Interview with Soul Searching Author, Christian Smith

Thanks to STR's Brett Kunkle for notifying us that Youthworker Journal interviewed Christian Smith, leading sociologist and author of Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (about which I wrote here). Smith says:

My sense is that most youth ministers are knocking themselves out to do their best. Many also tell me they're under pressure from all sides to entertain their teenagers, which isn't a great context for sustained, solid teaching in faith. But for whatever reasons, the bottom line is that the majority of teenagers, including many evangelicals, turn out to be pretty clueless and inarticulate about their own faith perspectives.

Since not everyone will be inclined to read the book, a video format is in the works:

We're thinking the video will be the kind of thing that a youth minister could show parents and other key people in a congregation, hopefully as a catalyst to change priorities and generate some discussion and energy around teenagers. I expect the video to be available sometime in the fall of 2005. We'll announce it on our Web site: http://www.youthandreligion.org/ . People can sign up there for free notifications of such things.