Skins and Sins

If you are a parent of children or teenagers, or plan on becoming one in the next few years, then I would recommend that you watch an episode of E4 teen drama, "SKINS". Now in its fourth series, this BAFTA Award winning 'soap' follows the lives of fictional teenagers attending a local college.

One of the main characters is called 'Freddie' and is played by the actor Luke Pasqualino. Interviewed recently on Channel 5, he was asked if SKINS was a true and accurate representation of teen life today. Although he acknowledged some of it has been 'glamorised' to make good tv, he agreed. I watched the first episode of the new series and I would agree with Pasqualino: SKINS does capture something of the zeitgeist of modern day teenagers and helps us understand the sort of culture in which they have to live in 21st Century Britain. We must not be naive and it concerns me that so many of us really have no idea what teens have to contend with today and most importantly, what our role is in equipping and supporting young men and women of God through whom the power of His Holy Spirit will flow, to save and disciple this next generation.

Be warned though, SKINS is not for the faint hearted and is peppered with expletives, full of drunkenness, casual drug abuse, aggression and sexual immorality. It will offend your spirit but you will be under no illusions about what young people are up against today and, in my view, will help you pray more strategically and with greater insight; we need to know our enemy (i.e. the devil, not young people).

Listen to what Paul writes in 2 Tim 3:1-5 (The Message), "Don't be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust and allergic to God."

SKINS captures this perfectly.

This Blog entry is not designed to depress you nor produce fear in you. I believe that Jesus has defeated the enemy and we (including our teenage kids) can live in the fullness of that victory today. He is just as relevant to day as He was 2000 years ago and seeing these characters in SKINS act out lives that are not that dissimilar from most teens today, should spur us on to share this message and equip our own youth to do the same. I am a firm believer that the best evangelists for young people are young people! As society gets darker, the light of Christ will burn brighter and brighter in the lives of His true disciples and, as we know from the Bible, the power of His Gospel can and will make a difference that will be evident to all.