Hey Abercrombie. . . I Accept You As My Savior. . .
I was going through some files the other day and came across a syllabus for Dean Borgman’s “Understanding Youth Culture” class at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Dean has had a profound impact on my life so I took some time to…
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Realities And Questions Few Of Us Ever Imagined. . . .
It’s commencement season. That means that a small army of “speakers” have been invited. . . one per institution of higher education. . . to address a gymnasium or stadium full of robed graduates and their parents. And every realistically…
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The Virtuous Business of Scaring The Kids. . . Maruice Sendak, Oswald, and the Lindbergh Baby. . .
The older I get, the more convinced I am of the fact that a healthy dose of realistic fear is a healthy and helpful thing for children. Yes, I think children need to be scared in just the right way.…
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Parental Diligence Needed Here. . . .
The other day my post asked whether or not the mix of teens and technology is good, bad, or ugly. I think it’s got the potential to be all three. . . powerful potential. Certainly one of the “bad” and…
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Technology and Kids. . . Good? Bad? Ugly? . . .
Courtesy of: Online Schools Yesterday this infographic on “The Millennial Teenager” was making the rounds. My buddy Doug Fields posted it over on his blog. I gave it a quick look over there and was curious as to how Doug’s…
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14 Takes On Seventeen. . . Julia Bluhm’s Noble Crusade. . . .
Exhibit A. . . both what you see and what you read A 14-year-old has me thinking about body image today. As far back as I can remember, any and every youth culture seminar I’ve presented has included at least…
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Fifty Shades of Grey. . . . Deconstructing the Buzz. . . or, What’s a Christian To Do???
The chatting-behind-closed-doors about the latest cultural literary phenomena is making its way out into the open. Yesterday’s blog post on that heretofore dirty little secret known as the best-selling Fifty Shades of Grey generated loads of responses (phone calls, emails,…
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Fifty Shades of Grey. . . Lady Porn and The Fall of Culture. . . .
The conversation was between me and two of the women in my life. . . my wife and one of my adult daughters. We were driving from church to Costco. The conversation began with some comments and questions about Fifty Shades of…
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Junior Seau, Rachel Ehmke, and Edvard Munch. . .
Rachel Ehmke Every now and then there comes a day when it all gets piled on and you can’t help but think about the common threads that tie certain news stories together. Yesterday I heard about the death of…
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Caring For Cutters – Part 3 on Kids Who Cut
Yesterday I posted a link on Facebook to my blog on cutting. One of my former youth group kids (who is now a mom in her 40s) commented under the link: “Last year, my 9th grade daughter could name 23…
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Inside A Cutter’s Heart – Kids Who Cut, Part 2
If we care at all about kids we should learn to recognize, understand, and answer these visual cries of a generation longing for spiritual truth, emotional healing, and answers. Self-injurious behavior (SIB) or self-inflicted violence (SIV) has been defined as…
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Kids Who Cut – Part 1
As a culture-watcher, I sometimes like to “rewind” as a way to gain perspective on just how much and how fast youth culture has changed. The practice serves to wake me up at times when familiarity with what was once…
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