Recently I saw a video by a girl named Ladonna Witmer. In 1998 Ladonna recorded a video entitled Who I Am that explained generation X at a church conference for Baby Boomers. Though Ladonna spoke of her generation (Gen. X) and she admittedly is not the same person she was, the things she said in her 8 minutes presentation sum up the American and Christian condition for the twenty and thirty-something generations of today, generations X and Y.
The things that she stated were powerful, shocking, and hit close to home. She was a girl who enjoys black fingernails and strange clothes but had volumes of insight. She spoke of generations searching for truth but instead of finding truth they are finding hypocrisies from their parent's generation. In her presentation she states, "You speak of a Christianity that unifies and builds each other up but all we have seen is a church that divides." She makes some harsh statements about church and about church members who do not seem to care. In the end she spoke of seeking advice from our parent's generation because we know that they had been through much of what we are going through, but in seeking advice she stated that it was hard to find anyone to listen. She spoke of a generation seeking truth but being disgusted by the church's hypocritical answers for what truth was. She introduced two generations of cynics looking for answers to a room looking for who our generations are.
I saw this video with a room full of baby boomers. Myself and a handful of others were the only ones who fit into the generations in question. It was interesting to see the difference in how the age groups interpreted the video. While The baby boomers made the assumption that she was self centered and didn't really seem to care. Those in my group insisted on quite the opposite. She is searching for truth and in her search she is finding the same thing that many of us are, a two faced Christianity focused only on the appearance of excellence. When questioned what background we thought she had most baby boomers replied that she was un-churched. Our group hit the nail on the head when we suggested she grew up in a conservative church (It was a fundamental Baptist). The reason why so many churches are having a hard time reaching these generations today is because they are trying to reach us by pushing church at us and it is the very thing that is driving so many away. X and Y do not want excellence in their churches, Christianity, or lives anymore. Much more important than excellence is truth, a genuine, authentic truth.
I wouldn't consider myself so engrossed in our generational struggles as Ladonna and many others are, but as I watched her video I could most assuredly associate with her. We have grown up questioning, my father can attest for me, but in our searching so often we are given inadequate answers, or no answers at all. We question everything. Taking someone's word for truth went out the window when the concept of marriage lasting a lifetime did. It isn't that the words of others are incorrect, it is that they are open and subject to criticism. We are not a speak-when-spoken-to generation. We are not idle thinkers. We are a speak-a-voice-of-expression generation, and out-loud thinkers. In search for answers we don't find what we are looking for and assume the possibility that there is not truth. This postmodern view is simply a result of searching and coming up empty handed.
I don't know if we are right in thinking as we do, in fact many times I think that we are wrong, but this is who we are.
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