As most of you have probably seen or read about, Ron Luce gathered together 25,000 evangelical teenagers in San Francisco last weekend. They are in a 'war' with culture. He wants these youth to use 'God's Instruction Book' (read 'The Bible') to guide themselves and others away from this destructive pop culture that we live in. He says we should make a 'Christian' MySpace. (which already exist here) Blah, Blah, Blah...on and on and on.

The truth is this kind of thing just breaks my heart. There are multiple victims here, I can name at least three: the youth involved, the people in San Francisco, and people like me (the 'other' Christians).

First off the Youth are not really being presented with reality by Ron or their Youth Pastors. Of course pornography, sex, etc. are harmful, but instead of telling the youth why it is harmful, why people do it, how to understand it better, or how to deal with it...They are only told it is bad, bad, bad like the devil and the people who make it and watch it are bad, bad, bad like the devil. They are taught that these people are not real people with real problems and real feelings. A lot of these youth will someday have jobs where they have to work side by side with 'these people' and they need to know how to love them, not push them away.

Second the people in San Francisco are not treated with respect and love. As one woman put it "I moved here to get away from people like you." When this kind of event is done, it hurts many people and severly pushes them away from the church. Some of the people have been through so many things that these youth can't even imagine or begin to understand, the very thing that can bring them hope, is deeply hurting them.

Lastly people like me are painted with a broad stroke of hatred. I, as a Christian, get a bad name because of these big events. I look like a jerk because of my affiliation.

(There is an interesting conversation happening on Zach Lind's blog here)