Dueling rallies wage culture war: Christian group goes on the offensive in San Francisco

[stonebone]

By the tens of thousands, Christian teenagers poured into proudly liberal San Francisco on Friday for a two-day evangelical extravaganza at which they would rock, pray and provoke progressives, who accused the movement of working toward a theocracy endangering "San Francisco values."

BattleCry, a cross between a rock concert and a war rally, began with a showdown on the steps of San Francisco City Hall as Christians and progressives judged one another while accusing each side of intolerance.

"These people are no better than the Taliban -- Christian soldiers," said Joel Cook, 47, from Alameda.

On the other side of the philosophical breach, Eden West, a 16-year-old Christian, said of a man holding a sign proclaiming he was both gay and Christian, "If he really loved God, he wouldn't be gay." The dueling rallies were the first course in a two-day evangelical event known as BattleCry, for which 22,000 people were expected at AT&T Park to celebrate God while rejecting aspects of pop culture.

.......

Christian teenagers are the true victims, say BattleCry officials. "A stealth enemy has infiltrated our country and is preying upon the hearts and minds of 33 million American teens," says BattleCry's Web site, which blames corporations and popular culture for spending billions to "seduce and enslave our youth."

Christians are finally speaking up, which may be making people anxious, said David Hasz, director of Teen Mania's Honor Academy, which offers training in leadership and character building. "For too long, the church has sat with their mouths duct-taped, in the closet. We've allowed Christianity to become a private, personal value. We don't believe it's private. We believe it's a worldview."



http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/16875863.htm

[Fresh_Start]

1. How many of these Christians teens volunteer?

You recognize Christians by their actions not by their words.

[flashlighter]

2. "If he really loved God, he wouldn't be gay."

I really don't think God cares. At least mine doesn't...

[HappyWeasel]

4. That sorta sounds like what 14 year old girl would say to get her boyfriend to do something...

You would love me if...

[flashlighter]

9. or the other way around- "If you'd love me you'd put out"!

[HappyWeasel]

14. lol

[mitchum]

27. But what if God is really hot?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

29. Jesus is your date?

Seriously, I have read about teenaged girls urged to imagine Jesus as their date, to take their minds off of sex and keep them pure.

That's exactly why nuns wear wedding rings, because they are "brides of Christ".
Pretty bizarre to me. What does that make priests, "grooms of Christ" too??

[mitchum]

31. It's also bizarre to me...

i used to say that as a teenager I had so much success with Catholic girls because they had been taught to eroticise a skinny near naked man :)

[HappyWeasel]

3. Woah...

that's pretty fucked up....gee talk about neo-McCarthyism.

[Dr.Phool]

5. So many fundies....

So few lions.

[HappyWeasel]

8. Where are the riot police when you need them?

I hope if Guiliani gets nominated that the protesting fundies get "Kent-State"'d at the convention.

[Swamp Rat]

6. Amerikan Taliban

[flashlighter]

Phelps and friends are there own special type of crazy.

[HappyWeasel]

12. why were they let out of the hospital?

[Swamp Rat]

13. Yes, because they follow a madman in total denial.

[Mojambo]

7. It's about time this culture war goes hot.

Let's throw it down.

[HappyWeasel]

11. Can we use WMDs?

So we can rain nuclear and plague-ridden hell fire down on their evil asses?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

30. Locusts, frogs, boils, plagues, anyone??

[TheWatcher]

24. It may be time for that.

They are going to get a rude awakening if they do.

If they cannot co-exist with others let them reap the consequences of not doing so.

They are the one's pushing for confrontation.

I have never wanted it, nor do I wish it. We should be able to come to a higher understanding and find common ground as rational, sane human beings.

But have no illusions little Fake Christian Psychos.....

You come after me and my family.....

Brother.....

You are GOING DOWN.

[ninkasi]

10. Finally speaking up?

From the article...

Christians are finally speaking up, which may be making people anxious, said David Hasz, director of Teen Mania's Honor Academy, which offers training in leadership and character building. "For too long, the church has sat with their mouths duct-taped, in the closet. We've allowed Christianity to become a private, personal value. We don't believe it's private. We believe it's a worldview."

It's news to me, that they've kept quiet. It's hard to escape them trying to enforce a theocracy on the United States. I get disgusted at their victim mentality, because they've been screaming at the top of their lungs for years now. Have Jerry Falwell, Dobson, or Roberts ever had their mouths duct-taped?

I completely agree that they have the right to worship as they please, my disagreement comes in when they try to make ME worship as they please. A 16 year old piously says that if a man holding a sign saying he was both gay and Christian, that if he really loved God, he wouldn't be gay. That's just ignorant. Such smug self-righteousness, from one so young, is sad.

[FVZA_Colonel]

16. "It's news to me, that they've kept quiet."

That is truly what I do not get about right-wing religious groups: this victim mentality that proclaims how incredibly persecuted they are, which holds no water when you look at the power of people like Falwell, Robertson, and Dobson. They just need to think things are like how it was for Christians under the pre-Constantine Roman Empire.

[northofdenali]

23. My thoughts, completely ninkasi -

[Duncan Grant]

15. Same game, different name.

"A stealth enemy has infiltrated our country and is preying upon the hearts and minds of 33 million American teens."

[MN ChimpH8R]

17. If these kids are this goofy now

what the hell are they going to be in twenty years? And you can bet that every one of them is a Reichwing Bushbot. Such sad, pathetic assholes and its all the sadder because they have chosen to be ignorant assholes.

Hose 'em down with scalding horse urine.

[Jonathan50]

19. Actually most fundamentalist churches lose a fairly large percentage of their youth.

I don't have the time to look right now, but if you dig around on this discussion board you will find the info.

http://groups.google.com/group/theauthoritarians/topics

[ComerPerro]

18. for Christians and the religious, its all for show, no substance

[Initech]

20. A rock concert and a war rally? Weird combination.

Sounds like something the Hitler Youth would have put on if they were still around today.

[Warren DeMontague]

21. Battlecry's Annual "Cavalcade of Suck"

It's too bad Jerry Garcia isn't still around. A good run of Dead shows is about the only thing I can imagine would stand a chance of straightening those kids' heads the fuck out.

[Old and In the Way]

25. Hmmmm....perhaps an acid test is in order.

That'd at least get them a real 'religious' experience. They'll never settle for the Jesus reality that the Mega-churches are selling. Spike the kool-aid!

[saltpoint]

22. I somehow doubt that the throng of Christian youths will bring

San Franciscans to their knees in shame.

Call it a wild hunch, but I'm thinking life may go on as it always has in San Francisco even after these confused young folk board buses to head home.

Again, it's just a hunch.

[HappyWeasel]

26. or this meeting could be counter-productive

but I still think this would be a reasonable use of police brutallity.

[saltpoint]

28. We gotta let these young folks walk around in the street of the city

awhile and have a good look at what it means to be an independent adult instead of being led around by a judgmental prick of a minister.

In some of those young minds the sight of independent, sure-footed freespirited adults in SF will be the cue they need to wave bye-bye to fundie Christianity.

The more of these trips out there they can arrange, the better.

[zbdent]

32. If lefties are so "anti-life" and "pro-death" and value life so little, why is it

that the righties are the ones who want to kill the opposite side?

[beltanefauve]

33. And what about the

word,"Battlecry"? Wasn't Jesus about peace and love-thy-neighbor? What is the matter with these people?