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I Hope I’m Wrong by Dessa

July 30th, 2018 | 1 min read

By Jake Meador

One of the things I am increasingly convinced of is the fact that many, many American young people are actually quite concerned with matters of spirituality and religious life. The much-discussed “rise of the nones” is less about the rejection of theism or spiritual practices and more about the rejection of organized religion. In my own life, I’ve been surprised by how interested many non-Christian friends actually are in these matters and how willing they are to discuss with me once we get past debates about marriage and abortion, both of which elicit pavlovian responses from all the parties involved. Songs like the above, by a musician named Dessa who is quite popular in the Twin Cities, further convince me of this point.

The challenge before us, I think, is similar to the challenge before Vanauken when he describes his conversion in A Severe Mercy: There is a very real sense in which he did not know how to believe. There were other issues too, but the baseline issue is that even if he did become convinced of all the dogma, he did not know existentially how to cross over to Christianity. Thus the need is to offer not only a compelling theological witness which helps people understand the content of belief, but also to present a picture of the Christian faith that can seem plausible to people who already acknowledge its desirability.

Jake Meador

Jake Meador is the editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy. He is a 2010 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he studied English and History. He lives in Lincoln, NE with his wife Joie, their daughter Davy Joy, and sons Wendell, Austin, and Ambrose. Jake's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Commonweal, Christianity Today, Fare Forward, the University Bookman, Books & Culture, First Things, National Review, Front Porch Republic, and The Run of Play and he has written or contributed to several books, including "In Search of the Common Good," "What Are Christians For?" (both with InterVarsity Press), "A Protestant Christendom?" (with Davenant Press), and "Telling the Stories Right" (with the Front Porch Republic Press).

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Art