It must be the dawning of the age of Aquinas!
Time Magazine and CNN are reporting that aging Baby Boomers (what a phrase! it's as though people don't start aging until they retire) are going to seminary now that they've either stalled in their careers or have retired. The reporter speculates that some of them wanted to go to seminary when they were young, but were too saddled with their kids' tuition and their mortgages. Now, in their retirement, they have the freedom to do what they've always wanted to do.
The article's vision of the Boomers doesn't match with my own. I don't remember hearing about the great yearning of Boomers to go seminary when they were young. I seem to remember hearing more about a desire for free love than for free tuition. I remember hearing that a bunch of Boomers put off careers while they tuned in, dropped out, and some other sloganeering.
I hope the article is right, though. I hope Baby Boomers feel free to go to seminary and to serve the church. My suspicion is that the trend may be exaggerated in the article, but that's okay. We'll take all the help we can get.
The article suggests that it may be better to have older ministers than younger ones. The author wonders what a young person really knows about life, grief, deep disappointment and failure. Ironic, isn't it? The same generation that refused to trust anyone over 30 now questions the wisdom of trusting anyone under 30.
Here's to the new seminarian! I can hear their evangelistic chanting now, "Hell. No! You won't go!"
1 comment:
Great comments Aaron. Thanks for sharing this unusual news. If this is the case I can hear seminaries all over the nation advertising with song and dance routines build the "Hair" song you referenced.
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