by Sarah Armor

Created on: December 16, 2006   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

Some people are saying this is good, that the students in high schools are following Jesus because their friends are. Of course, this ignores reality entirely: kids who follow Jesus because everyone else is still do awful, unchristian things. They don't stop doing drugs, or drinking, or saying nasty things.

Actually, it's become unsafe to be anything but Christian. The more you deviate from Christianity, the less safe it is. I believe that everyone has the right to choose their own religion, for this reason exactly:

Faith is meaningless if it is brought about by fear or peer pressure. It's sad to see this, but both of them are major driving forces in Christianity. Is this a good thing? Is putting a coat of shiny, perfect tooth around one that's rotten through a good thing? No, it just hides the problem.

Instead of telling youth to follow Jesus, OR ELSE, the way we do now, we should gently provide opportunities for them to find their faith for themselves. Faith in God and Jesus is a beautiful thing, which is completely and utterly tarnished when forced down someone's throat.

I had my faith, Catholicism, forced down my throat for fifteen years, and because I so resented that, I turned to pagan religions (which really do teach nice things) and less nice things, like self-mutilation, and even attempted suicide. It was driving me crazy!

Then, finally, at the peak of my rebellion, I took the rose-scented rosary that my parents had brought back from Vatican. It had been blessed by Pope John Paul II, and was a treasure in itself, but at that moment, it didn't mean anything to me.

Driven by a force that I didn't really understand, I bugged my mother into handing over a prayerbook containing the rosary, and said the whole thing. Somehow it seems like it should have taken more than twenty minutes, but it didn't. Just after I finished, I prayed to God to take away my all-inhibiting, completely irrational terror of spiders.

Miracle of all miracles, he did. Where I was once paralyzed with fear at the sight of any spider, now I - well, I still don't like spiders, after all - just get rid of it. Life is suddenly unconstricting, and I, having found my own faith, am free.

So you see, those who force people to believe in God and Jesus actually do more harm than good. Always. Instead, they should make sure the person knows about God and Jesus, and eventually, they will come to find their own relationship with God.

This Christian Fad is worse than nonconstructive.

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