Check out this article in the Denver Post. http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_4333367
A local pastor around here wrote a script for one of those Halloween plays intended to scare people into repentance. Supposedly, it's been copied by over 3000 churches. Now it's going to New York as an off-Broadway play. I'm very curious to see how that goes over in Manhattan.
Having spent the past 7 1/2 years in Portland, Princeton, and now Denver, I've started to assume that this type of theology is fading away in our country. Particularly among youth, my own experience is that they are less and less willing to even claim Christ as the exclusive Savior, because that smacks of intolerance. And those who are willing to make such an exclusive claim realize the need to be tactful in their high schools, and keep a distance from the perceptions of Christianity given by popular culture.
It seems clear that the religious far right continues to be very visible in the media, giving the impression of a growing movement, but are they attracting youth? If so, where are they coming from? They must be a very different breed than any students that I've ever come across.
-Jeremy Watson
Jeremy-
This was definitely the case with the youth we worked with in Upper Montclair, NJ. The absolute truth claim of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior was replaced by the absolute truth of tolerance. Isn't ironic that tolerance itself has become an absolute?
Quinn and I hung out with our youth group kids for the first time yesterday. A sophmore girl said, "to be an American is to be an atheist." The extrememe Christian right needs to recognize that we no longer live in a christian society but a pluralistic one. Kids don't respond to scare tactics and neither to adults. Not to mention many people aren't even familiar with the language of christian scare tactics. Jesus who? Salvation? Grace? Walking with the Lord?
Patrick
Posted by: Patrick | September 21, 2006 at 08:47 AM
Man, this stuff makes me want to puke. I know that isn't a very theological or intellectuall statement, but seriously I am going to puke. It ranks right up there with all that BattleCry garbage. If you haven't heard of Battle Cry then you should look it up. It is pretty shameful stuff. Its the worst thing since Hitler youth rallies. No joke.
Posted by: Matt | September 28, 2006 at 04:16 PM