We’re reflecting on an excellent essay by Christian Smith, “On ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deism’ as U.S.Teenagers’ Actual, Tacit, De Facto Religious Faith,” which I found at the website for the Princeton Theological Seminary.
Christian Smith wrote Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers
To make the point of the last post better than I can, please read this article by John Frye, posted at Jesus Creed.
So many people in our churches suffer alone. When we lose the ability to mourn together, we lose a significant feature of our humanity. When we mourn, we do not need “the bright, plastic cheerfulness of pastor or friend who tells us to cheer up ‘for everything is going to be ok.’” People and their pain need to be treated with the dignity they deserve. Jesus, we recall, was a man of sorrows and well-acquainted with pain
