3/22/2006

Election

Yesterday I spent time reading the book I've been looking at for the past couple of weeks. Soul Searching still is a difficult read, but I found some really significant quotes this time.


  • "In our in-depth interviews with U.S. teenagers, we also found the vast majority of them to be incredibly inarticulate about their faith, their religious beliefs and practices, and it's meaning or place in their lives." (p.131)
  • "Many of the youth we interviewed were quite conversant when it came to their views on salient issues in their lives about which they had been educated and had practice discussing, such as the dangers of drug abuse and STD's." (p. 133)
  • "American parents use religion instrumentally to achieve prosocial outcomes for their children, to help their kids be more healthy, saffe and successful in life." (p. 148)
  • "What very few U.S. teens seem to believe, to put it one way, is that religion is about orienting people to the authoritative will and purposes of God or about serious, life-changing participation in the practices of the community of people who inherit the religiocultural and ethical tradition. As far as we could discern, what most teens appear to believe instead is that religion is about God responding to the authoritative desires and feelings of people." (p. 149)
  • "The overwhelming number of U.S. teens engage and value religion, not for the sake of God, or the common good of a just society, or for composing through identity and observance of a distinctive community of people, but for the instrumental good it does them." (p. 150)
The book is expressing a far different view from the "teens are looking for something deeper, something authentic when it comes to faith" idea that seems to be prevalent among youth ministry experts nowadays. It is saying that youth today are looking to religion for what they can get out of it. It doesn't seem that different than what I think is the case with adults.

If all of this is true, how would one go about bringing change to a population who are in it for themselves instead of others?

I also voted yesterday. And my daughter had a featured solo in her High School's spring choral concert.

I'm a proud dad -- with lots of questions.

8 comments:

Peter said...

Is our mutual classmate, Baboo K., running for anything this time around? Haven't heard from him lately...

Kirk Moore said...

There's a website http://www.kathuria2006.com/ that says he was going to run for lieutenant governor in this election. His name wasn't on the ballot when primary day came, however. Maybe he's running as an independent.

Gerrard Fess said...

Congrats on making the YS Update

Kirk Moore said...

Thanks -- Are you waiting patiently until July for new episodes of the 4400?

Pastor Paul said...

I wonder if that's a result, in part, of how we've been communicating the Gospel? Are we only communicating what God wants to do for us, and not what He's calling us to do, too?

Kirk Moore said...

Well, put Pastor Paul. We've got to follow the first and most important two rules above all else, I think.

traci said...

yeah, um. i couldn't get the video clip to work. am i an idiot?

Kirk Moore said...

No. You're not an idiot. But if you'sre using mozilla you have to right click on the link and save it before viewing it. The clip is a .wmv file and you probably just get a page of code, right?