More teens becoming 'fake' Christians?

Question

According to a study published on CNN recently, American kids are increasingly becoming "fake Christians". From the article:

"Dean says more American teenagers are embracing what she calls "moralistic therapeutic deism." Translation: It's a watered-down faith that portrays God as a "divine therapist" whose chief goal is to boost people's self-esteem.

Dean is a minister, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of "Almost Christian," a new book that argues that many parents and pastors are unwittingly passing on this self-serving strain of Christianity."

and

"The study included Christians of all stripes -- from Catholics to Protestants of both conservative and liberal denominations. Though three out of four American teenagers claim to be Christian, fewer than half practice their faith, only half deem it important, and most can't talk coherently about their beliefs, the study found."

What do you Christians think about this?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/27/almost.christian/index.html

Answer 1

It's the exact same thing we see all over the West. Young people pay lip service to an ideology that they think they're supposed to believe in, but they really don't. And it's becoming more common.



But it's just one step on the road to secularization. What comes next is less and less teens will think religion is important, like the situation currently is in Europe. Meaning people will begin to interpret their faith much less literally, almost never go to church only rely upon it on a few key moments of life like marriage and death. But even today the number of Christians in Europe has begun to steadily and increasingly dwindle. As this trend continues, people will retain the cultural aspects of religion (marriage ceremonies, funerals and the like), but not actually be members or subscribe to all the supernatural stuff, allowing religion to slowly fade into a much-overdue obscurity.



This is what we will see in the next 50 years. Mark my words.

Answer 2

yeah, that's true. I'm not Christian but this is something that makes me think: my cousins have NEVER been to church. EVER. They were baptised, once, Catholics, and now they claim they are Catholics. I'm a Wiccan and I know more about it than they do, if I mention something from the bible or even some of the morals they are supposed to follow, they look at me blankly. Everyone has titles but people don't follow them. I believe you should do what you want, and if you don't meet a religions' requirements you don't have to, just don't use the title. If I didn't do magic but still believed in the Wiccan faith, I could not call myself a Witch, by definition. If you don't follow the religion you cannot call yourself a Catholic or Protestant or Christian, so don't, but you can still totally believe in Jesus and be spiritual, and not have a specific religion (I completely support that, don't get me wrong).

Answer 3

I'm here in Tennessee at the moment and it's church, church, church every 2 minutes driving down the highway, and the signs and billboards everywhere, e.g "What this nation needs is a reconciling with God"



I'm not surprised that christianity would do anything to keep it's followers hooked in some way to prevent the spread of atheism. After all they now have shifted far away form the past when it was ok to burn witches, stone women and gays. Technically in my opinion anyone who cherry picks and squirms away from the horrors of the past and the beliefs of the old testament are all being fake christians, covering it up with false niceness and liberal Jesus etc.



Any smart money making business adapts to the market and religion is big business!

Answer 4

You said a mouth full brother!!

If God and his teaching's make you feel good, and boosts your self esteem, it must be "Fake Christianity".



Wow! Just another reason to keep clear of the evils of organized religion.



"Go in Misery. Be a TRUE Christian" LOL!!!

Answer 5

As an ex christian, I think its appaling. I dont like the fact that all christians seem to categorize christians as true and false. I think that its time for most Americans to ditch christianity, but they wont do it for some reason.

Answer 6

I am not going to read all of that sorry, but I do know that more people are become more spiritual than religious which to me is a good thing.



I wouldn't call it being a fake Christian if you treat others the way Jesus would treat them.



Peace,



Cinn =)

Answer 7

I've always said that a lot of people just say they are Christian because it's expected.

Answer 8

Being an atheist does not mean you dress like a slut. That makes no sense.

Answer 9

i agree 110%. i'm a teenager. i'm like the only teenager where i live that practices my faith. sure other teenagers go to church around here and call themselves Christians, but if you saw them, u would think they were Atheists. the teenage girls are all sluts too.

Answer 10

Let them do what they want.