Rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among teens have skyrocketed in recent years which has put new strains on both parents and youth ministers. Dr. Kara Powell, director of the Fuller Youth Institute, is back to talk about new research and a curriculum to help families and churches navigate faith in an increasingly anxious world. Also this week: Some Christians want to be liberated from the “barbaric, totalitarian, and corrupt regime” that is Virginia. Is Franklin Graham being persecuted in the U.K., or is the culture warrior reaping what he’s sown? And a 15-year-old is expelled from a Christian school for wearing a rainbow sweater.
This is a wonderful podcast. I appreciate how you consistently view the Christian life in light of the main thing: The Gospel.
A couple of notes on the Whitefield Academy segment:
1. It’s pronounced WIT-field (as in the evangelist George Whitefield).
2. As Skye said, there is indeed more to this story: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wave3.com/2020/01/15/whitefield-academy-defends-decision-expel-student-after-picture-rainbow-sweater-birthday-cake/%3foutputType=amp.
3. The student had posted on social media at least one account of participation in a sex act and intentionality tossing a Bible in a clothes dryer as an act of disrespect.
I think the real question is why was she enrolled in a Christian school? It’s like signing up for PETA, hosting a dog-fighting event, and being surprised when PETA asks you to resign from membership.
Something I find both insidious and fascinating about the Franklin Graham thing: The Evangelical Right (redundant?) has successfully managed to collapse the distinction between "homosexuality" and "gay sex" , such to condemn people not for what they DO, but for what gender of people they can't help but be attracted to. So successful have they been, in fact, that even theological moderates have largely been brought aboard, claiming that while we ought to have a more fruitful dialogue with our gay brothers and sisters, it's still the case that "I don't care if you're celibate, burn in hell homo" somehow dates back to the founding of Christianity.
This is where the association with innate properties comes in. Graham doesn't simply…
I was diagnosed with OCD when I was eight and while God, therapy, and Zoloft have helped me through, I still wouldn't wish it on anybody. It makes me very, very sad to know that so many teenagers suffer from similar feelings.
When I was a teenager in church youth group (late 2000s-early 2010s), nobody tried to deny mental illness or bully us for it; there were a few of us who had to take our meds on overnight youth trips, but we were kinda the outliers. The mental health of the average teen wasn't very much taken into account, especially not in church.
The one time I asked my youth pastor for advice on an issue that pertained to…