This is an interesting study from Barna. It deals with teenagers and their understanding of the supernatural or the spiritual. According to the survey, most kids experiment with "witchcraft" or "new age" ideas and practices...even in evangelical circles.
This is not surprising at all. Our teen years are a time of experimentation. Why should spiritual disciplines and understandings be any ddifferent. What interests me is how this study underscores the complicated realities of teaching Christianity. It is one thing to memorize scripture verses. It is another thing to "learn to pray." If there are specific Christian disciplines of prayer and meditation, of encountering the divine, we usually hold off on introducing our children because we do not believe (total generalization) that they are interested or able.
Perhaps this study suggests otherwise.
Posted by tripp at January 24, 2006 08:33 AMAbsolutely! If I'd had a spiritual director to help me explore Christian mysticism (with a non-directive sense of both the dangers and the joys of mystical experience) when I was 14, I might not have spent quite so much time with the Ouija board.
Posted by: beth at January 24, 2006 10:11 AMYeah, for me it was D&D. But truth be known, D&D gave me a religious (mythological?) language that I had no access to otherwise since I was not raised in the church. My interest in the pamtheons is what kicked off my interest in religion in general. So, God can work with anything. I'm not worried about the Oujia board as much as I am aware that we often offer few alternatives.
Posted by: Tripp at January 24, 2006 10:16 AM