Almost Christian

Janine is reading a fascinating book called Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church.  Janine plans to post a review when she finishes the book.

In the author reports finding that too often in an attempt to make Christianity pleasant and fun, it gets watered down.  The CNN article Author: More teens becoming 'fake' Christians gives a summary of the main points.  The article starts:

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If you're the parent of a Christian teenager, Kenda Creasy Dean has this warning:


Your child is following a "mutant" form of Christianity, and you may be responsible.


Dean says more American teenagers are embracing what she calls "moralistic therapeutic deism." Translation: It's a watered-down faith that portrays God as a "divine therapist" whose chief goal is to boost people's self-esteem.


Dean is a minister, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of "Almost Christian," a new book that argues that many parents and pastors are unwittingly passing on this self-serving strain of Christianity.


She says this "imposter'' faith is one reason teenagers abandon churches.


"If this is the God they're seeing in church, they are right to leave us in the dust," Dean says. "Churches don't give them enough to be passionate about."
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