Author Topic: Youth Groups Destroy Christian Faith (Read 1932 times)

Cantarella · « **on:** June 03, 2014, 12:57:43 AM »

This is an example of what watered down, lukewarm, feel - good Christianity actually do to people:

Study finds youth groups destroy Christian faith in young people
June 2, 2014

A study commissioned by a protestant organization has found that Christian youth groups, with an infantile approach to the faith and a focus heavily on being “hip” to this fallen culture, are a predominate factor in driving many young people from Christianity. Mind, this study looked at Christians in general and not Catholics, but the Church has mimicked disastrous protestant programs in recent decades and has reaped the same whirlwind of devastation:

A new study might reveal why a majority of Christian teens abandon their faith upon high school graduation. Some time ago, Christian pollster George Barna docuмented that 61 percent of today’s 20-somethings who had been churched at one point during their teen years are now spiritually disengaged. They do not attend church, read their Bible or pray.

According to a new five-week, three-question national survey sponsored by the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches (NCFIC), the youth group itself is the problem. Fifty-five percent of American Christians are concerned with modern youth ministry because it’s too shallow and too entertainment-focused, resulting in an inability to train mature believers. But even if church youth groups had the gravitas of Dallas Theological Seminary, 36 percent of today’s believers are convinced youth groups themselves are not even biblical……

……..“Today’s church has created peer dependency,” McManus says. “The inherent result of youth groups is that teenagers in the church are focused on their peers, not their parents or their pastors. It’s a foreign sociology that leads to immaturity, a greater likelihood of sɛҳuąƖ activity, drug experimentation and a rejection of the authority of the Word of God.

I was going to go on about the Prussian school model and the isolation from the family it tends to engender in children (indeed, it was designed to do just that), and how it is unsurprising that when Christians – including the original Christians, Catholics – perpetuate this model by dividing up families and having special Masses for this group, special programs for that……it tends to be self-defeating.

The family is the Church in microcosm. As goes the family, so will go the Church, and vice versa. Anything that tends to negatively affect the family – such as educating children away from parental influence, with huge emphasis given to how their peers perceive them – will negatively effect the Church. Lifeteen Masses, CCD, teen youth groups with often highly questionable programs – all these things at least tangentially weaken family unity. They also help further inculcate children in the culture of peer dependence noted above, and when many young adults today are not just unfaithful regarding their religious duties, but are out and out atheist-communist enemies of the Faith, it is not surprising that so many of these young souls fall away.

So many of these programs are adopted almost unthinkingly, in a spirit of imitation that demonstrates both a lack of understanding of the Faith and of human nature. Catholic parishes have “vacation bible schools” because protestant sects have them. They even use the same, protestant-generated teaching materials! That’s just one small example, I could continue on and on through the entire panoply of mimicry. It shows how deranged from the right understanding and practice of the Faith so many in positions of authority in the Church have become.

Anyway, go to Mass as a family. Don’t go to goofy, gimmicky “special” Masses. Home school. Pray together daily. Carefully monitor your kid’s activities, especially on the computer. You can’t guarantee you’re children will remain faithful throughout their lives, but if you do the above, demonstrate virtue, and avoid obvious vice you will immeasurably increase the likelihood that your kids won’t fall away from the Faith.

http://veneremurcernui.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/study-finds-youth-groups-destroy-christian-faith-in-young-people/

Children must be taught the full reality and extent of the Catholic Faith, without compromising any truth or accommodating worldly views. Suffering and harsh realities are not to be avoided or colored but bravely faced and offered to Christ Lord.

Graham · « **Reply #1 on:** June 03, 2014, 01:23:46 AM »

That sheds an interesting light on traditionalist youth groups, boy scouts, and the like.

Cantarella · « **Reply #2 on:** June 03, 2014, 01:53:01 AM »

Quote from: Graham

That sheds an interesting light on traditionalist youth groups, boy scouts, and the like.

By the way, is there the only Catholic option (for boys scouts) the Troops of St. George?

crossbro · « **Reply #3 on:** June 03, 2014, 02:08:30 AM »

The Juvenlization of American Christianity.

Using compelling data, Bergler demonstrates that each of these movements, though differing at points as to stated objectives, nevertheless began to adapt more and more of the faith to the adolescents, while tracking the results of these measures all the way up into the decade of the sixties. These changes brought about victories here and there with regard to some matters (such as the influence of the youth in the elimination of institutional racism and racial segregation) but also came at a cost of damaging the faith in the lives of adolescents and the church in general, through a "juvenilization" of the faith: a tailoring of the faith to young people that remained adolescent in maturity and content even into adulthood.[/quote]

It is all about the children, save the children...

Yeah, Jesus says children have faith and adults don't- so let's make it all about the children. If you don't follow this plan you are an old jerk. Who cares about the adults let's save the children. Give us your money and we will molest your children...

Tiffany · « **Reply #4 on:** June 03, 2014, 07:03:30 AM »

There are youth groups that teach heresy and are a poor influence but adults in a chapel should work towards providing young people with wholesome social times. Adults who want to see young people lead a Christian life they will make an effort in this area by providing food, volunteering as chaperons, organizing events, and providing funds.

Young people not staying in church as an adult is not because they attended youth group.

crossbro · « **Reply #5 on:** June 03, 2014, 10:51:55 AM »

Quote from: Tiffany

There are youth groups that teach heresy and are a poor influence but adults in a chapel should work towards providing young people with wholesome social times. Adults who want to see young people lead a Christian life they will make an effort in this area by providing food, volunteering as chaperons, organizing events, and providing funds.

Young people not staying in church as an adult is not because they attended youth group.

Go to any denomination any local church etc.- all this is being done, it is all about the children- and the kids leave once they graduate from high school.

Primarily, there is so much for the kids, nothing for the adults. But what we did here by placing all the focus on the kids that single young adults have no place. In fact they are alienated by the family focus. So they leave maybe intending to return later. Some do and some don't.

You ever notice that everything involving the children is the center of the Church ? But most involving adults is held somewhere else ?

We taught the kids that they were in Church to be entertained. Well, once that is gone they leave.

Pepsuber · « **Reply #6 on:** June 03, 2014, 12:15:49 PM »

Quote from: Cantarella

Quote from: Graham
That sheds an interesting light on traditionalist youth groups, boy scouts, and the like.

By the way, is there the only Catholic option (for boys scouts) the Troops of St. George?

No. The Federation of North-American Explorers (FNE), which is a member association of the FSE (Fédération du Scoutisme Européen, or Federation of European Scouting), is Catholic.

As far as "destroying the faith of young people" is concerned, something like 80% of vocations to the priesthood in France come from the Catholic scouting movement (which includes FSE as well as other associations large and small).

Frances · « **Reply #7 on:** June 03, 2014, 05:37:22 PM »

:dancing-banana:
Having spent 25 years wandering through Protestant-land, I can attest that youth groups do not increase the chances of children remaining churchgoers as adults. There are two factors at work. One is that all too often, children's and youth ministries become a substitute for family worship and a convenient babysitter for parents. The kids get dropped off at the church and the adults go off shopping or out to eat. The message is that church is for kids and adults have no need of religion! The other factor that ultimately turns young adults away is when the youth group tries to make Jesus into a "cool dude" and make Christianity "popular." Prepackaged VBS programs trivialize Christ and religion. Teens and young adults want to be warriors, not teenyboppers for the Lord. I recall going, once, at my mother's insistence, to the CYO when I was 15 years old. The featured event turned out to be a "disco mass," complete with hymns to the tune of Stayin' Alive by the BeeGees from the movie Saturday Night Fever. The gray-haired priest attempted to comb his hair into the style popularized by John Travolta. This was supposed to make it "cool" to hear mass and be Catholic. I remember thinking it was disrespectful to God and feeling sorry for the priest who obviously tried hard to be Fr. Travolta, but who was mocked by the teens for his efforts for looking so "lame." Holy, it was not! I never went back.
As a lifelong single female in my mid-50s, I can attest to a dearth of Church sponsored activities for single adults past college-age. True, I'm speaking mainly of Protestants, but once you are still single past your late 20s, extracurricular groups and activities leave older singles out in the cold. There are all sorts of events for children, teens, college-aged, the latter, especially revolving around finding a marriage partner. But if you hit 30+ and are still single, well, you are pretty much ignored and even given up on! The attitude is, "You're welcome to attend services, but since you haven't a family, please go away as soon as church is over." There are lots of family events, couples ministries, activities for seniors, widows, widowers.
A few concrete examples, a Baptist church that had Sunday School classes divided by age, gender, and marital status. As a 34 year old single woman, I had a choice between joining the high school girl's class, or the widow's class, the closest in age of whom was in her 70s. The topic of discussion was not Bible study, but how to relate as a "christian" to either dating boys and bereavement counseling since the loss of your husband. Needless to say, I fit in to neither group, so I just went home. In other situations, Catholic included, there will be a conference or retreat involving substantial expense, and the cost is generally much less per person for a couple than for a single. I am more often than not priced out of these activities or forced to beg for charity. It is one thing to humble oneself, quite another to be publicly humiliated and rashly condemned for inability to afford a conference, dinner, retreat, pilgrimage, etc. The last such event I attended, I could not afford the accommodations, so I "slept" four nights in my car in parking lots of Walmart, Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, and in the far rear of a Methodist cemetery. (The cemetery wasn't bad! Very quiet, nobody to see me, adjacent woods for changing clothes, etc!) Yes, I wanted to attend badly enough!
Other times, singles are told, "Bring a dish for 20 people," or some such thing. "Bring your silver wear and china!" Sorry, but I don't own any silver or china, nor do I own cooking or serving kitchenware in family sizes! What usually happens is that I just don't go. Two years ago, there was a "Catholic Family Camping Weekend" that interested me. When I called to register, I was informed by an SSPX priory that it was restricted to actual families. Singles were not welcome. It left me feeling as if I were a suspected child molester or somehow of defective character.

My belief is that Catholics should do all in their power to keep families together, and to include those on the margins. Using the world's categories of dividing people into age or marital or financial status groups to build the Faith is resorting to communist tactics, the evil fruit of Vatican II.