Breakpoint

America's teens are not all right. As Derek Thomas recently wrote in an Atlantic article entitled "Why American Teens are So Sad," From 2009-2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness" rose from 26 percent to 44 percent. [This] is the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded. [Almost] every measure of mental health is getting worse, for every teenage demographic, and it's happening all across the country. What Thomas is describing goes far beyond typical adolescent angst. In fact, according to the National Institute of Health, other risky behaviors traditionally chalked up to adolescence—such as drinking and driving, fighting at school, and even underage sex—are significantly down. Nor can these declines in mental health be blamed on the pandemic or lockdowns. Rather, these were "pre-existing conditions" that, though certainly aggravated, were not caused by the social chaos of the last two years. Thomas suggests four converging cultural realities that are contributing to this crisis: social media, social isolation, the extra-stressful global situation, and today's parenting styles. Over a decade ago, psychologist Jean Twenge warned about the effect of smartphones on teenage brains. Since then, the prevalence of social media has unleashed new levels of comparison, exposure, and image problems on a demographic already wired to care too much about what their peers think. Instagram's own research found that while a third of teenage girls say the app "makes them feel worse," they cannot keep from logging on. Even so, writes Thomas, the biggest problem with social media might be not social media itself, but rather the activities that it replaces. [Compared] with their counterparts in the 2000s, today's teens are less likely to go out with their friends, get their driver's license, or play youth sports. And, of course, it also matters what teens are encountering on the screens that are such a big part of their lives. Even more than TV or print media, phones bombard teens with 24/7 coverage of the world's problems, creating a near-constant sense of fear and foreboding. These days, teens deal with more than just the stress of preparing for college. Alone in their rooms, they are worrying about the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, climate change, and whether they have been sufficiently "woke" on various issues. In response to all of the social chaos, many parents are choosing what Thomas calls an "accommodative" parenting style. It is very tempting for parents, instead of letting teens experience life's normal bumps and bruises, to insulate them. "If a girl is afraid of dogs, an 'accommodation' would be keeping her away from every friend's house with a dog, or if a boy won't eat vegetables, feeding him nothing but turkey loaf for four years" (which, he points out, is a true story). That strategy, sometimes called "lawnmower parenting," ultimately backfires. When every challenge on the path is mowed down, a child struggles to develop the resiliency necessary to confront the inevitable obstacles ahead. In the end, a world cannot be prepared for a child. A child needs to be prepared for the world. Every factor that Thomas identifies certainly contributes to the current mental health crisis among teens. However, there is more to consider. In his book, The Content Trap, Bharat Anand tells the story of the 1988 Yellowstone fire, infamously started by a single unextinguished cigarette. But Anand asks a critical question: Why that cigarette? After all, hundreds of cigarettes are dropped in Yellowstone every year. What was different this time? The answer, he argues, is not found by focusing on the spark—but the environmental factors that turned Yellowstone into a tinderbox. The extremely dry summer of 1988, the driest on record, combined with the park's controlled burn policy meant, as one former park superintendent put it, "We were a perfect setup to burn." Social media, parenting strategies, and world events are definite sparks for a mental health crisis (as are others such as the breakdown of the family and increased availability of substances to abuse), but it's the prevalent cultural worldview that makes devastating cultural wildfires inevitable. Our real cultural crisis is a catastrophic, culture-wide loss of meaning. Philosophers warned it was coming, as did social scientists, and now we are living with the existential results of a culture untethered from God, and therefore untethered from any fixed reference point for truth, morality, identity, and meaning. It is a tinderbox in which any spark, whether social media or addiction or lockdowns or something else, is destined to explode. It is also a tinderbox primed for a different kind of spark, one which can point people again to the God Who infused His world with meaning. This spark is Christ-changed people, shaped by redemption, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and armed with the truth and love about life, the world, and what it all means.

Maria opens BreakPoint This Week asking John for some insight into who Chuck Colson was. It's been 10 years since Chuck Colson's passing following a final message at a Wilberforce Weekend in 2012. Highlighting attributes he remembers about Chuck, John explains the legacy he gave to the Colson Center. Then, John and Maria explore how Florida is quickly becoming ground zero for the culture wars. John explains that a series of actions from the Florida Legislature and Governor DeSantis are causing sparks in the Sunshine State. To close, Maria asks John about the significance of a college professor's day in court after the professor refused to call on a student using the student's preferred pronouns. -- Recommendations -- These Precious Days By Ann Patchett The Secular Case for Christianity Common Sense - Bari Weiss Substack | By Tim DeRoche -- References -- Wilberforce Weekend>> Carl Trueman - Colson Center Offering in April>> Segment 1: Chuck Colson's Leadership One of the first projects after I joined the Colson Center team was a curriculum project called Doing the Right Thing. This film series reflected how Chuck understood those issues that plagued prison and the rest of our society. Upstream from the brokenness and evil was a lack of moral formation, an abandonment of right and wrong, and a neglect of virtue. In this film series, Chuck issued a clarion call for Christians to influence our communities with the Christian worldview. Christianity was, after all, a better way of being human BreakPoint>> Chuck Colson's Last Address At the 2012 Wilberforce Weekend, Chuck collapsed on stage. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital where, on April 21, he died. His final words may have been delivered with less energy than some of us were used to hearing from Chuck, but with no less lucidity or passion. BreakPoint>> Segment 2: Florida Rejects Math Texts For 'Indoctrinating' Kids? Florida called for textbook submissions from publishers in 2021 in accordance with a 2019 executive order from DeSantis aimed at eliminating Common Core standards in the state. The textbooks rejected "were impermissible with either Florida's new standards or contained prohibited topics." The 41% rejection rate was the highest in Florida's history. FoxNews Florida Senate passes bill to strip Disney's special self-governing status The Florida House still has to vote on the measure, which would dissolve the special taxing district that allows Disney to operate much like a local government. NBC>> Ron DeSantis takes his culture war to the next level (Gov. Ron DeSantis) has been outspoken in opposition to mitigation measures to slow the spread of Covid-19. (Florida was one of the last states to close down in the midst of the original outbreak in spring of 2020 and one of the first states to re-open after the initial wave.) He's championed civic literacy efforts aimed at teaching students the dangers posed by socialism and communism. "You have orthodoxies that are promoted, and other viewpoints are shunned or even suppressed," DeSantis has said of the moves. "We don't want that in Florida, you need to have a true contest of ideas, students should not be shielded from ideas and we want robust First Amendment speech on our college and university campuses." CNN>> Segment 3: Shawnee State: Professors must speak contrary to their beliefs or be punished In January, during a political philosophy class he was teaching, Meriwether responded to a male student's question by saying, "Yes, sir." Meriwether responded in this fashion because he refers to all his students as "sir" or "ma'am" or by a title (Mr. or Miss, for example) followed by their last name to foster an atmosphere of seriousness and mutual respect. After the class, the student approached Meriwether, stated that he was transgender, and demanded that the professor refer to him as a woman, with feminine titles and pronouns. When Meriwether did not instantly agree, the student became belligerent, circling around Meriwether and getting in his face in a threatening fashion while telling him, "Then I guess this means I can call you a c**t." Before walking away, the student promised to get Meriwether fired if he did not agree to the student's demands. The student then filed a complaint with the university, which launched a formal investigation. Meriwether offered to call the student by his first or last name only, but university officials rejected this and anything else that would allow him to speak according to his conscience and sincerely held religious beliefs. Instead, they formally charged him, saying "he effectively created a hostile environment" for the student. Later, they placed a written warning in his personnel file and threatened "further corrective actions" unless he articulates the university's ideological message. ADF>> Professor disciplined for refusing to use transgender student's pronouns to receive $400K in settlement In a statement, Shawnee State said the settlement was an "economic decision" and that it continues to stand behind a student's right to a discrimination-free learning environment while also allowing its faculty and staff to freely express their beliefs. The Hill>>

According to The New York Times, some teens are choosing to keep their masks on, even after pandemic mandates end . The reason isn't because they fear Covid. It's due to anxiety. "The mask has offered teens a way to hide some of their anxiety symptoms and emotions from others, and wearing it has also made many of them feel 'normal' and 'like everybody else,'" writes Emily Sohn. The last two plus years have been tough on teenagers. Rates of Anxiety and suicidal thinking are both high post-pandemic, as is social media use. One psychologist described the "imaginary audience" with which many teens constantly deal: an invisible jury of peers scrutinizing their every decision. Only, in the age of social media, the audience isn't so "imaginary." Masks, by contrast, provide a degree of relief via anonymity. Even if teens feel the need to hide their faces, they were made for face-to-face interaction. The lack of it—whether from isolation or screens—is no way forward. We have to help students steward technology and their anxieties. A big part of that will mean investing in relationships that are out of the spotlight.

This week, the Colson Center has remembered our founder, Chuck Colson, on the 10th anniversary of his death. Though the Colson Center is part of Chuck's outsized legacy, we are not a memorial organization. We've often joked that if the Colson Center were only about playing a tape recorder of Chuck's commentaries, he would come back and haunt us from the grave. Chuck had a vision for the Church: that it would be the Church. And, he had a vision for the Colson Center: that it would serve and equip the Church to fulfill her calling. We're still as committed to that vision as we were when Chuck was with us. I'm constantly amazed at how prescient Chuck was. He foresaw many things that have, since his death, become realities. Today, I want you to hear from Chuck Colson about the necessity of courage in this cultural moment: The critical question in the West today is, "Can freedom survive where virtue isn't able to flourish?" A friend of mine who is a member of a good, strong evangelical church, met with his pastor to urge him to get more involved in some of today's worldview and cultural battles. The pastor drew back in his chair and said, "You know, I have one great regret about my ministry: that I got involved in the gay marriage debate. We lost several members over there." My friend was speechless as I would have been. What do you say to somebody who denies the clear teaching of Scripture or who in this case stands up for it, but then regrets it? Where was this man's courage? I wish I could say this was an isolated instance. It isn't, friends. We're navigating through rough waters in the culture today, and we're woefully unprepared. Oh, sure we have all kinds of information at our fingertips. Amazing technology, vast resources our forebearers could only dream of, but we're lacking something far more important: character. That's why on this morning, and for the next few weeks I want to talk about the building blocks of character: the four classic Greek virtues and the three Christian virtues. Today, we'll look at the first and I believe most important virtue, courage. Now courage is not a lack of fear. It's the willingness to do what you have to do in the face of your fear. Courage, Jerry Root and Stan Guthrie note in their book The Sacrament of Evangelism is the habit of saying yes to the right action, even at the risk of pain or loss. Courage never gives up. Courage sticks with the task until it's done. Courage faces one's fears and does the right thing in spite of them. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, of course, would be near the top of anybody's list of courageous Christians. He had the courage to defy the Nazis at the cost of his life. On his last day, Bonhoeffer held a brief service for his fellow prisoners. A contemporary who was there describes the scene. It's described in Eric Metaxas' wonderful book Bonhoeffer, which I strongly recommend. Bonhoeffer hardly finished his last prayer when the door opened and two evil-looking men in civilian clothes came in and said, "Prisoner Bonhoeffer, get ready to come with us." "Bonhoeffer came over to me," the man writes, "drew me aside, and he said, 'This is the end, but for me the beginning of life.'" Bonhoeffer and countless martyrs like him through the ages had the courage to stand up to evil in the name of Christ and pay the ultimate price. Do we have the courage to lay it all on the line? Do we have the courage to speak out for traditional marriage when we know we'll be called bigots and worse? Or would you have the courage to stand up at a school board meeting and speak against a curriculum that indoctrinates kids and sexual license? You have to prepare to be shouted down. Believe me, it takes courage to take an unpopular stand and risk our popularity, our reputations, and maybe even lose a few church members. Now I could be wrong. But the continuing assault on religious liberty is a test. If we lack the courage to defend our religious freedom, then we will lose all other freedoms as well. Remember this. However, it's easier to summon up courage when you know someone has your back. I learned this well. When I was a lieutenant in the Marines, I knew my men had my back and I had theirs—that they would have laid down their life for me. That inspired courage in me. I have to say, too, that when we act for goodness for truth, Jesus Christ has our back. He is the source of our courage, He who laid down his life for us. Ten years ago yesterday, Chuck Colson went to be with the Lord. We are grateful for his life, for the work of Christ to make Chuck a new creation, for his remarkable life of passion and leadership, and for the privilege of being part of his ongoing work and legacy.

Christian legal experts are bracing for the Biden administration to issue a reversal of a 2019 "conscience rule," which protected faith-based groups from being forced to violate their beliefs. To quote one Christian attorney, reversing the protection would create "an existential threat to religious-based employers," who would be forced to provide services, such as abortifacients or gender assignment surgery, or face fines, lawsuits and legal challenges that would drive them out of business. If they are to respond in a helpful way, Christians first need to remember the basics of religious liberty: It's for all individuals, it's the cornerstone of a free and democratic society, and it's the first freedom from which every other freedom springs. Respecting the right to conscience provides a setting in which both people and society can thrive. Remove it, and there's nothing to stop some future administration or regime from imposing its worldview on millions of people. Religious liberty might be the direct result of a Judeo-Christian worldview, but it's the birthright of every American—and it's worth fighting for.

Ten years ago today, Chuck Colson met Jesus Christ face-to-face in eternity. As many would note later, Chuck Colson died in a way fitting for a marine, with "his boots on." I was sitting on the stage behind Chuck as he delivered what would be his final speech. At the 2012 Wilberforce Weekend, Chuck collapsed on stage. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital where, on April 21, he died. His final words may have been delivered with less energy than some of us were used to hearing from Chuck, but with no less lucidity or passion. Here's Chuck Colson: My topic is the cultural environment today. Culture and a crossroads, which indeed it is, and what you've just witnessed with the Department of Health and Human Services attempting to impose a mandate on the Church, that the Church and Christian groups and religious organizations would have to provide insurance for things which violate our conscience and that we wouldn't be allowed conscience for exemptions. What's extraordinary is that there haven't been battles of religious liberty ever since the nation was founded and most of them have ended up in court decisions. Sometimes legislative. This is the first time in history, which is why Cardinal Wuerl here in Washington said, "This is the most serious invasion of the Church by government ever." This is the first time it's been done by a bureaucrat in a government agency simply writing it and then putting it out as law. Normally in a court case, you get a chance to argue both sides, but there wasn't a chance for two sides to be argued this time. It was done by executive fiat. This is a moment in which the Church has to learn how to defend itself against this sort of thing and do it in a way that is constructive with what we're witnessing in our culture today. The HHS mandate is but the tip of the iceberg. It's about the latest visible manifestation of a growing hostility towards Christianity mainly because—this has always been the case— government officials feel threatened by the power of the Church because we all worship a king higher than the kings of this Earth. And that's seen as a threat, and we're also seen as wanting to impose our views on people. Don't let them tell you that we don't propose to impose anything. We propose an invitation to the wedding feast to come to a better way of living, a better way of life. And it is the great proposal. We couldn't impose if we wanted to impose, and we don't want to impose in a democracy. You can't. So, we need to be very clear about who we are and what we do and why we do it. What we're seeing now is the full fruits that have come from 30 years of relativism, death of truth in the academy particularly and in public discourse, and the coarsening of public-discourse question of politics. Everybody looks at the elections and thinks the elections are going to settle this problem. Elections are important for who it is who serves in office. It makes a difference what kind of person that is and what that person believes. But elections can't solve the problem. We've got the problem that our culture has been decaying from the inside for 30 or 40 years, and politics is nothing but an expression of culture. So how do you fix the culture? Culture is actually formed by the belief system of the people, by the cult, which was what the Church has been historically. So if things are bad, I don't think it's going to be solved by election: It's going to be solved by us. You have a healthy cult, you have a healthy culture, have a healthy culture of healthy politics. So it comes right back to us. Look in the mirror: That's where the problem is. And if we can through the Church renew the Church too, really bring healthy cultural influence, then there's some hope that we can be changed. I think Eric is right that this is a moment. This is a moment when the time is right for a movement of God's people under the power of the holy spirit to begin to impact the culture we live in. It's desperately needed. This is why I've been spending so much time in recent years teaching biblical worldview because I think that's at the root of our problems. Once we can get that understood by the Church: that it is a worldview and we have to live it and express it and contend for it. Otherwise, it's not going to be. You'll see that continued deterioration of the culture and all that goes with it. So, I think the responsibility has to be taken by the Church for a movement that will bring back the authority and strength and winsomeness of the Church, which then in turn affects the culture. Chuck's final passion was to see the Church embrace the fullness of the Lordship of Christ and be the Church in this cultural moment. Many of us took these final words, delivered at the 2012 Wilberforce Weekend, as a calling. The Colson Center exists to carry this mission forward.

John and Shane reflect on who Chuck Colson was and the legacy he left in the Colson Center. A listener writes in asking for some context to the organization, noting that this is the 10th anniversary of Chuck's passing. John and Shane then provide some answers to how a public school parent can work to impact their community. A single-parent writes in asking how a parent can guide a student in the public arena noting the challenges in curriculum and ideology taught in public schools that oppose a Christian worldview.

As pressure continues to mount on institutions to accommodate the sexual revolution, it's no longer possible to avoid the issues or craft a "third way." Yet, colleges keep trying. Recently, Calvin University spun off a department to accommodate a lesbian staffer who wished to marry her same-sex partner, and the assistant professor who presided over the ceremony. The staffer quit after Calvin asked her to keep her "marriage" quiet. Writing at WORLD Opinions, Bart Gingerich points out that attempts by Christian colleges to thread this moral needle makes nobody happy and everyone upset, including donors and board members committed to Christian truth, and the LGBTQ students and staff committed to full affirmation. Over the last few years, other colleges have attempted similar flip-flops, for example, deciding to allow LGBTQ "romance" among students but not sex, then reversing the decision, then reversing the reversal…none of the attempts have gone well. It's time for Christian institutions that want to remain meaningfully Christian to make decisions, and when they do, we should remember what Jesus said about serving two masters.

Ten years ago this week, Chuck Colson went to be with the Lord. After his time in the White House and then in prison and then in leading the largest ministry to prisoners and their families in the world, the great passion of the last few years of Chuck's life was advancing a Christian worldview. He worked and prayed so that, as he often put it, the Church would be the church. One of the first projects after I joined the Colson Center team was a curriculum project called Doing the Right Thing. This film series reflected how Chuck understood those issues that plagued prison and the rest of our society. Upstream from the brokenness and evil was a lack of moral formation, an abandonment of right and wrong, and a neglect of virtue. In this film series, Chuck issued a clarion call for Christians to influence our communities with the Christian worldview. Christianity was, after all, a better way of being human: I have a peculiar habit in my life. I read the Bible every morning, but I also read The New York Times through clenched teeth. I have to. I do it because I write BreakPoint radio broadcasts every day, and I usually get half my BreakPoints out of The New York Times, out of some of the silly things they say. It's wonderful. I mean for a guy like me who's writing biblical commentary on public events The Times is indispensable. I should be paying twice as much for my subscription. But one morning I picked it up and—let me tell you what—I read the extraordinary Thomas Friedman, a great writer of The World Is Flat, a great thinker, very liberal, secular Jew. Thomas Friedman wrote a column about why America was number one in the world by all ratings and all polls and all standards and all measurements for years and years and years and all of a sudden it appears number 11 on the list. What happened? Everybody's talking about Newsweek's cover list of the most important and influential nations in the world, the best nations in the world. America's number 11. So, Friedman writes a column in which he restates the whole thesis of all of his books, which is that the world is flat. Everybody's got access to all the same resources and tools, and therefore we're all equal now. But here's what he says at the end about why America is number 11. This is the conclusion of his column: China and India have been catching up to America not only via cheap labor and currencies; they're catching up with us because they now have free markets like we do, education like we do, access to capital and technology. They alike in what we do. But most importantly—listen. Most importantly, they have values like our greatest generation: They have a willingness to postpone gratification questions. That's a Christian virtue, deferred gratification, paying your bills, providing for your kids in the future. In a flat world where everyone has access to everything, values matter more than ever. And listen to this coming from a secular Jew. Right now, the Hindus and Confucianists have more Protestant ethics than we do. And as long as that is the case, we will be number 11. All of you know that I spent my life, the last 35 years going into prisons. I love it. I have a passion for it: to bring the Gospel to prisoners who are absolutely loved. But I discovered early on that the reason the prisons were being filled wasn't all the sociological theories about crime that we hear generally. It was the fact studied at Harvard in 1986 by two great social scientists: the lack of moral training during the morally formative years. It hit me that we are raising a generation that lacks male role models. The family has broken down. These kids aren't learning character. Where does character come from? It comes from habits that you learn in the family first. That's the first basic structure that Aristotle once said is the first school of human instruction. It comes from associations that you become part of, where you find your identity—you find role models and other people. That's how character forms. You cannot teach character. All these courses going in public schools today about teaching character. It's a joke because you can't teach character. You learn character. You learn character by living with people who create an environment which is righteous where people live righteously in that environment. That's how you do it. So, I thought to myself, "This is really a problem." And I had had this experience at Harvard, and then I'd spoken at schools all across the country. I ended up speaking at the 2nd Marine Division where I started out as a platoon commander in the 1950s. The commanding general invited me back to give a speech on ethics. Grizzled-up old master sergeant stood up to me, and he said, "Mr. Colson, which is more important, loyalty or integrity?" Ah, got it! I wish I had thought about that when I was in the Oval Office. Whoa! They really got it. But the result of this, when I was realizing what was happening in the prisons, was I thought, "I've got to do something about ethics." When I said, "Wouldn't it be something if five million Americans started to do the right thing?" one of my friends said to me, "You'd turn the country upside down." It can happen. I want to see that. That's my goal. That's why I'm standing here today. I want to see five million people, 2% of the population of this country start doing the right thing, start practicing virtue. That was Chuck Colson describing the potential influence that he believed Christians could have on our society. Join us tomorrow to hear a clip from Chuck Colson's very last public speech, delivered at the 2012 Wilberforce Weekend.

One company is proposing an innovative digital solution for loneliness. "Replika" is an AI chat-bot created "for anyone who wants a friend with no judgment, drama, or social anxiety involved." The company makes audacious claims. "Feeling down, anxious, having trouble getting to sleep, or managing negative emotions?" the website asks. "Replika can help." Presumably, this is by filling a relational void: a virtual "friend," "mentor," "boyfriend," or "girlfriend" … whatever the user wants. If you think that's both weird and problematic, you're right. Replika promises the loneliest generation on record a technological answer that only people can deliver. It's a gimmick now, but what happens when the technology is perfected? What pornography is to lust, Replika could easily become to loneliness. Like pornography, it can never solve the underlying problem. Young people are hurting and longing for a better answer. There is one. Real friendship always exposes us to the risk of social anxiety, drama, or judgment … but it's worth it. The Church has a chance to model the real thing, so they'll never be fooled by a replica.