Here is an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal about children raised in secular homes who become believers and the struggles those families face.
Such a change can cause an awkward dynamic. I know I had this issue growing up. My stepmother derisively called me a "holy roller". I felt there was a part of myself I had to hide from my parents. But consider the child who's an Orthodox Jew and refuses to eat in his own parents' home.
In one part, the article comments, "Clergy are in the difficult position of trying to guide young people toward devoutness without dishonoring their families. The reluctance of parents to accept their children's choices can be a source of frustration for some youths and their pastors. 'My joke is, they liked them better when they were on drugs,' says Pastor Peter La Joy, who directs the student ministry at Calvary Chapel in Tucson, Ariz."
Some conflicts come because the children want to do low-paying ministry work instead of something more lucrative; this is especially true in immigrant families.
Here is an interesting quote: "But in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks — and the racial profiling of Muslims that ensued — some young people have gravitated toward their religion as a show of ancestral pride and an act of defiance against a society they see as discriminatory. Young Muslims [a Muslim student group], for example, says it has seen participation double since 2000 to more than 1,000 people." That is scary.
The article is mostly negative about this phenomenon, but not in a significant way, and has some upsides as well. Anyway, it is an interesting read.
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