Young Americans Face a Sexual Crisis Different Than Any Generation in History
Teenagers in Generation Z (born 1999 or later) are twice as likely as Americans before them to identify as LGBT or as an atheist, according to a study by the Barna Group.
The Colorado-based Christian educational organization Summit Ministries contends a reason for this is that young people from Gen Z, more so than previous generations, are finding their identity in sexuality and other beliefs rather than seeing themselves as children of God.
Summit plans to take on this controversial issue of human sexuality at the end of the month with a conference on the subject of “Truth & Relationship in a Sexually Confused Culture.”
The conference will take place at Summit’s headquarters in Manitou Springs, just outside of Colorado Springs, but will also be simulcast online.
Christian worldview experts John Stonestreet (president of the Colson Center and co-host of the radio show BreakPoint), Dr. Christopher Yuan (professor at Moody Bible Institute), and Caleb Kaltenbach (pastor and author of “Messy Grace“) are among the featured speakers at the free training event.
They plan to focus on topics such as “homosexuality, cultural trends, same-sex marriage and how we got here as a culture.”
The conference is aimed at parents, youth leaders, pastors, coaches, teachers and others who interface with teenagers and intended to help students learn to “think for themselves as they interact with an ever-changing culture.”
Summit posted a video last month from Biola University professor of Christian Apologetics Sean McDowell, arguing even many Christians are lacking a basic understanding of their faith’s worldview.
In this video, @Sean_McDowell discusses the importance of knowing what we believe, why we believe it, and what we should do about it. https://t.co/kXhWpC877m pic.twitter.com/I2cdbcStYT
— Summit Ministries (@summitmn) December 13, 2018
“We honestly have a crisis in the Christian mind today,” McDowell said. “It’s an exception to know what he believes and why. Why is this important? Because studies show that one of the reasons kids disengage the church and their faith, not the only, is they’re not ready with an answer.”
“On top of that, studies also show that Christians imbibe ideas from Marxism, imbibe ideas from atheism, imbibe ideas from New Age into our belief systems, which guts us from the power of living out our Christian faith as Jesus did,” the professor added.
McDowell — son of popular Christian apologist speaker and best-selling author Josh McDowell — contended a way to start countering this cultural trend is through ministries like Summit.
In the lead-up to its conference, the Christian group also posted a teaching session from Stonestreet discussing the topic of marriage and sexuality.
He observed that, traditionally, marriage, sex, and babies all went together.
“It’s distinguished by oneness,” Stonestreet said. “Because it actually brings husband and wife, man and woman together in a oneness in every possible way.”
“Only in the 20th Century, and it didn’t start with same-sex marriage, did we start divorcing marriage from babies, or sex from babies, or marriage from sex,” he added. “These are all pretty recent innovations in Western history.”
This short lecture clip from @ColsonCenter President @JBStonestreet outlines the traditional view of marriage and why the modern deviations from this outline cause practical problems for everyone involved. https://t.co/0eCLckEzkl
— Summit Ministries (@summitmn) December 18, 2018
He went on to note that throughout history there have been cultures that celebrated homosexual sex, but those relationships were never held up as the same as the marriage between a man and a woman.
“To say that these relationships are the same is to say that … real biology, reality is irrelevant and the only thing that is relevant in these conversations is an intensity of feelings,” Stonestreet stated.
Summit’s three-hour event will take place on Thursday, January 31 and can be attended in person or watched online via simulcast.
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