Karen Keen comments on the generation gap between conservative Christian adults and their teenage children.

Specifically, she observes, 80 percent of teens in Christian youth groups have gay friends and acquaintances — which is a big surprise to parents. Keen, who speaks to youth groups and church conferences and favors ex-gay resources, says she struggles for access to conservative churches, whose leaders believe she’s irrelevant because they mistakenly assume there are no gay people, nor friends of gay persons, within their churches.

Conservative Christian youth want practical answers to difficult questions, Keen says, but many churches — preoccupied, perhaps, with politics — have yet to offer them.