I just read an article in the Wausau Daily Herald, that was a reprint from USA today about apathy and religion. The article itself made several jumps and leaps to show how these, "so whats" are becoming more and more apparent as a group. They are not really Atheist, they are not really religious, they simply don't care.
As I read the article, I wasn't really shocked, I didn't really have a lot of fear about the whole thing, which is what I think the story was after. The story was more on the downfall of institutional religion than anything else. However, as I read there were some things in the story that did give me pause, that did cause me to fear.
What caused me to fear you might ask. It wasn't that the church was dying, that is simply not true, now, true it might not be doing so hot here in America, and the article is a strong call to Evangelism, even Evangelism on a completely different level, but this isn't what is frighting about the article. What is frightening is the Apathy. This article is pointed at religion, acknowledging the source and the world today, I wouldn't be surprised if the author wants to see religion go down the tube. However, these people weren't just apathetic about religion, they were apathetic about everything. Basically if it did not personally effect them, then they didn't care.
The very idea that someone could be so apathetic should scare us all. This kind of narcissism should make us all pause and think about the implications. This is not just a religious problem. What will be the long term effect of post modernism mixed with existentialism. Where everyone's point of view is true and their own, and everyone's point of view is based solely on their experience.
What do you do with a person who doesn't care about the larger questions. Think about it from only a work point of view. What would an employee be like that was apathetic from the major questions of the company, how to improve, be more efficient, how to make the business grow. An employee like that would be great at menial tasks, but completely useless for anything else, and even the menial tasks would probably not be that great unless there was a possibility for some kind of promotion, but once they were on top they would be no good. If this is sounding familiar it should, basically you have every factory ever created. The problem is that we are now seeing this with people, they have no motivation for what is best for the world, no need to see things improve, only the need for themselves, and if it doesn't or won't effect them, then they will not bother. In this there is no sense of sacrifice for the greater good, and on top of that, there is no need to save the life of anyone who is not you.
Now of course, I am looking at the extreme of this thought, but if this article is right, this won't be looking at the future too much longer. Christianity is fine, worry about these people because you want to see them come to Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. However, as a cultural subgroup be very scared, this is the death of a culture.
