Inspired by a post found on UTI, which links to Pharyngula that links to DailyKos (whoa) I was brought back to a time when I actually attended two events hosted by Ron Luce and his fundamentalist Teen Mania crusaders. I decided to just go and take a gander at the BattleCry website (which sometimes has a lovely graphic of a youth “joining the coalition” doing a very Hitler/war-esk pose), and at the Acquire the Fire website. (ATF was the name of the event I attended two years in a row in 2001 and 2002. Some of you may or may not know that back in the day, I too had my hands raised high in the air, eyes closed with tears streaming, promising Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, that I would give up my wicked ways of watching too much television and asking for forgiveness for my uncontrollable teenage premarital sexual urges. Instead I would read my bible daily and take the “challenge”to watch no TV or movies for a month, I would also never become pregnant, contract an STD or …re-pop… my cherry with a boy. And you best believe any homosexual tendencies that may have been lingering at the time were also suppressed to the very bottoms of my hellish soul.)

After perusing the website for a while I came across many strange things. One of which was the application form for the Honor Academy (a youth minister factory/college), which asked me to submit a picture of myself, my weight and how many books (other than the bible) I had read in the past year. It was probably the strangest application form I had ever filled out, not only did it insist on me entering my list father guardians name (my dad is dead!) but it also asked me a few “have you ever questions”�. Grouped in with “ever been arrested”� and “been involved with illegal drugs”� are “struggled with homosexuality”� and “struggled with an eating disorder”� as if these are both horrible things as well. The one that really got me was “been involved in a cult” saying no would indicate not being a part of Christianity, no? *zing*

Another page I came across was Crack the Code . If you have Itunes, I suggest you go in and listen to the podcasts that are available. (If you don’t want to sign up, I did. Username: OppLibs Password: kian go ahead and use that.) For those of you who don’t have ITunes, or don’t feel like going in and listening to all of them, I took a half an hour out of my oh so obviously busy schedule and typed out the first podcast that is listed. (Just, as a note, it really was me who typed it all out, so if there are typos, or mistakes totally my fault.)

Crack the Code
Teen Mania Ministries
BattleCry for a GenerationThe photographer thinks hes cracked it
“It’s too complicated, it’s too soon and it’s impossible”
“No it’s true he’s done it”
“If he’s right, this is going to shake the world, to its core!”
“I don’t even think they’re going to believe it. They’ve been convinced of what they believe for so long…”
“For centuries…”
“Their survival depends on it”
“This will change everything…”

Evolution premise #1…The missing link. In the past years there have been numerous discoveries of what evolution has claimed to be the missing link. But, fact, those claims time and again have proven to be false; Nebraska Man, Lucy, Kennewick man… evolutionists now say that none of these are a missing link. Even Charles Darwin the father of the theory of evolution said that the fossil record should be full of many different transitions, not just for man, but for many different species as well.

But note his observation:
“The number of intermediate varieties which have formally existed must be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of sub intermediate links. Geology surely does not reveal any such finely granulated organic chains. And this is perhaps the most obvious and serious objection with can be urged against the theory.” *dramatic crashing sound*

Evolution premise #2…Spontaneous generation, which is defined as life coming from non-life all by its self. Fact: From the mouth of a Nobel Prize winning evolutionist

“There are only two possibilities to how life arose; one is spontaneous generation arising to evolution. The other is a supernatural created act of God, there is no third possibility. Spontaneous generation that life arose from non-living matter was scientifically disproved 120 years ago by Louis Pasteur and others. That leaves us with the only other possible conclusion that life arose as a supernatural created act of God. I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God, therefore I chose to believe what I know is scientifically impossible.”
*dramatic crashing sound*

Evolution Premise #3…Mutation. Evolution says that mutations can play an important role in the development and advancement of any surviving species. Fact: There has never been a documented case of a beneficial mutation that hasn’t involved in a loss in genetic material or that has created a new species. Things don’t mutate into new things. A mutation doesn’t produce major new raw material. You don’t make a new species my mutating a species. That is a common idea that people have, that evolution is due to random mutations. A mutation is not the cause of evolutionary change. *dramatic crashing sound*

Evolution Revelation The title of the book that details Darwin’s evolution concepts is called The Origin of Species, but the full and not so often referred to complete title of Darwin’s book is “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” What does he mean by “favored races” here are his own words:
“The more civilized and so called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence, looking to the world at a no very distant date what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world.”
*dramatic crashing sound and music*

[these words fly across the screen while dramatic music continues:]
“It’s taught in school, to everyone. It’s accepted as fact by millions. We’ve bought it because they said it was true. But we’ve only been told half of it. Makes you wonder, what else have we bought?”

This is your brain, these are your ears. This is the evidence. Will you hear? Random chance or design? Which is more believable? The next time you crack the code, ask who designed it. For answers go to battlecry.com

The entirety of the Crack the Code section is on how evolution is horrible, and intelligent design is totally fucking awesome. I dont even know where to start on that first podcast without typing all night and not getting any sleep before I have to get up for work tomorrow. But it cleverly leaves out a lot whats in Darwins book thats actually important, for example that during sexual reproduction no two individuals mating will be the same, resulting is rampant variations or the species, which is heritable � then the idea that it is the characteristics that will be more likely to survive. And that modern DNA evidence backs up Darwins claim of the possibility that there is a comment ancestor for all life. You can get a PDF of Origin of Species. A few other things of interest inside the members only zone is Take God to Prom� and Teens and MySpace�. Imagine how cool youd be if freaking god was your prom date!

“Now for some Christian teens, this night poses a huge dilemma. Before they can even think of how to act at prom, they need to decide, “Should I go to prom?” These Christians are wondering if they can really make this a memorable occasion without compromising their morals.Some would say “no”, because prom is nothing more than a group of hormone-driven teenagers dancing way too close and staying out too late.”

I know at my proms, we all got naked and had a competition to see which couple could have sex in the most bathroom stalls in 4 minutes. Oh and at the end of the article

“*You are welcome to republish this article once you include the following text and link at the end of the article:Read youth culture news, youth ministry articles and join the fight for America’s young people at http://www.battlecry.com”

There, I have included the text and link, but dont really urge anyone to join the fight and only to go to battlecry.com so …well, laugh a little bit. The second article on blogging is a warning to not let out too much information� and to let everyone know that there is a safe community now launched on battlecry.com so the Christians can flock and not worry about meeting any heathens that may have went to prom AND a prom party! *tsk tsk*

The sites are very vigorous about making the point of todays youth generation being destructed. Because of this intolerant destruction we must restrict peoples rights to abortions, we must not be seduced by the ‘fabricated idea of sex and love, we need to reach out to societies around the world by converting them and we must keep God in our schools etc. According to these sites, there is a war going on, and there are millions of casualties, but this is not a war over oil, or human rights, it is a war against Christian youth. See this video for more on the tragic war:

All of this brought up my past experiences as ATF, and looking back now I cant even believe what they were doing to me. They had me and four of my friends calling ourselves The God Squad�. The very first day I was there I thought I had been “saved”�, and I was on my knees, holding the hands of two complete strangers crying to the heavens and asking Ron Luce to forgive me. There were over 17 500 youth (thats how many seats there are in the building, but the floor was also filled) in that building, singing song and raising their hands in the air swallowing every word that came out of Ron Luces mouth and never questioning a single thing. The first time, I didnt think anything was wrong, I felt in my place, and I felt loved. The theme was called “Unshakeable”. Meaning we would never stray from god’s path for us. The second time I went I felt sick, and like everyone in the building had been brainwashed. I don’t even remember the theme for that year, the most recent theme was “Run to the Battle”. (After a look on the wikipedia entry for Teen Mania, the theme my second year was “Live the Difference”)

I plan on going to a few events this summer to be ‘in the moment’, only with an enlightened and open mind. I dont really know what my reaction is going to be towards all of it, and my plan is to talk to a few of the youth, and see if theyve even questioned their beliefs. My prediction is that they havent, and that they are content not knowing, and that they will insist that I need to go question mine.

However, that is all for now. Take a gander at this Anti-Teen Mania site, its kind of good and remains interesting for at least 15 minutes.