False beliefs: 3 things leading American youths astray

There are three growing religious views held by Christian youth that are not backed by the Bible and are causing them harm, according to the American Family Association. “Studies are continuing to confirm that vast swaths of church-going kids know very little about their Christian faith,” Ed Vitagliano, AFA’s executive vice president, said on the organization’s

website on Monday. “Instead, American Christianity has devolved into what two sociologists called ‘moralistic therapeutic deism.'” Vitagliano pointed to the work of Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, two sociologists who in 2005 were working at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and released a book titled Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers.