Generational Blackmail?
It seems like every other day I’m told another reason why young people are leaving the church: because Christians fight too much, or because Christians are too political or anti-gay or don’t care about social justice. Millennials, we’re told, are leaving the church because the church won’t bless their cohabitation or provide them with contraception for pre-marital sex. They’re leaving because they don’t care about fights over creation/evolution or abortion or worship style or what have you. In sum, it seems we’re regularly informed that if the church doesn’t change, young people are going to leave.
And what exactly are we supposed to do with these claims? I think the upshot is pretty clear. Indeed, am I the only one who feels like they’re a sort of bargaining chip–a kind of emotional blackmail meant to get the church to relax its commitments in order to make the church more acceptable?
Could we entertain the possibility that millennials might be wrong?
