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FYI’s College Transition Project has been funded, to a large degree, by the Lilly Endowment. Periodically we get to update folks at Lilly, either in person or in writing, about our findings and their implications for youth ministry.
During my last phone call with Chris Coble from the Lilly Endowment, after I explained the great interest that the students we are surveying are expressing in service and justice work, he recommended I read “Acts of Faith” by Eboo Patel. Patel is an American Muslim from India and the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core. In the midst of the conversations and programs coordinated by the Interfaith Youth Core, one of their key emphases is service and charity, for they find those two values cut across religions.
As interesting as the background on the Interfaith Youth Core was, since I finished the book two hours ago I can’t stop thinking about a different theme in the book: many religions focus on youth for they recognize that youth are both impressionable and behold great power.
At one point, Patel spoke with a teenage friend of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden was 14 years old when a P.E. teacher at his school started an afterschool Islamic study group. Students could play soccer after school if they joined this study group. The students began memorizing passages from the Qur’an. After a while, the charismatic and popular P.E. teacher exposed the boys to stories that nudged the group into an acceptance of violence on behalf of Islam. The former friend of Bin Laden dropped out of the group but others, including Osama, became more and more devoted to a “by any means necessary” approach to restoring Islamic law.
I can’t help but wonder what might have been different for Bin Laden, for Islam, for the U.S., and really much of the world, if Bin Laden had had a different iadult nfluence as a teenager.
If you’re a parent or a youth worker, your work is important. You never know who might be sitting in front of you at church.
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June 25th, 2009 at 7:45 am
A different adult influence could have possibly brought out a different Bin Laden in a good sense. As for Islam, well it will always be Islam whether Bin Laden was a leader or not. They would have and will always continue to insist on being a true religion for which we know is not and push their laws on the rest of the world. Although they do have certain perspectives that are adaptable for today’s society without the religious beliefs. Maybe, just maybe if Bin Laden had a positive influence Islam could have been different, but God only knows. This is just a really good example as to why teenagers need positive mentors and role models. Teens follow not just our words but our actions as well.
June 25th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
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June 26th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Thanks, Joel, for highlighting the point about mentoring. That’s really what I meant to highlight also. I wasn’t trying to make any particular point about Islam.