Question:
Why are some Christian parents afraid to send their kids to
secular universities?
Response:
I suspect they are afraid their kids will lose their faith. This is not an unreasonable concern as there
is research indicating many Christian young people either give up the faith
altogether or become less interested, stop attending church and change their
values once they leave their parents’ home.
Hemorrhaging Faith: Why and When Canadian Young Adults are Leaving,
Staying and Returning to the Church, 2011, was a study of 2049 young people
between the ages of 18 and 34. The study
found that “only one in three
Canadian young adults who attended church weekly as a child still do so
today. Of the young adults who no longer
attend church, half have also stopped identifying themselves with the Christian
tradition in which they were raised.”[1]
Is university responsible for this exodus? Or one factor of many? Was
the faith of the young people who leave shallow to begin with? Involvement at church, attendance at a youth
group, even going on a summer missions trip does not mean that a person is
deeply rooted in their faith. It is
possible to do all these things but still collapse in the face of articulate
criticisms of one’s beliefs and exposure to other belief systems and values. University is the place where your Christian
teen will be challenged directly and indirectly, through textbooks, professors,
fellow students, campus activities and the general atmosphere; it is a place
where the true state of one’s faith is revealed. Once away from direct parental influence will
a young person’s faith stand on its own?
The apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis commissioned a study
by the American Research Group in 2009, to look into the issue of church-going
young people leaving the church in their college years. They discovered that many of these students
did not start doubting the Bible in college.
The majority of them had doubts in middle school and high school.[2] The study also showed that church-going young
people who attended Sunday School were no more inclined to trust the Bible than
church-going young people who did not attend Sunday School. Sunday School simply had no positive effect
on the religious beliefs of those who attended.
In fact, Sunday School attenders were more likely to admit to becoming
anti-church through the years, than those who did not attend Sunday School.[3]
In which case, we should not be surprised that, once out from
direct parental control, college age young people exercise their prerogative to
act on their doubts and dissatisfaction and quit attending church
altogether. University may certainly be
a factor but may be those youth would have left anyway.
What can we say about all this?
Quite clearly the problem is deeper than we have realized and cannot be
addressed “when the kids are older”.
Some questions to ask your middle- or high-schooler (as appropriate):
Why are you a Christian?
Who is Jesus? Why is He important? Is He the only way to be saved? Why?
Does anything in the Bible or about God bother you?
Do you find the Bible boring? Why?
What do you think of gay people? Does God love them?
What do you think of atheists? What does God want for them?
Would you go to church if it was only up to you? Why?
Also, do not think your child will somehow be spared if you send
them to Bible college. Challenges abound
there as well. I spent five years at a
Christian college and seminary and we had our share of issues with drunkenness
and pre-marital sex, pride and faithlessness.
We are called to live in the world. We are not to be of it but we are to be in
it. We cannot hide or pretend like our
kids are immune to its lies and allures.
We cannot guarantee our kids will keep the faith but we can do what we
can to train them up so they can encounter challenges at all ages and not be
broken by them.
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