c. 2004 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C. Visit his Web site at http://www.onajourney.org.)

(UNDATED) One last swim, one last weeknight free of homework, and now back to school.

As my son begins seventh grade, it is tempting to see it as a 2004 version of what I experienced in 1957. Sure, Elvis is gone, the Chevy Impala has no fins, frozen pizza is no longer a novelty, the Edsel is history, Elizabeth Taylor was on husband two of eight and the Braves on location two of three. Otherwise, how much could have changed?

I can’t even count the ways. But I should try. I should know that the divorce rate has doubled since 1957, that the rate of childbirth to unmarried women increased sixfold to 33.2 percent of all U.S. births, that families take many forms.

I should know that unemployment is up 34 percent since 1957, that job opportunities have shifted from higher paying (manufacturing) to lower paying (service), that the workday is longer and worker confidence is lower. I should know that the wealthiest 5 percent receive 35 percent more of the national income pie and the poorest 40 percent receive 22 percent less, that women have flooded into the paid work force but fallen farther behind men in median income, that household income increased 150 percent but the cost of goods and services increased 440 percent, that mortgage foreclosures have tripled.

Statistics can be mind-numbing, of course, and seductive, for, as with proof-texting using the Bible, you can find statistics to make virtually any point.

The anecdotal is important, too. I should know that radical Islamic terrorism feels different from Soviet missile threats, less rational, less like westerns. I should know that parents have less time for parenting and less confidence in themselves, that physical assault, adolescent sexual activity, sexually transmitted diseases, and drug and alcohol use are more prevalent. I should know that the average American television set is on six hours a day and SAT scores peaked in 1963 (or 1972, according to competing dogma).

I should know about our changing global economy. Outsourcing of U.S. technology jobs to India is just one perplexing piece of an emerging puzzle. With Asian countries like China and South Korea committed to total and advanced economies, our replicating the academic and employment-preparation patterns of even five years ago will lead nowhere. Skills in computer gaming, Web surfing and downloading MP3 files count for nothing. Skills in computer programming and technical support might count for little more.

Only the serious, healthy and well-prepared can count on decent jobs. Like it or not, my son will compete with Chinese and Indian peers who, unless things change, will be better educated and better prepared for meaningful employment. Future employment will require flexibility, teamwork, communications skills, frequent retooling.

This moment might feel different to you. Job-market changes, for example, might seem unimportant to you. Family changes might seem positive or negative. That’s fine. But we all must pay attention to reality, think through our values and intentions, and, as Jesus said to the disciples, “know how to interpret the present time.” We cannot succumb to our biggest growth industries: entertainment, addictions and nostalgia.

The fire, you see, has been kindled. I don’t mean the triumphalist illusions of Christian hubris. I mean the embers and isolated flames of changing times, and the sticks and logs of life as it is. When the rich get richer and the poor poorer, when government manipulates fear and chips away at privacy, when the typical family is buried in debt, the future looks different. Not better or worse, necessarily, but certainly different.

Pining for a return to the 1950s is delusional. Ignoring the trends is dangerous. Politicians’ simple slogans are insulting. Religion’s single-shot crusades _ ban abortion, and everything will be OK _ are abusive.

Behind the statistics and trends are people. God’s people. Boys and girls, men and women, whom God loves and worries about. This is the Lord’s venue. Not institutional arguing, not doctrinal sides-taking, not seductive novels about end-of-time elitism, not perfecting of sexual ethics.

Jesus looked ahead and saw three things: a changing world, an unflinching God eager to embrace but clear-eyed about human behavior, and a community of faithful who went out to serve and were his hope for sanity.

DEA/PH END RNS