I am very excited about the forthcoming gathering of young South Asian Christian leaders of North America. Last one was in New York in Sept 2007 and we saw great momentum in what happening among South Asians Christians all over the continent. This time, it is going to be in Chicago and I am part of the local organizing team. See details at www.connextonline.org Focus this year is going to be on leadership development and we have a great line up of leaders as resource people. Theme is Unleashing the Leadership Potential. If you are serving South Asian community in any capacity or would like to, this is a must attend event for you.

Who are South Asians – people from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Maldives and Bhutan. But it is not limited to them, but also those who work with them in some capacity. If you are a pastor, missionary, involved in campus ministry, marketplace leader, businessperson, youth leader, musician/artist, work with a parachurch org, studying in a bible college or seminary or actively serving in some capacity, this is an ideal event to hone your leadership skills.

See website and register early.

Average age of first marriage has gone by an year. Official numbers are out for the year. It is 28 for men and 26 for women. It is up by an year for both men and women from last year. Americans are waiting longer to get married. See the report in USA Today of the study by NFI & University of Texas.

Once people married their childhood sweethearts; then they met their future mate at college campuses and now life partners are found at workplaces. With rising educational needs to survive in a competitive market place, 20 something are more focussed on standing on their feet before deciding to get married.

The odds for a happy marriage may favor those who tie the knot between the ages of 23 and 27. Both early marriages (before finishing college ie 20) and late marriages (after 30) seems to have high rate of casualty.  Cohabitation has also pushed the age of marriage upwards. 

Marriage age has steadily climbed in all developed nations over last few centuries. Education and job pursuits keep people occupied. It also makes marriage prospects harder. Disperson of families on account of studies and work, also reduces their social circles to choose future mate from. Processes have also undergone significant change. Match makers, matrimonial columns, faith groups, arranged marriage, online profile matching etc have created confusion over mater selection process.

Is there an ideal age of marriage? I tend to say no. People are at different places when it comes to relational readiness, emotional maturity and commitment to tie knot. Average age needed not make you feel that you are doomed for a lonely life or think there are many years to think about all this stuff. How are you preparing for a lasting and fulfilling marriage? How ready are you for it?

A shocking health report came out on US teenage girls from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). More than one fourth of them have some form of sexually transmitted disease! An estimated 3.2 million U.S. girls between the ages 14 and 19 (about 26 percent of that age group) have a sexually transmitted infection such as the human papillomavirus or HPV, chlamydia, genital herpes or trichomoniasis. See news report on Reuters, New York Times and US News.

This is indicative of growing promiscuity among teens in the US. When teen pregnancy and abortion were on the decline, many thought teens are remaining sexually abstinent. But this report now proves that teens are more careful not to get pregnant, but their sexual behaviors have not changed much.

48 percent of black teen-age girls were infected, compared to 20 percent of whites and 20 percent of Mexican American girls. It did not say anything about Asian Americans. Among the infected, about 15 percent had more than one. See CDC website for more on teen sexual behavior stats. Very alarming numbers, indeed!

Future fallout of such behavioral trend is for anybody to guess. Not just the risk of these quarter of girls catching diseases like HIV or cervical cancer, but how it will affect over 3 million future marriages they will enter into and its impact on future generations, society and nations!

There is something clearly wrong with current sex education approaches and curriculums. Some have making this as the reason for vaccinating all girls … remember the Merck’s vaccine? Was this research funded by pharma companies? Are there any ulterior business motives behind these numbers? Of course, CDC recommends all teen girls to be vaccinated. In others words, they are bought in to the idea that all teens are going to be sexually active!

There is a price to pay for the choices we make. There ain’t any free lunches! Every idea had its consequences. Some more costly than the other, but no liberal and immoral choices was without a hidden cost. Traditional, conservative and moral ideas may seems like limiting our freedom, but it will surely preserve and sustain a social order and provide safe environment for future generations. 

No matter what media you turn to – Christian or secular, everybody is talking about the recently released report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life on American religious landscape. Christian radio, tv, magazines, blogs, emails etc are filled with commentary and ‘expert’ opinion about the future of religion in America. Even many secular media dissecting this report with much delight, especially in light of Presidential election.

I had blogged on the same day as this report came out with some of my initial observations. But there is so much in it and many analysis continue to emerge. I am confident that for many months church and ministry leaders are going to chew upon this and try to understand its implications for themselves.

Mainline Protestant denominations continue their plunge downward through mediocrity to total irrelevance. No surprise there. Non-denominational evangelical churches continue to grow.The “unaffiliated” camp shows a rapid increase. Roman Catholicism is declining more quickly than any other “faith tradition” in One in four adults age 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with any religious institution.

One comment really caught my attention recently. Greg Smith, the researcher at the Pew Forum behind these report stated, “There is no question that the demographic balance has shifted in the past few decades toward evangelical churches. They are now the mainline of American Protestantism.”

It could mean two things: Evangelicals have taken the center stage in American Christianity or it is predicting the soon coming demise of evangelicalism like that of current mainlines. In many circles both of this reality is becoming more evident than ever before. Younger evangelicals are dropping out of established and mega churches. Emerging movement seems to be gaining strength. Religious leaders are throwing up their hands in the air at the challenge of the postmodern generation.

We are truely living in dangerous and exciting times! Leadership challenges we face have no precedents. How do we make sense of tumultuous shifts in demography? What does future looks like when faith allegience is so fickle? What do church leaders do when people are change churches like changing clothes? Something to really think about.

Bangalore may be the nerve center of technology companies in India. But did you know some 4500 children went missing in Bangalore last year! I was shocked at this report in Times of India.

Sadly police does not even take any complaints and there is no support system for heartbroken parents. Some of them runaway from home, some are drawn by their “dreams” to a job/breakthro into movie industry/gang leader. But many of them end up in living on street, some in forced prostitution or some are trafficked out of the country. All of them drop of school and cut off from their parents. Often they are nipped at the bud, never get to bloom.

How can a society that does not care for the little one excel? Who will speak up for the voiceless? Exploitation and injustice of any kind require our thoughtful and intentional response. Speak up, don’t think your voice will drown in the noises of the world. As I was researching on missing children in India, I came across a National Center of Missing Kids in India, which reported some 1 million kids went missing last year in India.

Families, churches and NGOs need  to focus on reaching these missing kids. Jesus goes searching for the lost, so we must too. Remember the parable of lost sheep? The joy of finding a lost kid will be ours and who know what he or she is going to grow up to be. Our compassion will help future generations, not to mention impact of caring for such kids will have on our own kids!

Suicide rates for adolescents declined from 1994-2003, but increased 18% the following year. Since then the steady rise in suicides are attributed to antidepressant drugs. It is proven fact and even drug label clearly indicate that antidepressants increases suicidal thinking and behaviors. See a recent report.

Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death for all persons regardless of age, sex or race; the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 24; and the fourth leading cause of death for persons between the ages of 10 and 14. Each year, there are approximately 12 suicides for every 100,000 adolescents. A recent CDC study reported that 27% of high school students said they had thought seriously about killing themselves during the past year. 8% said they had actually tried to kill themselves.

Here are some suicide prevention and survivor resources from Griefnet. Also helpful guide to prevent teen suicide from American Academy of Pediatrics. Adolescent Suicide Hotline: 800-261-4000.

A new official report is out on children – America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007 provides an assessment of the health of children in the United States by examining statistics on health, housing, education, the environment, and other areas. Check here for the entire report http://childstats.gov or news coverage here.

Some positive trends include improved immunization, declining second hand smoke, lower teen birth rate etc. But it also revealed many negative trends like increased low birth weight, rate of obesity, type 2 diabetic, inceased adolescent crimes, not covered by health insurance increased etc.

Then there is findings like increased school children using condoms, which can be positive for (safe sex advocates) yet increased promiscuity is not a healthy sign. They might not get pregnant or catch any diseases, but we are accepting that premarital sexual activity is normative. See the slant of the same report in Chicago Tribune.

According to the report, 47% of high school students, or 6.7 million, reported having had sexual intercourse in 2005, compared with 54% in 1991. Though it decreased, still almost half of all school children are sexually experimented, most of these baggage is lead to instability to future relational pursuits and marraige.

Here is report on Indian American sexual practises. It appeared in Columbia Science Journal. Once a topic that is never talked about in public, now being researched by professionals and published for all to see. May be that is why it is of lots of interest to find out what goes on in the private lifes of people. Read reports in Indolink and Economic Times.

The study explores the decision-making processes, attitudes, and belief systems of young Desis with respect to their sexual behavior among 18-24 year old young adults in New York.

Findings: a) 77.8% of first-generation South Asians reporting never engaging in any sexual activity, whereas 81.8% of second-generation South Asians reported engaging in sexual activity. b) Only 11% of first-generation as compared to 45% of second-generation participants reported engaging in sexual intercourse. In simple terms, second generation more sexually active than first generation.

What is disgusting with such reserach is that they studied 20 people’s opinion (male & female, hetrosexual Indians in New York, both first & second generation combined) and quotes findings in %s about entire South Asians. South Asians are diverse group of people with variety of cultural, religious and assimilation patterns in United States. Such generalization was too dangerous. It is more like a poll result, than a academic research publication! There is no mention of the context of marriage, belief system or family morality in the decisions of sexual activity. More over New York desi youth world is so different from rest of the country.

No major break through finding at all. Most of youth workers know what this research has to say. But nevertheless, I appreciate research being done in this area and hope it will help us develop strategies and programs for future generations to stay not just safe, but pure.

Ever wondered what goes on inside the mind of a teenager?

The award-winning PBS documentary program Frontline gets to the heart of this question, “Inside the World of the Teenage Brain“. It is a must-watch for all youth leaders. It’s a well-researched, and fascinating roller-coaster ride through the wicked synapses of a teenager’s command-and-control center.

But the tragedy is that when you watch a detailed documentary and think that you have figured everything about teen brain, it has already morphed into something entirely different. Also knowing what is on their mind is no clue to know what is on their hearts. Unless we know what goes in the heart and head of todays teens, we can never help them love God with their heart and mind.

The Institute of Study of Religions at Baylor University released its findings on Piety in America. It reported that Americans are extremely religious. Nine out of ten Americans affiliate themselves with a congregation, denomination, or other religious group. Less than 5 percent of Americans claim a faith outside of the Judeo-Christian mainstream.

Among those who would label themselves as mainline Protestants, 22 percent believe the Bible is an ancient book of history and legends, another 22 percent never read the Bible, 12 percent never pray, and 14 percent never attend a weekly service.

But not everything looks good. Nearly a quarter of those surveyed would describe God as distant and not active in the world. They think of God as a cosmic force which set the laws of nature in motion, not as the engaging Father we find depicted in the Scriptures.

Some of this finding might seem contrary to popular beliefs. Younger generation more spiritual than religious, given up on institutions, drop outs etc. But this new religiosity is also pseduo in nature – a blend of various strains, rise of polytheism, post-modern concotion.