Posted on 12/27/2005 4:51:43 PM PST by qam1
If, as President Bush said last year, it is to be “liberty’s century,” the members of the Fourteenth Generation are the appointed guardians.
The first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel opens the New Testament with a genealogy. It is a Christmas list -- not a wish list, but a Providential list. It is the outworking of God’s Hand in the generations through history, culminating in the birth of Christ.
Matthew 1:17 summarizes the genealogy. “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.” Fourteen is a Providential number.
Today, two thousand years after the incarnation, we are no less a part of God’s great story than the Old Testament prophets and kings, or the New Testament disciples. What wonders might God have in store for America at the brink of 2006? Is there a Fourteenth Generation somewhere in the nation’s wings, ready to act upon some great plan of destiny?
Thirteen, of course, is known to the superstitious as the unlucky number. Generational scholars Neil Howe and William Strauss labeled the apathetic, bewildered, ambiguous Generation X the Thirteenth Generation for its strange place in history (born in the late 1960s and 1970s). “Counting back to the peers of Benjamin Franklin,” they wrote, “this generation is, in point of fact, the thirteenth to know the American nation, flag, and constitution.” After the Thirteenth Generation, Howe and Strauss called the new youth the Millennial Generation, but we might just as well be called the Fourteenth Generation.
Fourteen generations ago was the age of the men and women who first called themselves Americans. It was the elder generation of the Founding Fathers, the contemporaries of the Great Awakening: Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams. About fourteen generations before them lived Christopher Columbus.
The early Americans, from the Puritans to the Founders, considered themselves the objects of God’s special favor and the tools of His service in this land. “We know the Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the Strong,” John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson on July 20, 1776. “Do you not think an Angel rides in the Whirlwind and directs this Storm?” To the American founders, the “Supreme Ruler of the Universe” and “Divine Providence” directed that storm. Patrick Henry wrote to Henry Lee in 1795, “The American Revolution was the grand operation, which seemed to be assigned by the Deity to the men of this age in our country.” Dare we presume this generation not called to some task of equal measure in the course of human events, a task that will demand the same brand of highly cultivated courage and faith that attended the American founding?
We have little reason to think ourselves exempt from God’s plan, tempting though the alternatives seem. The world promises a whole lot of stuff to those who make the world’s investment. But it isn’t for the sake of our prosperity and physical satisfaction that God orders the world; that He does for some higher reason that confounds even the most expert observers of hurricanes and earthquakes and of the rise and fall of nations. We are here, in our generation, in our little moment of time, to serve the King of Kings. Our task is to be conformed to His plan, not He to ours.
America is unique in the world. We can view that uniqueness as a product of ourselves alone, or of something higher, something that in turn gives us meaning. To choose the second vantage would mean revival to a dying civilization. Such a revolution of intellect, morality, culture, and spirit would be the reversal of the prior revolution that even now attributes its aging breaths to retiring Baby Boomers on college campuses, in the old media, in liberal churches, in public high schools. Slow fades the flicker on the marijuana joint; fast rises the Light of the World.
The emergence of a generation, like the incarnation, is a reminder that history is going somewhere.
The vanguard of the Fourteenth Generation is now graduating from high school, in college, entering the work world, and defending America in the Middle East. We were born and raised in prosperity. We are the chief recipients of the financial consumption that I witnessed in the parking lots and checkout lines of my local mall two days before Christmas. We are not protestors or slobs like the Baby Boomers. We are not slackers or radical individualists like the Xers. The leading edge of the generation is proving itself to value community institutions, personal connections, religious tradition, respectful tolerance, self-government, and spiritual purpose.
In the Fourteenth Generation, drug use is down; teen pregnancy and teen abortions are down; optimism is up; support of traditional moral values is up; “reality” is the big word because interest in absolute truth is up. A higher percentage of young people are pro-life than of any other age group. It is a generation of whom liberalism was expected and conservatism is being returned. We are patriotic and ambitious like our grandparents, morally rebellious like our parents. We are now in the beginning stages of that rebellion, and it is a rebellion against rebellion.
If, as President Bush said last year, it is to be “liberty’s century,” the members of the Fourteenth Generation are the appointed guardians.
Hans Zeiger is a junior at Hillsdale College and author of Get Off My Honor: The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America, as well as a forthcoming book about the rise of conservatism amongst young Americans. www.hanszeiger.net
I hate to quibble, but 14 generations from 1776 put us at about the year 2050.
Member of the Generation!!
Senior in HS. Born in Reagan's ending years... 1987 baby
Not SINCE the Independence, They count the 3 generations that were alive at the time as #1, #2 and #3
1)Awakening 1701-1723 (Benjamin Franklin 1706)
2)Liberty 1724-1741 (George Washington 1732)
3)Republican 1742-1766 (Thomas Jefferson 1743)
4)Compromise 1767-1791
5)Transcendental 1792-1821
6)Gilded 1822-1842
7)Progressive 1843-1859
8)Missionary 1860-1882
9)Lost 1883-1904
10) WWII 1905-1927
11) Silent 1928-1945
12) Baby Boomers 1946-1964
13) Generation X 1965-1981
14) Generation Y 1982-1996
15) Generation Z 1997+
They must calculate generations in very speedy intervals.
Actually it looks like Generations are speeding up their intervals. For instance the Transcendental generation (#5) birth years were 29 years long.
I don't think it's up to you to dictate what tired old cliches I use! :)
susie
Let's not pat ourselves on the back too much regarding what wonderful parents we are- one third of all babies are born out of wedlock, and that is largely from Gen Xers and older Gen Yers. Divorce and abortion rates may have started to level off and decline in our generation, but our ancestors would still be shocked at the sexual immorality that we take for granted.
LOL. I guess what's good for the goose is a horse of a different color walking a mile in your shoes.
Which 'moral' ancestors? The ones who originated common-law marriage? The ones who practiced 'free love' in the 20s and 60s? 8^)
No, I agree that returing to a perception of immorality to shame parents against raising bastard kids is important, that a stable marriage providing good role models for both boys and girls is important, and a legal marriage is usually the most stable you can get, but I don't think it's the first problem with Gen X parents that should be tackled. It certainly doesn't have a huge effect why I'm happy about Gen X parenting when viewed comparably with Boomers, though I'd be interested to see how the divorce rates compare between Gen X and Boomers when it comes to divorce rates with and without kids.
That first problem? Making it easier for one parent to parent full time by lowering taxes back to pre WWII levels, and cutting government back to constitutional levels so people can go about their business without paying for a lawyer every day of their lives.
Hey, I like that one, I think I'll steal it!! LOL
susie
Take it easy on the guy.
As a Boomer, OBVIOUSLY he thinks the entire schtick is about himself.
Beyond that...I don't see anywhere the bashing wasn't deserved. There is the whiny little bit about a generalization not applying universally at the individual level that Boombers (and liberals) like to drag out. Otherwise...let the bashing continue until the sons of bitches support Social Security Reform and legal options to opt off the rolls.
Why would you suggest that the author has "issues" because of an interest in Numerology. (I thought, to be saved in Christianity, one only had to profess a belief that Christ was one's Savior.) Christianity is full of numerology. Only one who is unfamiliar with the Bible would condemn someone for displaying an interest in it.
Christianity actually has a rich heritage of symbolic numerology: seven days in a week, seven trumpets, the seven angels, the seven candlesticks in Revelation. Twelve tribes, twelve apostles, twelve gates in the holy city New Jerusalem. The 144,000 saints on mount Zion. Then there's the reference to "time, times, and half a time" which is also referred to as a period of 1,260 days and a significant 42 month period when Jerusalem would be under Gentile dominance. Then of course, there's the whole 666 thing.
The reference to the significance of the 14 generations probably stems from Matthew chapter 1, verse 17:
"So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations."
Aside from the youthful hubris of the original article, I found the author's comments hopeful. Youth, in general, benefit from a sense of purposefulness and mission. If this "Fourteenth Generation" lives up to high expectations, they'll do well.
LOL, obviously.
You're an antagonist. LOL!
Take it easy on the guy?
I did.
I wasn't completely satisfied to leave it at that...but I did. I was behaving, trying to be polite, in the face utter rudeness.
That's all going to fly out the window now. I'd love to oblige, really I would, but first and foremost I just could not yield to the temptation to let #11 go.
Nor could I yield to the temptation to let go a smackdown of Boomers and this "Fourteenth Generation". Generalizations drive me nuts.
There are plenty of fellow Boomers and GenXers who stood with me on the Parade Grounds at Parris Island last year watching what was referred to in the article as the "Fourteenth Generation" earn the title as their 'kids' volunteered to protect each freaken generation. Imagine.
With all due respect, the social security, etc., issues don't really matter a rat's ass if SOMEBODY isn't the appointed guardians of 'liberty's century'...if SOMEBODY isn't somewhere in the nation’s wings, ready to act. And who is it? The "Fourteenth Generation".
The little squirt (the author Zeiger) wrote:
"America is unique in the world. We can view that uniqueness as a product of ourselves alone, or of something higher, something that in turn gives us meaning. To choose the second vantage would mean revival to a dying civilization. Such a revolution of intellect, morality, culture, and spirit would be the reversal of the prior revolution that even now attributes its aging breaths to retiring Baby Boomers on college campuses, in the old media, in liberal churches, in public high schools. Slow fades the flicker on the marijuana joint..."
Zeigler's correct (as generalizations go)- many in my generation (Boomers) and other WERE and are responsible for the silent majority, and more. Many brought ill upon the US. Providentially speaking, we have an opportunity to right a wrong in that regard. The most fascinating aspect of the piece to me is that many of the 'late Boomers' (young boomers/late parents) and GenX bore and raised this Fourteenth Generation. That was too obvious, though. It is quite telling that rather than lift up our youth, in the face of an opportunity to bash others-someone had to grab a club.
The callous disregard for this new generation- taking away from them in what I see as purely selfish terms and losing the concept of a hugely thought provoking discussion to blow one's own horn while looking in the mirror and trumpeting the wonders of one's own generation just pissed me off. MEMEMEMEME. I watched in horror those I lived with in my generation, heaped shit on this country and I watch this new generation as they shovel it off, leave their families, bury their peers, and comfort Boomers and GenXers.
Last I knew, we were all in this together. The rest of us, like the best of the "Fourteenth Generation", should act like it.
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