The Church Answers Podcast
Why "The Anxious Generation" May Be One of the Most Important Ministry Books Written - Part 2: The Smartphone is the New Cigarette
Welcome to the Church Answers Podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. Welcome to the Church Answers Podcast. My name is Tom Rayner. We're going to talk about a very serious issue. We're going to talk about the anxious generation. Before we get to that, let me thank our sponsor, Chaney & Associates, the accounting firm for the church, serving over 1,100 churches anywhere because they're in the cloud. I say this again and again. Don't think you have an expense when you hire out the best church accounting firm. That's all they do. Don't think it's an expense. It's an investment. Contact Chaney & Associates at chaneyassociates.com. We've got it in the show notes. You can Google that name. Thank you, Steve Chaney, for being such a generous and gracious friend to host the Church Answers Podcast. You didn't listen to the first episode of the anxious generation. I'm going over this book, The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Hate. And I really just want to open some eyes to what Hate has said. Now, Hate is not a Christian. As a matter of fact, he describes himself as an atheistic Jew, which means he has Jewish heritage. He's biologically a Jew, but he does not believe. So he doesn't believe in a God. He's an atheistic Jew. But what Hate has done as this professor has given us insight into something that I think is one of the most important issues for the church. By the way, I'll talk about this in the next episode. But he suggests, as do many atheists, he suggests that the church needs to get its act together because the world needs the church. I mean, that is so ironic to me, that we're having secularists and atheists tell us, "Hey Church, can you get your act together? We need you." Well, that's actually a story of a book I'm almost done writing, and it'll be released in 2025, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So in this particular episode, we want to talk about why this book is so important in the context of the addictive factors related to the smartphone. I understand it as an old man. I mean, I have my smartphone right here. It's an iPhone. And quite frankly, I'm ashamed to say, if I walk away without my smartphone, I feel like a part of me is missing. That is how addictive this smartphone has been to me. I do all of my emails, many of my emails on my smartphone, take my calls, texts. It's my communication device. I'm not big on social media. I'll say that. I'm just too old to be too active on social media, but some of my team will do some posts, and I'll do some occasional posts as well. But that's not the factor, but just the idea of the smartphone is one of the most important issues that we need to be talking about, because we know that around 2012, when the smartphone became adopted by a majority of homes and the smartphone connected with social media, it became a powerful tool. Yeah, it could be used for good, but it has really been used for evil, and we need to look at that reality. That is why I'm so grateful to hate for writing this book. I know others have written about this issue, but this is probably one of the best research books that I've seen, at least one that is more readable than some of the research tombs that are out there. So here's a story. My dad died when I was in my 20s. My dad was my hero. I just, I adored him. To me, he was the epitome of what a man of Christian character should be. He was quite spoken. I get my introversion from him. He was a World War II hero. He was shot twice as a top turret gun on a B-24 aviator. He loved my mother, his wife. He loved his two sons. He loved his deceased daughter, my sister, who was previously before I was born. I mean, this man was just a giant to me. He was progressive on racial issues in the deep south of Alabama when others were not at all. He was the mayor of a town that was, he was, of course, Anglo, white, and the town was 67% African American, and yet majority of both races voted for him. I say that because my dad died of lung cancer. He started smoking in World War II when he would go on these missions, and it was the thing to do, and he never got over it. I remember pleading with him on many occasions. Dad, can you give up the cigarette? My mom smoked too. She ended up dying indirectly because of it. She had frail bones, and she fell and broke her hip and died as a result to that. But one directly and one indirectly died because of the addictive nature of cigarettes. Now we know that the tobacco companies would do things to try to increase the addictive factor for a season. We know that that was taking place. And even though that's not as pervasive as it used to be and the number of people smoking is declined dramatically, addiction is addiction. And if you're, if you look at hate's book and if you're to look at what happens, if someone is monitoring brain and whatever that means, I don't know brain ways, I don't know, but is monitoring your brain while your own, your smartphone, it changes. It changes your mind. And when young people, going through adolescence, are being shaped by a smartphone, it is messing their minds up. That's why hate caused it, the great rewiring of childhood, causing an epidemic and mental illness. I wouldn't have believed there's someone who just told me, but I once already had hate's book, the evidence was so overwhelming that I could not help but believe the facts that were there. And then hate goes in to demonstrate how social media increases its addictive factors. Now, the one part of social media that I own some, not a lot is YouTube, but it's amazing to me. I'll open my YouTube app and there will be something there that I'll be interested in. It already has the algorithm set for me. And it's going to be something, it's really going to be in one of three categories. It's going to be '60s music, college football, or depending upon the season, politics. Right now, I'm recording this during the presidential politics. I follow politics pretty closely. So I'm going to get a feed of one of those three. And you know what I want to do? I want to read it. I mean, I want to listen to it. I want to watch it. And then once that's over, here comes the next one. I'm just as interested in that. I see it as an old man. I see the addictive factors. Well, these young people, their minds have been wired, or as hate says, rewired to such a point that they are making a younger generation, all of Gen Z beginning with a birthday around 1998, '97, all the way to 2012 and then Gen Alpha thereafter. They are shaping their minds and it's not a very good thing. With the advent of the smartphones, depression began to skyrocket. Unprecedented amounts of depression among young people. With the advent of the smartphone with social media, anxiety increased it. Unprecedented area. Sometimes over three times, over 200%. With the introduction of the smartphone, the addiction caused more and more people to do self harm, as reported by emergency rooms spiked to unforeseen, never before known levels and still are very high. With the addiction of the smartphone, more adolescents took their own lives than at any time. And that's the reality of what has happened. It has been the enemy of our children, and in many ways, the enemy of us as parents. And the church has not done much for it. And the ironic thing about it is as you read hate, hate doesn't necessarily appeal to the Christian church, but it appeals to religious organizations in general. Get your act together, we need you. And this is an atheist telling us that. And he would say that for the church, even though he's not exclusively talking to the church. So the smartphone is the new cigarette. It is the new addiction that is killing. And just like you would not want your children walking around smoking a cigarette today, you do not want your children or yourself addicted to what is on our smartphones. What I'm going to do in the next episode is I'm going to do just one brief bit about the church responding. Come back for that. And if you didn't listen to the first one and you talk about where I talk about the agonizing pain of Gen Z and Gen Alpha, come back for that. And of course, after listening to this one, maybe you will be encouraged to listen to the third of the three part series on what I believe this is one of the most important ministry books written in a long time. Thank you for watching on YouTube. Hey, thanks for those of you who subscribe to our channel. That's always a great encouragement. Thank you for those of you who give us a thumbs up at YouTube and for all of those listening on your podcasting out. Thank you for giving us ratings and reviews. It gets the word out there about this ministry that we offer you free our efforts and the bills were paid by Chaney and Associates. We appreciate them, the accounting firm for the church. I got one more episode talking about the anxious generation. Come back. It's ready for you. It's waiting. I'll see you there. You have been listening to the Church Answers Podcast presented by Chaney and Associates. Chaney and Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry. Chaney will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the Church Answers Podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)