Boomers seem to be convenient targets for those who look upon the sad state of affairs in Christianity and, in particular, Lutheranism, today. I get that. We all want an easy blame just as much as we want easy answers. As mixed a bag as the Boomer generation is, it is neither capable nor responsible for everything that is wrong with us today. In fact, were it not for some of those Boomers, the Millenials and those who follow would not have much of a church left. Furthermore, the generation financing Christianity is largely the Boomers and they will continue to support the work of the Kingdom even after their deaths through a legacy of generosity that some generations would do well to learn and emulate. In fact, some of those who the most strident in their criticism of the Boomer generation as a whole can look to their own Boomer parents with gratitude for raising them in the faith, teaching them the value of doctrine, and preserving a liturgical legacy through another couple of decades (even when it was not as popular or as accepted as it is today).
So maybe it is time for us to lay off the stereotyping of one generation as bad and another as good and pay attention to the nuances within. I will allow no criticism toward my generation to cast its shadow over my legacy as a pastor of some 44 years and no one just beginning their pastoral vocation should live under the shadow of the generation to which they belong. We are each accountable for our own choices, decisions, and actions. None of us has been left a perfect legacy and all of us are a work in progress by the power of the Spirit. It is not whether we reflect our stereotype or not but if we are faithful that matters. We ought to be calling one another to this faithfulness -- across the generations!
Boomers are not quite homogeneous but are sort of like America -- a stew of differences with some good and some not so good. What used to matter is that we were all part of the stew -- bound together in something bigger than ourselves. Our age has certainly challenged the value of the group and seems to raise up the individual over everything other value -- including marriage, family, and church. None of us are swimming with the current nor should we be. If there was a perception that culture was friendlier to the faith at some point, it could easily be shown that it was a shallow affection that would disappear as soon as culture found the faith to challenge its interests or compete with its aims. The 1950s in America were no better in this than the 2020s. What has changed is culture. Culture no longer gives the same priority or attaches the same value to what was heralded 70 years ago.
Is it the fault of the Boomers? Some like to think so. I would suggest that every age and generation swings like a pendulum back and forth for and against the favored sins and errors of the past just as it does the virtues and promises of those previous generations. What is shockingly clear, however, is that despite political labels and movements and religious labels and movements, the direction is toward the secular and a godless society in which less binds us together and more divides us. Over the broad expanse of history there is a deterioration rather than progress in the ideals of personal responsibility, shared morality, the value of life, marriage, family, and home. It is to this we ought to pay most attention. Every faithful Christian and every faithful Lutheran is swimming against the current of the times and, as Mark put it, making headway painfully and slowly. Let us give thanks where faithfulness is lived out and call to repentance where it isn't. This is the common character of our lives that passes through every generation. We can do nothing about the paste except learn from it and we can nothing for the future but to preserve the faith in the present. God will do all the rest -- forgiving our sins and forging ahead with the pledge that hell shall not prevail.
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