“At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Philippians 18:1-6 (NASB95)
“Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Matthew 19:13-14 (NASB95)
I remember growing up in a bygone era when kids spent most of their free time outside. When not at school, we were riding bikes, climbing trees, playing with G.I. Joes and Tonka Toys, and building strong friendships with other kids in the neighborhood. Occasionally we would watch some cartoons, and once each year we would watch “The Wizard of Oz” when it came on TV, but those shows weren’t used as electronic babysitters. We didn’t need to be entertained because we were enjoying God’s creation (sunshine, trees, plants, worms, snails, bugs…), learning to be creative, and for the most part were carefree. We were rarely ever bored, and we knew better than to say we were bored, because if we did, our parents would find more chores for us to do.
But something changed… and I don’t think it is for the better. A growing number of kids are bored, struggling with social skills, isolated, out of shape, insecure, and overwhelmed by anxiety. As a pastor, dad, and papa (grandfather), I have a deep concern for what is happening to children in our culture. I believe there are several things contributing to this growing crisis, but one stands out not only as one of the biggest contributors, but also as one that can be remedied. This week, I read an article from “Biblical Eldership Resources” (biblicaleldership.com). It identifies the problem and offers some solutions for us to prayerfully consider. Please read the article below and discuss it with others. Let’s work together in our church family to raise future generations that know God and know His perfect peace, not those with no God and no peace.
One more thing. Please prayerfully consider volunteering in one or more of our church ministries to children and teens. You can contact Pastor Jeff Borchardt to learn about opportunities to impact young people positively for Christ and for eternity.
Pastor Paul
Taking Back Childhood from Tech:
The Unique Role of the Church in Our Cultural Crisis
by Erica Fitzgerald
Note: This article was inspired by Russell Moore’s interview with Jonathan Haidt regarding Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. BER has no affiliation with these resources, but several of our team members listened to the episode and felt its message would resonate with our readers.
Childhood should be marked by tree forts, snowball fights, freeze tag, imaginative play, creativity, and kickball under the streetlights—not anxiety, depression, online bullying, disordered eating, self-harm, and suicide. But something has shifted in Western culture. What is happening to childhood as we knew it?
In his new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt proposes that something occurred around 2012 that altered childhood profoundly. Discussing his book on a recent episode of The Russell Moore Show, Haidt said that “this is the first time [in history] that all of the indicators on the dashboard are flashing red . . . levels of anxiety and depression and self-harm and suicide all began going up at the same time.” One school counselor said that before 2012 practically no one was visiting his office for anxiety, but since then anxiety has been the main reason for visits.
The only viable explanation for this trend, Haidt says, is the switch from flip phones to smartphones between 2010 and 2015—a move that essentially migrated the social lives of Western youth onto their phones. He writes in the book, “Gen Z became the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pocket that called them away from people nearby into an alternative universe that was exciting, unstable, and unsuitable for children and adolescents . . . On average, people born in or after 1996 were different psychologically from those who had been born just a few years earlier.”
Preceding the smartphone revolution was what Haidt calls “safety-ism,” the worship of safety. Paranoid of any physical harm befalling our kids, we shoo them inside, where they can’t tumble out of any trees, crash any bikes, get stung by any wasps, get kidnapped by any strangers, or raise any neighbors’ eyebrows who see them outside unsupervised. But in exchange for this risk reduction, we’ve traded the rich, tangible life experiences and lessons that accompany outdoor play, for hours behind screens. And the idea that kids are safer now is actually false: the screens are inflicting unprecedented mental health issues on our children. In other words, “we are overprotecting in the real world and under-protecting online.”
What Would Jesus Do?
We can likely agree there’s a problem, but it feels far too big for us to solve. We wish today’s kids could have a childhood like ours, but times have changed—so we sigh beneath our white flags while reciting our motto, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
Is that what God wants us to do? Jesus warns in Matthew 18:6 that “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin . . . it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone [as large as one turned by a donkey] hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6 AMP). If we know smartphones hurt kids, what does Jesus think when we hand them to our children freely, simply because they’re asking for them—and because “everyone else is doing it”?
Maybe there’s a better way.
On a recent episode of the 1,000 Hours Outside podcast, interviewer Ginny Yurich told Haidt his book is actually “a big message of hope” because “there aren’t five hundred things that causing [this mental health crisis]; there are two. And if we could deal with even just one of them, your child might be in a better spot.”
And Haidt—who describes himself as a secular Jew—thinks religious communities are uniquely positioned to help solve it.
We’ve stated earlier in this series that technology is morally neutral and a matter of Christian freedom. So why should believers care about taking back childhood from the smartphone revolution? Because smartphone addiction not only harms mental health; it also hinders children from growing in every pillar of the Christian life that we’re shepherding them toward:
- How will they have time to read the Bible and pray if every spare second is spent behind a screen?
- How will they learn to function as members of the body of Christ if their phones have hampered their social skills?
- How will they fulfill the Great Commission if the online world of likes, follows, and social comparison has made them too self-focused and self-conscious to engage unbelievers in spiritual conversations?
- How will they maintain moral purity if pornography is accessible to them 24/7?
- How will they worship God alone if they’re conditioned to turn to their phones for comfort and satisfaction?
This message isn’t often preached from the pulpit, but it is one of the most pressing issues in our culture today, and churches should be equipping their members to tackle it.
The Church Has a Unique Advantage
“Religious communities have moral resources and structure and parental influence far beyond what we have in secular culture,” Haidt told Russell Moore on the podcast. “It’s going to be really hard to restore childhood in secular circles, but I think religious communities could do it.”
Outside of religious circles, many people today don’t have a strong community. They may have extended family, a few neighbors they trust, and a handful of friends at work and school, but none of those compare to the strong bonds that exist in a healthy local church.
Several of the key factors kids need in order to thrive are offered in our churches:
- Genuine community. Online relationships are flimsy and brittle. Followers come and go. What people choose to share about themselves is often superficial, a carefully constructed façade. At any moment, you can “defriend” someone and never see her again. Flesh-and-blood relationships like those we develop within Christian fellowship have stronger bonds. Tied together by our common faith, we learn to love one another through thick and thin, work through conflict, and care for one another in times of need, creating bonds of far greater permanence. Our kids need this just as much as we do—maybe more.
- A moral compass. Against the onslaught of moral relativism coming at our kids through their phones, the church is grounded in the absolute truth of the Scriptures. Our kids need moral guidance, a roadmap for finding their way in the world—and being involved in church provides that.
- Adult guidance. Online, peer approval is everything. For most teenagers, one or two parents don’t stand much of a chance against dozens of classmates and online influencers pushing opposite values (after all, we’re “old” and we don’t understand the times!). At church, though, kids have adults pouring love and wisdom into their lives. Elders, Sunday school teachers, AWANA and youth leaders, and other caring adults reinforce the biblical teaching of their parents—and that makes it far more likely that the kids will find that teaching to be true and relevant against the lies the culture is teaching them.
- Likeminded friends with similar values and boundaries. Based on his research, Haidt recommends no smartphones before high school and no social media before age 16, but that’s hard to do unless other families are on board. Many parents cave to the pressure to give phones to their kids because it truly is socially isolating for them to be the only one without one, given that the majority of teens’ social lives are lived online. If your kids have good friends at church, parents can agree together to delay phones until a certain age so no one has to be excluded. They can organize opportunities for kids to play together, especially outside, providing the fulfilling experiences that make childhood so wonderful.
The smartphone takeover of childhood truly is too big for any of us to solve on our own. But if we work together, we can collectively restore for our kids the childhood God wired them for.