According to the Center for Youth Evangelism, 783 young adults were asked if they agreed or disagreed with 10 standards "generally thought to be held by Seventh-day Adventists."
Here's what they found:
| Standard | Agree | Disagree |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Not use illegal drugs | 93% | 5% |
| 2. Not use tobacco | 92% | 4% |
| 3. Keep the Sabbath holy | 88% | 4% |
| 4. Not drink alcoholic beverages | 77% | 15% |
| 5. Dress modestly | 75% | 12% |
| 6. Sex should occur only within marriage | 74% | 14% |
| 7. Not wear cosmetic jewelery | 33% | 49% |
| 8. Not listen to rock music | 32% | 49% |
| 9. Not dance | 22% | 60% |
| 10. Not attend movie theaters | 16% | 71% |
Suggestions from the Center for Youth Evangelism:
"If these last four standards really do have a Biblical base, and if they continue to be relevant to Adventism, then the church, and especially youth ministries leaders, will need to find ways through study and dialogue to lead to a commitment on the part of young adults to these standards. Otherwise, they should be removed from the list, for standards that are proclaimed but not practiced only lead to charges of hypocrisy."
3 comments:
While I wasn't surprised about the last 4 questions, the others worry me especially the alcoholic drinks and the sex only in marriage. While I'm not naive to think that these things don't happen in "Adventist" circles, I'm really amazed that people actually disagree with them.
I'd like to know why they think those things are ok. Being Adventist from birth!, I've seen a lot of change, and a lot of things you could argue back and forth about but some things (i thought) were just no argument areas!
This does not depict the true picture of adventists youth throughout the world. If you take into account the youth from Asia, or any underdeveloped countries you will have a different picture which tends to fall into being conservative.
I see it begins to break down at item 4 and substantially breaks down at item 7. It's possible that the wavering at drinking comes from implications that wine at least may not have been completely off limits in the Bible and some think prohibiting it as expanding on the Bible. In regard to modesty it's likely youth might simply disagree with older persons definition of modesty. After all, some cultures consider showing the face as immodest. Youth may consider banning premarital sex as hypocritical since divorce is even more common among Christians than otherwise. And of course young people marry at at older age than in the past so this has its side effects.
These results may not be a clear cut as they might appear. I would suggest that open ended questioning might have gotten a different result although harder of course to analyze. And yes, outside the USA we might see different results but within the USA the native response has meaning for Americans.
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