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Where is our spiritual faith, you ask? I'll tell you. It decided not to show for the prom. In a time when a little faith (or a lot) would do most of us some good, it is AWOL.
There are two major causes for this absence of faith: callousness to fear and plain ole ignorance. Look around, this generation is not afraid of anything. We have been misled by authorities so many times that now any authority is suspect. Only, the authority in question here is not one that will send you to your room or to jail, He (or She for those politically correct among us) will send you to hell. The implicit suggestion that a hell exists is intentional, but if you believe it doesn't and you're wrong, hold on to your butt.
Yet, this scares practically no one. We are young and invincible. Most of our parents have taken care of our problems so far, why wouldn't they take care of this, too. Huh? This is your salvation.
News flash: you will die. What happens next is based on your belief system. The mere thought of going to the hereafter without a playbook ought to scare the bejesus out of us, but for most it doesn't. When the world is full of chaos, images of sex and violence at every turn, how bad could hell really be compared to this? We have been calloused to murder and rape and consequently, to the idea that a higher power is allowing all this evil to persist.
Faith from fear may not the best way to approach a deity, but if it must be fear-way or no way, fear has my vote.
Now on to the best part -- our generation's ignorance is frightening. I am not referring to the hillbilly- brand of ignorance. I am referring to the type of ignorance I see in Free Speech Alley every time Bible-thumpers show up preaching hell, fire, and brimstone.
I sit on the pebble wall observing, listening. It is amazing how many of the same arguments are regurgitated against faith. In case you did not get the memo, you will never be "argued" to faith. Walking up to some, possibly well-meaning but inarticulate, individual and asking him to convince you why you should believe in God is a fruitless endeavor. If you are looking for a good debate, fantastic, have a ball. But if it is true insight you seek, the Union is neither the time nor the place. Go to a place of worship, find a straight-talking person and discuss. Honest skepticism is what faith is all about; it is the means to knowledge.
One of the most used and abused of these regurgitated arguments is the "well look what he did and he was a Christian, Muslim, etc ..." Who cares what the person did and claimed (think Sept.11, Oklahoma City bombing, Jenin Refugee Camp)? They are not the ultimate authority on faith, the Faith is the ultimate authority on faith. In other words, it is errant to think Christianity is bad because of Tim McVeigh or Islam is bad because of Sept.11.
You want to know if any of these faiths are inherently bad, stop arguing with the boneheads in front of the Union and open a book. Don't fall into the trap of believing that because a person did something, and claimed a particular belief system, that the belief system has anything to do with what that person did. Inform yourself, go to the source and, for all of our sakes, stop taking people's words for it.
Is this a call to action? Yes! Get afraid and get informed. For some, there are very tough hurdles to surmount before we are willing to accept anything, but salvation is each individual's responsibility. Find the answers to your questions; they are out there, I promise.
Are we the "lost" generation? No, we are just so accustomed to being fed information that taking the initiative has become a task, and it ought not to be, especially in matters as fundamental as faith.
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