Don’t Underestimate Generational Changes—and the Need for Cultural Apologetics
By Glenn Wishnew, TGC.
If you work in youth ministry or education, as I do, you won’t be surprised that we’re facing the largest gap in generational attitudes since the 1960s. According to Jean Twenge’s research, “When you are born has a larger effect on your personality and attitudes than the family who raised you does.” Consider a few statistics about Gen Z (my generation), who are between the ages of 13 and 28:
- More than 50 percent believe there are more than two genders; no other generation eclipses 30 percent.
- 40 percent believe the founders of the United States are “better described as villains” than as “heroes.”
- 40 percent of millennials and Gen Zers agree the government should be able to prevent people from making offensive statements.
The generational changes evident in this data are fruit blossoming from roots stretching back hundreds of years.
Roots: Identity Formation in a Meaningless World
Modern people don’t understand themselves as inherently connected to a transcendent horizon. Unhitched from this order, individuals are free to discover their own values, identities, and purposes. Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy described it well: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” This view of freedom creates what Charles Taylor calls the “nova effect”: a society where individuals are seeking transcendence for themselves through various outlets within the world.
A society characterized by the nova effect is a society of people exchanging the truth of God for any number of other things—whether college football, devotion to a political party, sexual pleasures, or career climbing. Once an individual defines his “concept of existence” through pursuing fulfillment in one of these areas, he has created his modern identity.
In short, the root of our generational and cultural divide is the belief that the universe is a tabula rasa—a blank canvas on which to paint our own meanings and craft our own identities.
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