Why Do Christian Kids Quit Church In College? Because They’re 18

“In the last year or so, though, I’ve come to an odd realization about the prospect of sending my daughters to college. It might sound like back-peddling at first, but I would contend it’s simply a more accurate way of expressing my concerns. I would be happy to help my daughters go to the biggest, dumbest, most prestigious apostasy factory in the country on two conditions: they were 28 and married.

For years, I primarily attributed the high rate at which Christian kids give up the faith in college to the constant onslaught of attacks on Christianity (and sanity) which have become commonplace on college campuses, both in the classroom and on the quad. While this onslaught cannot be ignored, I’ve lately begun to think apostasy rates have more to do with the age at which young Christians are being made to bear the attacks on their faith. Simply put, the problem is the eighteen-ness of it all.

Obviously, people quit the faith in their late 20s and 30s, as well, but they do so for very different reasons than Christian kids who have just arrived at college. Apostasy in later life often emerges in the wake of some significant sin, especially adultery. For mature Christians, adultery and apostasy are often connected. Adultery is a big decision, though. It entails crossing an unambiguous line and requires a brazen willingness to turn one’s back on a well-established life, even if that life is also incredibly vexing and unsatisfying. Adultery feels momentous, final, portentous, even uncanny.

Quitting the faith at eighteen or nineteen doesn’t feel quite the same. It’s far, far easier. It takes far less.”

-from Apostasy In College on The Classical Teaching Institute blog

NOTE: If you want to keep up with my latest articles and essays, please bookmark The Classical Teaching Institute blog, which is where the majority of my new work will appear.

Why I Don’t Let My Daughters Listen to Taylor Swift

“There’s a lot to object to about Taylor Swift. Her music is shallow, her mind is weak, her feelings are trite and vacuous. Her taste in men and the rate at which she burns through them suggest she is both boring and easily bored. And her public persona strikes me as rather fake even for a celebrity. However, it’s not for any of these reasons that I don’t allow my daughters to listen to her music. They listen to David Bowie, Tom Petty, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones, all of whom might be judged shallow and trite when compared with the likes of Bach or even Puccini. The reason I don’t let my daughters listen to Taylor Swift is that she’s really, really popular.”

-from my new blog home at The Classical Teaching Institute

How Intellectual Fashions Work

Our Theology Curriculum

1991: Augustine’s Confessions

1992: Augustine’s Confessions

1993: Augustine’s Confessions

1994: Augustine’s Confessions

1995: Augustine’s Confessions

1996: Augustine’s Confessions

1997: Augustine’s Confessions

1998: Augustine’s Confessions

1999: Augustine’s Confessions

2000: Augustine’s Confessions

2001: Augustine’s Confessions

2002: Augustine’s Confessions

2003: Augustine’s Confessions

2004: Augustine’s Confessions

2005: Augustine’s Confessions

2006: Augustine’s Confessions

2007: Augustine’s Confessions

2008: Augustine’s Confessions

2009: Augustine’s Confessions

2010: Augustine’s Confessions

2011: Augustine’s Confessions

2012: Augustine’s Confessions

2013: Augustine’s Confessions

2014: Augustine’s Confessions

2015: Augustine’s Confessions

2016: Augustine’s Confessions

2017: Augustine’s Confessions

2018: Augustine’s Confessions

2019: Augustine’s Confessions

2020: Augustine’s Confessions

2021: Augustine’s Confessions

2022: Augustine’s Confessions

2023: Augustine’s Confessions

2024: Augustine’s Confessions

2025: “This new Francis Chan book that’s actually pretty mind-blowing.”

2026: The Ren & Stimpy Show