In this YouTube video from 1897, Mr. Thompson and his local vicar complain about the church’s inability to reach young people.
VICAR: Say, Mr. Thompson, do you remember how you’ve spent countless hours in the past month taking your children to the local cricket games but haven’t spent more than five minutes in the past decade praying with your children or reading the Bible to them or talking with them about Jesus?
MR. THOMPSON: Yes.
VICAR: Well, perhaps the reason your children are dreadfully uninterested in the church is because you’ve never given them any indication that the church is worth their interest.
MR. THOMPSON: Pish-posh!
VICAR: Yes, you’re right, positively poppycock! I can’t believe I suggested it. Surely another reason must be to blame for the mass apostasy of modern youth.
MR. THOMPSON: Say, Vicar, do you recall how in the last year of your sermons you’ve devoted 2,832 minutes to chiding us for not loving the Lord as much as he desires and spent a mere five minutes to telling us that God loves us so much that he gave us the forgiving blood of Jesus?
VICAR: Oh, yes, I’m quite proud of that ratio!
MR. THOMPSON: Well, perhaps the reason our youth don’t come to hear you preach the gospel is because you never actually preach the gospel.
VICAR: Balderdash!
MR. THOMPSON: Yes, flimmity-flammity-flim-flam of the first degree! Can’t believe the thought even crossed my mind. Therefore only one option remains to explain the pestilential spiritual indifference of our youth.
VICAR: You mean…?
MR. THOMPSON: Yes, Vicar, this is clearly the first generation in the history of the world that is incapable of believing the gospel unless it is presented to them within the context of the day’s popular secular music.
VICAR: Great sausage pudding, Mr. Thompson, I believe you’re correct!
This video comes to us by way of the Lutheran Satire channel.