Monday, December 13, 2010

The Next Christians - A Review

The Next Christians: The Good News about the End of Christian AmericaMatthew Lee Anderson reviews Gabe Lyons' book, The Next Christians.

He starts with this:
The media narrative has been established: the Religious Right, which has defined evangelicalism’s public witness since the early 1980s, is slowly being replaced by a younger generation of evangelicals that are less politically oriented, more focused on social justice, and more concerned with creating culture than critiquing it.
Gabe Lyons, the founder of Q Ideas and the co-author of unChristian, has become the standard bearer for this younger generation of Christians. His book The Next Christians serves as his public notice that younger evangelicals are “restoring confidence in their faith and turning ‘Christian’ into a label worthy of the one who has called them to restore.”
Unfortunately, the next Christians do not seem interested (yet) in restoring their relationship with their parents’ generation. The Next Christians’ overly self-congratulatory tone reinforces the unfortunate narrative that we younger folks are the only ones who “get it.” Lyons admits he’s amplifying the positives of this generation’s potential but makes no such qualification to this his sour bent towards the previous.
Read the rest.

1 comment:

the sife said...

The 'social justice' movement among younger evangelicals is the most dangerous trend facing Christianity today. What's scary is that most people are ignoring it, and won't realize what a profound effect it's had until it is too late.