UPFORNT February 14, 2005 Issue

THE FACES

SUZANNE SMEDLEY, STAFF EDITOR

Our tables were so close I couldn't help overhearing the conversation next to me. Between beats of salsa music, in a dimly lit Mexican restaurant, someone was sharing her deepest beliefs: what kind of God she believed in, what her values were, how the Bible had made a positive impact in her life. It definitely wasn't a conversation I was used to hearing on a Saturday night out. Wanting to know the faces behind this heart-to-heart discussion on a topic so close to my own heart, I glanced to the right and noticed a young couple, maybe in their early twenties, leaning toward one another attentively.

While this couple were just two among billions of young people around the world, they have become symbolic to me of the generation of high school and college students that Gordon Gee, chancellor of Vanderbilt University, has coined the "Spiritual Generation." In Sara Hunter's article this week, based on an interview with Chancellor Gee, he gives a snapshot of this generation based on his interactions with students at Vanderbilt, and his years of experience on other college campuses in the United Stated.

Getting back to my friends at the restaurant. As someone from the so-called "Baby Boomer" generation, I don't know why—in today's culture of materialism and self-absorption—I was surprised to overhear them having a conversation on issues of the spirit. As Channing Walker points out in our lead piece, "The desire for spirituality ... is always natural, always inborn." It knows no generation or culture. Isn't it this persistent questioning and seeking, impelled by the Christ in each of us, that breaks through the stereotypical, generational labels imposed on any group of people, or culture, and brings us closer to God, closer to Truth?

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