I know some college students read this blog, so I will begin by citing a pretty good article in the August 6 edition of Reason.com (a libertarian periodical) entitled “How the Federal Government Betrayed the Millennials,” by Veronique de Rugy.  Perhaps you don’t think the Feds did betray millennials (you know who you are).  After all, they voted—when they did vote—overwhelmingly for leaders of parties that will happily dole out billions and trillions of largesse.  They don’t seem to think they were betrayed.  This article however makes a convincing argument that they were.

De Rugy begins with this:

“Years of bad government policies catering to interest groups have created a generation of young people facing tremendous challenges in the labor market and little chance to experience the good old American dream.”

But you may say, “I don’t believe that.”  They/he promised me “hope and change” that I thought would be good for me and everyone else, at a low (or no) cost—as many people seem to believe occurs.  But here are a few of the facts:

“Recessions are always hard on younger Americans, but the Great Recession was particularly rough because the recovery has been so slow. First, six years into the economic recovery, the unemployment rate for people ages 20 to 24 is 9.9 percent. That’s twice the rate for those 25 or older. But that’s nothing compared with the unemployment rate of 18.1 percent faced by teenagers. The rate for African-American teens is 31.8 percent.  As a result, the labor force participation of teens and other young people has dropped to 55 percent—its lowest level since the government began tracking it in 1948. It has forced this generation to delay important milestones, such as moving out of their parents’ home, getting married and starting a family.” (de Rugy)

Add to that the massive debt of over $18 trillion, which is being paid off now by millennials on the older side and which will be borne by the rest of them in time.  You may believe that debt really doesn’t matter and various scholars have made that argument over the years.  But the mainstream of economists believe it does matter, for important reasons.  One reason, not frequently raised by economists, is moral.  The current generation spends and votes for those who spend, with seemingly no limit, to fund more and more government programs, many of which prove not only to be massively inefficient, but also unresponsive and inept, and voracious in their demands for funding.  Who pays the debt?  The millennials will, whether they like it or not.  And they will not like it.

So we see unemployment, large public debt, and also a stifling of entrepreneurship.  Here is the subtle but insidious cancer that arises when government regulation makes it so cumbersome (that is, costly)  to start and sustain a small business that many simply will not be able to do it.  Such entrepreneurial opportunity might have been the opportunity to escape the unemployment problem, if not the debt crunch.  But if the state continues to grow, this too will evaporate.  And right now, the state shows few signs of slowing down, let alone shrinking.

Christian millennials are sometimes beguiled by the lure of isolating themselves from cultural and political engagement, arguing that the Gospel, understood narrowly, should be emphasized, to the exclusion of any other activity.  But they forget I think that, unlike the early church’s context in the imperial and autocratic Roman Empire, citizens have the privilege (the right) to engage in political activity in voting, running for office, protesting, etc.  They have something—by God’s grace—that the early Christians did not have.  Will millennials ignore those opportunities?

I am most definitely not saying the Gospel is secondary. It is primary.  There are two issues here.  First, how do we define the Gospel?  Is it legitimate to define the Gospel broadly to include the implications of salvation?  I will not pursue that line.  But even if we cannot define it that broadly, the issue besides the narrow definition of the Gospel is calling.  Christians are called to various activities in life.  Those callings, if legitimate, are from God.  One of those callings is the good not only of fellow believers (“the household of faith”) but the common good of our fellow humans.  Can we care so little that when God gives us privileges He did not give to others to effect real and beneficial change, we would ignore them and withdraw?  Once again, Christian millennials are right when they say the Gospel of salvation in Christ alone is primary.  They are also correct to be wary because of past admixtures of politics and religion that have not turned out well.  But error of one generation does not negate the principle itself if is theologically sound.

Millennials, I urge you first to become educated—about political issues, political theory and history, economics and culture.  Study your Bibles well, deeply, and in context.  Strive to understand your place both in the City of God and in the City of man.  Finally, engage yourselves intelligently in culture and politics, but also prudently, remembering your first and highest calling as believers.