According to Pew Research, 70-75% of Christian youth leave the church after high school. College professors are five times more likely to identify themselves as atheists than the general public, and more than half say they view Christian students unfavorably (Free Republic). Author Frank Turek speaks to college and high school students across the country and has debated atheists such as Christopher Hitchens and Michael Shermer. Turek will be one of the speakers at the NRBTV apologetics conference on September 8-9 in Lebanon, Tennessee. He says the reason students lose their faith post-high school is not a mystery.
“Intellectual skepticism is a major reason cited by those who have left the faith,” says Turek. “We can lay the blame for much of this on ourselves — that is, on the church. While there are notable exceptions, most American churches over-emphasize emotion and ignore the biblical commands to develop the mind. In other words, we’re doing a great job performing for our youth with skits, bands and videos, but a terrible job informing them with logic, truth, and a Christian worldview.”
Turek says the college students he meets often have good sentimental feelings about their faith, but that is not a foundation that will last. He says his campus seminars were developed to prove that the Bible is true on an intellectual level.
“God does want us to love Him with all of our hearts,” says Turek. “But He also wants us to love Him with our minds. Christians don’t get Brownie points for being stupid. We’re supposed to know what we believe and why we believe it.”
The theme at this year’s conference is “Defending Truth in a Culture of Lies” and will also feature renowned cold-case homicide detective J. Warner Wallace; and podcast host, author, and apologist Alisa Childers. J. Warner Wallace’s investigative cases have been featured more than any other detective on NBC’s Dateline television series, and his work has also appeared on Fox News, Oxygen True Crime, the Reelz Channel, Investigation Discovery, TruTV, and CourtTV. Wallace says Generation Z is especially at risk of losing their faith.
“A Barna study of Gen Z Americans (ages 13-18) revealed that teens are more than twice as likely to believe ‘what is morally right and wrong changes over time based on society’ than Boomers (born between 1946-1964),” says Wallace. “The more powerful we think we are, the less likely we are to turn to a greater power. If we think we have all the answers, we’re less likely to turn to religion when we have a question. The information age has only exacerbated this reality. Almost anything we want to know, want to own, or want to do, is available online. Religions make moral proclamations that transcend individual belief and cultural consensus. They also make moral claims that require our submission. Unsurprisingly, as America shifts toward moral autonomy, fewer Americans rely on religious systems that make transcendent, unchanging, ethical claims and demands.”
The Defending Truth Conference will be held Friday, September 8 from 7pm to 9 pm, and Saturday, September 9 from 9 am to 4 pm at The Journey Church, 1240 Leeville Pike in Lebanon, TN. Food trucks will be on site for lunch on Saturday. For tickets to the September conference visit: www.nrbtv.org/dtc.
