NEW YORK — Hundreds of teenagers huddled together on a chilly
February afternoon in Times Square, not far from where the
crowds pack in to see "Total Request Live."
The name they were chanting was no pop star — instead they
jumped up and down yelling "Jesus, Jesus!"
The group, organized by the Texas-based Christian group Teen
Mania Ministries, was in the Big Apple for an event called
"Recreate," during which participants announced a desire to
"recreate" music, film, fashion, television and other media to
remove explicit language and imagery.
The teens waved signs with slogans like, "Life doesn't have
any makeup tests" and, "If God seems far away, who moved?" There
were singers, dancers, artists and speakers who announced eight
questions to be sent to the presidential candidates, including,
"What should be done to stop glamorizing the things that are
destroying my friends, like drugs, alcohol and sex?" And, "How
will you ensure that my freedom to practice Christianity will
not be taken away?"
Rebecca Bjerke, 21, from Phoenix, explained why she came to
the rally: "To make change for our generation, to just stand up
and say, 'We're tired of all the filth. ... You know, music and
songs that are constantly so negative — just making us numb to
the abuse of alcohol and drugs and sex and pornography and all
that kind of stuff."'
Bjerke came to the rally, which kicked off a two-day Christian
event for teens, with two other young women who once banned
together to protest the sale of "pornaments" — pornographic
Christmas ornaments — at the gift store Spencer's in Phoenix.
Bjerke said she's concerned the entertainment industry puts
too much emphasis on negative world views, explicit language and
sexual imagery, and that innocence is being taken away from her
generation. She said America saw happier, more wholesome times
50 years ago, when the problems were different and, in her view,
less serious.
"Maybe you were talking in class or chewing gum or
something," she said. "But now you have people who show up to
class with drugs or guns. I mean, how much worse does it have to
get before somebody says or does something?"
Ron Luce, president and founder of Teen Mania, says the main
difference between then and now is that marketing has gotten way
more sophisticated, and the younger generations are courted for
their brand loyalty by any means possible.
"Why does somebody have to dress up in a bikini to sell a
hamburger to somebody?" he said, giving an example of how an
advertiser might use "very non-innocent ways" to market to young
people.
Protesters staging their own demonstration across the street
from the "Recreate" rally said Luce's organization encourages
young people to toss aside critical thought and follow their
Christian leaders blindly.
They held an almost block-long sign that said, "AWAY WITH ALL
GODS!" Megaphone in hand, they were at times louder than the
hordes of "Jesus"-chanting teens, though far fewer in number.
"They think the problem is that people are disconnected and
alienated in society because they don't believe in Jesus," said
Debra Sweet, one of the protesters, and national director of the
group World Can't Wait, an anti-Bush organization.
"These are hard-core Christian fundamentalists leading youth
— high-school students — really, on the moral equivalent of a
crusade," she said.
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