This New York Times article entitled “Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers,” seems misunderstood on many levels, the least of which is its assumption that evangelical Christianity is merely an alternative to the cornucopia of other lifestyles available to today’s teens. This statement, in particular, is telling:
Genuine alarm can be heard from Christian teenagers and youth pastors, who say they cannot compete against a pervasive culture of cynicism about religion, and the casual “hooking up†approach to sex so pervasive on MTV, on Web sites for teenagers and in hip-hop, rap and rock music.
The notion that following Christ is in competition with these other, less wholesome activities misunderstands not only the world, but Christianity itself. Indeed, Christ does not call his followers to compete with the world so much as he calls them to run a completely different race.