Youth and religion: more anecdotes, data
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg
I’ll comment on this later, but in the meantime, you can read this NYT article on traditionalist young Roman Catholics (hat tip: Hugh Hewitt); and these two articles on this report regarding collegiate religion and spirituality. The report looks especially interesting and does not altogether corroborate the research I discussed here and here.
10:57 PM / April 14, 2005
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"The Shalom Community is one example of a movement that is shaping the church in a more theologically conservative direction by reaching out to youth. It was founded in Brazil in 1982 to counter the influence of "liberation theology," a stream of Catholicism then influential in Latin America that championed the rights of workers and the poor. John Paul regarded the liberation theologians as Marxists, and their power diminished during his papacy."
Nice characterization of Liberation Theology. The NYT just can’t seem to resist getting its standard swipes in on this issue, and of course mentioning how JPII oppossed contraception, women as priests, etc.
The article is Informative, if you put your opinion filter on!
One of the strangest placed paragraphs I’ve ever read...
"Many of the young people who went to the World Youth Day events or flocked to Rome last week on a "pilgrimages" to John Paul’s funeral readily admitted that while they adored John Paul, they did not live by what he preached. They were drawn by the pilgrimage experience, or by the pope’s aura, not necessarily the message."
NYTIMES
This right smack dab in the middle of an article about the transformation of lives? You’ve got to wonder sometimes.
John
Hmmm, people not living by the ideals set by their religion. It’s not a problem of the papacy or orthodoxy or even contradiction. The New York Times does not seem to understand plain old human nature or sin. Of course, from their post-modern construction of humanity, human nature is a "cultural construct" or some other nonsense. Therefore, they understand very little and have little intelligent basis for analysis, and yet become snarling dogs when they disagree with another view. They also refuse to admit that young people just might find obedience to a moral and theological orthodoxy appealing rather than the banal libertarian message that their music, television, and movies - pop culture - feeds them. They see the superficiality of these things and reject the false liberation promises of the teen consumer culture.