Have you read the book by teens for teens,"Do Hard Things"? This article by John Stonestreet says the same thing from an adult point of view. I wish everyone could read this and see the truth of the situation. I largely grew upat age 9 when my father died. Both my husband and I are grateful that we followed these precepts from our youth and it has been of great profit to us. I remember as a teen giving a devotion to our youth group on I Timothy 4:12,13 "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct,in love, in spirit,in faith, in purtity." Note that so many Bible heroes were young when they did important things for God. How many examples can you name?
BreakPoint WorldView Magazine
Our Adolescent Culture
By John Stonestreet
6/12/2009
Where Are the Grown-Ups? BreakPoint WorldView » June 2009
“There was a time, literally, when there were no teenagers.” What Diana West is suggesting in The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development Threatens Western Civilization will undoubtedly sound ridiculous to thousands of youth pastors, family therapists, and advertising gurus whose livelihoods depend on entertaining, counseling, and selling to teenagers.
Nevertheless, West argues that adolescence didn’t always exist. In fact, it is a quite recent phenomenon. The word “teenager” wasn’t really used until 1941, after all. In virtually every other culture in the history of the world prior to late 20th century Western culture, kids became adults. Not so anymore. They now become teenagers, or, to put it in more sociologically acceptable terms, they become adolescents.
THE CREATION OF THE TEENAGER
What happened to bring about this new stage in human development? The sexual revolution and political upheavals of the ‘60s are, of course, the most obvious suspects. However, West suggests a number of other things, some earlier than the ‘60s: a generation of disconnected fathers trying to deal with what they experienced during WWII, factories which once produced necessities for war began producing non-necessities for consumption, new marketing engines selling these goods to people who didn’t realize they wanted them, Chubby Checker’s Twist, Elvis’ hips, the Beatles’ hair, automobiles—perhaps more than one—in every home, the growth of Hollywood, and the recognition by the marketing engines of the fortune to be made from this brand new segment of the population.
Today, of course, adolescence is considered a fixed stage of development. We expect students will lose their minds from ages 13 to 18. “Kids will be kids,” we say. Only we aren’t referring to kids anymore, we’re talking about 15-year-olds. In other cultures, “teenagers” were marrying, farming, fighting wars, writing books, and in one case, bearing the Messiah.
ADOLESCENCE AS APEX
One of the complications of adolescence is that this fixed stage of development is not very fixed. Its grip has forcefully expanded beyond teenagers, and in both directions. On the front end, we have “pre-teens” or “tweens,” whose financial potential marketers quickly spotted. On the back end, whereas 18 was once considered the end of adolescence, it is now considered the middle. The National Academy of Sciences now defines adolescence as the stage from the onset of puberty (around 11 or 12) to age 30.
But there’s more. The reach of adolescence is even greater than this. Adolescence has become, and this must not be missed, the goal of our culture. Somewhere along the way, we ceased to be a culture where kids aspire to be adults and became a culture where adults aspire to be kids.
THE MARKS OF AN ADOLESCENT CULTURE
What are the marks of a culture with a dominant adolescent mindset? Not surprisingly, they are precisely what we have come to expect from adolescents themselves.
Demand for immediate gratification. We want what we want now, and we will not wait or work for it. Spiraling credit card debt, addiction to new technologies, bouncing from church to church, abandoning marriages—the list goes on and on.
Absence of long-term thinking about life and the world. Hand-in-hand with a demand for immediate gratification is a distraction from the real issues that actually matter. Ours is a culture largely ignorant of economic theory, political distinctions, or the rules of logic, but one which is fully up to speed on latest from American Idol.
Motivated by feeling rather than truth. This is a key indicator of a volatile person, and an even more significant indicator of a failing culture. Truth is murdered by pooled and polled ignorance.
Wanting grown-up things without growing up. Ironically, despite our addiction to all things adolescent, we still expect to be treated like adults. “Don’t tell me what to do,” we say. “Every opinion matters” and “Treat me with respect,” we add. Of course, fools actually do not deserve respect and their opinions are, at best, a thorough waste of time and, at worst, dangerous.
Expecting bailouts rather than accepting consequences. Not thinking before acting is a trait of adolescence as is making excuses. Bad mortgage decision? The government should help. Sexual immorality? Birth control, abortion, and HPV vaccines. Falling grades? Reduce standards. Poor behavior? Ritalin will do the trick. And once we accept adolescence as normal, we are then forced to excuse poor behavior. “They’ll grow out of it,” we suggest. A quick look around reveals that “they” are not.
Focusing on appearance rather than depth. Seen in everything from fascination with celebrity to the way presidents and churches are chosen, cultures that choose style over substance quickly become silly cultures. Neil Postman proved this in his classic work Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Worse still, silly cultures are easily deceived and destined for tyranny. History proves this.
More could be added here, but the point is that sometimes what is normal, well, shouldn’t be. Adolescence is a recent and foolish invention. And, as noted scholar, Richard Weaver taught us, ideas have consequences. Good ideas have good consequences; bad ideas have bad consequences.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Still, there is good news. Cultures like ours have a leadership vacuum. Therefore, there is a terrific opportunity for influence from those who produce the leaders, especially if they produce leaders who can think beyond the current cultural shallowness.
How can we do this? I suggest we go after the students themselves, from those intolerant of adolescence to those who seem most susceptible to it.
First, we need to challenge students, rather than coddle them. We aim too low with teenagers. Students do not need more entertainment, whether from the television, the IPod, or the youth group. They need and want to be challenged. We see this every year at our Summit student leadership conferences. At Summit, students endure over 70 hours of lecture and instruction on worldviews, apologetics, culture, and character, and they love it. They thrive when they realize that their faith need not be silly or superficial.
Second, students need a thorough education in worldviews and apologetics. There are three components of this type of education. First, students need to know what they believe. Too many see Christianity as merely a private faith rather than as a robust view of reality that offers a tried and true map for life. Christianity is not a narcissistic self-help system, but truth about all of reality. Second, students need to know what others believe. Non-biblical worldviews are battling for their hearts and minds, as well as for our culture. An isolated faith is an immature faith and often a scared faith. Third, Christians must know why they believe what they believe. Too many Christians cannot answer, and are even afraid of, challenging questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, morality, or truth. When they learn that their faith can be defended, they get excited about defending it.
Third, students need to know that Christianity is not just about what we are against, but what we are for. Proverbs says that without vision, the people “cast off restraint.” One of the main reasons that students are casualties of immorality is that they lack vision. While they may know what they are not supposed to do, they fail to understand what meaning, purpose, and impact following Christ offers. Christian students often get the impression that we are merely saved from, and not to. They miss the "re" part of the salvation words that sprinkle the Scriptures: renew, regenerate, reconcile, redeem, etc. They miss that Christ not only came to save us from death, he came to save us to life--and abundant life at that!
Finally, we need to confront students with, rather than isolate them from, the major cultural battles of our day. Historically, Christians have sought to understand and respond to cultural crises. They understood that these crises were the battlefields for competing worldviews.
THE CHALLENGE
Unfortunately, many Christians today are oblivious, apathetic or avoidant of issues like embryo-destructive research, euthanasia, emerging technologies, the arts, film, fashion, legislation, human trafficking, politics, and international relations. In the Garden on the evening before His death, Christ prayed these astounding words for his followers: “Father, do not take them from the world, but protect them from the evil one” (John 17:15). Our prayer and preparation for our students should be no different.
The Church’s approach to students must never embrace adolescence as normal. “Meeting them where they are” is no excuse for leaving them where they are. Students are designed with the capacity, and thus the calling, to think deeply and broadly about their faith and their culture, as well as to champion the Gospel by confronting evil, injustice, and lies. By appealing to God’s design for humanity, rather than this cultural fabrication of adolescence, we may find our ministries more relevant to students than the culture itself.
John Stonestreet is executive director of Summit Ministries, a ministry dedicated to training students in worldview analysis and apologetics so that they will defend and champion the Christian worldview. He is co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview. John holds an M.A. in Christian thought from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is on the bblical studies faculty at Bryan College (Tenn.). He, his wife Sarah, and three daughters live in Colorado Springs, Colo.
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Articles on the BreakPoint website are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Chuck Colson or Prison Fellowship. Links to outside articles or websites are for informational purposes only and do not necessarily imply endorsement of their content.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Happy Birthday America
My mother and father were great storytellers and I was raised on tales of family “derring do”. I got my Major James Pattillo line finished for the Daughters of the American Revolution. It was fun to add information on Joyce Jane Calliham Scott from the DAR magazine (Jan. 2002) “Revolutionary heroine. District III, South Carolina: Joyce Jane Calliham Scott, riding at night, took news of the Tory smuggling to patriots at the Ninety Six District. Later, in order to discover where her husband’s legendary wealth was hidden; Tarleton's troops repeatedly tortured her. (They roped and pulled her under the Savannah River. Revolutionary War water boarding.) She never betrayed her husband or the other patriots.”
Another interesting bit was a letter written in 1892 by my great, great, great uncle.
Dear Sir:
My father, David Thomas, was born in Edgefield District, S.C., in the year 1775 and died in Louisiana 1849. He was a nephew to Joyce Calliham, the wife of Ready Money Scott, who lived on the Savannah River above Augusta, GA., and had a ferry that is known to this day as Scott's Ferry.
In 1850, I visited among my relatives there and heard much of the family history from old kin’s people who are now dead.
Samuel Scott, better known in that country as Ready Money Scott, was a very thrifty farmer. He got his soubriquet from the fact that he always paid the ready money for what he bought, and would not sell unless the ready money was paid to him. This habit obtained for him the reputation of having money, and when the war broke out between the colonies and Great Britain, he, having cast his lot with the colonies and rendered such services as are usually given by patriots to the cause, this espousal brought upon him and his family much persecution.
For robbery, he was visited from time to time by the Tories and the British. One time they destroyed a field of growing corn by turning their cavalry horses loose in it, while the men plundered the dwelling house and premises.
Falling to find any money, they ripped up with their swords the family featherbeds and gave the feathers to the winds. It is a well authenticated fact that old Ready Money Scott was an intense patriot, and aided the Colonies in their struggle for freedom against Great Britain.
Yours, SAMUEL M. THOMAS
I was interested to see that "Tusculum" the house built by my relative, Rev. John Witherspoon, is for sale according to the July Perservation magazine. Tusculum is named for the Italian summer home of great thinker and leader Cicero. The notice says, “Tusculum, 1773. Built for and named by John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence and 6th president of Princeton University, 5 bedroom manor house, 1 mile from downtown, on State and National registers. Renovations and additions to original house in 1998. Caretaker’s cottage, stone barn, out buildings, all restored. Farmland tax assessment. $8,975,000.” Maybe we could get money from the stimulus package to buy it.
Have you ever wondered what happened to the men who signed the Declaration of Independence ? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't. So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots.It's not much to ask for the price they paid. REMEMBER THAT FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE!!!!
From John Quincy Adams' oration on July 4th, 1837: "Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the corner stone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies, announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?"
The Declaration of Independence was approved JULY 4, 1776. John Hancock signed first, saying "the price on my head has just doubled." Benjamin Franklin said "We must hang together or most assuredly we shall hang separately." Of the 56 signers: 17 served in the military; 11 had their homes destroyed; 5 were hunted and captured; Abraham Clark had two sons imprisoned on the British starving ship Jersey; John Witherspoon's son was killed in battle; Francis Lewis' wife was imprisoned and died from the harsh treatment; many, such as Thomas Nelson and Carter Braxton, lost their fortunes; and 9 died during the War. When Samuel Adams signed the Declaration, he said: "We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come."
John Adams said: "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty." John Adams continued: "I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration...Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory... Posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we [may regret] it, which I trust in God we shall not."
Happy 4th of July and I pray that America will fall on its knees repent and return to Jesus Christ. God, in His abundant mercy, has been very patient with us all.
Another interesting bit was a letter written in 1892 by my great, great, great uncle.
Dear Sir:
My father, David Thomas, was born in Edgefield District, S.C., in the year 1775 and died in Louisiana 1849. He was a nephew to Joyce Calliham, the wife of Ready Money Scott, who lived on the Savannah River above Augusta, GA., and had a ferry that is known to this day as Scott's Ferry.
In 1850, I visited among my relatives there and heard much of the family history from old kin’s people who are now dead.
Samuel Scott, better known in that country as Ready Money Scott, was a very thrifty farmer. He got his soubriquet from the fact that he always paid the ready money for what he bought, and would not sell unless the ready money was paid to him. This habit obtained for him the reputation of having money, and when the war broke out between the colonies and Great Britain, he, having cast his lot with the colonies and rendered such services as are usually given by patriots to the cause, this espousal brought upon him and his family much persecution.
For robbery, he was visited from time to time by the Tories and the British. One time they destroyed a field of growing corn by turning their cavalry horses loose in it, while the men plundered the dwelling house and premises.
Falling to find any money, they ripped up with their swords the family featherbeds and gave the feathers to the winds. It is a well authenticated fact that old Ready Money Scott was an intense patriot, and aided the Colonies in their struggle for freedom against Great Britain.
Yours, SAMUEL M. THOMAS
I was interested to see that "Tusculum" the house built by my relative, Rev. John Witherspoon, is for sale according to the July Perservation magazine. Tusculum is named for the Italian summer home of great thinker and leader Cicero. The notice says, “Tusculum, 1773. Built for and named by John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence and 6th president of Princeton University, 5 bedroom manor house, 1 mile from downtown, on State and National registers. Renovations and additions to original house in 1998. Caretaker’s cottage, stone barn, out buildings, all restored. Farmland tax assessment. $8,975,000.” Maybe we could get money from the stimulus package to buy it.
Have you ever wondered what happened to the men who signed the Declaration of Independence ? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't. So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots.It's not much to ask for the price they paid. REMEMBER THAT FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE!!!!
From John Quincy Adams' oration on July 4th, 1837: "Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the corner stone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies, announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?"
The Declaration of Independence was approved JULY 4, 1776. John Hancock signed first, saying "the price on my head has just doubled." Benjamin Franklin said "We must hang together or most assuredly we shall hang separately." Of the 56 signers: 17 served in the military; 11 had their homes destroyed; 5 were hunted and captured; Abraham Clark had two sons imprisoned on the British starving ship Jersey; John Witherspoon's son was killed in battle; Francis Lewis' wife was imprisoned and died from the harsh treatment; many, such as Thomas Nelson and Carter Braxton, lost their fortunes; and 9 died during the War. When Samuel Adams signed the Declaration, he said: "We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come."
John Adams said: "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty." John Adams continued: "I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration...Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory... Posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we [may regret] it, which I trust in God we shall not."
Happy 4th of July and I pray that America will fall on its knees repent and return to Jesus Christ. God, in His abundant mercy, has been very patient with us all.
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