Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

Saving John Oliver: 10 suggestions for retaining young people in the church

OpinionAlan Bean  |  March 19, 2018

Alan BeanIf you have never watched John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight,” you should.

Oliver grew up listening to Peter Cook and “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” so his comedy sometimes veers into the surreal.

You will likely be offended by Oliver’s liberal use of the f-word (his show is on HBO, so he can use it as often as he likes, and he likes it a lot).

But, at heart, the British comic is a moral crusader. Bad people hide behind the sheer complexity of their sins and dare journalists to expose them in two minutes, or 300 words, without stupefying their audience with mind-numbing detail.

Oliver talks machine gun-fast and the one-liners, quirky analogies and sight gags never stop. We’re too distracted by the comedic flourishes to realize that we’re learning about horrible people doing horrible things and getting away with it. The private prison industry, for instance, or payday lenders. We are enraged, educated and entertained simultaneously.

Last year, Oliver took on Seed Faith TV preachers like Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar and Robert Tilton. He even established his own church, Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, to show how easy it is for religious charlatans to rake in tax-free money. Oliver demanded cash donations and thousands of dollars rolled in (he forwarded the loot to Doctors without Borders).

When Terry Gross interviewed Oliver on her “Fresh Air” program, she focused on his send-up and take-down of the Seed Faith industrial complex. At the end of that conversation, she asked her guest if he had ever gone to church.

Oliver said he grew up in the Church of England, attending every week with his parents until the age of 12. That was a tough year. His favorite uncle and several of his school mates died one after another and  young John Oliver needed to know what God was up to.

The church people told him it was all “God’s will.” He was so offended by the “garbage answers” he was getting that he walked out and never looked back. In his mind, organized religion had become toxic, a horror to be avoided at all costs.

It isn’t unusual for adolescent boys and girls to walk away from the church. Twelve is a bit young, but I suspect John Oliver would have parted ways with the Church of England by the age of 16 even if no one close to him met an untimely end. A church that traffics in clichés, denial and bromides can’t satisfy a bright, Cambridge-bound young man with a passion for justice and a wicked sense of humor.

I recently shared the story of my baptism. I didn’t walk the aisle because I understood what all that “blood of Jesus” atonement talk was all about (I didn’t). And I didn’t get baptized because I was inspired by the lovely music, the Late Great Planet Earth eschatology, or the very ordinary men and women dotting the pews.

Quietly and deliberately, I had decided to follow Jesus, and baptism gave me an opportunity to make that decision public. It was either roll my own religion or walk away.

C.S. Lewis, the patron saint of American evangelicalism, became an atheist at 15. He was enamored of Norse and Celtic mythologies, and the version of the Christian narrative presented in the church of his day sounded lame by comparison. Lewis didn’t become a sure-enough Christian until he was 33. And that wouldn’t have happened without the patient tutelage of friends like J.R.R. Tolkien. Most of us must fumble our way forward with no advice from Gandalf’s dad.

I’ve been wondering what it would have taken to keep John Oliver in the church. Or, alternatively, what it might take to lure him back.

Actually, since Oliver was born in 1977, I was surprised to learn that he was raised in the church at all. But his religious roots go pretty deep. Several of his recent ancestors were parish priests and a paternal great-great-grandfather was William Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon and court chaplain to Queen Victoria.

But in 1990, the approximate year John Oliver bid the church a not-so-fond farewell, 37 percent of the English population claimed to be Anglican with 36 percent professing “no religion.” Three decades later, 53 percent of the population is religionless and only 15 percent retain membership in the Church of England. Only 8 percent of the English population attend church regularly.

If England is one of the least religious nations in the western world, the United States occupies the other end of the spectrum. But according to a recent Gallup poll, church and synagogue attendance figures in America have also shown a decline in recent years, falling from 70 percent in 1980 to 54 percent in 2017.

When the Gallup poll asked if respondents had confidence in organized religion, those saying they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” dropped from 68 percent in 1975 to 41 percent in 2017. Asked if they had absolutely no doubts about the existence of God in 2005, 80 percent said yes. By 2017, just 12 years later, only 64 percent claimed that level of confidence.

Rates of religious affiliation, confidence in the Bible, and belief in God decline precipitously as the pollsters move from older age cohorts to younger.

The catastrophic erosion of religious faith witnessed in John Oliver’s England is being imported to America. The impact is more dramatic in Western and Northeastern states, but is noticeable even in the Dallas-FortWorth metroplex, the New Jerusalem of the American megachurch.

So, what will it take to retain our young people?

I have 10 suggestions.

  1. We must stop trying to retain our young people. The John and Jane Olivers growing up in our churches cannot be scammed. They know when they’re being sold, and they flee for the exits.
  2. Keep it simple. Children grasped the kingdom message of Jesus because they didn’t overthink it. Stick to kingdom basics: preaching good news to the poor, defending the stranger, the prisoner, the sick and the hungry, radical forgiveness, enemy love, non-violent resistence, peacemaking and making room at the table for all God’s children.
  3. Drop the complicated atonement theories and define salvation as the surprising consequence of kingdom living.
  4. Insist on incarnation. If Jesus didn’t reveal the heart of God, who cares what he said? Alternatively, if Jesus did reveal the heart of God, we should live his way even when we aren’t sure it makes sense.
  5. Transpose the Bible into the key of Jesus. Young people (and their parents) need to know what to make of the un-Jesusy parts of the Bible.
  6. Kingdom religion demands kingdom hymns, psalms and spiritual songs. Let’s write them and sing them.
  7. Raise the bar of moral expectation. The gospel is simple, but it’s never easy. If there’s no “fear and trembling” to our religion we’re not shouldering the cross of Jesus.
  8. Shun legalism. The first generation of Christians couldn’t agree about the do’s and don’ts of discipleship and we won’t either. They agreed to disagree and so must we.
  9. Ask the hard questions and resist easy answers. John Oliver left the church because he could smell “garbage answers” a mile away. Like William Blake, we must not “cease from mental fight.”
  10. Finally, understand that we can’t keep some of our kids without losing some of our adults. The form of religion we have inherited was packaged for mass appeal. It can still be sold to the Boomers, but the Millennials aren’t buying. And that’s a blessing.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)

OPINION: Views expressed in Baptist News Global columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.
Tags:God's WillAlan BeanJohn OliverNonesCreflo DollaryouthLast Week TonightC S LewisSeed Faith TVSalvationKenneth CopelandIncarnationRobert TiltonhymnOur Lady of Perpetual Exemptionsubstitutionary atonementFresh AirNPRlegalismreligious affiliationchurch decline
More by
Alan Bean
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • Are Americans attending church more or less than before the pandemic? It’s complicated

      News

    • Preying preachers: Confronting clergy sexual abuse

      Analysis

    • ‘In a pluralistic democracy’: An interview with Jennifer Rubin

      Opinion

    • Guys, guns and gods

      Opinion


    Curated

    • Carl Lentz, in first staff position since Hillsong, joins Transformation Church in Tulsa

      Carl Lentz, in first staff position since Hillsong, joins Transformation Church in Tulsa

    • UK’s Religion-Free Speech Debates Enter ‘Thoughtcrime’ Zone

      UK’s Religion-Free Speech Debates Enter ‘Thoughtcrime’ Zone

    • Jimmy Carter believes Black lives matter. Would his decency be considered ‘woke’ today?

      Jimmy Carter believes Black lives matter. Would his decency be considered ‘woke’ today?

    • The Man Who Leads Senate Prayer Is Fed Up With ‘Thoughts And Prayers’

      The Man Who Leads Senate Prayer Is Fed Up With ‘Thoughts And Prayers’

    Read Next:

    How the church of the Nashville shooting winds through history, gender wars, church discipline and the SBC sexual abuse study

    AnalysisMark Wingfield

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • On the separation of church and university

      OpinionPaul R. Gilliam III

    • An open letter to Baptist women

      OpinionAnna M.V. Bowden

    • Bob Jones University president resigns in battle with board chairman

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Evangelical leaders beg DeSantis and Florida Legislature not to make them criminals for transporting immigrants to church

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • If you’re going to quote 1 Timothy 3:2, be sure to read Exodus 20:17

      OpinionBrad Bull

    • 650 UMC clergy and laity publish letter supporting International Transgender Day of Visibility

      NewsBNG staff

    • On the indictment of a president

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • Boy Scouts closer to settling abuse claims, but challenges remain

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Oral history archive explores relationship between faith and forced migration

      NewsMatthew Blanton

    • The shift from positional power to relational power

      OpinionMahan Siler

    • What the SBC can learn from NCAA women’s basketball

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • Guys, guns and gods

      OpinionNapoleon Harris

    • Are Americans attending church more or less than before the pandemic? It’s complicated

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • A response to ‘The List’

      OpinionAlice Cates Clarke

    • What Mike Law got right

      OpinionJennifer Hawks

    • Preying preachers: Confronting clergy sexual abuse

      AnalysisJoel Bowman Sr.

    • Transitions for the week of 3-31-23

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • ‘In a pluralistic democracy’: An interview with Jennifer Rubin

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • Northern Seminary trustees respond to student complaints

      NewsElizabeth Souder

    • I’m one of the female pastors on the SBC’s hit list

      OpinionCarlisle Davidhizar

    • How the church of the Nashville shooting winds through history, gender wars, church discipline and the SBC sexual abuse study

      AnalysisMark Wingfield

    • Baptist church jumps into service as reunion point for Covenant School children and parents

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • School shootings: How can we respond to children, parents, teachers and others affected?

      OpinionBrad Schwall

    • Part of former student’s case against Patterson and Southwestern dismissed by judge

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Why we should amplify women in all roles of church leadership

      OpinionBrittany Stillwell

    • Bob Jones University president resigns in battle with board chairman

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Evangelical leaders beg DeSantis and Florida Legislature not to make them criminals for transporting immigrants to church

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • 650 UMC clergy and laity publish letter supporting International Transgender Day of Visibility

      NewsBNG staff

    • Boy Scouts closer to settling abuse claims, but challenges remain

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Oral history archive explores relationship between faith and forced migration

      NewsMatthew Blanton

    • Are Americans attending church more or less than before the pandemic? It’s complicated

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Transitions for the week of 3-31-23

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Northern Seminary trustees respond to student complaints

      NewsElizabeth Souder

    • Baptist church jumps into service as reunion point for Covenant School children and parents

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Part of former student’s case against Patterson and Southwestern dismissed by judge

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Antisemitic-motivated assaults at record levels

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Peter James Flamming, ‘bridge-building’ pastor in Texas and Virginia

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • New court documents show First Baptist Houston leaders knew of allegations against Pressler in 2004

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • A tragic tale of death on the Mediterranean Sea amid Tunisian and British migrant backlash

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Movements expand and contract, Black Lives Matter co-founder says

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ukrainians join European Baptists to help quake victims in Syria and Turkey

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Two Baptist seminaries among six ‘recommended’ by new Global Methodist Church

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Advocates for constitutional ban on female ‘pastors’ in SBC publish a list of 170 churches they deem in violation

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Former staff at Knoxville church see a familiar pattern in Northern Seminary’s complaints about Shiell’s leadership

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Egged on by evangelical influence, Ugandan Parliament passes harsh new anti-gay bill

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Judge’s dismissal of 36 churches’ lawsuit holds implications for other UMC departures

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Barna finds pastors are exhausted and isolated, which could be an opportunity for change

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • One-third of Northern Seminary students express no confidence in trustees

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • He was wrongly put on Death Row and believes you could be too

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • On the separation of church and university

      OpinionPaul R. Gilliam III

    • An open letter to Baptist women

      OpinionAnna M.V. Bowden

    • If you’re going to quote 1 Timothy 3:2, be sure to read Exodus 20:17

      OpinionBrad Bull

    • On the indictment of a president

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • The shift from positional power to relational power

      OpinionMahan Siler

    • What the SBC can learn from NCAA women’s basketball

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • Guys, guns and gods

      OpinionNapoleon Harris

    • A response to ‘The List’

      OpinionAlice Cates Clarke

    • What Mike Law got right

      OpinionJennifer Hawks

    • ‘In a pluralistic democracy’: An interview with Jennifer Rubin

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • I’m one of the female pastors on the SBC’s hit list

      OpinionCarlisle Davidhizar

    • School shootings: How can we respond to children, parents, teachers and others affected?

      OpinionBrad Schwall

    • Why we should amplify women in all roles of church leadership

      OpinionBrittany Stillwell

    • Lent, confession and the ‘no true Scotsman’ fallacy

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • What pastors may not say, but really want us to understand

      OpinionMark Tidsworth

    • Religious leaders must step up to support our trans siblings

      OpinionPaul Brandeis Raushenbush

    • To increase congregational health, decrease domestic violence

      OpinionGeneece Goertzen-Morrison

    • From a Gen Z perspective, another ‘Jesus Revolution’ seems improbable

      OpinionMallory Challis

    • Trumpism is leading America to the valley of dry bones

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • Dear churches who invite women to preach

      OpinionSarah Boberg

    • How dare they publish that list

      OpinionArthur Wright Jr.

    • ‘Woke’: I don’t think that word means what you say it does

      OpinionRoger Lovette

    • The Russian Orthodox Church is a big loser in the Russian-Ukrainian war

      OpinionAndrey Shirin

    • On the path to immigration justice, it’s time for Biden to change course

      OpinionSalote Soqo

    • If a story is meant to evolve, then so are we

      OpinionKaitlin Curtice

    • Carl Lentz, in first staff position since Hillsong, joins Transformation Church in Tulsa

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • UK’s Religion-Free Speech Debates Enter ‘Thoughtcrime’ Zone

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Jimmy Carter believes Black lives matter. Would his decency be considered ‘woke’ today?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • The Man Who Leads Senate Prayer Is Fed Up With ‘Thoughts And Prayers’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • At launch rally in Waco, former president sets the stakes for Trump ’24 campaign with apocalyptic, violent, genocidal rhetoric

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Judge rules immigration officials violated pastor’s religious freedom rights

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A ‘historic’ day in Israel ends with a political compromise — and big questions about the future

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • NY’s power to regulate religious schools trimmed by judge

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Amid rise in antisemitism, Yeshiva University focuses on Holocaust education

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Is Pope Francis ‘The Only One Who Can Make A Difference’ In Uganda’s Anti-LGBTQ Bills?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • “We Will Fight You for It”: Can Womenpriests Save the Catholic Church?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Whitney Houston’s family wants to highlight her gospel roots

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pelosi on cleric who barred her from Communion: ‘That’s his problem, not mine’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Criminal or Not, Trump’s Case Is a Moral Test for Christians

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Netanyahu vows more active role in Israel’s judiciary fight following a day of tense protests

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Jimmy Carter’s religious values were never far from his presidency or his policy

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pioneer of gospel music rediscovered in Pittsburgh archives

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • As The King’s College faces closure, scrutiny turns to its backers

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Communicators for Christ: how homeschool debate leagues shaped the rising stars of the Christian right

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Israeli leader halts bill against Christian proselytizing

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Trump’s arrest ‘prediction’ inflames holy war narrative and sanctifies violence — welcome to Trump ’24

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • German prosecutors examined late pope in abuse probe

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Court rehears case to protect Oak Flat, an Apache sacred site in Arizona

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Antisemitism on Twitter has more than doubled since Elon Musk took over the platform – new research

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Israel’s Reform rabbi and legislator on judicial overhaul: ‘It doesn’t look good.’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2023 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS