Does leaving for college mean leaving your faith? It doesn’t have to…
In this article for the New York Times, David Brooks says, “People in their 20s seem to be compelled to bounce around more, popping up here and there, quantumlike, with different jobs, living arrangements and partners while hoping that all these diverse experiences magically add up to something.”
Read the rest of the article here.
Nebraska senator Ben Sasse wants parents to get serious about shepherding kids into responsible adulthood. Read the article from Christianity Today here.
If we want our kids to have a shot at making it in the world as 18-year-olds, without the umbilical cord of the cell phone being their go-to solution in all manner of things, they’re going to need a set of basic life skills.
Read the rest of the article here.
The President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University laments the current culture of self-absorbed and narcissistic teens. From his blog post:
“I have a message for this young man and all others who care to listen. That feeling of discomfort you have after listening to a sermon is called a conscience. An altar call is supposed to make you feel bad. It is supposed to make you feel guilty. The goal of many a good sermon is to get you to confess your sins—not coddle you in your selfishness. The primary objective of the Church and the Christian faith is your confession, not your self-actualization.”
Read the rest of the blog post here.
College personnel everywhere are struggling with students’ increased neediness. Read the article here.
This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education takes a look at what we lose when we expand adolescence. From the article:
“For some time, we’ve been seeing a curious trend: Young adults are attempting to delay adulthood, while preteen children are hurrying—or being hurried—into the roles and attitudes of young adults. It’s no accident that child psychologists have extended their definition of adolescence into the 20s or that primary-school kids are pushed into beauty pageants where they are dressed like Miss America.”
Read the full article here.
In an article for The Atlantic, Larry Alex Taunton, founder and executive director of the Fixed Point Foundation, reflects on his many conversations with young atheists. He writes, “That these students were, above all else, idealists who longed for authenticity, and having failed to find it in their churches, they settled for a non-belief that, while less grand in its promises, felt more genuine and attainable.” Taunton also lists seven key takeaways from his interviews with college student atheists:
They had attended church
The mission and message of their churches was vague
They felt their churches offered superficial answers to life’s difficult questions
They expressed their respect for those ministers who took the Bible seriously
Ages 14-17 were decisive
The decision to embrace unbelief was often an emotional one
The internet factored heavily into their conversion to atheism
Read the full article here.
A study by the Center for Marriage and Families suggests that adults raised by happily married parents are far more likely to attend religious services and express interest in God than those raise by divorced parents—even in “good” divorces (those in which there is little conflict and both parents are active in the child’s life).
Read a report from Leadership Journal here.
Read more about the study here.
According to researcher David W. Brook, professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, teens diagnosed with ADHD are likely to have an array of issues as adults, including problems with physical and mental health, work, and finances. Brook and his colleagues looked at data that assessed teens at ages 14 and 16, and later as adults at 37. The original study began in 1975.
Read the full report here.
