Moral Therapeutic Deism
The 9/6 issue of The Christian Century has 2 interesting articles on what teens believe. The first is a review of a study entitled Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Smith and Denton). The good news from this study is that American teens are not overwhelming secular. They do believe, they do have faith in God. The bad news is the shape that faith takes. Smith and Denton describe it as Moral Therapeutic Deism whose creed is as follows:
1)God exists and watches over the world & human life
2)God wants people to be good and nice to and fair to each other. This is taught in the Bible
3)The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself
4)God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to solve a problem.
5)Good people go to heaven when they die.
In a related article a youth pastor attributes part of the cause of this to the pressure churches put on youth people to make church "fun."
He writes: "We often fail to help teens think carefully about their faith and about the details of scripture, worship and Christian practices. Getting kids to like church is itself an accomplishment, and parents want ministers to succeed at that. Not surprisingly, Smith and Denton describe youth ministers as under great pressure to keep kids entertained. One common strategy inovolves front loading youth programs with fun activities, hoping to sneak a little Bible teaching in at the end. The point not to do anything too weighty that would turn kids off. Keep it light; keep it fun."
He could, also, be describing the state of Children's Ministry in today's church where we are raising fervent and articulate moral therapeutic deists.
1)God exists and watches over the world & human life
2)God wants people to be good and nice to and fair to each other. This is taught in the Bible
3)The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself
4)God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to solve a problem.
5)Good people go to heaven when they die.
In a related article a youth pastor attributes part of the cause of this to the pressure churches put on youth people to make church "fun."
He writes: "We often fail to help teens think carefully about their faith and about the details of scripture, worship and Christian practices. Getting kids to like church is itself an accomplishment, and parents want ministers to succeed at that. Not surprisingly, Smith and Denton describe youth ministers as under great pressure to keep kids entertained. One common strategy inovolves front loading youth programs with fun activities, hoping to sneak a little Bible teaching in at the end. The point not to do anything too weighty that would turn kids off. Keep it light; keep it fun."
He could, also, be describing the state of Children's Ministry in today's church where we are raising fervent and articulate moral therapeutic deists.
posted by Ivy on Tuesday, September 06, 2005
16 Comments:
I completely agree, Ivy. This is an issue that is so prevelant in Children's Ministries today. There is no meat. No teaching. Everything is fun, fun, fun. I want to see some real theology included in the educating of children.
This has been a burden of my church. Just making church fun doesn't cut it. We want our kids to grow and mature.
I have to go backwards and read the blogs but I'm so glad you're blogging again!
mh
Thank you Ivy. I had not heard the term "moral therapeutic deism" before but it sure hits it! This belief system is pretty prevalent among many adults in our country - not only among teens! The church needs to wake up and equip the next generation to have a biblical outlook and understanding of life..it just is not all about pursuing our own happiness and personal entertainment.
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