either wants or needs to hear is how rotten, awful and downright subversive his
generation is – and, for that matter, how wonderful, decent and dependable those
before were. I am certainly no champion of the trends of “generation X,” but I am
also reminded of the many-fold faults of both the “greatest generation” and
especially the “baby-boomers.” In fact, much of the “challenges” we young people
face today have come from the moral morass of our predecessors – not just our
peers. Indeed, through the din of the winds of change, young people are actually
looking for a voice of stability and reason. Yet, with conflicting noises between the
world and the church, from “a young’s man’s perspective,” whose is the voice
most heard?
THE EVOLUTIONISTS AND HUMANISTS have cried long and loud, and
their message is admittedly attractive; while many in the church keep telling me,
“I don’t know the Bible enough to teach you about the beauty of truth and reason”
(cf. Heb. 5.12-14; Judges 2.10).
THE DRUG AND ALCOHOL DEALERS are yet another voice I hear with
great frequency, though I am at least theoretically conscious of their dangers.
Nonetheless, they present their product all over school, college, in their songs, and
on their movies with great vigor and zeal. In the meantime, I see many of my
beloved elderly brethren just “living out their days,” expressing little to no concern
for my interest in ingesting spiritual things. Some even castigate me and my peers
for our “tastes” (cf. Titus 2.6).
THE HOMOSEXUALS AND WHORE MONGERS too have swiftly spread
their “gospel” of laissez faire and “live it up;” while, so many people in the church
of our Lord who should have known and done better remained “settled on their
lees” (Zeph. 1.12), some even refusing to “judge” them and take a stand.
Accordingly, thousands of my peers have been converted to their “alternate way of
life.” It’s not as though their methods and agendas were beyond our
comprehension. O, no! They sounded their ambitions long, long ago! All the way
back in 1987, when we were but young lads, Michael Swift wrote: “We shall
sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams
and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in
your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your
seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms…wherever
men are together…our only God is handsome young men.” (Gay Community
News, February 15).
THE MOVIE STARS AND ENTERTAINMENT GURUS have probably been
the loudest voice of them all! They have spent billions of dollars in researching
what interests me and keeps my attention; but my Bible class teachers and
parents seemingly gave up on me, thinking I was too different for them to be able
to teach. More to the point, some of them even expressed greater interest in the
movies and entertainment than in the pure, unadulterated, “word of truth” (cf. Jn.
17.17; II Tim. 2.15).
From “a young man’s perspective,” then, I would say the multifarious voices of
the world have cried louder and with greater verve than most of the so-called
“children of God.” No wonder our Lord said, “…the children of this world are in
their generation wiser than the children of light” (Lk. 16.8). They both know and
have what it takes to accomplish their objectives. But I am immensely thankful
for those of the prior generations who have helped me and my peers see the
strength and beauty of the church of Jesus Christ. And of her, as David said, so say
we who are of “generation X:” “mark ye well her bulwarks; consider her palaces;
that ye may tell it to the generation following” (Ps. 48.13). “…telling to the
generation to come the praises of Jehovah” (Ps. 78.4).
