An Atheist Yankee in Ron Luce’s Court:
My Visit to the
Shaun P. McGonigal
Thousands of young Christians gathering together to listen to rock bands, abstinence-based sex education, and anti-secular media polemics gathered together at the Wachovia Spectrum in South Philadelphia during the weekend of May 12th. Christ-o-palooza you say? Not exactly. With military imagery and language, a video greeting from George W. Bush, and a constant bashing of a secular worldview, this was much more than a rock concert sprinkled with Jesus talk.
Battle Cry is supposed to be a solution for a media-brainwashed generation plagued with moral uncertainty and “dangerous” messages. Whatever else we can say of it Battle Cry is indeed a solution. The question is whether it is the correct approach to what a very conservative group of Christians sees as a problem with our culture and whether it addresses the correct issues. The answer is a resounding ‘NO’!
The fact that I’m an atheist, and therefore admittedly biased against the message being carried by Ron Luce and his organization, Teen Mania (which is responsible for the recent Battle Cry events) does not invalidate all the criticism that will be thrown at them from this metaphorical pulpit. I don’t believe the Battle Cry solution is wrong only because I disagree with their beliefs, but because I do not trust their intentions. They claim to be a solution to a problem with secular culture when it seems they are simply in competition with the mass media they claim is manipulating today’s youth.
The fact is that there are many Christians and other non-atheists who are equally as critical of this movement for a number of reasons including, but not limited to their use of military imagery and language, questionable statistics used to bolster their arguments in support of (for example) abstinence, and their openly anti-homosexual agenda. It will not be my intention to offer a comprehensive account of these criticisms, but rather to focus on a particular set of issues that Battle Cry addresses; the media and its secular influence on teens.
Their primary issue is to prevent secular brainwashing. The solution, it seems, is to do some brainwashing themselves.
The night before
Battle Cry came to Philadelphia, I attended a meeting held by The World
Can’t Wait (WCW; www.worldcantwait.org),
which is an organization that is concerned about the current administration as
well as issues dealing with the threat of a theocratic-like control that
movements like Teen Mania seem to support.
Also present at this meeting was the authors of www.acquiretheevidence.com who
have been following and criticizing Ron Luce and his ministries for more than 7
years. The picture that they painted for
us was both unsettling and insightful, and any serious investigation of Ron
Luce or his Teen Mania Ministries must go through them.
What became clear is
that there are many people who are concerned with declining church attendance,
especially with young people. The
problem, as Luce and his Teen Mania Ministries sees it, is that most teenagers
are having a secular worldview “crammed down their throats” (his words), and
are therefore buying into a lie. The
result is STDs, pregnancy, and moral depravity on a large scale. The solution is, of course, Jesus. By convincing young people that a life “in
Christ” is preferable to the secular culture around them, more young people
will become active in their churches, and the declining church attendance will
reverse in order to help those in charge of those churches to climb out of
debt.
The Battle Cry
events themselves are only the cannon from which thousands of fired up
evangelists will hit the schools, their friends, and anywhere else that their
“battle cry” leads them. The battle is a
long-term strategy to make sure that the “war” between the secular world and
the evangelical Christian one continues to have Christian soldiers. The battlefield is the cultural
marketplace. The issues are gay
marriage, abortion, sex outside of marriage, and other conservative Christian
agenda that, if Teen Mania is successful, would initiate a culture of
restricted freedom. The language and
rhetoric is presented in unambiguously militaristic tones intended to amplify
the so-called culture wars. The secular
world is the enemy. And by secular, they
seem to mean anything that doesn’t share their limited worldview of Biblical
Law.
With this in mind, I
traveled down to the stadium to see for myself the training ground for an opponent
that I’m not at war with. And from what
I saw, the message was beginning to stick with many of the trainees, but
thankfully not the militaristic tone.
They were, of course, more than happy to speak with me and the protesters
from WCW and thus lively (but mostly friendly) discussion ensued. They did not treat us as enemies, but rather
as people who they simply did not understand.
I admitted to seeing some problems with mass media and popular culture,
but I don’t believe that the Bible is the answer or that any battle is necessary. I
believe that these kids who see a problem with their generation have the
ability to solve the problems without any battle cries or discriminatory
ideologies. I don’t think they need Ron
Luce at all; I rather think Ron Luce needs them.
I wasn’t going with
the intention of discussing the finer points of atheism or Christianity, but
rather to observe the phenomenon myself in order to better understand the
propaganda. I wanted to see how the message
was presented and how it was being received.
But when confronted with a group of evangelicals in an event such as
this, an atheist is quickly put in a position to explain their position and
becomes quickly surrounded by a dozen or more interested set of ears and
tongue.
I took the time to
try and explain the atheist position, and found myself having to defend myself
against ideas that seemed filled with fear and misunderstanding. The dislike of homosexuality—lack of comfort
with most expressions of sexuality in general, actually—and anger at a world
that seemed intent on manipulating them was resonating with most of those with
whom I spoke. It was a perfect fertile
ground for planting the seeds of Ron Luce’s agenda, and it was starting to work
already. While talking with some people
there, I was offered a free pass to enter the stadium and see the event
myself. I happily accepted and went in.
The primary dangers
that the contemporary teen in America has to deal with, according to Ron Luce,
is their enslavement to the media and what it tries to sell. Here is a quote from Battle Cry’s website:
A stealthy enemy has infiltrated
our country and is preying upon the hearts and minds of 33 million American
teens. Corporations, media conglomerates, and purveyors of popular culture have
spent billions to seduce and enslave our youth. So far, the enemy is winning.
But there is plenty we can do. We need to take action. We need to answer the
Battle Cry.
Again and again, the
media was accused of manipulating young people in order to sell an image and a
lifestyle to teens. Sex, pornography,
and “lies” about safe sex are helping destroy our youth while the media is
helping uphold a secular worldview that, according to Teen Mania, is dangerous
and untrue.
Battle Cry brought
these predominantly young Christians together to address a problem with the
secular world that presents
I applaud them for
being so aware and wanting action. At
least that is what I heard while listening to various speakers as well as those
to whom the message was intended. One
teen from the
I rebuke Ron Luce
and Teen Mania Ministries for offering a parochial and disingenuous course of
action as response to the perceived crisis.
They commit one of the most common logical fallacies, one that pervades
the vast majority of evangelical Christian argument; the fallacy of false
choice. Teen Mania declares that
For example, Adbusters
has been dealing with issues related to media manipulation for some time as
well. Their methods are not based upon
the same ideas as Teen Mania, but they are addressing a similar problem. The popularity of Adbusters
seems to lend credibility to the ideas that the problem is real and that young
people are aware of it. It seems that
the current young generation has internalized this approach to consumer culture
and is fed up with it. Great! But it begs the question; why do they need a
Battle Cry then? If they are already
aware of the problem, and from what I saw while there they seem very aware of
it, why do they need Ron Luce and Teen Mania Ministries?
It looks like, on
the surface, Teen Mania is promoting that young people stop being slaves to a
consumer culture that is simply trying to make money by selling products and
ideas that help further endorse those types of products. It looks like an organization that is trying
to free young people from the bonds of marketing manipulation; a culture of
instant gratification ruled by emotion.
To me, it looks like a brilliant ad campaign that is attempting to pull
young people away from one market to another.
After all, to register for the event was neither free nor cheap, and
during the event Ron Luce asked people to contribute to evangelical causes
while hundreds of volunteers passed buckets down the aisles.
Further, there are
Christian-oriented media affiliated with Teen Mania, such as Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham, which stand to gain much from
shifting teen attention from MTV to their various programs. Think how much Pat Robertson and the 700 Club would benefit with a loyal
audience younger than 21 for the next 50 years.
This looks more like a long-term marketing strategy than the saving of
souls.
I’m willing to
grant, for the sake of argument, that there are some significant issues to be
addressed concerning media-controlled culture.
Unwanted pregnancies, STDs, sexual violence, killing, drug addictions, and
problems with how many young people treat one-another in general are significant
problems. Working at an inner-city
school I see these types of problems all the time, and agree they need to be
addressed. The solution presented by
Teen Mania, however, is not an attempt to help the problem, but rather to
ignore it—literally. Those who attended
the Battle Cry event were not encouraged to challenge the culture around them
or to try and become part of an organized effort to fix it, but rather to move
away from it.
Teens are asked, by Ron
Luce during his sermons, to ignore the lies told to them by people advocating
“safe sex” (referred to as one of the biggest lies of secular culture) and
other things considered sinful in the eyes of Ron Luce’s ministries. This is not a solution to any problem, this
is ignoring the problem to keep a wall between secular culture and those who
choose to live in a world ruled by some vague, discriminatory, and frankly
unethical rules of behavior such as discrimination and repression of rights.
This is the result
of the militaristic imagery. It
separates people and forces them to look at one-another as if across a
battlefield. Instead of seeing those
around them “in sin” as neighbors, they are told to see culture around them as
an enemy. It’s much easier to reproach
the secular world for its sins if they are told to separate themselves from
it. If these Christian teens are told
that they are to separate themselves from and not view themselves as part of
the secular community, then perhaps there is no log in the eye of evangelical
Christians battling against the secular world with mere splinters obstructing
their sight. Instead of reaching out to
help, they draw lines of distinction that makes neighbor-like communication
impossible.
Sex
outside of marriage?
No. Abortion?
Absolutely not! Homosexuality? Not unless you like
hellfire. Condoms?
Not effective. Some
harmless secular music now and then? It will brainwash you to want all
sex and violence. MTV?
Nothing but half-naked women tempting you to sin. Pornography? More
sin encouraging masturbation, which is also a sin. Thinking for yourself?
Only if the conclusions you reach happen to agree with Teen Mania’s interpretation
of the Bible; otherwise you’re being deceived by a set of lies intended to
enslave you.
That, my friends,
sounds like brainwashing to me. It does
not sound like the freedom that sets people free. Those advocating freedom would never ask you
to ignore something, they would ask you to confront and challenge it. Hopefully many of these teens who attended
Battle Cry will do so. If they do, they
can help us try and fix the problems, not simply change the brand name they
buy.
What seems to be
going on here is Teen Mania pulls in the younger people with more energy and
desire to create a solution and leads them towards a very limited
solution. These kids are already the
leaders in many respects because they are there, having made the effort to do
something. The idea is to train the
natural leaders so that they can influence those that follow them, whether
consciously or not. It is a brilliant
but manipulative strategy that will probably work, creating another generation
of brainwashed kids. Some will be
brainwashed by the mass media who are simply trying to make money by use of
enticing ideas, the others will be brainwashed by those who desire to spread
discriminatory ideas while making money.
Choose your evil.
Instead of replacing
one kind of brainwashing with another, why not simply encourage these young
people to use their own abilities to think about these issues on their
own. It is true that mass media does not
generally encourage thinking and is manipulative, so something needs to be
done. The attitude of those with which I
spoke seems to include the necessary energy and ability to think about these
issues, but the Battle Cry message seems to rather herd that energy into a very
narrow channel that stifles independent thought and broad education. It is a highly parochial approach to a
problem that these kids already seem to be willing and able to solve.
Personally, I will
always appreciate the few who don’t allow any large group to manipulate
them. Of course, herding people like
this is kind of like herding cats.
Independent people don’t organize well.
Those that are herded easily are people who, seeing a problem, need
someone so provide a solution. Battle
Cry will have been a success so long as they can win the marketing strategy
against the “secular world.” As for this
secular brainwashing, see my previous article (“secular inconspiracy”);
it simply does not exist. The best way
to brainwash people, it seems, is to convince people that you are combating the
brainwashing by others.
Christianity, in
general, feeds of the insecurities that people have about themselves and the
world around them. In this sense Teen
Mania is merely an extension of this trend, and is therefore not surprising to
see it used here. My criticism of Battle
Cry is a general criticism of conservative Christianity. If people see a problem with the world, a
solution is not to condemn it then separate yourself, but rather to get your
hands dirty and help solve it. The
problem is that what this kind of Christian message does is it tries to
separate our natural desires and expressions as evil and sinful. Therefore, rather than teaching people to be
independent and intelligent thinkers capable of finding good solutions to
problems, they cast the issues aside and declare that they are not going to be
a part of it any more.
This method is both
cowardly and hateful. Cowardly because
they refuse to accept that these natural drives are something to deal with and
not simply discard (Sartre calls this “bad faith”) and hateful because it says
to people living comfortably in the secular world that we are their enemy
either peddling lies or subject to the lies of others. I resent that, and would challenge anyone to
demonstrate how I’m the one brainwashed here rather than those following some
battle cry.
Our youth don’t need
Ron Luce or anyone else to shield a lie in order to point to the truth. The truth points to itself.