Without a Compass to Guide Them, Gen Z Wanders in the Wilderness

Our role should be to provide the moral and historical compass Gen Z needs for them to become whole and healthy human beings and productive members of society.

Over the last few weeks, story after story has appeared on the struggles of Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012—whether it be historical ignorance, loneliness, or depression—and how those struggles are having a major impact on our society as a whole as this generation enters into adulthood.

I will start with history. The Daily Mail found in a recent poll of voters between the ages of 18 to 29 that one in five had a relatively positive view of Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attack on America in 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people. In addition, three out of ten thought his views were a “force for good.”

Gen Z, along with the immediately preceding generations, has become increasingly ignorant of our history. The result is what Ronald Reagan warned us about in his final presidential address to the nation in 1989: “If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are.”

And that’s exactly what has happened. In the most recent assessment by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 22 percent of middle school students were proficient in civics, and 40 percent couldn’t even reach the most basic level of knowledge about history.

This is alarming, because it’s through historical knowledge that young people obtain the compass that helps guide them through life—whether it’s learning from the triumphs or errors of those who have gone before. And it’s through civic knowledge that they learn how to express themselves in a proper manner that respects all viewpoints and allows for reasoned and respectful cultural discourse. Unfortunately, even those who are being taught history are learning more about America’s perceived faults than our glorious triumphs.

Another area of struggle for Gen Z is mental health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported early last year that “young people are in crisis”—particularly young women. More than one in four teenage girls contemplated committing suicide in 2021, with more than one in ten attempting suicide. Fifty-seven percent of girls and 29 percent of boys reported persistent feelings of sadness.

Again, one has to ask the question, “Why?” One reason is because Gen Z is the first generation that has grown up in what can be best described as a “screen-based world” devoid of peer interaction. The COVID-19 pandemic that chained them to computer screens instead of a normal classroom environment only exacerbated their isolation. But another key reason involves how the new “screen-based world” has exposed young people—and particularly young girls—to those who seek to sexually exploit them, body-image issues, and other negative factors.

In an increasingly secular world, many of these young people no longer experience the positive influence of faith and its accompanying community to provide a compass to navigate these dangers and point them in the right direction—leaving them with little hope and much despair. Nor do they understand other institutions such as marriage that provide that compass—with 41 percent of Gen Z men and 52 percent of Gen Z women now perceiving marriage as an “outdated institution.”

So, how do we need to respond to Gen Z? The wrong way, especially for evangelicals and conservatives, is to just point fingers, shake our fists, and ridicule them—which, unfortunately, too many older people do. This is a generation that’s crying out for answers and instead is receiving nothing but platitudes, misinformation, or mocking. Blogger and author Samuel James put it best, writing, “Evangelicals need to disabuse themselves of the idea that Gen Z is a wholly unreachable mass of buffered selves. The mental health crisis may cut right through secularization like butter.”

Our role is to provide the moral and historical compass they need to become whole and healthy human beings and productive members of society. We need to provide them—by welcoming them into our homes and churches, rather than chaining them to their phone and computers—with the community they so desperately need and desire. I’ve some wonderful friends who have done just this—to be listening ears to the cries of help from Gen Z—and, as a result, can speak into their lives and provide the much-needed compass to keep them from continuing to wander in the wilderness and instead emerge to see a hopeful horizon instead.

That’s how we can best reach Gen Z and not only turn around their lives, but also the future of our nation and world as well.

Authored by Timothy S. Goeglein at The EPOCH Times