Following The Reformation, ninety percent of Hungary and Poland was Protestant. However, within one generation, both countries were solidly Roman Catholic. The reason for this extraordinary turnaround was that the aristocracy of both nations hired Catholic Jesuits to educate their children.
It only took one generation.
Without passing judgment about whether it was a good thing for Poland and Hungary to be Catholic, this story should remind us of the importance of being eternally vigilant about whom we allow to educate our children. If your son or daughter is being educated in the humanities department of a Western university, you can almost guarantee they will finish college well indoctrinated with an anti-West, anti-Christian culture.
Sadly, the church gave up its responsibility for teaching its young adults a robust, reasoned faith, and the mournful atheistic worldview of our society has taken over their minds, leaving them anxious, angry, self-obsessed and struggling under the burden of meaninglessness.
It is a woeful indictment of Western Christianity that most churches have never taught the rational and scientific case for God in a cogent way. Even worse, some have insisted that its young adults believe scientifically absurd (and theologically unnecessary) things about creation. All I can say is that church leaders who do this will be accountable to God for putting pitfalls in front of young people seeking God. And we are not just talking about a lack of good teaching on science: most churches have not taught the basics of the philosophical reasons why faith in God is morally, historically and existentially reasonable.
There are generally two reasons for this. The first is because too many pastors, ministers and priest are themselves ignorant. Whilst they may be able to give you the latest theories of the atonement, too many remain ignorant of the issues young people are really seeking answers to: issues such as the scientific credibility of faith, suffering, and other faiths. As such, the church has not given its young adults the philosophical foundations or language they need to engage with the atheistic tsunami that is waiting to deluge them at university.
The other reason young people have left church is because its ministers, particularly in Protestant churches, lost their passion for the gospel. In 1968, America was in turmoil. Once revered pillars of society, including religious institutions, were being protested against, and the Nihilistic winds of postmodernism were being felt everywhere. It was a time when young adults could avoid being sent to Vietnam if they went to college. You may be interested to know that Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, and Dick Cheney all had “student deferments” (but it cannot be said it was because they wanted to avoid Vietnam).
Another way you could avoid the draft was if you were a cleric. This helped lead to an influx of ordinands who brought with them from their seminaries and universities a radicalised liberal culture. It was a culture that put a priority on being critical of the gospel rather than proclaiming it. People in their congregations soon picked up on the hopelessness of liberal theology and left the church.
It only takes the loss of one generation. So, what can we do to avoid being the generation that drops the baton? How will you and I influence the next generation? Let’s pick up our responsibility and leave a worthy legacy.
