Reddit reviews Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers

Hi Sam,

I think I agree with you on most points. Moralism is a big problem in the church, for both kids and adults. I'm also reminded of this interview with Phil Vischer when he reflected on his work on VeggieTales

>I looked back at the previous 10 years and realized I had spent 10 years trying to convince kids to behave Christianly without actually teaching them Christianity. And that was a pretty serious conviction. You can say, "Hey kids, be more forgiving because the Bible says so," or "Hey kids, be more kind because the Bible says so!" But that isn't Christianity, it's morality.

The end result is not Christians but followers of what Christian Smith has called Moralistic therapeutic deism (I highly recommend his book Soul Searching if you've not read it). The church can do better - and many are. As an example, I think very highly of Vischer's new project What's In the Bible which does an incredible job of teaching scripture not as moral stories, but as the story of redemption.

One more thing: it looks like almost all of your activity on reddit is promoting your book. Reddit generally frowns on people self-promoting without contributing in other ways to the community. A general rule of thumb is that no more than 10% of your content should be self-promotion. Here is the reddiquette page on self-promotion. Don't see this a discouragement from posting about your book - rather see it as encouragement to stick around and contribute in other ways as well.

uhh, well I'm not going to do amazing defining it off the top of my head, but here's the general idea:

It's a view of God popular with my millennial generation wherein we define the usefulness of scripture and of religious practices as only for making us feel good or better about ourselves. God's purpose in Scripture is our happiness (contra joy), and as long as this is achieved things are fine. Effectively God is removed from confronting anything wrong with the believer and only provides means to happiness.


It's a phrase that, as far as I know, was first coined by Christian Smith in his book Soul Searching.

I actually have yet to read the book. I have just heard the idea spoken of by so many people I listen to (Mostly by Mike Horton) that I have a general understanding of it.

Here's what Wikipedia has for the definition, presumably gleaned from Smith's book:

"The authors find that many young people believed in several moral statutes not exclusive to any of the major world religions. It is this combination of beliefs that they label Moralistic Therapeutic Deism:

• A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
  
• God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
  
• The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
  
• God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
  
• Good people go to heaven when they die.
  These points of belief were compiled from interviews with approximately 3,000 teenagers." - Article on Moralistic Theraputic Deism

That's a term coined by sociologists to describe the beliefs of teenagers. I don't think anyone calls themselves a "morally therapeutic deist" or that there is a manifesto for such people. But if you want to read about it I guess go to the source: http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Searching-Religious-Spiritual-Teenagers/dp/0195384776