The State of our Youth (circa 1990)

The Spiritual Condition of Privileged Children You see no bloated stomach, of starving Africans, no ill-clad youngsters on  a dilapidated Appalachian porch, no crippled Vietnam Vet searching for a parking space, no mental picture that brings a tear to the eye or a hand to the wallet. In fact, these "needy" children seldom look the part. They shed excess pounds in exclusive health clubs, visiting "tanning salons" to maintain darker complexions in the winter, and wear designer clothes while cruising shopping mall parking lot~ in new sports cars.

The needs of children from influential and affluent families hide from view.    Buried beneath material possessions and privileged lifestyles, you often find children desperately seeking something, anything, to give their lives meaning. Experiencing at an early age all that the world offers, finding "things" unfulfilling, these teens turn to self­ destructive behavior While trying to fill the emotional emptiness in their lives.

Various authoritative and documented stUdies recently revealed the folloWing heartbreaking statistics:

1. -nearly eight out of 100 teens attempted suicide last year
   

2. -one In five 13-year-olds use alcohol at least once a week
   

3. -39 percent of high school seniors are problem drinkers
   

4. -substance abuse rants as the leading cause of death among teenagers
   

5. -the average teenager relinquishes virginity at age 16
   

6. -1.3 million teenage girls become pregnant each year; nearly 300,000 give birth to illegitimate babies; approximately 400,000 undergo abortions
   

These tragedies are not limited to poverty-stricken street kids from "the other side of the tracks." A 1987 survey of American teenagers who regularly attend conservative churches revealed that 43 percent experienced sexual intercourse prior to the age of 18. Ironically, many of the problems usually associated with poverty occur most frequently in middle-class and wealthy environments.

Why would teenagers blessed with bounty seek "escape" Into alcohol, drugs, crime, promiscuity, or even suicide? Why do their silent cries for help go unheard until we find them in Alcoholics Anonymous, drug rehabilitation programs, juvenile detention centers, abortion clinics, or

morgues? Paul Harvey recently published a newspaper column entitled "Pity The

Advantaged." Harvey points to the problems unique to "rich kids" and proposes that America's lack of compassion owes itself to a misunderstanding of "how advantages can become handicaps, even unbearable handicaps. "

For many, even in the church, , pity for the privileged seems difficult, Scriptural instruction to avoid giving preferential treatment to the wealthy frequently translates into Christians ignoring the wealthy altogether. But from a Biblical perspective, if these children possess everything but Christ, then in reality they possess nothing.

The children Who seem to "have it all" exist as some of the most spiritually needy and neglected people in our nation. Wealth and power give them access to nearly every arena of life, yet these directionless chIldren consistently search for answers in  all the wrong places.

Tommy Tolleson, OMNI Board Member