Author: More teens becoming 'fake' Christians

(CNN) -- 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.

You need to read the whole article. What you quote is only a tiny view of the whole. The article shows a positive light on teen christianity.
Paul

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/27/almost.christian/index.html?hpt=T2

The young people I talk to seem to mostly reject tradditional Christianity. I would agree that various forms of Deism are quite popular, including Wicca and various other forms of mainly Pagan beliefs.

Also, the ones who have been most intensely indoctrinated into Christianity seem to reject it far more strongly than others. IMO spirituality is something you have to develop personally, and attempts to force it on others generally fail miserably.

Doesn't say much for the effectiveness of aggressive evangelism as a means of getting converts.

Ex-Christians
The most common type of spiritual shift was from those who were Christian, Protestant or Catholic in childhood to those who currently report being atheist, agnostic or some other faith. In total, this group represents about one out of every eight adults (12%), a category that might be described as ex-Christians.

Converts to Christianity (those converting from another faith or from non-belief as a child to the Christian faith as an adult) represent 3% of the population. About twice as many (7%) moved from Protestant to Catholic or from Catholic to Protestant. Another 2% of adults were no longer the same as their childhood faith but did not fit into any of these three categories.

Why People Change
The survey also explored the top-of-mind reasons why people change faiths. The most common reasons for moving away from Christianity included life experiences, such as gaining new knowledge or education; feeling disillusioned with church and religion; feeling the church is hypocritical; having negative experiences in churches; being in disagreement with Christianity about specific issues such as homosexuality, abortion or birth control; feeling the church is too authoritarian; wanting to express their faith outside of church; and searching for a new faith or wanting to experience other religions.

i found the exact same thing in the research i've conducted among atheists. the #1 reason why people de-converted was a greater understanding and appreciation of scientific knowledge.

"Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook," says Barna president David Kinnaman.