Posted on 05/06/2014 9:42:59 PM PDT by ReformationFan
From time to time we hear some telling us that evangelical Christianity must retool our sexual ethic if we're ever going to reach the next generation. Some say that Millennials, particularly, are leaving the church because of our "obsession" with sexual morality. The next generation needs a more flexible ethic, they say, on premarital sex, homosexuality, and so on. We'll either adapt, the line goes, or we'll die.
This argument is hardly new. In the early 20th century, this was precisely the rhetoric used by liberal Protestant Harry Emerson Fosdick and his co-laborers. Fosdick was concerned, he said, for the future of Christianity, and if the church was to have a future we would have to get over our obsession with virginity. By that, Fosdick didn't mean the virginity of single Christians but the virginity of our Lord's mother.
The younger generation wanted to be Christian, the progressives told their contemporaries, but they couldn't accept outmoded ideas of the miraculous, such as the virgin birth of Christ. What the liberals missed is that such miracles didn't become hard to believe with the onset of the modern age. They always had been hard to believe from the beginning.
Joseph's reaction to Mary's announcement of her pregnancy, after all, wasn't, "Well, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." He assumed that she had been sexually unfaithful. Why? Because he and his contemporaries knew how people get pregnant.
But the Christian message isn't burdened down by the miraculous. It's inextricably linked to it. A virgin woman conceives. The lame walk. The blind see. A dead man is resurrected, ascends to heaven, and sends the Spirit. The universe's ruler is on his way to judge the living and the dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at thegospelcoalition.org ...
From time to time we hear some telling us that evangelical Christianity must retool our sexual ethic if we’re ever going to reach the next generation.
As diciples of Christ it is not our job to “reach” the next generations but to insure they know the means to their salvation. retooling our sex ethic would be the opposite of what we are called to do............
Somewhat like the GOP. If you win (expand) by standing for nothing, what do you win?
Agreed. And if “retooling” our sexual ethics means abandoning Scriptural principles then shouldn’t the Episcopal Church(USA) be the most thriving church in America? Instead, it’s completely on life support.
And who died and made the Millenials God? Upon what ancient script do they base their moral pontifications on?
Let’s cut the crap. The ‘hey I’m young and cool and hip’ crap has been going on since the 60’s. This is the 3rd generation of recycling this garbage, it’s getting really lame.
Right is right, wrong is wrong. Play the game, suffer the consequences with the fruits, but don’t call it right. STHU and take your lumps.
the church is so pathetic it isn’t even funny. This Jew has got it though! fhucom...
They have got it so wrong. I believe young people want to be good, to be faithful and to be honorable men and women but by the time they reach their teens they have given it up as impossible - and it is impossible - that is without God in their lives - It’s no point telling them what is wrong with them if you do not give them the solution and answer to their malady - Jesus Christ. They don’t need a book from the Better Business Bureau on how to behave and get ahead they need a Bible and some honest to goodness honesty about their spiritual position!
What we really need is another Jonathan Edwards.
I can’t believe how messed up so many of the kids are at my daughters’ private christian school.
They get the right message at school, but they don’t from society. They have no moral compass but Hollywood.
We live in San Jose, California. Kids are generally screwed up here.
My kids are rebelling against Cali. One is in collegemin Texas, and my daughters are looking out of Cali for college also. One of my daughters is looking at conservative colleges in the south. She wants to visit Clemson and a few others this summer.
All the best for that I hope she finds a college that will promote the values and beliefs you hold dear. From what I hear these days so many colleges are continual partying and sex - women are objectified and disrespected - so much for women’s rights etc the worst colleges for this are liberal ones - so many Private Christian schools let in anyone as long as they pay the school fees or the mandated amount of non-Christians so they get government funding - a little leaven ruins the whole dough.
MEl
It's all over the magazines in the grocery store checkout line, at the movies, on TV, in popular music, the Internet, etc. Everything is about the depraved life, and nothing is about how to behave like a lady or gentleman.
It’s tough for sure - their senses are assaulted from the day they are born - yet God’s arm is not short that he cannot save - we have to learn to walk real close to him and so do our kids!
I suppose we could Increase church attendance by holding wild community- wide sex orgies in the parish hall , but...?
Early Christians worshipped at home. 1 Corinthians 16:9: The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
It's time contemporary Christians do likewise. We're under the impression we can hire someone to do our studying and teaching for us. That's why we're so stupid re the Bible.
The above mentioned quasi Bible and pseudo Bible organizations are in it for the money. Preachers love it, because preaching is easy and attracts the undisciplined and the lazy. And whenever you're trying to attract contributions, you'll make compromises in order to keep that money flowing.
The continuing obsession over youth is odd to me. It began with the boomers, and continues on to this day.
The Mills are young and stupid. We are were. What is interesting to me is that they are VERY pro life compared to the generations before them. This was not what the so called leaders expected.
“Can we”... the question for a lot of churches should be “Are we”.
Worshiping youth has gone on far longer than that.
Roman times and before...
Greeks and their nude olympics are just one example.
Wotta coinkydink!
Couple Arrested For Sex Acts On (Catholic) Church Lawn
That’s not a bad attitude to have. It’s what got me through my cesspool of a high school and on to college. Sometimes all you can do is write it off as a loss and move on. Better they not engage until they find themselves in a decent place.
The stumbling block is often the senior year. I’ve seen it all go to crap there because it’s a transition time and I think a kid is just more vulnerable trying to adjust. Alot of them are just worn out at the finish line and get hijacked from doing that they planned to do.
Be it the (or ‘a’) Church, or the GOP, if it doesn’t stand for what’s right, let it die.
Do not trade the right for success.
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