Are your teens equipped?

[Michelle71]

Higher Education?

Statistics tell us that 50% of high school Christians will lose their faith in college. That figure escalates if they are not plugged into a campus group or local church....
Are your teens equipped to deal with college and career? Can your faith survive?

By, Ray Cieryo Copyright © 2002 by, One-to-One Magazine P.O. Box Z, Mobile, AL 36616 USA. Reprinted with permission.

Anyone who has played baseball for any amount of time can probably remember a "bad hop" ball bouncing off a small rock and hitting them in the face. I think I held the record for the amount of times I was hit by a bad hop! I can remember these instances vividly. They seemed unfair and painful.
But there is an even more unfair and painful situation that many of our young people are facing right now... and at the moment, many of them are not prepared for it. It is when they go off to college to pursue their dreams through an academic education.
Some Christians in high school experience uncomfortable situations when their values are challenged. This is only the beginning of what they will face when the go to college. Statistics tell us that 50% of them will lose their faith in college. That percentage escalates if they are not plugged in to a campus group or local church.
A Hostile Environment

What is it that they face? Other than being away from home in a new environment where there are virtually no rules, they face - in many cases - a militantly secular attack on their Christian faith. It is no exaggeration to say that education has been hijacked by people who utterly oppose Christianity.
In his book, Tenured Radicals, author Roger Kimball announces the goal of a radically left policy:
Their object is nothing less than the destruction of the values, methods, and goals of traditional humanistic study.
Kimball's book is from a secular point of view but discloses how the radicals of the sixties have taken over the educational system, especially in liberal arts colleges. He points out that "traditional education" which was concerned about the classics has been hijacked by these "tenured radicals."
The unaware Christian enters college believing his faith is strong enough to endure a secular environment. What they are unprepared for is a militant attack on their values. It is not simply an unfriendly environment but one that is hostile.
The attack comes from two vantage points. From one side comes postmodernism, proclaimed as the enlightened way to view the humanities: the world, history, literature, and the social sciences. Its goal is to deconstruct everything and everything. Its main platform is that there are no absolutes, especially truth. Everything is socially constructed. There is no fixed point for anything. All is in flux.
The other attack comes from the "hard" sciences: biology, chemistry, and natural sciences. Here it is a militant Darwinism which attacks the believer's faith in the Creator. The Darwinian Theory is taught as absolute "science" and everything else is "myth," especially Christianity. Christians are "uninformed," simple people who have never looked at the evidence of Christianity.

If as Christian parents we are not willing to take on the hard questions of the secularist, then we will loose the kids to those secularist's answers. The higher education, and even starting in elementary grades, study subjects from a world view rather than a Christian world view.

Are we doing ourselves as well as our children, not to mention a possible "convert", a disservice by not learning and showing how to have actual intellectual conversations with teachers and professors? Showing them that those answers of humanity, and science can be found right within the word of God. There are other questions it may be wise to ask as well.

What is the reason for not engaging in the conversation with them. Is it out of fear that those questions cannot be answered thus undermining our own faith. If that is the reason why more do not speak out, then the remedy would then be to get busy with prayer and study until those things can be answered in an intelligent way giving honor to God, and maybe even giving those teachers and professors something to think about along the way. No one is beyond salvation. Only the religious Christian community tends to give the boot and refuses to even ask the questions later.

It would be wise for Christians to study the alternate religions that are leading so many to hell because our kids will be confronted with those religions whether in school or later in life on the job or socially. Telling them not to engage in any conversation about it is setting them up for a fall. So, the very thing we do not want to see our kids do becomes reality because we have not equipped them to defend the faith intelligently with a Christian world view no matter what the subject may be.

 

[dannibear]

I just graduated high school this year and will be starting college in August. This thread is very correct, and in my experience in high school with teens that don't have faith is explained here. Many of my friends who claim to be agnostic or atheist don't ask questions such as "Does Jesus love me?" which I was prepared to answer in youth group, but rather "If God exists, why is there suffering?" "If there is a God, then can't He refute evolution?" etc. I am currently in the process of reading 'I don't have enough faith to be an atheist' which addresses these questions in easy terms that I can wrap my head around, so I am prepared to defend my faith, but can also show my friends why science and the Bible can compliment each other, different than what they believe. There were a couple times I myself almost threw out my faith because of questions my youth leaders couldn't answer, and when they said they would get back to me with it, they never did. They didn't care for my hard scientific questions. I have since quit that youth group and taken on my own study. Hopefully I will be prepared enough to know where I stand once I am in college.

 

[tirapet]

This is a very relevant issue.

As a college student, my first one-and-a-half years at college were a struggle for my faith. First of all, I had trouble making friends and only a few of those were Christian. Classes started bringing up secular issues and I was not equipped to deal with them because of my high school experience and I didn't know the answers. I just blindly accepted what I was told in church. When my reasons were questioned, it completely shook me. I was rattled as I felt uprooted.

Fortunately, after consulting one of my Christian friends who is a God-send, and lots and lots of discussion and Bible referencing, I learned how to answer those questions. Without the challenges, I wouldn't have grown so much in my faith. I feel my faith is stronger because of what I faced. I am now firmly rooted (as rooted as you can be) and have many more friends who accept Jesus as their Saviour.

I agree that parents and church for that matter could really use improving on preparing us for living Christian in a secular world. Sometimes it feels like you're living in two worlds: the secular world and church world. When you go to church, you act accordingly and when you leave church, you go back to the other ways. What we need to do is learn to wear our church shoes not only in church but outside of church.

I do not like the "hard" sciences because they go off the basis of the Evolution theory.

dannibear, good for you! Instead of giving up, you searched for your own answers. Adults don't always have all the answers and many ideas are left to individual interpretation so it makes the walk difficult sometimes. By doing your own research it'll challenge your faith, but it'll help you grow in the end. Good luck and God's blessings!