Yesterday Julie and I went to the A.S.L.A.N. Prolife conference in Westlock. It was quite an interesting one. Our speaker was Wendy Lowe, director of a crises pregnancy care centre in Calgary. We learned all kinds of stuff about the consequences of 'sleeping around' and abortion. I think a lot of the stuff she said would work pretty good for someone going to highschool or something, but I have never even met a pregnant teenager, let alone been the confidante of one. I guess the information and ideas will probably be useful later, though.
She talked for awhile about how my generation, 'Generation Y,' has a different mindset than the previous ones. We pay more attention to how we feel about something than to whether it can be scientifically proven. She called it the 'I feel, therefore I am' worldview, as opposed to the 'I think, therefore I am,' which has been the general mindset of the North American population for several centuries now. She also told us we tend to respond better to images and experiences than to facts. Which pretty much means that the way crises pregnancy centres have been run may have to change entirely soon. Ultrasound helps a lot, because it means more to the mother to see her baby than to just be told it's a baby. I thought it was interesting.
I have been thinking about something else she said in connection to something Pastor Schissel said in the sermon from Hebrews we listened to today. Wendy mentioned that because of the influence image, experience, and participation has on my generation, the branches of the church that are growing fastest are the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and evangelical churches. This is because, (according to her), God is much more touchable in those churches. He's more tangible and real when there is ceremony and ritual involved in His worship. This morning Pastor Schissel was talking about how we can now go straight to God ourselves, without priests and ceremonies and rituals between us any longer. It is such a blessing to us. But I suppose that those types of churches are appealing because people want to know God, but they don't feel comfortable getting too close, and also because it makes us feel good to have to do something for God.
I would never say that the people in those churches don't have saving faith, but compared to the Reformed/Presbyterian/Protestant faith, it seems like a poverty-stricken kind of faith to me to feel that you must have some kind of thing between you and God still, even after Jesus came. It makes me so glad that I was brought up in the richer and more dangerous Reformed tradition. :-D