Eighty percent of teens believe in god, according to a new book. But devil help them if they have to explain what that means or why they believe. A couple of points the author makes or implies:
1. The state of Christian religious education appears to be dismal. Most couldn’t articulate even the basics of what they claim to believe. This strongly contrasted with their views on sex and drugs.
2. Teen theology is a "buddy deism:" god is a "divine butler" who expects nothing yet offers help with self-esteem and problems. A rootless theism open to exploitation.
What book is this from? I clicked the linked text but it blanked. It sounds interesting and I’m wondering if it goes further and actually names the exploitation within the theism alluded to in your post…
Book is “Soul Searching?” by Christian Smith.
From the Salon interview, it only seems to speculate about the possibility of that exploitation…
Buddy theism….wonder if it’s so different from forms of theism that many an adult has embraced *coughs*