Another young, prominent Evangelical Christian has left the
fold. Joshua Harris was 21 years old when he wrote, “I Kissed Dating Goodbye.” Since
being published in 1997, his book has sold over a million copies and has been hailed
by conservatives for its guidance in navigating relationships with the opposite
sex. Last year, Harris renounced the book. This year, he renounced the faith.
Harris joins other high-profile Evangelical millennials in
the flight from faith. Non-Evangelical millennials are also leaving – a recent
study suggests more than half are already gone – but they are more likely to
drift from the faith quietly, not buzz the deck as they fly away. When people
like Harris – people who have made a name for themselves precisely because they
were Evangelicals – leave the faith, they make headlines. Depressing headlines.
Why are we seeing this exodus of young Christians, Evangelical
and otherwise? Why is it happening now, at this point in history? Can anything be
done to turn it around?
The reasons for the flight from faith are manifold and to catalogue
them would require a book-length treatment. It is possible, however, to
highlight a few key (and sometimes overlooked) issues. For one, segments of the
media display an antipathy for the faith and this generation, more than those
that came before it, is constantly awash in media.
In the West, the Church was once the principal medium
through which information about society and life was transmitted. The daily
newspaper challenged the church for this coveted position in the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, before its influence was contested by the advent of
radio.
Movies and newsreels came crashing in next. By the time I
came on the scene, television was king of the hill. All of these media sought not
only to inform their audience but to transform them. Whether it was to unite the
citizenry against the Axis powers, or reorient people to a new view of
sexuality, or to direct consumers to an advertiser’s product, media intends to
shape its users.
If one thinks of each medium as a stream that supplied the surrounding
countryside with ideas, by the time television came along the various media had
converged into a mighty Mississippi, transporting America on its current. But in
the social media age, millennials have been swept out to sea. One study finds
millennials spending 5 to 7 hours a day on their phones. Subtract time spent
working, sleeping, and viewing other screens and there is virtually no time
left.
It is impossible to overstate the impact immersive media has
had on people’s thinking. This is particularly true when it comes to sexuality,
which has received enormous attention in news, entertainment, and social media.
A changing view of human sexuality – changing in predictable ways, given the
nature of media attention – has certainly played a major role in the flight of
young Evangelicals from the faith.
There are additional factors that contribute to the millennial
migration. The culture-wide postponement of marriage, which is related to
changing views of sexuality, has had an impact. So has the decreasing birthrate.
Many millennials fled the Evangelical camp over its support for President Trump,
which they considered blatantly hypocritical.
Behind all of these, though, lies the Church’s failure to
present a compelling gospel to millennials. The roots of this failure reach
back many centuries, at least to the later Scholastic Period, when churchmen became
obsessed with how one gets to heaven. The Bible itself does not obsess over the
topic. St. Paul’s magisterial letter to the Romans, for example, only mentions
heaven twice, and neither time has anything to do with how people get there.
Yet that is all some young Evangelicals ever heard about. To their minds,
heaven is what the faith is about and they have decided heaven can wait.
The Church must reintroduce people to the gospel of God’s
kingdom, as related by Jesus and the apostles. Heaven – yes, wonderfully so,
and only through Christ’s cross; but also the revolutionary hope of God’s
rightful rule and the Church’s role in preparing for it. Where this hope is
truly present, individuals and communities are consistently transformed.
Yet many millennials know almost nothing of it. That must be remedied, now rather than later.
What do you think? Let me know!
Published by Gatehouse Media
The Way Home 