Hope for the 9/11 Generation
John Hood at The Corner excerpts this piece by Chuck Raasch of the Gannett News Service:
The 9/11 generation is both traditional and iconoclastic. Talking heads often depict it as selfish and disengaged, often symbolized by the empty pursuits of Paris Hilton. In fact, according to social scientists, Generation Y has a respect for community and authority that makes it more akin to the 18-year-olds on the beaches of Normandy than the Y Generation’s baby boomer parents. “This generation, the baby boomlet, is a very odd generation,” said Rachel Kleinfeld, 30, the founding director of the Truman National Security Project, a Democrat think tank. “They are much more sexually conservative than the generation before them. They are much more religious than the generation before them. They are very community-oriented. Their numbers on community orientation are like those of the greatest generation, the World War II generation. They are extremely loving of their parents. Many of them call their parents their best friends. And they are also very respecting of authority, but not all types of authority.” For instance, the 9/11 generation respects the military but not the traditional news media or government institutions. If you were born after 1980, you are likely to gather your impressions of the world as much through MySpace as any front page.
Hood comments:
So let’s tally all this up. The new generation is brave, traditional in morality and religion, close to their parents, supportive of the military, and suspicious of government and the mainstream media. On top of that, a top Democratic think tanker believes all this is “odd.” Have a good weekend.
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August 18th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
You quoted Hood saying “So let’s tally all this up. The new generation is brave, traditional in morality and religion, close to their parents, supportive of the military, and suspicious of government and the mainstream media.”
LOL… When I read your title, I thought you were going to report that this next generation is eager to embrace the way of discipleship in Jesus Christ.
LOL… Very funny!
August 19th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
Don’t get it. What’s so funny?
August 19th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
You said that there is hope for the next generation and you based that conclusion on what… “The new generation is brave, traditional in morality and religion, close to their parents, supportive of the military, and suspicious of government and the mainstream media.”
That doesn’t sound much like hope. That sounds more like they’re just trading one era’s problems for another era’s problems.
You know what is funny… For all the accolades we throw on the “Greatest Generation”, we forget that this generation also was full of sin. If this generation is truly represented by the fictional folks of Mayberry (as I heard someone say), how interesting is it that the Andy Griffith Show was an all white cast in what appeared to be an all white town.
Don’t get me wrong. There was a lot of good things about the “Greatest Generation.” But they had there problems and setting them up as the mark of good character falls way short.
THE ONLY generation who has hope is the generation who learns to pick up its cross and follow Jesus.
Any ways, I understand why you made the post. And that generation was definitely better (arguably) that the generation that followed. I was just trying to poke a little fun.
August 19th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
I knew you had a problem with supporting the military. I was just trying to figure out if you also have a problem with traditional morality and religion, being close to one’s parents, or being suspicious of government and the mainstream media. In my book, those are all good things — all better than their opposites, at least.
August 19th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
What is traditional morality?
Actually, I agree with you that for the most part it is better than some of the alternatives. I was basically just trying to mess with you a bit.
But since you mentioned the military…
August 20th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Rex, you lovable old gnostic you…
I have three sons, 17, 15 and 13. They will never forget 9/11 and the above passage describes them to a “T.” And yes, it is infinitely better than “some of the alternatives.”
They love God, they love their fellow man, and they are not “so heavenly minded they’re no earthly good.” And I think if I can just keep them out of seminary, they just might stay that way.
August 20th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
Mike I am glad your sons love God and love their fellow man, we have something in common.
And I am glad they will never forget 9/11, it was a horrible tragedy carried out by evil people. I will never forget it either, so I guess we have more in common.
As for the Love of God and Man, well Jesus set the example of such love being extended to even our enemies and by the means of a cross rather than a sword.
But it is my fear that our praise of “traditional morality” is way to comfortable with the sword. It just seems very hard to read scripture and come away offering praise for the use of the sword.
Any ways, why do you call me a “Gnostic”? I am not a “Gnostic.” I don’t understand.
August 20th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Umm, I interpreted “traditional morality” to mean not embracing casual sex, homosexuality, drug use and recognizing that we can know what is right and what is wrong. I understand that previous generations have struggled with those issues, but for some reason the Baby Boomers really went off the deep end. I think my generation (known as “Baby Busters” by the way, between the Boomers and Gen X) and the one described in the article represent a rejection of the waywardness of the last 30 or 40 years.
August 20th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
Mrs. Extremist,
Yes I think you are right. And I am hopeful that this new generation is rejecting the idea that morality is completely relative.
My comments were so because in my neck of the woods “traditional morality” often includes giving a little praise to the “good ole boy” syndrome which may be traditional but surely not so moral.
August 20th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Well you know me, I was just trying to mess with you a bit…:-)
and using a rhetorical device (hyperbole) to grab your attention and invite you to take the time to think. For instance, about how your cocksure, seminary-cured, “upper level” Kingdom paradigm will relate to or be any practical good to the nitty-gritty, everyday “basement” lives of those whom you will minister to when you leave school.
Of course, I realize that such an unsolicted invitation may be of no use whatsoever to you, in which case, please feel free to ignore it!
August 20th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
“your cocksure, seminary-cured, “upper level†Kingdom paradigm will relate to or be any practical good to the nitty-gritty, everyday “basement†lives of those whom you will minister to when you leave school.”
Ministry is a second vocation for me. My first vocation was in the machining trade where I worked as machinest operating lathes, mills, etc…, in a machine shop factory. So I not only know about the “practical good to the nitty gritty, everyday life” — I lived that life. I spent 4 weeks in Brazil as a short-term missionary in 2001. On August 2, 2002 I helplessly held my son Kenny in my arms as he passed away. A year later I preached the funeral of my 27 year old brother who left behind a wife and two children. So I think I know something about the real world life which has help shape my understanding of the Kingdom of God as much as my academic training has shaped my understanding.
While my understanding of theology is surely not infalible, it sure beats placing my continued hope in falible world leaders and nations who continue to use violence to try and exercise their own dominance over the world (especially when all of these worldly kingdoms are defeated at the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ).
If my understanding of the Kingdom (which is rooted in the fact that Jesus Christ is victorious through the cross and resurrection) is so worthless, then I suppose the Jesus and the first three centuries of his followers were a bunch of fools.
The fact is, that in the resurrection of Jesus they saw their future and that is why nothing (not even death) could defeat them. For them, to live was Christ and to die was to gain. It is a hope that trancends every empty promise made to us in this world. It is a hope that say I can carry on even in the pain of loosing a son because I know that this world is not the end but that there will be a new heaven and a new earth where all of God’s people will be made eternally new (where I long to see Kenny again).
Until then, I am simply called to live in this world the way that life will be lived in the new world. And those this world is a violent and injust world, since God has already won the victory, I don’t need to use worldly tactics to try and save a bunch of dying kingdoms.
August 21st, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Rex–
Alas, we continue to talk past each other, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. Perhaps if nothing else, it will be useful for you to know how your rhetoric sounds to someone like me (who has also suffered a few hard blows in this life too, BTW) who is struggling to integrate my workaday world with a vision of the Kingdom. It’s not black and white out here, Rex–there are more shades of gray than you can possibly imagine. In times like that, academic screeds ring hollow.
I find it intriguing–why do CofC seminary students these days pine for the pre-Constantinian church as if it were Eden itself? I’ve read church history too, and to believe that all Christians prior to the 4th century (even the “orthodox” ones) were of some pristine, homogeneous stock is to stretch credulity to the point of breaking.
But in getting back to the subject of the post, I’m encouraged to hear and see the best of Generation Y taking root and flourishing–that’s something to shout “amen” to considering the tenor of the times. Your comments struck me as odd, a bit opportunistic and inappropriately mirthful. But I appreciate your taking the time to explain them further and to respond to my comments.
August 21st, 2006 at 11:48 pm
Perhaps we talk past each other because we talk on a blog and the nature of a blog reduces communication to a singular brief written comment with little to no contextual knowledge of the person behind the comment or the communication that their physical body and emotions would offer.
Briefly, my kingdom theology began changing after my son passed away. You know, we live in a very economically and educationally blessed country that happens to exist during a period of history that has been blessed with agricultural, industrial, medical, and technological advances unlike any period of history before. Don’t misunderstand me, these blessings are wonderful and have helped a lot of people in more ways than we will ever know. But for all the positives they bring, they have created one great harm to humanity — reliance on human ability alone (deism) to the exclusion of any hope in God. If we have a problem, then we fix it with our technology, education, economy, etc…
My son died from a rare metabolic syndrome and it was as if a light bulb being shut off. I attempted CPR but watched as his body turned to an ash color. That was the first event in my life that I wanted to fix and change but was powerless to do so. Death is a great enemy that I have no power over or any ability to change. Death forced me to put my hope in God.
It seems like there are many events that happen in our life, good and bad, many of which we can fix and change — or at least give a realistic try. Maybe, just maybe (actually not maybe), God is just waiting for us to once again put our hope in him to make things new in his own time.
Any ways, I know you have experienced the real world to (in all its beauty and ugliness). I just watched on TV tonight the 9/11 Commission Documentary. It is still very sad and disturbing that so many innocent people who did nothing but go to work had to suffer. And I have all the admiration in the world for all of those fire fighters, police officers, emergency workers, and other noble citizens who went into the towers to help others knowing that they would most likely give their own life up for the sake of others (as many of them did).
I only hope that if I was ever faced with making such a crucial decision, that I would follow their couragous example — which in that moment was the example of Jesus on the cross laying down his own life for the sake of others.
August 24th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
“I only hope that if I was ever faced with making such a crucial decision, that I would follow their couragous example — which in that moment was the example of Jesus on the cross laying down his own life for the sake of others.”
Amen, Rex, amen.
September 4th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Rex said, “You know what is funny… For all the accolades we throw on the “Greatest Generationâ€, we forget that this generation also was full of sin.”
Isn’t every generation? Don’t we just exchange the “sins de jour” for other ones? And isn’t that our human condition?