I had CNN (aka Clinton News Network as the haters say) on in the background today, and Rush Limbaugh's ex-girlfriend was doing a segment on a right-wing youth organization called Battle Cry. At the time I was half-listening, but curiosity got the better of me, so I logged on their website at battlecry.com.
The opening paragraph of their site is follows:
A stealthy enemy has infiltrated our country and is preying upon the hearts and minds of 33 million American teens. Corporations, media conglomerates and purveyors of popular culture have spent billions to seduce and enslave our youth. So far, the enemy is winning. But there is plenty we can do. We need to take action. We need to answer the Battle Cry.
I will admit, the Gratuitous Capitalization is sort of nifty; it does serve to underscore the tone of urgency. But in all seriousness, the "religious right" has long affiliated itself with corporations and the corporate wing of the Republican party -- and now corporations are the "enemy," out to "seduce and enslave our youth"? I must read on about the magnitude of the crisis!
ATTACK ON A GENERATION
Today's teens are being attacked by popular culture like no other generation. Hollywood, the music industry, advertisers, and even the mainstream media are using their arsenal of tools to win the battle for our teens' hearts- and so far they are winning! In order to defeat our enemy, we must know how it thinks and understand the weapons it uses. It is critical that we realize how far-reaching the crisis is- and then we must work together to stop it.
TELEVISION
This generation views 16 to 17 hours of television each week and sees on average 14,000 sexual scenes and references each year. That's more than 38 references every day.
INTERNET
This generation spends three hours a day online and is the first to grow up with point-and-click pornography. Almost 90 percent of teens have viewed pornography online at one of the 300,000 adult websites, most while doing homework.
I am not sure where the "most while doing homework" bit comes from, but I have always thought of multi-tasking as a positive thing!
MUSIC
More than 25 percent of teen-targeted radio segments contain sexual content; 42 percent of the top selling CDs contain sexual content.
ADVERTISING
With more than $128 billion dollars in their pockets, this generation has been targeted by corporate America, who does everything it can to grow brands and profits without any regard to the moral decay of a generation.
Oh wow, you want to talk about DECAY? If you are going to criticize corporate America, how about addressing the fact that corporations exacerbate and perpetuate the decay of our environment? Surely clean air and drinking water, preserving the beauty of God's earth and protecting the species that inhabit it must be a more noble aim than attempting to suppress sexuality from mainstream culture? And perhaps I am wrong, but shouldn't Christian values like honesty, integrity, and charity trump forced sexual purity on importance scale? Why such a singular, obsessive focus on reinstituting Puritanical sexual ideals?
As everyone's favorite timid observer Bill Maher often asks, why would anyone want to "legislate tastes"? Who is forcing anyone to watch lurid television programming, listen to sexually explicit songs, or view pornographic websites? Solution: Change the channel, flip a switch, whatever. Concerned parents can invest in a V-Chip, install parental controls, etcetera. But no one will be able to completely shield teens from sexuality -- and if a person subscribes to Battle Cry's sexual mores, it is ultimately his or her responsibility to say "NO" when the moment of temptation arises. What morality is there in forced morality (i.e., censorship)?
One of the aims of corporations is to create "manufactured wants" in consumers. But for Battle Cry to claim that corporations are "using their arsenal of tools to win the battle for our teens' hearts" is rather disingenuous. Teens hormones are raging; they do not need corporations to convince them that they want sex! The market for sex has existed since the beginning of time; corporate America certainly capitalizes upon it but did not create the demand for it. Teens' hearts have been "lost" since the beginning of time.
*Cross-posted at The Virginia Progressive.*
Great article! Fantastic.
Who's being stealthy now? Look, I'm a pretty religious guy myself, but to say John Kerry is in league with Satan? Virginia Beach is breeding little Tri-Rs (Radical Religious Republicans) faster than you can say "Jerry freakin' Falwell."
Damn you Pat Robertson!
And we can include some kind of curriculum that highlights a civic lifestyle and service to others. And of course, having a lot of fun activities :)
On another topic, there are programs for teens that don't include religion. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington has an excellent character program for young people which teaches them to respect others and resist peer pressure to participate in sex. Couldn't this work to please both religious and non-religious people?