The Children of Issachar! Part 2

How have the ‘times’ we live in today affected teenagers?

What seems to escape the attention of parents, community leaders, religious leaders, school administrators, medical professionals, etc, is the impact that these tumultuous events have on today’s teenagers, especially teenagers who are Christians.

At nearly every point in their lives and every forum they find themselves, they are surrounded by the global confusion, distortions, liberalism and chaos totally at variance with what they have been told, taught and even their expectations. Many cannot imagine how bamboozling these can be for teenagers.

1.                  There is a collapse of the moral space. There’s so much ingratitude, selfishness, arrogance, love for money and pleasure, boastfulness, bad manners, and unforgiveness in the land. It’s like… ‘anything goes’ right now and nobody seems to care. People have become unfaithful, brash, libelous, evil, disobedient to God and their parents, abusive and lacking self-control. There is this bare-faced criminality anchored on impunity and lawlessness.

2.                  There is a breakdown of the family system. The once close and happy family unit is experiencing its own ‘tremors’. In some cultures, the extended family, which is a recognized unit of the society, is falling apart. Members are mean to one another; bat no eyelid to defraud each other; are estranged from one other; and children abandoned/neglected by their parents and/or abused right under their parent’s eyes. Marriages are no longer ‘built to last’ neither is raising children a solemn responsibility.

3.                  There is confusion in the society. Whether at home, school, church or other platforms, the line between what is right and what is wrong is thinning out. The level of hypocrisy in the society is stunning. We are becoming a ‘do-as-I-say’ kind of people, completely oblivious to the fact that teenagers are a ‘do-as-I-do’ people. Societal values have been so liberalized that sin is cast in sophistication – deliberate deceit as ‘white lies’, infidelity as ‘cheating’, stealing as ‘pilfering’, etc.

4.                  There is too much peer pressure. They say that ‘success has many fathers’ and therein lies the pressure for young people to win medals in sports, to make the best grades in school, to produce the ‘hit’ music, to be rich, to be beautiful, etc, at all cost, just to be accepted and loved. Their talent is recognized for celebrity status only if it is expressed in the arts, entertainment, fashion, sports, and technology. Young people who cannot meet up with the pressure find ‘solace’ in substance and alcohol abuse, examination malpractice, teen sex, the guilt of which lead to abortion, depression, poor anger management, eating disorders, teen suicides, etc.

5.                  There is the attraction to the occult. Young people are becoming more and more fascinated with mysticism and dark fantasies in a quest to have control over others. Membership of cult gangs can be as young as primary school age. They sometimes start as school/neighbourhood bullies, manifest obnoxious behaviour, engage in crimes such as breaking traffic laws, homicides, mugging, burglary, rape/gang rape, drug rape, kidnapping, etc. The school environment which is one of the safest places for children has become a den for molestation, shootings, stabbings, cultism, etc.

For teenagers who can easily succumb to these tension and are not strong enough to walk away (‘resist’ and/or ‘flee’), your guess is as good as mine.

(To be continued next week)