible Class and all other teachings are available free of charge at the “Teachings” section of www.graceministryinternational.org. 

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[1] July 2013