Christian students go to college and find . . .

Oxford University Press published a book in 2005 on research by sociologist Christian Smith into the religious beliefs of U.S. teens:

"According to Smith’s research, American teens:  1) are almost completely inarticulate about their faith and unable to explain its most basic tenets, 2) are largely moral relativists and religious pluralists, and 3) view God as a distant being who exists solely to make them happy, but who is irrelevant to most aspects of their lives.  Furthermore, students who abandoned the religious beliefs they were raised with did so primarily because of intellectual skepticism and doubt.  Teens said things like, “’It didn’t make any sense anymore,’ ‘Some stuff is too far-fetched for me to believe,’ ‘I think scientifically and there is no real proof,’ and ‘Too many questions that can’t be answered.’”

When these teens get to college, here's what they find in philosophy class:

“...we try to arrange things so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic, religious fundamentalists will leave college with views more like our own…we do our best to convince these students of the benefits of secularization....So we are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable . . .students are lucky to find themselves under the benevolent Herrschaft [domination] of people like me, and to have escaped the grip of their frightening, vicious, dangerous parents ...” - Richard Rorty, former philosophy professor at Princeton University – ‘Universality and Truth,’ in Robert B. Brandom (ed.), Rorty and his Critics, pp. 21-22..

From:

http://www.thepointradio.org/point-blog/entry/37/20632

Create community in the city

“Seek the welfare of the city into which you have been called, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”  Jeremiah 29:7

Here's a good article regarding how Christians can think about promoting a sense of community in our cities:  

http://www.civitate.org/2011/09/redeeming-civic-life-in-the-commons/

He suggests that common space for interacting with our neighbors is needed - easy to see the benefits of that.  Zoning laws and private individuality have reduced opportunity for community living.  Maybe Jer. 29:7 can inspire a new vision.

Front lawns with fences around them - can they actually be an encouragement to interaction with neighbors?  Yes they can, and here's an example from East Los Angeles:

 "in this context, the fence is actually creating a more social space by pushing the threshold out towards the sidewalk. The homeowner in this context has a defensible space where they can stand and interact with people on the sidewalk. They can actually position themselves in their front yard in such a way as to indicate what kind of interaction they are open to. They can orient themselves towards the sides of their fence for more familiar conversation with a neighbor, or they can rest their arms on the gate to chat with people as they pass by."

How about big buildings and parking lots?  Their effect on neighborhoods is early in the article. 

Your own effort

Isaiah 65:21-22 (Amp) - God describes His  vision for the good life in His new creation:  

"They shall build houses and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.  They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat . . .My chosen and elect shall long make use of and enjoy the work of their [own] hands."

It's good to be rewarded with the results of your own effort. Real life backs up scripture in this principle. In his book, Gross National Happiness, Dr. Arthur C. Brooks cites studies that show happiness and satisfaction come from achieving success in your chosen goal whether it's a business or a charity or anything else that you consider worth doing.

Write off politics?

An interview with Rick Warren is posted on John Piper's blog. Rick says he has zero interest in politics. Why? Because laws have nothing to do with people's behavior. But no . . the opposite is true: laws reign in behavior and every person I know is glad they do! What is he talking about? Laws certainly don't construct perfect people, but they obviously shape the kind of society we live in.

Does he have any interest in the kind of society we live in? Would he just as soon live in Rwanda or Albania or Venezuela? Personally, I'm thankful for American life. I take an interest in the kind of people who govern it and in the quality of society its policies produce for Americans, the rest of the world (because we are not isolated), my family, and me.

Vishal Mangalwadi would certainly not subscribe to Rick's statement because he says that Christians must see the faith as being not only personally transformative but also culturally transformative.

Politics can be frustrating, sometimes disappointing - but way too important to just write off.

Myth Buster Rodney Stark

Rodney Stark has authored lots of books, well-written and fascinating.  Currently into his most recent, The Triumph of Christianity, published 2011.  As a respected sociologist, he's specialized in the sociology of religion including original research. His stuff has broken a lot of myths about Christianity's history and even its practice currently in America.  Here's what I learned today:

So-called mainline denominations over the past few decades have been losing "market share." Their decline is linked to decreasing demands on their members regarding belief and morality (even to the point of Episcopals tolerating an outspoken aetheist as bishop).  But denominations that require higher commitment and doctrinal belief have been growing fast!

There's another group that doesn't fit into denominations and on which there's no growth data because they haven't existed that long, a "large and very rapidly growing body of evangelical, nondenominational churches" (I've belonged to them half my life).  "Claims that those nondenominational churches, especially the megachurches among them, thrive by going 'light on doctrine and sin', are utterly false.  These are demanding churches."

In my experience, "demanding" churches are alive and rewarding.