Young=Shallow?

This is an article that was in the Rocky Mountain Christian. I wrote it a while back, but I thought I'd post it here.


Browsing through the "teen section" of Christian catalogues and book stores has often surprised us. Usually what we find are shelves and shelves, pages and pages, of books and magazines talking about sex, drugs, alcohol, and plenty of other profane topics. Don't get us wrong, these books are encouraging teenagers to stay far from these things. But through years of looking in the "teen section", we have noticed that although these books are saying "stay away from these things", they are putting the focus where it should not be- on sin. Why is it that Christian writers in our day and time think they need to focus on sinful behaviors when they're writing books for teens? Our thought has always been that if you're writing to Christian teens, your audience is already aware- or should be- that sex outside of marriage, doing drugs, drinking beer, and cussing are sinful behaviors.

Some may argue that the Christian teens of today need to know about these things, and know the Christian way to handle them. We disagree. We strongly believe that you do not have to think about and focus on a sinful behavior to know that it's wrong. We recently saw an article in a magazine geared to Christian teens. This article was about- well, we won't even mention the name of the article- and how Christian teens should not do it. Needless to say, we threw the magazine in the trash and unsubscribed. Why? Because it seems that the writers of this magazine think it's necessary for teens to know every tiny detail of a sin in order to stay away from it. We find this absurd, because dwelling on sin is a sin in itself. The Bible tells us in

Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." Thus, we believe it is crucial to direct our thoughts away from sin, not read every detail of it.

"Yes," you might say, "but Christian teens often do cuss, sometimes they even have sex outside of marriage, and many of them do drugs and drink!" We would like to suggest that perhaps the reason for this is that everyone expects these things of them. After all, when they get to be "teens" they're definitely going to rebel. But that's ok because they must "find themselves", right? Wrong! Although we often hear these statements, we strongly disagree with them. As the words to an old song go, "I was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see." If you're a Christian, you're already found! There is no need for Christian teens to "find themselves". If they ever forget who they are, they just need to open their Bible and look at Jesus' example. That's what we're striving for. Therefore, we believe books aimed at Christian teens should have a goal of encouraging teens to be more like Christ. We believe that if someone is truly seeking after Christ, they do not need the specifics of sinful behaviors explained to them. In fact, we believe they'll close a book that focuses on sin and find something better to read. Christian teens are striving to be in fellowship with God, and God cannot have anything to do with sin. We believe the authors of books in the "teen section" of Christian stores and catalogues should realize that the audience they are pursuing is seeking to live according to these words:
"Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe." 1 Timothy 4:12