Why Youth Fall
September 02nd, 2020 by G.
I am continuing to read Saving Faith on the research behind why youth leave their church. Mostly its behavior and personal issues, not doctrine, though that can happen.
Interesting ones so far:
Delayed age of marriage.
Pornography (he argues this is a big one).
“Diversity”
“Tolerance”
The last one comes complete with this quotation from Elder Maxwell.
Irreligion as the state religion would be the worst of all possible combinations.
Comments (4)
Filed under: We transcend your bourgeois categories | No Tag
Filed under: We transcend your bourgeois categories | No Tag
September 02nd, 2020 05:21:30
sute
September 2, 2020
The contrast you made with behavior vs doctrine brings to mind this great quote:
“True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.”
I think with that in mind, short of a mistake that comes from the natural man and that’s repented of, all of those reasons to leave the church are based on not really understanding doctrine.
And although it might be tempting to chide the brethren for not teaching doctrine like Maxwell and McConkie, etc. focused so heavily on, the reality is we have this scripture to guide us if we actually want to understand doctrine:
Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
So we have to focus on and practice the doctrine of Christ like charity and virtuous living (pretty much included in the former) if we want to have all the various doctrines become a part of us.
Bookslinger
September 2, 2020
I listened to Prof Gee’s talk at https://www.fairmormon.org/blog/2020/08/28/fairmormon-conference-podcast-60-john-gee-by-the-numbers-saving-faith
It can be summarized thusly: The “Sunday School Answers” work.
[]
September 2, 2020
Books – the Sunday School answers are the *beginning.* You can’t coast on them. Brother Gee mentioned having sympathetic adults kids could share their thoughts with – that is not a Sunday School answer at all! You could maybe derive “have a ward that works” from “read the scriptures” but you’re a few degrees away from that at that point.
The reason they’re dismissed as the Sunday School Answers is because they’re used to evade the teacher’s attention, which means, at that point, they’re not being understood. They are intensely important answers but they must be USED, they must be worked, and the more dismissively they’re presented the less serious they’ll be taken.
Bookslinger
September 3, 2020
[]: I agree. Though in my area, I haven’t seen them dismissed or dismissively presented in Sunday meetings.
“… having sympathetic adults kids could share their thoughts with …”
While I’ve never been a parent, I have long thought that daily family prayer, regular family scripture study, weekly FHE, and family councils are the Sunday School answers that build trust and communication between parents and children that allow for the sharing of thoughts. (And I like how G seems to combine that with lots of capering and humor.)
I don’t have direct experience in activities of the formal youth program, so I am unaware how those adult-youth interactions are supposed to work, or are actually implemented at the ground level. But I would assume the same challenges exist with adult-child (ie, not the same family unit) that I see in the adult-adult social challenges. That is, each family unit more or less an island, and building communication bridges is a big social challenge for almost everyone.