Atlantic Monthly Cover Story

In April 2001 , The Atlantic Monthly featured a cover story by David Brooks, author of Bobo; in Pazmdire, a well-received study of “bourgeois bohemian" baby boomers. ln the Atlanatic article, entitled “The Next Ruling Class: Meet the Organization Kid,” Brooks described Americas young elite and their attitude toward religion (specifically, Christianity). Robert Wuthnow of the Princeton faculty notes that they are much more interested in “spirituality, as they call it” than students a generation ago, but (the reporter continues) “the character of their faith tends to be unrelievedly up-beat.” Again Wuthnow: “You never hear about sin and evil and judgment. It’s about love and success and being happy." This is disturbing on a number of counts. For one thing, it means that they don't know very much about love, because real love (agape) inevitably brings suffering. For another, it means that although they may be busily (and admirably) serving at soup kitchens and building houses for Habitat for Humanity, they have little sense of the structures of sin and evil that pervade human society everywhere and cause so many to remain impoverished and downtrodden. In particular, Wuthnow’s analysis means that their “spirituality” has no Cross at its center. The author, David Brooks, concludes: “These are some of the best and brightest our high schools have to offer . … . but they live in a country that has lost, in its frenetic seeking after happiness and success, the language of sin and character-building through combat with sin.” Notably, in a CNN interview on October 50, 2001, David Brooks stated that this generation of young elites had perhaps been dramatically altered by the aftermath of September 11. Surely there is an opportunity for the churches here.

Quote from a book by Fleming Rutledge