When a teen posts a comment on MySpace, they think that no one else will be able to read it?

I’ve seen so many private conversations take place between teens back and forth on their comment sections on MySpace. They could message each other on MySpace, they could instant message each other, they could email each other, they could text each other, they could talk about this private thing on the phone, they could write a note to the other person or a letter, or they could even- as hard as it is to imagine- talk about the matter face to face, one on one, in person, but NO- they decide to have this private conversation on a comment board that anyone and everyone can read. And, then they get mad if someone else finds out about the conversation even though they made that conversation available to anyone.

Sneaking out at night, making out with someone, plans to get drunk, details of a drunken party, gossip about someone else, details of hook-ups, secret homosexual relationships, illegal drug use, steamy affairs: all things common on MySpace bulletin boards- All things that the poster didn’t want certain adults finding out about. And those who post such things are all people who get mad if that certain adult finds out and alerts parents due to legal obligations. Stupidity? Or a cry for help?

Teens love highly spiritualized things like prayer, but not if they involved discipline- like personal holiness.

Teens tend to be so open to spiritual things. The more spiritual that it seems= the more attracted they are to it, but if it involves anything physical, for the most part, they check out.

A typical post-modern teen’s perspective:

Prayer= good. Silent meditation= good. Anything candles= good. Angels= good. Talk of spirits or even ghosts= really good…etc…

But, raising your hands in worship to God= bad. Singing along with others in worship to Jesus= bad. Stepping out to help someone from a different social group= bad. Abstinence= bad. Abstaining from alcohol= bad…etc…

A chrisitan-cult called Gnosticism started shortly after the beginnings of Christianity. It taught that anything related to the spirit was good and anything related to the body was bad. They used this as an excuse for sinning. Any time a Gnostic would commit a carnal sin they would blame it on the evil body. They would say that their soul had been saved by Jesus, so it didn’t matter what their bodies did, leading to great complacencies in anything physical amongst the Gnostics.

Gnosticism, although not existing per say as an organized religion today, is alive and well in the Church and amongst our teens. This idea that anything we do that is spiritual is good and makes up for what we do that is physical, so it doesn’t matter what I do with my body.

Gnostics tend to ignore the fact that God made us as corporate beings of body, soul, and spirit and that God intended us to live being aware of our entire existence as body, soul, and spirit. They tend to ignore the fact that when Jesus returns, that all of His followers will be given resurrected bodies and that we won’t be some bodiless ghost wondering about throughout eternity.

We must encourage young people today to love God with their bodies, as well as their spirits.

Teenage girls are infatuated with bisexuality because boys are infatuated with lesbians.

 Like most of these observations the cause and effect are all so related, it’s like the circle of life or…the food chain.

For the last 30 years or so, pornography and homosexuality have become more and more acceptable as people’s sexual appetites have grown hungrier and hungrier at the same time that marriages were ending in divorce more and more……..

Because young men, and old, seemed to be hopelessly addicted to porn they desired to see other men in their pornography less and less because of the fear of becoming gay (themselves).

So, as a solution to this (men seeing men in pornography), as people became more and more obsessed with watching other people have sex instead of having it with their spouses, porn producers started making more and more pornography with girl-on-girl action. Now it’s the norm and it’s what most porn addicted men want to see.

This lesbian pornography has etched itself into the heart of American culture and the heart is quickly turning black.

Because of this, girls feel that in order to get the love and affection that they long for (a love and affection that can only truly be found in Christ), that they have to give themselves sexually to a boy. So in order to do this they dress provocatively like prostitutes, use sultry come-on lines that they heard from soft porn (aka MTV) AND sometimes resort to sexually interacting with other girls and hoping that a boy that they’re interested in will find out about it or even see it so that the boy will be aroused by it and give the girl some type of love and affection through the form of sex. Complicated? Not really.

Once the guy has consumed the girl sexually he will move on because no guy in their right mind would want to have a study girlfriend who messes around with other people, especially girls, right?

And, once this girl has been dumped so many times by the same boys that she tried so hard to get to love her through sex, she starts to think that the only people who give her anything near that kind of love that she has been searching for are: other girls.

Now she is confused because she really wants love and affection from a man (especially since her daddy is not around), but she can only get something like it from girls. So she thinks to herself,” Am I a lesbian?” and often believes this lie, ditches boys all together, and lives the rest of her life in conflict: a conflict that could only be resolved by coming to Jesus and finding a man who has also come to Jesus. And once they come together, they could share the love that Jesus gave them with each other in a way that nothing else could compare with.

Does this seem crazy to you? It’s not. Open your eyes to the young people around you. Open your ears and hear the cry of lost little girls who are craving male affection.

Two weeks ago at a youth camp I was running, I overheard a conversation of a sweet Christian girl with another girl and a young boy. She was trying to rationalize why boys get aroused by two girls being intimate with each other. And as she rationalized it, she seemed to become more and more understanding of it, more and more comfortable with it; as if she herself might feel comfortable with making out with another girl to attract the boys she likes. It would only be a meaningless kiss, right? No!

Think about it! This is a real issue that is taking place right out in front of our eyes.

I see a lot of young people who grow up in homes with very little income. Where in the past, you would see many people use the memories of their impoverished childhood to spur on a change with their lives; today it seems to be the opposite.

So many teens because of their poor attitudes, outlooks, work ethic, and lack of transportation tend to blame everyone else and make themselves the victim. Everyone else is the perpetrator and they are always being victimized.

I believe the answer to this lies with the other answers, that because they are not engaged in the real world, and because they rely on others who do operate in the real world to provide for them; they feel like its those people who wronged them when they didn’t get their needs met by relying on others.

I’m not sure why they are not engaging themselves in the real world and (instead) rely on others to. I’m sure it has to do something with their crappy upbringings with sorry excuses for parents, but I’m not sure when everything changed. I’m not sure when or why their parents became lousy either, but I’m sure it had something to with their parents and I’m sure that began sometime in the sixties?

When I turned sixteen (only 12 years ago), the first thing that you did when turned sixteen, was get your freak’n driver’s license, but not today. It is almost uncool today (to get your driver’s license).

 This is very confusing to me. I’m not sure if this is something that is prominent in only my area or a trend taking place all over?

 A driver’s license used to be synonymous with freedom, but today there is almost a fear attached to getting one.

 This, I believe, directly relates to the teenage work ethic issue that I brought up earlier, but I’m not sure. There is also a growing segment of older teens and young adults who don’t want to move out of their parent’s homes, as I mentioned earlier, that I believe correlates to the driver’s license issue.

 I still think it all comes down to distracting things that fill the void of people’s true needs that make other things seem not so important to them. And because their needs are met elsewhere, they have to rely on others, who live and interact in the real world, to provide for them money, food, clothing, shelter, and of course- when needed- transportation.

Teenagers today seem to have NO work ethic.  

There is no desire to have a job, to work hard, to earn money, to move out of their parent’s home, to get married, to have children, etc…

The only explanation that I can come up with for this is that they are finding their fulfillment by other means: i.e. video games, the internet (specifically social networking sites that require no real human interaction), reality television, pornography, etc….but ultimately I’m not sure why?

When a teenager is given a direct order from a teacher, parent, employer, or other type of leader, they tend to respond with an answer to a question that you never asked them. For example:

 Authority Figure: “Johnny! Go empty the garbage!”

Johnny: “The garbage is not full.”

Explanation: You asked Johnny to do something, but instead of doing it, he thought it appropriate to answer the question, “Is the garbage full?” even though you never asked him that question…

What the heck?!

I know that I’m not very old. I’m only 28, so I don’t want to sound old, but times REALLY have changed since I was a teenager. I wasn’t a sheltered child so it’s not like all of the weird things that are happening today were happening regularly then, but just without me noticing it. The norm, somehow, has drastically changed and unfortunately it’s not for the good.

There are some positive things about this generation and I love them and care for them deeply, but to be honest, I am worried about them. I have noticed many strange trends since becoming a youth pastor.

Throughout this series I will post a random assortment of a few of these trends. I’m not claiming to be an expert and I’m not claiming that some of these trends are worse than others, but here are some observations none the less: