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Foreign It's Friday, June 12, 2026. I'm Albert Moeller and this is the Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. Some recent headlines having to do with teenagers with American adolescence. And I think they'll be of great interest to Christians and in particular Christian parents, especially parents of teenagers and to those in church ministry who work with teenagers and adolescents. It is a very interesting set. Headlines. One of them has to do with scores having to do particularly with reading and math. Okay, so the headline is results show teens scores in Reading Math stagnate. That means reading and math. The Associated Press has run the story and reporters Annie Ma and Sharon Lurie are telling us about these most recent statistics. And the fact is that they're done about every three to four years. So they're not done annually. So you have to wait some period of time in order to try to catch up. And we are talking about scores related to 9 year olds and 13 year olds. So when you think about that, there's a four year span right there. So the next time these 13 year olds are likely to be scored is when they're 17 year olds and by then they're high school seniors. So the headlines are at least attracting a lot of attention because here's the one in the Associated Press quote, results show teen scores in reading and math stagnate. The subhead is this, but younger students rebounding on tests following pandemic. Okay, so here's one interesting factor. There is no doubt that when it comes to the public schools and the COVID 19 pandemic, there was an incredible dip in scores in areas such as reading and math. And this is true Both at the 9 year range and in the 13 year level as well. But what is now clear is that the nine year olds have rebounded. That is the scores of the nine year olds have rebounded. This is about fourth graders on average. But the scores of the 13 year olds on average about eighth grade, they have not rebounded. And the picture is actually even more complex than that and in one level more troubling because it also turns out that the 13 year olds have in terms of this score, they've been going down for a longer period even than the pandemic. You have to go back a matter of a good many years. Here's how the Associated Press reported the story. Quote, younger students have regained ground academically after the pandemic's disruptions, while older students test scores continue to stagnate according to the latest testing data released Wednesday by the federal government now it continues. QUOTE 9 year olds rebounded to pre pandemic reading scores and saw some recovery in math according to data from a test taken regularly in the United states since the 1970s. So we are talking about a considerable period of time here. Quote, the same recovery has not emerged for 13 year olds whose average scores in math and reading remain below pre pandemic averages. In fact, the latest reading scores from teenagers who took the test in 2024 are essentially the same level as they were when the test started in 1971. End quote. So this is really interesting. The federal government began testing in this way back in about 1970, 1971. And when it comes to most of those scores in the early years, they started going up. Now one of the interesting factors in terms of education is that when you know something's going to be tested, the teachers and the schools tend to teach toward the test. If you know that mathematical knowledge and reading skills they're going to be tested, will the schools naturally begin to give greater emphasis in those directions? So we shouldn't be surprised that in subsequent years those scores began to go up. But the point is, after the COVID 19 pandemic, the reality is that nine year olds now remember they weren't nine when that happened. But this is the testing point of about fourth graders right now. Those scores have rebounded to where they were before the pandemic. But when it comes to adolescents, not so. 13 year olds, not so. As a matter of fact, the numbers for the 13 year olds started dropping well before the pandemic. So we're looking at a longer range problem. Okay, so even as you look at this report from the Associated Press, there's no real causality that is given here. American students academic achievement was already declining when the pandemic hit. Test scores peaked around 2012, then started to fall, said Matthew Solder, who's acting commissioner of the national center for Education Statistics. He went on to say, quote, we can clearly see that this isn't just a pandemic story, end quote okay, There is one section I think will be of particular interest and even, I should say, urgent concern for Christian parents. Listen to this quote. Students who took the test also completed a survey. Only 14% of 13 year olds said they read for fun every day. That's down from 27% in 2012 and a peak of 37% in 1992. Among nine year olds, 37% said they read for fun every day, a big decline from 53% in 2012. Quote Researchers have noted the Decline in time spent reading corresponds with the rise of social media use on cell phones. End quote. Okay, I was waiting to see if the report conceded that point. And so it is not like all of a sudden we have 13 year olds who have less time on their hands. What we have are 13 year olds spending their time in very different ways. And if you're looking at a change in the culture, the pandemic of course, was for a finite amount of time, and of course it did come with ill effects. But the reality is, as this story concedes, the pattern of decline for 13 year olds began a long time ago and specifically began just about the time that cell phone use and the emergence of social media arrived on the scene. Okay, so I think this is where most of us understand the honest urgency here. That is to acknowledge that if you're looking at a precipitous fall in the number of adolescents in America who read for fun, let's just say for Christians, that's a five alarm fire. It's not the most important thing we could possibly hear. But you know, when it comes to young people moving into a productive, faithful adulthood, they. That is a huge thing. And I can just tell you, you already know this. You know it from your own experience, you know it from common experience. And of course there's plenty of data behind this. Those who are not avid readers are likely to be behind just in terms of all the other areas of the curriculum, all the other areas of workplace performance as well. This is a very key issue just in terms of a productive adulthood in the United States, or for that matter, in the modern age. Okay, so let's just look at the numbers again. We're Talking about only 14% of 13 year olds, both boys and girls, said they read for fun every day. That's down from 27% in 2012. Okay, so let's just look at it. That's a 13% drop. Just about matches the social media cell phone use. And it's down from even more than that, 37%, which means you're looking at a 23% drop. 23% drop, all the way down to 14%. I mean, this is catastrophic. This is one of those things that, by the way, ought to be getting a lot more attention. So the copy I saw of this story in the print edition was in yesterday's Orlando Sentinel. So that's the major newspaper in Orlando, Florida. And I was traveling through Orlando yesterday and going through the airport. This was a very interesting piece. It appears in the Orlando Sentinel in section B, page One. So it's on page one of an inside section. It's also at the bottom of the page. The headline at the top is Gates Disavows Epstein in Testimony. Well, obviously that's headline news, but it is interesting that this is one of those things that you basically have to be interested in reading to find. In other words, you've got to be reading a newspaper or really deep into some kind of news site to find this kind of headline and then to read the article. I think, oddly enough, ironically enough, it makes the point. I just want to say, for Christians and in particular for Christian parents, this has to be a big wake up call. I think we all know that smartphones and social media not only have something to do with this, and we're not talking about causation. We can just see this caused that. But we are looking at correlation. We're looking at just the time these things began to be so much used among adolescents. That's when these numbers started to go way down. I fear for a generation, and by the way, I fear for a generation of Christian young people who do not read and do not read for fun. That means they're not developing all kinds of capacities. And it also means they're not gaining what they would be gaining by reading. And I mean by that, of course, reading materials, books in particular, that should be read by young people and in particular by Christian young people. And so I'm going to go out on a limb and tell you something from my own experience, and that is this. I had a hard time sleeping as an adolescent. I was very interested in reading. And so my parents knew that. And without telling the whole long story, I can just tell you that my dad came to talk to me one night as he was telling me good night when I was 13 years old, so it's just about the same age. And he said, look, here's the deal. I'm going to let you stay up later so long as you are in bed, ready for bed, reading. And then, you know, periodically, pretty regularly, I'm going to talk to you about what you're reading about. I think it was just a brilliant Christian dad move. Because I want to tell you, I discovered again how much I love to read. I also discovered that I also like to sleep. And so there was this happy development that my father would tell me that he would often come in just to check on me, to make sure I was on schedule and I would already be asleep with the book right on my chest. He would remove the book and just make sure I was in good shape and then leave me to sleep. I find that to be a very tender memory, I have to tell you. But I also want to say I think it had a lot to do with the way I read. I'm not saying that is the perfect answer for Christian families today. I'm just saying I am really thankful that my parents, my mom and dad, but in particular my dad in that particular issue. And quite frankly, he expected a very clear obedience, but he made that just a part of how he was raising me and how he wanted to encourage me to read. I just want to tell you, it was a real incentive. I am not writing this out as a prescription for Christian parents. I'm just telling you this did make a big difference in my life. When I see this kind of news report, it makes me all the more thankful from my own parents. All right, one other big headline also about teenagers, and this is a big issue for the summer. Here's the headline. This appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Rowan Fryer of the Manhattan Institute offers this article, quote, why teenagers stopped working in the Summer. Okay, so let me just tell you some of the skeletal details of this article. We're talking about teenage summer employment going way, way down. And it's been in a falling pattern now for a number of decades. As Fryer writes, quote, unquote, the share of 16 to 19 year olds holding a job has fallen by a third since 1979, from 48.5% to 31.1%. Yet the teenage unemployment rate, the share of teens looking for work who can't find it, is lower today at 14% than the 16% registered in 1979. He goes on to explain, Split that 17 point drop in employment into its sources and the lopsidedness shows why. He concludes about 18 points come from teenagers leaving the workforce, while roughly 1 point pushes the other way because those who do now look for work, they find work more easily. He then makes this astounding statement, quote, teenagers didn't lose jobs, they stopped wanting them. End quote. Okay, so you look at this and say, okay, teenagers are lazy. That's not actually the point of the article. The point of the article is that we now are in changed economic circumstances. And the good that did come into the lives of so many teenagers through a summer job, just learning work habits, learning responsibility, learning how to work together, learning how to earn a wage, learning how to work for an employment employer, and then furthermore, learning how to make some money, and by the way, learning how much of it is paid in taxes. And then also coming to understand how to work with a supervisor, how to work with colleagues. The Protestant work ethic, as it was known, transformed the world in the wake of the Reformation. And the Christian work ethic is central to all of Western civilization. And as a matter of fact, it's not just a Christian work ethic, it's a work ethic that comes directly out of creation order in Genesis, chapter one. Okay, so here's that astounding line. Teenagers didn't lose jobs, they stopped wanting them. It's not equal across the economic spectrum. So it does turn out that when you look at a lot of middle class teenagers, parents earning something, you know, in the range of 100, $150,000 maximum, it turns out a greater percentage of them are looking for jobs. And it's because, by the way, this would be explained by a lot of classical economics in just saying that the of majority middle class, it tends to produce workers. That's what it does. It understands the importance of work, the centrality of work and the good of work. It is also clear that there's a jobs crisis among lower income Americans. And so some of the very kids who need jobs because they actually need the money, they don't have access to the jobs. And that's because a lot of these jobs aren't in say, big cities. A lot of these jobs are distributed elsewhere. And for instance, you go to your local amusement park, you're likely to a lot of a lot of teenagers at work or in other areas, including at least historically, agriculture. But then again at the upper level. Okay, that is where things get really interesting because one of the points made in this article by Roland Fryer. Well, let me just read to you what he says. Quote, why did they leave? That means the workforce, the price of a teenager's time, changed sharply. The wage premium a college degree brings roughly doubled between the late 1970s and 2000, from about 40% to nearly 80%. The hour a 16 year old once spent folding shirts at the Gap now carries a much higher opportunity cost. Spend it instead on anything that bends the arc toward college and the lifetime payoff is significantly larger. So you have wealthier Americans who are sending their teenagers on experiences or enrolling their teenagers in programs that are likely to help build both the knowledge base for college and for the exams and application process for college and also for building a resume, so to speak. Let me just speak honestly. When I was applying for college, you didn't need a resume. You needed to take the ACT or the sat. You needed to send in your grades, you needed to have some references, but you didn't have to tell about all the summers you spent in Africa trying to discover lost minerals. That was just not part of it. These days, when it comes especially to the most elite private universities and also the elite public universities, and when it comes to the wealthiest parents in America, they are investing in experiences. Their teenagers are not for folding shirts at the Gap. Okay, so I'm not going to go much further into this. I think the article itself is very interesting, but I think it does raise a lot of issues that aren't in this article at all for Christians. Theological, biblical issues. We understand that the development of work habits and a work ethic are a part of growing up into adulthood. And something big is lost. I think when teenagers no longer have a job, but they only have, say, experiences. Experiences, by the way, that can be very expensive. And yes, they might help to build a college resume. But on the other hand, I think Christians have to understand also what is lacking, because a lot of the same people trying to build those college resumes and the parents pushing for them, they also really aren't thinking so much about, say, marriage and children on the other side of that college. Instead, when they blink, they see dollar signs. Christians don't deny the dollar signs. We have to see a whole lot more. Okay. I was in Orlando, Florida, earlier this week for the meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. That's the annual meeting in which messengers elected by the churches come together. It is an incredible event. At times, it has been described as one of the largest public meetings, certainly business meetings, in all of American life and certainly in American religious life. It's an unusual gathering. Of course. It's very historic. Lots of important work was done. And I want to refer to the fact that I brought a motion to amend the constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention, and I called it the Truth and Unity Amendment because it has to do with affirming truth and building the unity of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptist Convention identifies churches that are, quote, in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention. That goes back to 1845. And I moved that there be added to the SPC constitution the requirement that a church, in friendly cooperation, quote, does not act to affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor, elder, overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation, end quote. And so I wanted to use historic Baptist confessional language. And this language, by the way, goes all the way back to the Baptist confession of 1689. I wanted to affirm what that confession affirms, which is both office and function. Specifically on the function half of the function of preaching to the assembled congregation. I think that's very central to the convention's concern. Okay, here's the fact. When you look at American denominations, the vast majority of the liberal denominations went liberal, at least in part on this issue. And of course, they just kept going. And, you know, the first thing you know, you're looking at the women's ordination issue, and the next thing you know, you got rainbow flags out front. And I know that offends a lot of people on the left, but it's because it describes so much on the left. I'm glad to say that messengers at the convention approved the proposal by about 75% affirmative vote, and to amend the Constitution takes a 2/3 majority. So that was a supermajority. I'm very thankful for that. But we've got to go back next year when the convention meets in Indianapolis and do it again. So I'll talk more about that at the appropriate time. But I'll just say I think this is the crucial dividing line between the continuing biblical fidelity of denominations that hold to the gospel and to the authority of Scripture and the denominations that I think have abandoned both, or at the very least in the process of negotiating their way out of both. And I want to make certain that that's not true. At the Southern Baptist Convention, I was very gratified by the response of messengers at the meeting. It is interesting. I don't know that this has anything to do with that. And as a matter of fact, there's no reference to it. So my guess is it doesn't. So when we turn to questions, the first question I want to take is one from a listener in New Mexico who asked the question, why has the issue of women teaching in the pulpit become such a primary and divisive doctrinal issue? Okay, well, he asked that. That's the first part of the question. And I'm going to answer that first by saying it is because so many churches over the course of the last several decades, I think, have moved contrary to Scripture in allowing for women pastors and women in the role of pastor, elder, overseer. And I think that is contrary to Scripture. And it's contrary to Scripture, even as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:12, I do not permit a woman to teach. Okay. So this listener actually looks at that language and he says, I'm not discounting the inspiration of the Scriptures, but at the same time, the Apostle Paul seems to have a cultural bias against women. When he says, I do not permit mentioning that text, he then asked, does that necessarily mean that all men should follow suit? Are we not holding women to a nearly 2000 year old educational status that no longer exists? That said, he writes, I do believe that if a woman speaks or teaches, she should be qualified to do so, but so should the men. Being male should not be the only qualification to teach the Bible and preach the gospel. Thank you. Okay, well, thank you for the question. I appreciate the honesty of the question and I want to say I think it's based upon a misunderstanding of what is really at stake here. So number one, you cite the scripture and I want to tell you, yes, I believe we're obligated to follow the Scripture. I do not believe that it is at all faithful to scripture to say that the Apostle Paul was wrong here or that this was just the opinion of the Apostle Paul. That's contrary to our understanding of the inspiration of Scripture in which every word is inspired and every word is fully inspired. And though there's a crucial issue here, when he says that those who teach should be qualified to do so, and then he says being male should not be the only qualification to teach the Bible and preach the Gospel. Okay, I agree wholeheartedly. In other words, the Apostle Paul and the New Testament, given the pattern of the relation and the differences and the sameness, both made in the image of God the difference that is assigned to men and women, or we could even say differences in Scripture, both the Old and New Testament, it's really important to say that not all men are called to preach. As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 2 makes very clear only a small number of men will be called to teach or to preach, to hold this office and to fulfill this function, because this is a gift that is given to particular men. But I just think it's very clear that I think Southern Baptists, for instance, adopting this amendment, and I'm very thankful they took this decisive vote, the first of what will have to be two votes just a matter of days ago in Orlando. I think it is because we understand the Bible is the word of God. The Bible's authority is paramount in the church. Christ reigns in the church as the Lord of the church. And it is his will that the church live by the Scriptures and in accordance with the Scriptures and in obedience to the Scriptures and by the pattern of the Scriptures. I think there is no honest doubt about what that pattern is in the New Testament. I believe that the church until Jesus comes is to hold to that pattern and to do so faithfully and joyfully. And so, yes, to say this listener, I do believe without doubt. And again, I don't know if this has anything to do with the action taken at the Southern Baptist Convention. I do believe this issue is incredibly clear in Scripture. But let's be clear. Being male does not qualify you for the teaching and preaching office, for the office of pastor, elder, overseer. It is certain men, but they are men. But they're men upon whom God has laid this claim and given the gifts. And this has been acknowledged and affirmed and celebrated by the church. Thinking about the authority and inspiration and truthfulness of Scripture, a very interesting question came in from a 13 year old girl. And I really appreciate this question. It's the kind of question that I think I might have asked at the same age. She writes, in Matthew 26:36, 46, when Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane, it is noted several times that the disciples are sleeping. She says, since that is the case, how did Matthew know what Jesus prayed to record in his Gospel? Okay, wow. And I appreciate this young woman writing. This is a very intelligent question. I appreciate it. It shows she's paying attention to the text. Okay, so in other words, what we have here is the knowledge In Matthew chapter 26, number one, we're not told that all the disciples were with Jesus. Instead, as you look at verse 37, he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, that would be James and John. And so here you have Jesus going into the garden, the garden of Gethsemane. And of course, that's so famous to us because of how crucial this is to our understanding of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and how all these things are brought about. And this is so important because it reveals to us dimensions about the Son's relationship with the Father. And so it's really precious to us. And this is where Jesus prays, as you know, in verse 39, my father, father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Okay, so anyway, regardless of whether it's this passage or any other passage, frankly, in the Gospel of Matthew or any of the Gospels, or for that matter, anywhere in Scripture, here's the bottom line. We know there are two authors of Scripture, and that is the human author of Scripture, which in the Gospel of Matthew is none other than Matthew. And then there is the Holy Spirit, the divine author of Scripture. Okay, here's the thing in all of Scripture. In all of Scripture, the Holy Spirit is working through the human authors of Scripture in order to produce the Bible, the word of God exactly as the Holy Spirit intends for it to be. So the Holy Spirit is involved in inspiration. The Holy Spirit is involved in transmission. The Holy Spirit is involved in the perpetuation and preservation of the text. And so the bottom line is, it's a great question coming from this 13 year old. The way Matthew knew this is because the Holy Spirit revealed it to him. And not only that, it's not just say, in a situation in which these three disciples, Peter, James and John were sleeping through much of this, that turns out to be part of the point, even as Jesus rebukes them, especially Peter. But the other part of this is it reveals to us, as we find in all four of the Gospels, some of the inner life of Jesus that is knowledgeable to us only because the Holy Spirit revealed it to these human authors of Scripture and in particular the authors of the four Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So I hope this is helpful. It's a good question. I'm very thankful for a young person, especially a 13 year old, who's thinking so carefully about these things and also reading and studying the Scripture. Here's the good news. Every word of Scripture is inspired. Every word is fully inspired. And the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is necessary for all of Scripture, whether or not the disciples were asleep or awake. All right, for today we have run out of time. I'm glad to receive your questions. Write me@mailbertmuller.com and thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information go to my website@albertmuller.com you can follow me on X or Twitter by going to x.comalbertmohler for information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to spts.edu. for information on Boyce College, just go to boycecollege.com I'll make meet you again on Monday for the briefing.