Last 12 months may perhaps have been the 12 months of the “Quiet Revival”, led apparently by young people, and particularly more young men going to church for the primary time, but a decade or more of “woke” indoctrination is just not so easily brushed aside.
A study conducted by Youthscape has suggested that many teenagers see well-known biblical stories and other people as “problematic”. Jesus is guilty of “mansplaining” and of being a person, and the “power dynamics” between God and man supposedly leave loads to be desired, which in turn results in questions around consent.
The study was a joint effort by the Scripture Union and the Bible Society, with funding from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust. A gaggle of 40 teenagers were asked to read passages of scripture and to present their reactions.
One girl who read the book of Jonah said that God gave the impression to be “really violent and aggressive” and that the connection between God and man was “built on fear”, resulting in “concerns about consent and abuses of power”.
One boy said that there was an “unequal power dynamic” within the meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman on the well. Jesus, the boy said, gave the impression to be “mansplaining”.
According to the report, many young people see Jesus not as a liberator from slavery to sin, but because the one who brings judgement.
“Jesus is just not the liberator from judgement, he’s the topic of it. He is a troubling figure. Arrogant, powerful, religiously motivated and male,” was one comment.
At the core of the problem appears to be the fashionable liberal belief that every individual is, or must be, completely autonomous and subject to no external authority. Truth, right and unsuitable is all only a matter of perspective and even personal selection.
The report suggests against expecting young people to unquestioningly take biblical stories to heart in the identical way that older generations could have, but in addition said their “unique perspectives” and legit questions may lead to God’s work being performed.
Bible teachers must be “allowing space for real encounter, and trusting that listening well might change us too”.
“When we resist bringing the ‘right’ answers we trust the Spirit to indicate us something recent. Because it’s not what we all know that young people need, it’s who we all know and He is pursuing them already,” the report said.
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