Mark D. Regnerus argues in his book, Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers, that churches are not much more than “social control units.” What he means by that is, the church is designed to bend adolescent (for that matter any age group) behavior away from the norm and “helps prevent them” from sinning. He states that this done by “enmeshing [adolescents] in a religious personal network and community.”
My thought is this, Is this really our goal? Are we just trying to curb teenage behavior by putting them in a setting that is socially religious? Or should our goal be more personal and deep?
I would argue that our goal should be that our teenagers’ behavior is a direct reflection on their view of God not of the church. Perhaps this is why so many students leave the church after high school because their view of church has changed. If they had a proper view of God I think the stats would be different.
As a youth pastor I am then challenged to create, not a social control unit, but a place where students meet, wrestle, and commune with a real, knowable God.
1 Comment
Ryan, I so agree w/you. The issue is NOT ‘church’, the issue is ‘view’. Our World view vs our Spiritual view. The world view says sexual contact, viewing or expression is just an extention of us a humans. So then it is good to explore and experience. But our spiritual view, (which I like to call our conscience) tells us this is not right. Which one do we listen to?
Teens are no different now than when I was a teen or when my girls were teens. Not being raised in a Christian home, I knew sexual exploration was NOT the right thing to do….BUT I was not told why it was not good! Teens , (including myself back in 1970) need to know the pros/cons of sexual behavior.
And since we have raised two daughters, we sat them down often to talk about this area of human-ness. Sex is a natural need in all our lives, but we must control it as we must control our eating, drinking, medical, work-a-holic needs. The control comes from a close connection w/our relationship w/God….DAILY!