I came upon this website today called http://www.battlecry.com that is affiliated with the National Association of Evangelicals and the popular revivalist youth movement made nationally recognizable by events such as "Acquire the Fire."
The website's homepage is basically reminiscent of many popular internet communities such as MySpace.com or Xanga.com. It features members (under the euphemism “Battle Plans”), upcoming events, news, and other such information that relates more or less to the Evangelical youth movement. I must say, looking at this I am hovering somewhere between intrigued and sardonically amused, and am not completely sure how to take this. But, not wanting to pass judgment too quickly I browsed into the info section of the website entitled “The Crisis.”
“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.”
That’s the first paragraph on the page. Is it more the back of a B-class action DVD or a reddish-tinted propaganda flier from the mid-80’s? I can’t decide. But still, I’m only in the first paragraph, maybe there’ll be some qualification.
The next section goes on to explain in somewhat more reserved diction about how the media and moguls of popular culture are creating a social environment that is dangerously amoral and casual toward portents of great sanctity to the Christian (along with a series of citation-less statistics to back it up). Okay, I’d agree with that…the tone seems a little heavy-handed, but the message certainly seems true. Next:
“The Battle Cry Campaign works by uniting all of us into one powerful and engaged force. The purpose of the Campaign is to fully realize the potential power of the local church youth group by providing a support structure that will help them grow in numbers while discipling this generation. It calls for at least 100,000 local churches and individuals to join the Battle Cry Coalition and commit to the planning, prayer and work required to grow their youth group. Together, we hope to grow the average youth group size from 12 to 300 teens within the next five years.”
Bam. There it is. The first and largest problem that I have with the ideology that I feel that has been thrown at me from first following a link to the site. That whole paragraph seeks to solve the previously identified problems of modern culture by getting youth groups to “grow in numbers.” Another link off of the main page points you to an article published in the New York Times (http://www.battlecry.com/pages/nytimesarticle1.php) with regard to the Evangelical youth movement. It quoted Ron Luce (a pastor who is a figurehead of the movement and founder of Teen Mania) comparing the number of kids his Acquire the Fire events attract to Paul McCartney’s power as a star. Umm…okay…aren’t you trying to get away from popular culture?
The thing is (and don’t listen to me folks, these are the words of Jesus) it’s not about the numbers. And I quote “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20 NKJV). In that same news article it talked about a high school student who was disappointed that his bible study only attracted 8 people. I think that this mentality of “Uh-oh, the numbers are down” is completely a product of the culture that these people are striving so hard against. In my experience with the greater Christian community, and more pointedly in America, there is such a drive to sway the masses and have huge attendances and to be able to tell the people who gave money to your mission trip to Africa that “300 people prayed the sinners prayer!” Why? Again, the Bible talks about heaven rejoicing at the changing of one soul, so why do we make these people into impersonal statistics? Look at our culture. So many of the things that it promotes are evident in this very expression (that being the implicit and explicit mission of this website, movement, etc.) of Christianity: vast and breathtaking numbers, hip, charged messages that are grand in concept but devoid of depth (example: the opening paragraph of the info section), a taste for the dramatic, and the list goes on. In my opinion, this is a website that isn’t fighting culture…it is conforming to it in thoughtless ways! Beyond the problems that I have with the concept of living one’s life striving to meet the “don’ts” of the law rather than working hard for the principles of the “do’s” (see my previous note if you have no idea of what I speak), I really have a problem with a website that probably shares much of its source code with MySpace and probably owes 90% of its style elements to MTV decrying those things. I mean, it would be like me going on a campaign against the automotive industry by touring in a big Ford bus.
To sort of restate my point and refocus my thoughts: There is too much impersonal externalization with the strategies of this movement.
A) The whole numbers and quantity thing. Why does it matter if that at the current rate of religious decay only 4-5% of the current generation will be “bible-believing Christians” in adulthood (not kidding, read the Times article). Not to say that the concept is negative, but at the same time, I think that the solution isn’t trying to send letters to MTV and protesting Victoria’s Secret ad campaigns. It is to constantly and consistently work toward a life that mimics the principles exemplified by the life of Jesus. What if we did get MTV to shut down or change? Do you think that would stop all of this? Do you really think that something else wouldn’t pop back up in its place? I think that the type of proactive Christianity that needs to happen is the type that deals with motivation of self. Believe me, there’s a lot more bad in the world than MTV and internet porn, and most of it is in the small things that I choose to ignore EVERY SINGLE DAY about myself. How about starting there? Lets work hard to improve ourselves at the most basic level and we may find that in doing, we are combating these things which have been pointed out. We may also find that we grow in number, because there truly will be something different about us. More importantly though, we will be growing ourselves in quality.
B) They say that they want to combat the negative impact of popular culture, but they do so in a format that mimics it (and I don’t just mean they have an internet community…check out the website and you’ll see what I mean). I heard a story the other day about a Baptist Collegiate Ministries group playing drinking games with Sprite (and only Sprite) because “It kind of burns when you drink it in shots!” Sorry folks, but I’m calling bullshit on that. I hope that it is obvious why, but if not, I’ll go into it later.
Listen to me or don’t. This is just my opinion, though I believe it to be founded upon some key spiritual truths and principles that are often overlooked by the Christian community of today. Lets just live to do what’s right and trust that as we diligently seek that, all in opposition will ultimately fall.
-Spencer-
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