Boomer Skills Millennials Just Won’t Use
Two hundred & three of them (203)! Most are hardly skills. They are preferences. I could be wrong—I gave up reading at #137. I would never make a good Millennial, so I’m not even going to apply.
They won’t use cursive writing or hire money managers. They refuse to set an alarm or use a planner. (I shuddered at that one.) A few others won’t:
- Use good China
- Read a paper map
- Drive a stick shift
- Write in Cursive
- Use traditional grammar
- Sew
- Use a land line
- Balance a checkbook
- Iron your clothes
- Write letters
- Maintain a resume
- Use a compass
203 “skills” that some of that generation won’t learn or use and are disgusted by Boomers who do. Get real! A whole bunch of those skills have been abandoned by all ages, or they prefer better technology. Some skills are not used because of ignorance. We can choose our behavior, but we cannot the consequences. Arrogance fuels those who attempt to change outcomes for all people for all time. To abandon habits of civility throws culture and society into turmoil—chaos. Somebody better balance the checkbook and use recognizable grammar in trans-national communiques.
The Barna Group research on why Millennials are “put off,” or “turned off” by Christians. The reasons listed. Christians are:
- Judgmental
- Hypocritical
- Old-fashioned
- Too political
In A.D. 112, Roman governor Pliny wrote to the emperor the Roman Elites called Christians “depraved, excessive, foreign, and new.”
A prefect charged that Christians participated in orgies, practiced cannibalism, and indulged in incest. Such outrageous charges were explained by “the ignorance of pagans.” They didn’t know any difference. A Christian historian wrote, “(Pagans) confused the Christian love feast with orgies, the Eucharist with cannibalism and the use of terms of endearment—brothers and sister—with incest.” (A.D. 177)
Eugene Peterson writes in the Foreword to Water from a Deep Well, Gerald L Sittser, (IVP 2007). “…antidote to the amnesiac, one-generation world we live in.” He also says, “A one-generational church is capable of generating energy but there are no roots.”
“Perception is all there is” was a widely used phrase in the 80s-90s business literature. What is it that Millennials perceive when they look at me, or you, that guides them to those conclusions?
All of this after I thought to myself, “It seems to me, the woke folks want everything to be different—yellow should be orange, apples must be called cucumbers from now on. Girls are only allowed to live if they are boys.” Is it judgmental to demand laws be obeyed? Old Fashioned?
Every day there is an Internet article comparing differences between Boomers and Millennials. It is a growing industry. In today’s differences the list of four is contradicted. While the younger people complain about Boomers being “too political” Millennials are more involved politically.
Forty-four million abortions world-wide in 2022 and there is a constant buzz to overthrow any incumbrance for anyone and any time at any age, in any trimester to be allowed an abortion on demand and at government cost. It sounds to me like there is a world conference that is pleading, “You can do better!! We can do 50-million in 2023!”
And if a Christian refers to biblical content about gender confusion or radical decisions, we are called old-fashioned, too political and judgmental. I can’t speak for the hearts of all. History provides non-emotional data: Larry Alex Taunton destroys the taunt that we are being judgmental or old fashioned to point out vivid warning signs that led to the destruction of Grecian and Roman empires.
“Pagan writers observed that Christians tended to remain somewhat separate from society. Tacitus, a Roman historian, commented that Christians were ‘haters of humankind.’ 2 (page 36) The martyrdom of Perpetua, perhaps the most famous of all early martyr stories, illustrates how firmly Christians resisted the encroachment of Roman culture.”
Haters, White supremacists, Nazis, racists and old fashioned for homophobia or for balking against transgenderism. Larry Alex Taunton is a fine journalist and author. This is one of his research articles. He reminds us where bad choices and cultural markers will take us.
Walking past the TV where Carole was doing health research, I heard Dr. Mindy Pelz say some extraordinary results of neglecting the body’s natural workings. Dr. Pelz has some startling numbers and physical realities in this conversation that indicates biological men and women are different regardless of plumbing.
Dr. Mindy Pelz– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2mQOGzHtQc
Whether we are calculating Jesus, His disciples, or People of His Way 2023, our beliefs and behaviors are not political; they do have political ramifications and results. The first-century critics or Leftists in our time are quick to complain about Christians being political. It is about conflict. Christians and Marxists can’t both be powerful controllers. If Christians become influencers, the critics fear, they will become abusers of power and push beliefs down everyone’s throats. A concern to be monitored, but not a legitimate Spirit-led, biblical goal.
Let’s hang around “old-fashioned” for a little bit. Of course, the young adult sees his Olders old-fashioned. The drums and bass are now louder, the vocals are weak singing words that sometimes can’t be understood. Harmony is stored on the Mills Brothers and the Andrew Sisters shelves. Tim Elmore talks about the music of youth during the Pandemic. A generalization: Not much hope there. Gloom and the minor keys increased. (Pages 24-28 The Pandemic Population.)
It is to my mental enrichment that Holy Spirit directed me in the middle of this study to read a church historian who tells biographical stories from the conflicts and events in the Pagan and Roman-Grecian worlds of the days and years following the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus.
“We (21st Century) tend to be preoccupied with the present, captured by the contemporary, attracted to anything that is immediate and current. We assume…that what has happened most recently is always—or at least usually—the most important. We therefore view the past with a certain degree of indifference, suspicion, even snobbery, thinking it obsolete and irrelevant, like a piece of outdated technology, before we have given it a chance to teach us anything. Consequently, we criticize or ignore before we have even bothered to listen and understand.” P21
That description assumes a person who has a measure of curiosity and a modicum of inclination for truth. Today’s some (to many) young generations have been indoctrinated or influenced by the agenda of Marxists, Socialists, and the generally demanded pluralism of our day. The F word, Nazi, Racist, Today’s newscasts could take their text and script from First Century A.D. Our focus is how The Ecclesia faced nearly exactly what our culture has become and impacted the nation and in half a century had established churches and outposts in every major city on the Earth.
John Eldredge, therapist, author, international spiritual leader said on a podcast he had been talking that morning with a group of therapists. They said, “We have seen horrendous things in the past, but today is much worse….”
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-the-gospel-to-everyone/id260843816?i=1000620448784
The Pagan’s (2023) ignorance is still a factor in criticism. So is the ignorance that Believers have about the “worse” the therapists reference. And! The power and meaning in Ephesians 2:8-10.
You Are A Masterpiece!
©2023 D. Dean Benton—Writer, Wonderer
Benton Quest House 