Geez, when I first saw the topic title, I was thinking something completely else. I thought it was more along the lines of the growing threat of evangelical teens. I'm a little happier knowing it's the opposite.
My little Milton group often has some jokes on this, because whenever we talk about Paradise Lost (which we're reading right now) and we say, "Blah blah blah Satan, blah blah," we get some of the most outrageous stares. We decided we would just wait until some people were in earshot or we were wakling behind someone, and just say odd little things like, "Well, if Satan hadn't convinced Adam and Eve to eat of the apple, we wouldn't be here; so in a way, he did a good thing" (this actually was something one of my friends said in class one day, which elicited quite the sharp gasp from one classmate).
Well, that last paragraph was more a segway into this one, despite looking a tad off-topic. But the point is that if this so-called 4 percent is all that's left of evangelical teens, then apparently a vast majority of them are going to wind up at my campus because there is no shortage of Christians here, evangelical or not. For me, being an atheist in schools with such large populations of Christians was more like what they're talking about in the article; this fear that you don't belong, that you are made fun of for being different, singled out, and pressured into "joining." But they never care for the opinions or feelings of those who don't belong.
There are certainly parts of the article I agree with, though.
Trash cans filled with folded pieces of paper on which the teenagers had scribbled things like Ryan Seacrest, Louis Vuitton, “Gilmore Girls,” “Days of Our Lives,” Iron Maiden, Harry Potter, “need for a boyfriend” and “my perfect teeth obsession.” One had written in tiny letters: “fornication.”
I hate American Idol, I think women would be better off if they just carried grocery bags or didn't even feel they had to carry a ton of stuff at all, Harry Potter, perfect teeth, the need for a boy/girlfriend. I don't want to fault them for disliking such things that are cherished in our culture, as they are superficial (and in the case of things like Harry Potter, blatantly capitalist), but to me it seems more like they're trying to replace one superficial thing with another. And this need to look absolutely perfect, or carry expensive things to hold all your stuff in, is just inherently ridiculous.
...so teenagers will link their identity to Christ and not to the latest flesh-baring pop star
Now, I'm not at all for "flesh-baring pop stars," but who exactly are these people to say that the only thing to replace that with is Christ? Isn't it this kind of adamant yet not-entirely-thought-out thinking that is partly responsible for driving away the people they seek to bring back?
Jesus Camp" opens with an unsettling sequence, during which young Christians -- dressed in camouflage and with their faces painted brown and green -- enact a warlike ritual dedicating themselves to fighting for God. Soon after, we meet the film's stars: 12-year-old Levi, who wears his hair cut short except for a rat's tail, declares he was saved when he was 5 "because I wanted more out of life," and now aims to be a preacher...
:speech: If this movie is anywhere near accurate in its depictions (and I'm sure it isn't), I would be more than terrified. Children declaring jihad--but it's for Jesus, so of course it's okay
--and realizing at the age of 5 that they want to dedicate their lives to a religion they've barely even had the chance to experience... Eegads.
... who serves as a counselor at a summer camp called Kids on Fire in (wait for it) Devil's Lake, N.D.
I just wanted to quote that because it's so funny. Irony of ironies.
But those who find "Jesus Camp" frightening, Grady says, may be missing an important lesson. The evangelicals are "not doing anything illegal," Grady explained recently in a phone interview. "In fact, they're embracing and utilizing democracy to its fullest potential. There's no office too small, no political position that's insignificant [to them]. If I were to say I was scared of these people, then I'm scared of the very tenets of our political system."
(Godwin pending)
This is supposed to comfort us? After Hitler and the Nazis tried the direct, military approach and were stopped, they, too, resorted to democracy. They, too, utilized democracy to its fullest potential; they curtailed some of their illegal activities (not all of them, naturally, and frankly I wouldn't be surprised if groups like those depicted do some on the side as well). And this is supposed to comfort us? That they're working within the confines of the political system frightens me a whole lot more than if they were not.
I've seen groups like the Jews for Jesus on my campus; frankly, I find that that very concept boggles the mind. The very core of Judaism insists that Jesus Christ could not possibly have been the son of God; for a Jew to believe he was is completely against their beliefs. If they believe in Christ as divine, they are not Jewish. It's as simple as that. And a few weeks ago, some evangelist had begun parking himself near the center of campus and gathering a large crowd around him, talking about how "we" are going to Hell and how he has been saved. He spouts his dogma and gets shouted down by the crowd, maybe someone throws something at him, and suddenly those people in the crowd who were leaning his way feel more sympathetic now, and talk to him later, and there is his victory. Victory through subversion. Is
this what those evangelical Christians are wanting? Is this what they're afraid of losing?