Gen X: The Best Generation or the One That Missed It?

To My Fellow Gen-Xers

I love being a Gen-Xer. We’re often referred to as “the only generation that turned 30 at the age of 10 and is somehow still thirty at the age of fifty.” Thankfully, I was not a latchkey kid but many of my peers were. At the ripe old age of ten they were walking home alone from school, letting themselves into an empty house, making a plate of nachos in the giant, wood-paneled, countertop microwave and settling in for an afternoon of watching shows like Fraggle Rock and Double Dare. Now that most of us are entering our 50s–with some already knocking on 60–we are still thirty at heart. Forced to be more mature than our age on the one hand, yet unable to accept that we have long passed the point of those Thirtysomethings our parents watched on TV after we went to bed. We rode our bikes with the neighborhood kids until the street lights came on, put our homework in our Trapper Keeper or Pee Chee folder, and tried really hard to not die of dysentery while playing the Oregon Trail game.

In the 2024 election, Gen X came in clutch for the Republican party by providing a wider margin of votes than in 2020, and we are solidly represented within the Trump administration. Our “just leave us alone” mentality had finally been tested to its limits as we witnessed the inevitable results of untethering society from objective truth and ever encroaching tyranny from the government. Even though we are now in the later stages of parenthood, we raised the first group of kids to have never known what life was like without social media and phones that weren’t attached to the wall. Given this backdrop, it’s no surprise that we in Gen X assume we are the best generation.

But, is it possible that in our arrogance we have missed some very valuable lessons? I don’t want to see us fall into a trap where our refusal to acknowledge where we went wrong stifles our ability to make demonstrable change in our homes, churches, communities and nations.

In the last scene of the movie The Breakfast Club, rebel John Bender (played by Judd Nelson) raises his fist defiantly in the air as he walks across the football field and every teenager watching saw themselves in that moment. But far too many of those teenagers grew up to become helicopter parents who slathered their kids with sunscreen before they even put a toe outside and sent them to therapy at the first sign of discontent.

For all of our ‘I drank water from the garden hose’ attitude, we had a hand in raising the most anxious, medicated, confused, participation-trophy-awarded, social-media-addicted generation in history. The oldest of our kids are on the tail end of being Millennials, while the rest are Gen Z. And, somehow, while we use words like “snowflake” to describe many of them, we’ve excused ourselves of any culpability for them turning out that way.

The most recent data shows that 42% of Gen Z battles with depression and feelings of hopelessness and 61% have been medically diagnosed with an anxiety condition. How can we possibly reconcile the pride we feel over the fact that our growing up years were filled with freedom and independence with the despair of the generations behind us? Generations that we had a hand in molding and shaping? We like to accuse others of cognitive dissonance but I think it’s obvious that there’s quite a bit of that going on with Gen X too.

It would be easy at this point to find a scapegoat and simply point our fingers at the Boomers, since they are currently the oldest living generation, at least in any serious number. But then they could turn around and point their fingers at the few remaining members of the Greatest Generation. And mankind could just keep doing so all the way back to Adam and Eve. Passing along the blame is always preferable to accepting some of it for ourselves. But, that won’t really solve anything, will it? You might think parenting differently absolves you from contributing to society’s decline, but you’re not off the hook. But perhaps that should just make you all the more grateful that God doesn’t still smite entire people groups for their collective moral failings. While we are only really capable of taking individual responsibility for the choices we make, a case could be made that a corporate acknowledgement of each generation’s failings might do wonders.

I’m currently reading through the Old Testament and it is filled with references which speak to the importance of legacy. And I often wonder what might happen if every generation were willing to take a long hard look inside, and recognize where they went wrong.

We are unlikely to have the opportunity for a generational mea culpa, but I do believe that we as Gen Xers can use these years ahead of us to do everything in our power to help right the ship in our culture. We don’t have to slink off into retirement and become senior citizens who love to complain but do very little to actually contribute to the wellbeing of their communities.

For example, we can (and should) vote in school board elections even if we are long past having school-aged kids. Our children might be out of that now, but our grandchildren are in the thick of it. Apathy doesn’t have to be a foregone conclusion. Let’s take that “rebel yell” spirit we are so proud of and translate it into defending our God-given rights and freedoms so that it won’t be even harder for the next generations to do.

Most importantly, Christian Gen-Xers need to take our own biblical illiteracy more seriously, and become students of God’s Word so that we can share the Good News of Christ with the younger people who desperately need to hear it. Gen Z is being drawn towards political and social conservatism in record numbers, but they need to understand what it is that we are actually trying to conserve. Without being rooted in the objective truth and morality found in the Bible, conservatism will inevitably begin to look more like progressivism.

Psalm 145:4 says, “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” It’s painfully obvious to see what happens when a society not only rejects Biblical authority but when those who actually do hold to a Biblical worldview fail in passing that on to the next generation. The charge in Psalm 145 is not to merely talk about the Lord and teach His Word. The instruction is to declare it. We are told to praise His mighty works and the goodness of His commands.

So, my fellow Gen Xers, let’s get to it!