Barren Pews

            I remember the day.  All seemed normal, the sun shining through the window.  But I could sense some dark, undercutting atmosphere permeating the peaceful morning rays.  My mother sat my siblings and I down; she had something to share.  That was the day she told all. I never guessed my cousin was sporting a false, deceptive facade.  What had been his snare?  Those detrimental substance abuse addictions, the agents of which affliction were drugs and alcohol.  The one I had looked up to admiringly, now fallen and stripped from any sort of peace in religion due to the far too common subservience to natural temptations and tendencies of man, regained a skewed reputation. Had he really been on the road to recovery like he externally exuded?  No, and had he begun again to actively participate in church?  No.  And miserable experiences were his fruits.

            In the modern world in which we live, a dangerously high and diverse plethora of alternatives stand in stout opposition to the role of religion in conservative American society, especially among youth.  When did my cousin begin engaging in immoral, degrading behavior?  Teenage years.  The youth of modern society are attacked, and after yielding to  intense secular pressures, often retain zero desire to adhere to religious morals and principles taught impersonally by pastors and preachers.  They're bombarded while in their growing, impressionable and vital adolescent years with numerous concourses of choices to make, and what to believe, and how.  Without some measure of hopeful, inspiring religious activity, youth can seriously dive off cliffs into vicious water. The drugs and alcohol abuse that rampage throughout society and contribute to many of its major problems, also assist in tearing and keeping youth in America down and away from worship pews, thus decreaing our nation's church attendance among young adults.