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“Most young people are not being formed primarily by their religious faith traditions; rather, they are being formed by other notions and ideologies. And in part this is because adults are afraid to teach. They are afraid of young people. They are afraid of not looking cool when they teach real substance.
“And yet youth actually want to be taught something, even if they eventually reject it . . . In general, religious traditions that expect more and demand more of their youth get more. And those that are more compromising, more accommodating, more anything-goes, end up not getting much.”
—Christian Smith, author (with Melinda Lundquist Denton) of Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, in conversation with Michael Cromartie in Books and Culture, January/February 2005 | 
