By Rick Plasterer, Juicy Ecumenism. (image: Joe Dudeck/Unsplash)
Richard Bradford, director of the Swiss branch of the L’Abri Fellowship, spoke at the annual L’Abri Conference on February 14 concerning the obsession with safety in the contemporary world, and especially among young people. Generation Z (born after 1995) is “the safest generation in history.” He said that research shows that “car accidents, crime, drinking related accidents, and most other things that are a source of physical danger” are less for this generation than for previous generations. Yet the current generation “experiences higher levels of anxiety and depression than any generation that we know of.”
A growing issue for this generation “is the issue of safety.” Indeed, he believes it to be an “idol.” Safetyism makes safety the supreme value in life. This is contrasted with the “Christian vision of security.” Safetyism has a “detrimental effect” on Generation Z, he believes. People feel they are oppressed by ideas they disagree with, ideas found in books, blog posts, conversation, etc. As an example, people who came in recent years to the Swiss L’Abri branch objected to books shelved there which made them feel unsafe.
“Christianity doesn’t promise safety, but it does promise security,” i.e., that God will be with us, Bradford said, and Scripture clearly states he will cause our good to prevail in the end. But we are warned in the Bible of “hardships and trials” if we are faithful to God. He proposed that risk is “something valuable” in our lives. We should not, as many do today, regard safety as essentially a human right.