Sat, Jan 13th - 11:21AM
Problems With Young People
What
happened to young adults, and what led to the Generation Gap and the youth
culture of rebellion and decadence that continues today? There was a time in
America (and Europe) when a teenager was normally considered ready for normal
adult work and responsibility, teenage marriage did not involve a high divorce
rate, and juvenile crime was not considered normal behaviour. Up till a few
decades ago a young lad could join the armed forces at fourteen (with parental
consent of course), but this is no longer considered practical. In Bible times a
person was considered a young adult at the age of thirteen, but today we have a
person called an adolescent, someone who is not physically a child but is not
considered a young adult. What happened? Let's look at some of the societal and
cultural trends that led to this:
For
much of American history families and society in general were patriarchal, and
adults had moral, religious, social, and moral responsibilities to provide for,
discipline, and train their children, and care for elderly parents, and parents
normally raised up their children to succeed them, and not to merely succeed.
Over time government expansion and the Industrial Revolution were allowed to
interfere with family relationships and responsibilities. With the Industrial
Revolution came Child Labor Laws, some of which made sense while others were
absurd. For example, laws originally intended to keep nine-year olds from
working sixteen hours a day in sweatshops or coal mines under unhealthy
conditions are used to keep healthy teenagers from doing light work for eight
hours or less in air-conditioned buildings. The idea that children should not
be taught to work and be responsible and teenagers cannot or should not be
expected to handle work and responsibility became popular and accepted. Free
public education became compulsory continued education, thus encouraging
perpetual childhood or producing artificially extended adolescence and further
enabling indoctrination in secularism and humanism. If movements and
legislation to coerce teenagers into staying in school were ultimately based on
concern for the interests and welfare of youths, then intelligent and
knowledgeable students would be encouraged to get a GED and seek employment or
go on to college or vocational school; the real issue is government control and
the expansion thereof. We even have children's courts, or juvenile courts, to
impress upon young minds that they are not fully accountable or completely
responsible for their behaviour.
In
the 1940s secular humanism had already been invading public schools, colleges,
the media, politics, churches, and religious institutions for decades, and the
evidence and symptoms were becoming very pronounced, and this continues today.
With the prosperity following WWII came the popular notion that parents must
make sure their children never do without anything and children must have
everything their parents did not have. In the 1940s a number of
"experts" began teaching that it is wrong to use corporal punishment
to discipline children, and that children should not be taught religious or
moral values until they are mature adults. These teachings became very popular
even though these theories were directly contrary to Scripture and credible
studies; for example, studies reveal that eighty percent of the personality is
developed before a child is six years old, and all or most of the personality
is developed before the teen years. (Consider Proverbs 22:6, 15; 29:15, 17;
Isaiah 28:9)
After
WWII there arose a trend of giving teenagers a separate identity and
segregating teenagers into a different class of people, thus making it common
for youths to be peer-dependent instead of elder-dependent and replacing
respect for elders with respect for youth and immaturity. (Consider Proverbs
13:20; Isaiah 3:4-5; Malachi 4:6) Since children and teenagers are building an
identity and naturally seeking that identity from those around them we should
be encouraging fellowship with mature influences. All humans young and old tend
to seek an identity from those around them, to a greater or lesser extent
depending on the individual, but inexperience tends to make one a bit more
vulnerable. Older adults should be reminded to set an example and to mentor
young people and youths should be reminded of the value of fellowship with
those who are older and wiser than themselves (especially of their own gender)
and taught to respect their elders in general. (Consider Proverbs 13:20; Titus
2:1-8; etc.) King Solomon raised up a fool who rejected the wise counsel of
older men and heeded the foolishness of his young peers because he learned to
respect them and trust their insight through regular fellowship. (I Kings 12:8)
Contrast this with the example of Christ Who enjoyed the company of older men
when He was young. (Luke 2:44-46)
In
the Twentieth Century, especially the latter half of the Twentieth Century,
some harmful and misleading myths and theories were widely accepted even in
Christian circles, such as:
· The
theory of evolution is compatible with Christianity and Bible truth.
· Humans
are naturally good. (Man can choose to do right, but sin comes natural because
humans are natural-born sinners. How many parents ever had to teach a child how
to be bad?)
· Satan
rules the Earth. (Satan rules in the hearts of unbelievers, "the wicked
world system," but God is the present ruler of the Earth and nothing in
the Bible ever indicates that God abdicated His throne and turned rulership
over to Satan.)
· The
Bible is only for Christians. (The Bible is God's message to all mankind and
provides guidance on every area of human existence, and applying Bible
teachings benefits both believers and unbelievers. The important difference is
that for the unbeliever the Word of God is convicting and for the believer the Word
of God is cleansing.)
· Bible
truths and standards only apply to the church-related part of our lives and do
not apply to our secular lives.
· It
is wrong for a Christian (especially a preacher) to hold a public office or
otherwise try to influence society for righteousness. (Daniel 2:48-49; Matthew
5:13-16; I Timothy 2:1-2; etc...) In other words, the world should influence
Christians instead of the other way around. (Incidentally, Biblical separation
is godly distinctions, conduct, and relationships within society and not
neutrality or isolation from society, and a Devil-May-Care attitude toward the
society in which one lives is contrary to Scripture.)
· Sex
education is the job of secular government-run public schools and has no place
in the home or church because sex is dirty. (Consider Deuteronomy 6:6-7, Joshua
8:34-35, Psalm 19:7-11, and II Timothy 3:16 and note that the Mosaic Law
included laws that prohibited sexual immorality and taught the importance and
sacredness of sexual intimacy in marriage, and those laws are based on
principles that are reaffirmed in the New Testament. The Hebrew text of the Old
Testament sex laws is very explicit, and the Bible is not prudish about sex.
Also consider Ruth 4:13; Proverbs 5:18-20; Song of Solomon 1:13; 5:4; 7:6-8; I
Corinthians 7:2-5; etc...)
· The
modern theory that youths can be kept from attracting or desiring the opposite
sex though legislation, superstition, or social custom is a fantasy far removed
from reality. The Bible does not pretend or imply that young women can be kept
from attracting or desiring men but established safeguards and moral
guidelines. (Consider Song of Solomon 8:8-9) Teen pregnancy is not a social
malady, a dangerous trend, or a modern phenomenon; throughout history most
wives married in their teens and most mothers bore their first child while in
their teens. It is ironic that some modern laws meant to stop sexual abuse can give
youths opportunities to be sexually immoral with reduced risk of disclosure or
reprisal and thus make them more vulnerable; consider that statutory rape is
the only felony in which an underage youth can willingly participate, and even
initiate the crime, without reprisal. On the other hand, statutory rape laws
and marriage laws that raise the age of consent and the age at which a teenager
can marry (even with parental consent) to the mid or late teens do not keep an
underage young woman from attracting or desiring the opposite sex, they simply
discourage unmarried gentlemen with honourable motives from romantic interest
for fear of social and legal repercussions. This also sends out the wrong
message by implying that the sexual abuse of a prepubescent child is no worse
or different than consensual sex with a teenager. In many cases there are
practical reasons to delay marriage until older, and we should be concerned
about protecting young people, but a blanket condemnation or prohibition
against teenage marriage has negative effects.
The
list of examples could continue but these should suffice for now.
For
some reason there is a common tendency to refuse to learn lessons from the
past, as though we must be superior to our forefathers and cannot acknowledge
that someone else may have possessed more wisdom in some area. I am not trying
to romanticize the past or claim that any human society was ever without wrongs
and imperfections. I am simply asking you to consider the obvious: If certain
problems with youths that are now rampant, and are even considered normal or
acceptable now, were at one time the exceptions and not the rule, it must be
that our forefathers (though human like us) were doing something right and that
those things which they were doing right were discontinued.
-Arnold
J. Saxton
Further
reading:
How
To Create Irresponsible Teenagers – By Dennis Fox www.dennisfox.net/columns/teenagers.html
Enabling
Adult Maturity – By Mike Morales www.home.earthlink.net/~mmales/yt-binge.htm
Abolish
Adolescence! – By Thomas Sowell www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell050198.html
Childish
Labor Laws – By Thomas Sowell www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell060399.asp
Are
They Schools Or Are They Prisons? – By Dave Kopel www.davekopel.com/Misc/OpEds/Schools-or-Prisons.htm
Marrying
Young – By Scott Irving www.truth1.org/s1-marryearly.htm
Statutory
rape laws need revision www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/5534/statutory-rape-laws-need-revision
The
pros and cons of statutory rape laws – By Sherry F. Colb www.cyc-net.org/features/ft-rapelaws.html
Comment (0)
|