This week, a troubled transgender teenager in Canada somehow managed to obtain weapons despite Canada’s draconian gun laws. He shot HIS mother and stepbrother before traveling to a school and shooting several more people. HE was wearing a dress at the time of the shooting. LINK This is becoming a common pattern. Sexually confused teenagers turning to violence.
In Oklahoma City, a teenaged suspect has been identified in the Sunday Morning arson attack against Windwood Freewill Baptist Church. The teen, who is suspected in other terrorist type attacks, is thought to be a member of an extremist anarchist group responsible for other terrorist activities in the OKC area including school disruptions. While the suspect has been identified AS YET NO ARREST HAS BEEN MADE and the case has been referred to the Oklahoma Attorney General's office for legal analysis. LINK
This week in Tulsa, students at suburban Jenks and Union High Schools walked out of classes AGAIN to protest immigration law enforcement. NO PUNITIVE ACTION WAS TAKEN BY SCHOOL AUTHORITIES SOME OF WHOM ARE SUSPECTED OF AIDING AND ABETTING THE STUDENTS. LINK Similar walkouts occurred last week.
America, Oklahoma CIty, Tulsa and yes probably your small town has a problem with their youth.
A few years ago during the Christmas season, my wife and I were visiting a large area church affiliated with one of America’s allegedly most conservative denominations. The senior pastor was not preaching that week but rather the youth pastor. As his Christmas sermon the youth pastor proceeded to nearly canonize the father of homosexual icon and “martyr” Matthew Shepherd who was in fact a drug dealing homosexual prostitute with a taste for rough sex that managed to get himself killed during one of his dealings or assignations. The choice of subject matter as part of a Christmas program was baffling. As my wife and I walked out in the middle of the sermon, I wondered, “What in the world is going on in the “Youth Building” out back in their separate “Youth Services?”
Two questions are presented here, one spiritual and one practical.
The spiritual question involves the failure of the American church to convert its own children much less the world. According to the Barna Group approximately two thirds of young people depart from the church as young adults while only ten percent or so choose a life of discipleship. LINK The current system isn’t working.
A lifetime ago, I departed far from the faith but returned while serving in the military. I credit my return to the faith to the rigor of the church I grew up in. While we did have a Sunday School that ended around fifth grade. But, all children and young adults were expected to attend the rest of the services, sit quietly and respectfully and participate just like the adults. From the time I was old enough to be out of nursery, I heard hundreds upon hundreds of hours of bible teaching and preaching. I still remember some of it and certainly remember the underlying principles. We sang the traditional hymns of the faith along with our parents not jangle pop anthems indistinguishable from insipid pop music or hard rock glossed over with a whitewash of semi intelligible Christian buzz words. Later in life, in times of doubt and trouble the Word presented in those sermons and the lyrics of those solid old hymns would come back to remind me where to seek help and comfort. While it has long been fashionable to criticize evangelical fundamentalism, it did keep families together for worship and by default ingrain the traditional faith into the minds of its adherents of all ages from toddlers up. If a fundamentalist young person departed from the faith it wasn’t from lack of hearing the Word. Despite the faults and failings of many fundamentalists the Word itself will never return void.
The practical question is more immediate. Most church security teams can barely cover their main service if they even manage that. If you have children and young people spread out all over the building or in some cases all over the campus in different buildings you need security coverage for all of those individual groups. Very few churches have that kind of depth in their security team. And, if an emergency occurs, that already over committed team is likely going to be facing the dual tasks of handling the emergency and keeping frantic parents from rushing into harm’s way to get to their children.
I would like to pose a few questions:
If you are a parent:
To put it bluntly, if you are a parent of children attending public school in South Tulsa, particularly Jenks and Union, do you know whether or not your children participated in the recent walkout protests? Would you know if they had? Have you asked?
Have you explained the civic duties of a Christian set out in Romans 13? Have you explained the cultural, moral and economic horrors of Marxism? Do you understand them yourself?
Have you explained that American citizenship is a privilege to be earned not an accident of birth or a simple bureaucratic exercise? Have you explained that in the past, each generation fought and died to secure the freedoms and benefits that come with American citizenship?
Have you explained that those “fun demonstrations” sometimes turn violent and will inevitably turn violent when the leaders decide it will be politically advantageous? Have you explained what happens when law enforcement or the military is required to use force to suppress a riot? Have you explained the permanent and irreversible consequences of placing a policeman or federal officer in apparent fear of his life?
If you are a parent of a child participating in a separate youth program in your church have you talked with the youth pastor? Have you inquired to determine whether or not they are a person you would trust with the spiritual education of your child?
Have you observed a “youth service” at your church to determine whether or not it supports your values and understanding of the faith? Have you taken responsibility for the spiritual nurture of your family or are you “delegating it” to someone else?
If your children are not solidly grounded in the faith they will not have the intellectual and moral tools to refute fashionable modern radicalism.
If you are staff or a security team leader:
Do you have sufficient depth in your security team to protect all of the separate activities going on at the same time?
If your church separates families into different age and interest groups do you have a plan to SAFELY reunite parents and children in an emergency?
Do you have a policy and training to handle parents trying to get to their children in an emergency when doing so would place them, the children or security workers in more danger?
Do you have a plan and policy to address violence originating FROM youth activities? We are now seeing regular reports of violence stemming from youth activities and church community events involving youth.
Have you made provisions to deal with troubled or radicalized youth that may present a danger to others or themselves? Are your staff and security team staying aware of possible problems in this area?
This list is far from exhaustive. As final words of advice I would urge church leaders to carefully consider the impact upon the family of every church activity and plan those activities in ways that (a) bring families together at church instead of dispersing them, (b) support the family structure by allowing (and encouraging) parents to take responsibility for the spiritual condition of their children and (c) take into account the security resources available at your church. I would also urge church leaders to think the unthinkable and take a hard look at both their youth and their youth activities and then do what is necessary to prevent trouble or tragedy there.
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