Today's Teen News 

'TEEN PREPARE FOR CULTURAL WAR'

GRAND RAPIDS -- The battle lines have been drawn between a greedy entertainment media empire that glamorizes sex and drugs and an army of teens ready for combat.

Among those in the ranks of the young is Justine Wells. The Tri County High School senior considers herself a veteran in the fight against profit-motivated media outlets that can prey on the morality of defenseless teens.

She is confident victory is assured for those enlisted in the Lord's army.

"In the media, you see all these magazines where the girls are tiny, tiny, tiny and it influences even the skinniest girls to become anorexic," said Wells, 18. "Kids are depressed. They cut themselves and turn themselves to sex and alcohol to satisfy their need for God.

"We're fighting the devil's ways of getting in your life."

Learning to ward off entertainment media's sexually charged messages is a key reason Wells signed on to attend Teen Mania Ministries' Acquire the Fire rally next weekend at Van Andel Arena.
She will be in good company. Already, 5,800 have registered to absorb the high-energy rally's message, with a projected 6,500 expected, said Jamin Wunderink, director of recruitment for Grand Rapids Acquire the Fire.

Despite its good intentions, some of Acquire the Fire's rhetoric is disquieting to those who say its intolerance against homosexuals and militaristic tone skew Jesus' message of peace and love.

The Rev. Jim Lucas, chaplain for the Grand Rapids-based support group Gays in Faith Together, agrees too many movies and commercials glorify promiscuity, but the cost of getting that message across is too high for gay teens struggling to integrate their faith with their sexual orientation.

"That kind of message causes an enormous amount of unnecessary struggle and pain for the teenager who is realizing that he or she is attracted to others of the same sex," Lucas said.

"You are shoving gay youth out of the Christian community because you're telling them they're not welcome there."

Ron Luce, founder and president of Garden Valley, Texas-based Teen Mania Ministries, said it is inevitable some people will misunderstand the rally's intent, which is to ignite a passion for God and douse entertainment media's sensual flames.

"We're there to show how great it is to be with Jesus," Luce said. "The militaristic language is more of a description of what is happening to young people. They're already being plundered by the media. We're just teaching them to have a backbone in their faith."

Gay teens who attend the rally will find the same love and acceptance as any others who need to redirect their lives from sin, Luce said.

"If we're an army at all, let's be the army of love instead of just being blown over by what the culture tells us to do," said Luce.

High energy

Acquire The Fire rallies are packed with drama, pyrotechnics, worship, gung-ho-for-Jesus messages, and Christian rock -- all aimed at telling teens they are in a cultural war, and Luce is leading the charge.

That plays well with teens not into the traditional "church thingy," said Josh Waldon, a home-schooled student in Howard City, who attended a Teen Mania BattleCry rally last year in Detroit.

"It just really pumps me up, gets me excited and inspires me to talk to my friends about God," said Josh, 15.

It's all intended to counterbalance a free marketplace and free speech that Luce said has run amok with sexually charged video games, music videos, advertisements and movies that veer young people to premarital sex and teen pregnancy.

"In the name of trying to be cool and relatable, they rule kids by entreating in them values that are virtually destroying them," said Luce, who holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and theology from Oral Roberts University and a master's in counseling psychology from the University of Tulsa.

Staying connected

The rally will encourage teens to stay connected with Teen Mania through its character and leadership development internship program, summer camps and the Center for Creative Media Production school that offers courses in production, acting and production management.

A few of those students join Teen Mania's staff. It never entered Wunderink's mind that he one day would be one of those when he attended an Acquire the Fire rally in 2003. The Allendale Township native immediately signed up for the ministry's summer internship program and was soon hired.

"I'm able to expand and grow with ministry doing a lot of stuff through international missions and domestic rallies," said Wunderink, 25. "It's an opportunity to have a lot of influence in changing the culture."

Turning the cultural ship around is what the Rev. Jorge Ballivian hopes for.

The Grace Community Bible Church youth pastor said he is tired of immoral sludge seeping into teens' spiritual lives. That is the reason he is working with six other churches in the Howard City area to take 180 teens to the two-day rally.

Ballivian said teens get a chance to rally around "some values, including abstinence, staying free from drugs, pursuing a life committed to Jesus Christ and making a difference in their culture not being branded by their culture.

"When they invite kids to come down (to accept Christ) the floor is filled. It's like static electricity. You know it's God working among youth."