Rebecca McLaughlin’s book 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity is a book that I believe lives up to its title. As the title states, she presents ten key issues that are often brought against Christianity, and she lays out answers to each issue that are biblically and logically sound in regard to why we can put our faith in God, the Bible, and the teachings of Christianity. This is a book in the study of apologetics (defending what we believe), and I think it is a valuable resource to teens who have grown up in the church and want to know how to defend their faith better, as well as to teens who may be wrestling through these questions themselves.
While the topic of apologetics can be scary and intimidating, McLaughlin does a great job presenting and answering the questions in a way that is attainable really to anyone age ten and older. She does a great job pulling relevant analogies from pop culture that most teens are familiar with, making these concepts clear and easy to understand. She also ends each chapter with a helpful summary page that presents the key points of the issues and her answers to them.
Some of the issues she engages with in this book include things like: How can we trust the Bible? If God is good, why is there evil? and, Why should we trust Christianity’s view on relationships rather than the world’s? (Note to parents: She does tackle some questions regarding relationships, and LGBTQ issues, including struggles of her own past. She herself states that she writes about these in a way that she would be comfortable with her ten-year-old daughter reading [p. 17], and I too think she answers them in a way that is both biblical and helpful, without going into too much details.)
These are all questions that if you (parent or teen) have not been asked by someone (or wrestled with yourself), you likely will be at some point. Her answers to these questions are sound and biblically based. I think she also does a very good job keeping in mind that these are questions that real people have, so her discussions about them are filled with compassion and fueled by the desire to show love to all people while calling them to trust in the perfectly good truth of who God is and how he created us to live. This is a relatively short book (about 180 pages), and I think it is well worth the time to read, whether you are a teen or a parent!
*This book is now available in our church library*
