Fit Bodies Fat Minds

We’re losing at least 60% of our professing Christian teens after just a few years away from home. Most said that “intellectual skepticism” was a major deciding factor. It’s not the only factor, but it seems to be a common theme. Our tendency is to point at the anti-Christian sentiment that seems to be so pervasive in our culture (especially in academia) and we curse it. We blame non-Christian peers for leading our kids astray with seductive philosophies and scandalous living and we shake our fists. 

We point and blame and even lament. But seldom do we look inward. Seldom do we ask, “How did we contribute to the ‘intellectual skepticism’ that seems to plague the minds of these wayward teens?”

In his book Fit Bodies Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think & What to do About It, author and social critic, Os Guinness, comments on the rise of anti-intellectualism in the American Church and its effect on culture (as well as our youth). Guinness traces the steps of evangelicalism and notes the “dumbing down” of services, discipleship, evangelism, and ministry in general. The book, however, goes beyond mere analysis and acts as the voice of a lost Christian intellect crying out in the wilderness. Read it and think through why evangelicalism has traded in a rich history of thought and philosophy for an embarrassing anti-intellectual posture and attitude.