God Can Handle The Questions

Two weeks ago I submitted a guest column to the Newport News Daily Press, for publication today (PDF file), on dealing with difficult questions. In the meantime I had opportunity to sit down with my son and another teen from our church, and find out afresh what this could mean. This other teen had told me he had some questions. Boy, did he ever!

While we sat in Dairy Queen eating sundaes, he raised questions ranging from creation and evolution, to whether morality is nothing more than something hardwired in our brains, which he had read in an article recently. My son also contributed questions and ideas, but the other friend was the one who had the most on his mind. In our time there I couldn't give anything like a full answer to most of it; and as I told him at the end, I would really need to review and prepare better for much of what he asked. But I could at least assure him that there were good answers, even though they aren't necessarily easy and would take some time. Later on I told him I had written this column, and I joked with him that God was getting me back for it!

So we'll get together again before long, and I hope focus on fewer issues in greater depth. This friend is a very bright guy who represents a whole lot of other bright teens, who need genuine thoughtful answers to genuine thoughtful questions. Research shows that among church-going teens who leave the faith, their single most common reason is intellectual problems with the faith. This is tragic. These issues have answers, but we've been lazy. It takes time and study to get somewhat comfortable with the hard questions and ways to respond to them, but the church is losing the next generation for lack of that effort.

God can handle the questions. With some study, so can we. Are we willing?

Posted: Sat - May 12, 2007 at 09:06 AM |

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God Can Handle The Questions

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson