A generation arose that did not know the Lord

I’m sure many of our readers have seen or heard about Michael Spenser’s article, picked up in the Christian Science Monitor, “The Coming Evangelical Collapse.” I strongly agree with his overall perspective, while perhaps quibbling on some details. Michael Bell has followed up with some useful statistical analysis here, largely confirming the thesis. If we ask, why is evangelical America collapsing, there are a number of reasons which all amount to its abandonment of biblical Christianity in any meaningful form. But the most revealing statistics may be those that pertain to parenting. Not long ago I saw a study stating that 88% of evangelical youths abandon the faith by the time they leave college. Whatever evangelical faith is, it must not be very impressive if we can only pass it on to 12% of our own children. More recently, I saw this study, that shows that only 14% of evangelical parents consider faith in Christ to be a significant success indicator for their children. Well, there it is folks! Evangelical churches are not distinctively Christian and evangelical parents are not evidently Christian, so what a surprise that “a generation arose in Israel that did not know the Lord” (Jud. 2:10).