Parenting Teenagers Part 14: MTDs!

Yesterday I attempted to introduce you to the work of sociologist Christian Smith. Today I want to give you his grand conclusion about the religious and spiritual lives of teens today. His conclusion is this: our teenagers are MTDs!

Let me be more specific: Smith concludes that most teenagers in America today are Moralistic Therapeutic Deists:

• Moralistic: God does provide morals for his people, but the greatest moral is for personal happiness and satisfaction. In other words, God is a divine butler: God wants people to be happy and helps them become happy.
• Therapeutic: God helps people when they encounter life’s difficulties. In other words, God is a cosmic therapist: God is there for you when you really need him to help you work through problems.
• Deist: God exists. God created the world. God has a purpose for the created world. But, God isn’t very involved in the world. He is always there and there when you need him, but he doesn’t get involved otherwise.

In brief, most teenagers view God as a combination of a divine butler and a cosmic therapist: he takes care of your problems and helps you work through your difficulties, but he doesn’t get too personally involved. Perhaps a helpful analogy (from me, not Christian Smith), is that God is a lot like Oprah Winfrey. We know Oprah exists, we know that she is out there somewhere, and we also know that she helps people to be happy and satisfied when she can. But, otherwise, Oprah doesn’t impact our lives on a daily basis.

Is this surprising to anyone? My experience of American Christianity matches Christian Smith’s conclusions. Just look at all the Christian “self-help” books at your local Christian book store. Just listen to the messages from America’s largest church and most famous preacher, Joel Osteen. Just observe how professing Christians live their lives in nearly the exact same manner as those who do not know Jesus Christ. I think Smith has nailed it, not only for our teenagers, but for American culture at large (in fact, Smith says that the teen culture is merely a microcosm of American culture)!

So what do we do? How can we as parents and churches produce biblically wise adults and not MTDs? Here are a few of Smith’s suggestions:

1. Parents and churches need to teach students the deep theological truths of Christianity. Smith makes this conclusion because very few teens know how to articulate the substance of their faith. Christianity has been watered down and blended with secularism and other religions. We need to be intentional, specific, and detailed in our teaching.
2. Related to the first, parents and churches need to teach students the language of the Christian faith. Christianity is no longer a primary language in America today, it is a secondary language. How do you best learn a second language? Immerse yourself (and your children) in it!
3. Parents and churches need to invest in the lives of teenagers and model the faith we desire in our children. Smith reiterates, again, that parents have the primary influence on the spiritual lives of their children. To quote him, “we beget what we are.” Parents who are biblically wise adults will (likely) produce children who are biblically wise adults.
4. Parents and churches must encourage teens to be involved in a community of believers. Smith notes that the greater a student’s involvement in a Christian community, the greater a student does in every aspect of life (grades, social skills, etc, etc).

In my opinion, point #3 is critical. We have created MTD teens because we as parents are MTDs. Let’s not blame the emerging generation. Let’s blame ourselves.

Since this is/has been a series on parenting, let me conclude this post with a challenge that I have given before. I can think of no better way to say it than to quote John MacArthur:

“Parents, take inventory of your own hearts. Do you thirst for God as the deer pants for the water? Or is your own life sending your children a message of hypocrisy and spiritual indifference? Is your own commitment to Christ what you hope to see in your own children’s lives? Is your obedience to His Word the same kind of submission you long to see from your own kids?…Parents who are lax in these areas virtually guarantee that their sons and daughters will fail spiritually” (p. 24).