More than 25,000 evangelical Christian youth landed Friday in San Francisco for a two-day rally at AT&T Park against "the virtue terrorism" of popular culture, and they were greeted by an official city condemnation and a clutch of protesters who said their event amounted to a "fascist mega-pep rally."
"Battle Cry for a Generation" is led by a 44-year-old Concord native, Ron Luce, who wants "God's instruction book" to guide young people away from the corrupting influence of popular culture.
Military metaphors abound in Luce's descriptions of the struggle. He tells young people of how "an enemy has launched a brutal attack on them." At a pre-Battle Cry rally Friday afternoon on the steps of City Hall, Luce told his mostly teenage audience that "terrorists of a different kind" -- advertisers -- were targeting them and that they were "caught in the middle of the battle."
"Are you ready to go to battle for your generation?" he asked, and the young people roared "yes!" and some waved triangular red flags flown from long, medieval-looking poles.
Boy, Christians sure like declaring war on things don't they? I am impressed that these young people are fired up about something, and I do find some things in pop culture to be a little over the top. I am not sure that attacking the problem in this way is the solution to trying to bring more morality to our culture. I also rarely find anything in religion to be very moral.
Truthfully in my mind this appears to just be trading the mind control used by advertisers for the mind control used by fundamentalists. If I had my choice it would be MTV and Nike shoes.
And yes I am aware that my seat in hell just got moved closer to the flames.
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Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.