I am struck most of all that my generation struggles, in many cases, to simply survive.
In media depictions of millennials, we are alternately maligned for not working hard enough and desired as pew warmers in churches where the average age is rising rapidly. Our habits are discussed and critiqued and our behavior predicted. But in all the talk about micro-beers and shopping habits, there is little conversation about the vast numbers of young people who are struggling to simply survive.
52,000 young people have fled across the U.S. border in the past 8 months as refugees from Central America. 40% of people unemployed in the U.S. are millennials.
It is in this context that I’ve been thinking about what kind of values we need to have in the church. What kind of practices, if we are going to reach young people in a struggling age?
Latino/a theologians sometimes talk about the Spanish word, “la lucha,” or “the struggle,” as a spiritual value, as a theological commitment. This struggle is for justice, for liberation, yes; but most of all, it is a struggle for life. It was Gustavo Gutiérrez that wrote that the struggles of the poor represent “an assertion of their right to life.”
Children fleeing Central America are asserting their right to life. The young men and women of Aberdeen, who have a hard time keeping a roof over their head, who struggle with increasing levels of addiction, who go hungry, who despair of a future—they fight, one day at a time, to simply live. And there are far too many funerals for people who have died young in Aberdeen. And far too many young graves in our southern deserts.
The entire Bible points us toward a struggle toward life. From the Exodus to early church, the people of God struggle for life—the life of God, a life that affects our whole being, body and soul. It was Jesus who said, in John 10:10; “I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.”
What would it mean for the church of God to own this struggle? To enter into the struggle for life with our young brothers and sisters from Honduras and from Aberdeen, from Detroit and El Salvador? To be converted by our young people to a struggle for the abundant life that Jesus promised? What would that look like?
Sarah
Thank you Sara! I also think of the hundreds of young Palestinians injured or losing their lives to the violence in Gaza. If we cannot stand up for our young brothers and sisters, where do we stand?
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. I think of them as well.
DeleteStruggles in life are not a young person phenomenon – in all age groups people are struggling. I could be wrong but I don’t think the church is looking for “pew warmers.” They want young people to be active, support their ideology, and help the church have a future.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how can you compare the lives of children crossing the border with “the young men and women of Aberdeen….struggle with increasing levels of addiction?” The children are escaping horrible living conditions and you are comparing them with young people who seem to able find money for their addiction but not a roof over their head. Sad.
Instead of just condemning non-millennials, what are your solutions? Other than writing and whining about it – what have you done to make a difference?
I do not intend to condemn non-millennials; you are indeed right that all age groups are struggling. I am a millennial myself and sometimes write from that perspective, but you are right, our elders are struggling too.
DeleteAs a street minister in Aberdeen, as well as a person who has spent some time on the border with various ministries, I would say that the children that I know from both backgrounds face some of the same issues--abuse, violence, the effects of drugs and the drug war, homelessness, and sometimes despair. I do not think they are always at the same level, though I see pretty desperate circumstances and horrible living conditions in some of our cities and towns in the U.S. I also think that we are far too quick to label and judge desperate teens and young adults struggling with poverty in our own country.
I suppose I hope, as we all do, that the little I have done in my life may make some difference, but that will be up to others and to God to decide. Mostly, I find incredible wisdom and resilience in the communities in which I work.
Thank you so much, Sarah. There is really no substitute for the power of personal witness--it transforms the witnesser and well as the rest of us.
DeleteKeep holding this candle up before us Sarah. The children fleeing violence, the drug addicted of any age are all victims of the same oppressive system of corporate greed. You are doing something, you are attempting to help those in your daily context find their voice and power through Biblical liberation.
ReplyDelete