We close every semester giving 5-7 minute persuasive speeches. This is the “scariest” speech students give for a number of reasons. Many fear offending classmates who might disagree with them. Just telling students their speeches have to be controversial evokes shivers. I remind them their speeches should not be offensive, only persuasive.
What are they thinking about this semester? Here’s a short list: combatting pollution; animal testing or not; how parenting styles affect teenagers’ mental health; legalizing medical marijuana; and managing mental and physical health while in college.
Since the beginning of 2020 college students’ levels of stress, anxiety and depression have escalated dramatically. One 2022 survey of college students found that 77% “experienced moderate to serious psychological distress.” No doubt, rigorous academic exercises have always produced psychological distress. But the added stressors of social media as well as the growing number of treatment options have complicated how college students seek help for anxiety and depression.
I’ve talked with a number of colleagues and friends who have noted the rapid rise of anxiety and depression among teenagers. We’ve wondered what impact COVID along with the mandates and lockdowns may have had on teens.
Last year I asked a doctor whether he had noticed a significant change. He said among his patients “almost every college student feels like they have either anxiety, or depression, or ADD.” He added, “It may be that many are convinced they’re going to die of COVID and it’s just a matter of when.”
Then he surprised me with another line of observations saying, “But I think the bigger issue is spiritual oppression.” Well, that got my attention! He explained, “If peace is a fruit of the Spirit, then loss of peace happens when the Spirit is quenched.” Ok, that makes sense to me. I remember my early years of college when I quenched the Spirit regularly!
Then the good doctor brought his thoughts and observations home, saying, “I believe academia in general is now firmly in the grasp of the evil one, as is the world in general, but never before to this extent in our country. I believe most students are truly ‘lost.’ They’re confused about where they came from, what they’re doing now, and where they’re headed.”
I remember talking with a retired administrator last year about the current crop of students. He actually said the same thing, that we’re seeing a significant rise in spiritual warfare. I agree with both men and have become even more convinced the driving force of our social and cultural degradation is demonic. Some would scoff at that and say that we just want to go back to the 1950s. Frankly, going back 20 years would be more than enough time to prove how our moral values have changed radically.
The values in the moral mainstream today were tangential at best 20 years ago among the majority of Americans. Are we witnessing the extreme moral degradation and godlessness the Bible speaks of characterizing the “end times?”
Religion in general and Christianity in particular have lost the respect of most Americans in the last 20 to 30 years. Spiritual speech about God, Jesus, and the Bible has been cancelled by many gatekeepers because such opinions may offend others. Perhaps transparency and diversity will open doors for freedom to hear and believe.
12 comments:
...because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. That is what is wrong with today's youth - they have no hope because they have not suffered.
I feel injured enough to call Richard Schwartz after reading that gibberish. I suspect DL is playing to his audience and is a little more swift than he seems but it is still sad people fall for such.
7:23 - What are you alleging that "people fall for"? DL made a very straight forward analysis of the difficulties plaguing today's youth specifically and society generally, then gave his opinion as to the root of the problem. Do you think he profits from this in some way and is doing so in a dishonest manner?
Jesus take the wheel!
Spiritual warfare this week, will it be complaints about the rock and roll music causing teen pregnancy and unmarried sex next week?
Borrowing tens of thousands of dollars to pay to be taught university level coursework by this guy would be depressing for sure.
9:19 If you don’t see the truth in this you live in a different world from mine.
Why did the parents fail raising all their children. Do parents expect the government schools or the government to raise their kids?
Lazy and ignorant.
The current crop of college students knows nothing about deprivation, the rewards of hard work or the necessity of attending to their own needs. What does DL want? Taxpayers to foot the bill for these young adults' mental health care? Taxpayers to provide free post-high school education? Is this just more DL bellyaching about Covid responses by colleges and states? I'd be depressed, too, if I had to sit through his lectures.
Maybe preaching about doomsday scenarios and demonic forces are stressing out your students Daniel.
Radar on full blast this morning. Fish must have watched the coronation and playing King. Again.
Not only academia but all levers of power are today are firmly in the grasp of the — well, it’s not just the “evil one” but rather “evil ones.” They have names; they have faces. We cannot call them out, though, dare not name them; to know who rules you, said Voltaire, identify who it is you can’t criticize.
I can’t even imagine being some 18 year old kid, who just took on a lifetime worth of debt to fund their education, arriving to class on the first day to realize clowns like Daniel are who you are supposed to be learning from. That is true despair.
Daniel will live to see the moral Apple cart flipped once this generation fully reacts to the Supreme Courts ruling on abortion. The fifth circuit has a hot potato with the medicated miscarriage drugs.
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