American adults are convinced that today’s teen-agers face a crisis of character that only a crash course in morals and values can solve, a major study released June 26 says.

“Most Americans look at today’s teen-agers with misgiving and trepidation, viewing them as undisciplined, disrespectful and unfriendly,” says a Public Agenda study called “Kids These Days: What Americans Really Think About the Next Generation.”

In fact, only 37% of the 2,000 adults and 32% of the 600 teens polled said they believed that the next generation would “help make this country a better place,” the New York-based research group said.

The crux of the problem is the failure of parents, schools and society to teach morals and values to children, a majority of adults said in the study, which was conducted in December for Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Advertising Council.

Solutions, it said, were to give more support to parents, teach values in school and create more after-care activities.

Headlines have been rife with stories about callous teens:

* A New Jersey teen-ager who gave birth at her prom and then returned to the dance floor was charged with murder June 24 after an autopsy concluded the baby was strangled and left in a plastic bag taken from the sanitary-napkin receptacle in the bathroom.

“Go tell the boys we’ll be right out,” 18-year-old Melissa Drexler yelled to a friend in the bathroom before using the sharp edge of the receptacle to cut the umbilical cord and dumping the body of the newborn boy in a trash can June 6.

* Three Michigan teen-agers who hopped a freight train last month and mistakenly got off in a crumbling section of Flint were attacked by at least six men age 16 to 23, all arrested June 23. Michael Carter, 14, was fatally shot in the head. A 14-year-old girl was raped by more than one of the attackers and then shot in the face. A 14-year-old boy was shot in the head.

Police said robbery was the motive; the suspects got $10, all from the girl, and later told officers they were out to “jack somebody.”

* Dianne Zamora, an 18-year-old midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, and her boyfriend, Air Force Academy cadet David Graham, 18, are accused of murdering a 16-year-old girl on Dec. 4.

Mr. Graham had had a “one-night stand” with the victim, Adrianne Jones, who was shot twice in the head, according to the man’s confession to police.

Miss Zamora “told him the only way for him to make it right was to kill her,” said Grand Prairie police Detective Alan Patton. “Their motivation for doing this was his guilt, their passion for each other and her anger.”

Young people get the idea they can kill their newborns when leading authorities refuse to ban partial-birth abortions, Robert Morrison, senior education adviser at the Family Research Council, said June 25.

Other negative influences on children are anti-religious views in some institutions, taxes that are so high that both parents must work, outrageous behavior by entertainers and other public figures, and schools that teach that “all outcomes are legitimate,” he said.

“Schools should teach the difference between right and wrong, and parental authority needs to be respected and understood,” Mr. Morrison added. “If parents object to their children reading [certain things], they shouldn’t be called censors.”

There have been shocking stories recently, and “there’s a moral crisis, no doubt about it, but I’m hesitant to paint all teens with the same broad brushstroke,” said Focus on the Family youth-culture analyst Bob Smithouser.

“A lot of teens are ‘unsung heroes’ and don’t get the credit they deserve,” he said, citing a class of seniors in Peoria, Ill., who gave the $11,000 they had saved for a class trip to a drug-rehabilitation center to prevent it from closing.

Not surprisingly, many of the Public Agenda study’s 600 teens answered questions differently from the study’s adults.

Sixty-one percent strongly agreed with the statement, “I am usually happy,” while even larger majorities expressed trust in their parents, friends and God.

But the teens agreed with adults that they faced significant problems — and significant numbers said kids need more adult guidance and attention, and that many parents fail to discipline their children.

According to the 2,000 adults in the Public Agenda study, the best solutions to the moral crisis of children are to:

* Bolster and promote intact families, including giving working parents flexible work hours and discouraging divorce.

* Reach out to disaffected youth.

* Teach traditional standards of behavior, such as being responsible, timely and self-disciplined, in public schools.

* Develop more and better after-school programs, including activities with volunteer groups.

* Help parents control children by setting public curfews.

The problem of sex and violence in the media didn’t appear to have a solution, the study noted.

Although adults complain intensely about the media, not even half thought pressuring the media “to return to the days when most media content was at the ‘G’ or ‘PG’ level” would be effective.

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Group blames youth violence on culture, adult detachment (WorldNetDaily, 980708)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Children kill because parents and other adults are uninvolved in their lives, a panel of experts told lawmakers who have condemned violent music lyrics.

A group including law enforcement, clergy and social scientists spoke to Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and Joe Lieberman, D-Connecticut, both of whom organized Tuesday’s panel discussion.

Most agreed that television, movies, music and video games share the blame, but all the panelists pointed to a deeper cause: an increasing lack of adult involvement.

Fatherless families leave mothers with overwhelming responsibility and kids with what sociologist Barbara Whitehead called “protest masculinity,” prompting even small-town teens to join gangs.

“Adult time and supervision matter,” said Whitehead, who has written that the dissolution of the traditional two-parent family is harmful to both children and society.

Violence fills cultural void

In rap music and in other forms, violence is filling a cultural void in suburban and rural America, said Eugene Rivers, a Boston pastor who co-founded a coalition of 43 churches credited with lowering crime rates in Boston.

“The male that we’re discovering is infinitely more dangerous is not the inner- city brother, because he’s going to confine his violence to the ‘hood,” Rivers said.

“It’s the (convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy) McVeigh — he’s the scary one, he’s the one that takes down an entire building facility, not some kid with a Saturday-night special in the ‘hood who is in most cases going to shoot somebody he knows,” Rivers said. “There’s something much deeper going on.”

Group formed after school shootings

Recent deadly school shootings in Kentucky, Oregon, Arkansas and Mississippi prompted Brownback and Lieberman to convene the group.

“The young and the violent are found in small towns as well as big cities, and their numbers, as well as their crimes, are growing,” Brownback said. “Gangs and guns are ever more visible in our schools. Fistfights begin to seem quaint by comparison.”

Lieberman, a longtime critic of media violence, is considering legislation that would order the Justice Department to conduct an intensive study on the links between media violence and juvenile crime, “to explore in-depth the question of whether the welter of media violence is helping to break down inhibitions and increase the likelihood that young people will settle conflicts with bullets,” he said.

The facts and figures on youth violence are confusing Americans, said James Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University.

While juvenile homicide has decreased by about one-third over the past five years, the rate of murder committed by teen-agers remains 102% higher than in 1985.

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Teens who have problems with fathers use drugs more (CNN, 990830)

WASHINGTON — Teen-agers who relate poorly with their fathers in two-parent families are more likely to use cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs than those raised by single mothers, according to a report issued Monday.

Children raised by only their mothers were 30% more likely to use drugs than those in homes with two supportive parents.

Those living with two parents but who have bad relationships with their fathers have a 68% greater risk, according to the private National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

“The fact that so many dads are AWOL (absent) in their teens’ lives increases the teens’ risk of substance abuse,” CASA Chairman Joseph Califano said.

“Parent power is a potent force in getting kids to stay away from drugs and alcohol and cigarettes, and it’s greatly underutilized.”

Teens prefer to talk to mothers

In the survey of 2,000 youths ages 12 to 17, twice as many said they could talk more easily to their mothers than to their fathers. Four times as many said they discuss issues like substance abuse with their mothers.

More than 70% said they had very good or excellent relationships with their mothers, but only 58% said they related as well with their fathers.

“Too often, people think of the parenting role as the mother’s job; and this reminds us that the family is the children, the mother and the father, where possible,” said Dr. H. Westley Clark, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Survey: Talk to children early about drugs

Speaking to children about drugs should start early because “the opportunity for parents to impact their teen’s thinking about illegal drugs diminishes as the teen gets older,” the survey’s authors said.

They found that 34% of 12-year-olds reported excellent relationships with their parents, but that number plummets to just 14% by the time the children turn 17.

Confirming recent studies that overall youth substance abuse has leveled off, the survey found that 40% of teens said the drug situation at school is getting worse, down from 55% in 1998.

And more teens, 60%, said they don’t expect to use a drug in the future, an increase of 9%age points since 1998.

“I never want to try alcohol, or all that stuff. It’s bad for me,” said teen-ager Alberto Albright. He credits the role of his parents, and in particular his strong relationship with his father, for his decision.

Parents in the survey were more pessimistic, with 45% of the 1,000 polled thinking their children will use drugs someday.

Califano said this “parental resignation often reflects their own drug-using behavior,” and that of those parents who had tried marijuana themselves, 58% thought their kids would try it as well. Experts advise parents to discuss their past drug use honestly with their children.

Most students attend schools where drugs used

Other findings in the survey include:

While teen-agers said facing drugs was their most important problem, parents ranked drugs second, after the social pressure of “fitting in” with their peers.
Teens who reported their fathers have more than two drinks a day have a 71% greater risk of substance abuse.
Nearly 90% of teens said they felt safe in school.
More than half said they attended a school where drugs were used, and 20% said that if they wanted to buy marijuana they could get it in less than a half-hour.
Almost half of teens who had never used marijuana credited their parents with their decision.

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Drug survey: Teen use down; young adults up (CNN, 990818)

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The use of marijuana and other illegal drugs dropped last year in the 12- to-17-year-old age group, but increased slightly among young adults, the federal government reported Wednesday. Overall, drug use among Americans of all ages remained steady, according to the annual household survey of 25,500 people ages 12 and up.

That means there are about 13.6 million current users, about 6.2% of the population, a statistically unchanged number from 6.4% in 1997.

The mixed results from the 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse were released by Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and Barry McCaffrey, President Clinton’s drug policy adviser.

Drug use by minorities up

The survey said drug use has increased among minority groups.

The percent of blacks currently using drugs jumped from 5.8% in 1993 to 8.2% last year. Hispanics saw a similar rise, from 4.4% to 6.1% over those five years.

Shalala and McCaffrey said the decline in drug use by young teens overall is solid evidence that the nation has turned a corner after experiencing rising use through the mid-1990s.

“Sending a tough message against drugs, particularly to young people, is a little like sending a message into deep space,” Shalala said. “The message goes out and then you wait a year or more to find out if it’s been heard.”

All told, 78 million Americans had tried illegal drugs at some point in their lives.

Drug use by both teens and adults is driven largely by use of marijuana, which attracts nearly twice as many users as cocaine, heroine, LSD and other drugs combined.

The survey also measured cigarette smoking and found it down to 27.7% overall, the lowest rate recorded. But smoking remained steady among teens and continued to rise among young adults.

Cigar use edged up.

‘Statistically significant decline’

But the survey is most carefully watched as a gauge of teen drug use.

“Illicit drug use fell from 11.4% (in 1997) to 9.9% (in 1998) among young people aged 12-17, a statistically significant decline,” Shalala said, “while illicit drug use overall remained flat.”

The number of young teens who reported trying marijuana for the first time was down — from 18.8% in 1997 to 16.4% last year —while the average age of “first use went up,” she said.

However, among 18- to 25-year-olds, drug use increased from 14.7% to 16.1% during the same period.

That finding, McCaffrey said, points out the need to drive home the anti-drug message to children as early as possible. “If you don’t effect youth attitudes (from ages) 9 to 17, you ... end up with rates of drug abuse downstream that are increased,” he said.

“It’s important to us that there be consistent, long-term support for this strategy by the Congress,” he added.

‘Meth use a disaster’

The survey found 16.1% of young adults ages 18 to 25 were “current users,” meaning they had used drugs in the past month. That rate has been gradually rising, up from 13.3% in 1994.

In particular, cocaine use was up, from 1.2% in 1997 to 2% in 1998.

Methamphetamine use by the 12-17 age group dropped a significant amount, from 1.2% to 0.6%, according to the survey. But McCaffrey was not satisfied. “Meth use is a disaster,” McCaffrey said. “It’s the most dangerous drug to hit America.”

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Marijuana: 11 million smoked in the previous month, steady use

Heroin: 130,000, double the 1993 number

Cocaine: 1.75 million, stable

Cigarettes: 60 million aged 12 and up, 27.7%; down from 29.6% in 1997; increasing among youth adults, 34.6% in 1994 to 41.6% in 1998

Cigars: 5.9% in 1997 to 6.9% in 1998

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Study links teen drug and alcohol use with promiscuity (CNN, 991207)

NEW YORK (CNN) — A two-year study by researchers at Columbia

University found that teenagers who drink or use drugs are far more likely to have sex at a younger age with multiple partners than peers who don’t use alcohol or drugs.

Teens who are 14 or younger who use alcohol are twice as likely to have sex as those in the same age group who don’t. The risk is four times as great for those who use drugs as for those who don’t, said the report from the university’s Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

Older teens who drink are seven times more likely to have intercourse than non-drinking teens — and are twice as likely to have four or more sexual partners. Drug-using older teens are five times as likely to have sex as are non-users — and three times as likely to have four or more partners.

“While it’s clear that teens who drink and use drugs are likelier to have sexual intercourse at earlier ages and with many partners, it is not clear which starts first — sexual intercourse or drinking and drug abuse,” said Joseph A. Califano Jr., the research center’s chairman.

Much of the sexual intercourse is unprotected and will likely add to the 15 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases occurring in the United States each year, the researchers fear.

“A lot of high school students — regardless of peer pressure, regardless of external pressures — are going to do what they want to do. If that want to have sex, they’re going to have sex,” said Lisa Widawsky, a high school student in New Hyde Park, New York.

But Califano and other experts stressed that parents, counselors and other adult still must play an active role in setting limits for teenagers.

“Adults should be prepared to work with the teen on both matters,” he said.

Young people today in general have more sexual intercourse than 30 years ago, the report found. In 1970, 5% of 15-year-old girls said they had already had sex; in 1972, 20% of 15-year-old boys said they’d had sex. In 1997, the figures for that age group were 45% for boys and 38% for girls.

The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse has urged middle and high schools to create comprehensive education programs that address the link between substance abuse and sex.

The project was funded by the Henry J. Kaiser Family

Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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TV violence linked to aggression (Washington Times, 030311)

Children who frequently watched violent TV shows were more likely to engage in highly aggressive behavior as adults, a newly released, 15-year-long study says.

The findings held for both men and women regardless of education, income, social status or family background, University of Michigan psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Leonard D. Eron and their colleagues said in the study. It appears in this month’s issue of Developmental Psychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association.

Men who were frequent viewers of violent television programs as children were significantly more likely than other men to have pushed, grabbed or shoved their spouses, the study said. They also were more likely to respond to an insult by shoving a person and more likely to have been convicted of a crime or committed a moving traffic violation.

Women who watched a lot of violent television programs as children were more likely than other women to have thrown something at their spouses; shoved, punched, beat or choked someone who made them angry; and committed a criminal act or moving traffic violation.

Violent television shows were identified as a causal factor because it is “more plausible that exposure to TV violence increases aggression than that aggression increases TV-violence viewing,” said Mr. Huesmann, who has been studying violence in the media for decades with Mr. Eron.

The University of Michigan study joins almost 50 years of studies that have found that viewing violence in movies and television programs encourages children to become more aggressive, pessimistic and desensitized.

Public health officials and cultural watchdogs repeatedly have urged parents to monitor their children’s television viewing and networks to make a time for family-friendly programming. Congress also approved the V-chip technology to allow consumers to restrict violent television programs.

But not everyone is convinced that television inspires antisocial behavior.

“I think the jury is still out about whether there is a link,” Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, said yesterday, adding that not all studies have found a relationship between television viewing and violent behavior.

Melissa Caldwell, director of research for the Parents Television Council, a watchdog group that supports a “family hour,” said that the only contradictory studies she has seen “were commissioned by the entertainment industry.”

“There have been upwards of a thousand studies that have drawn a connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in children. Really, the jury is not out,” she said.

Bill Maier, a child psychologist with Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian-based research and lobbying group in Colorado Springs, said that what was important about the new study is the researchers’ efforts to look at other causes for aggressive behavior, such as parental behavior.

In the end, they didn’t find anything that was linked as strongly as the television viewing, he said. The implications do not bode well for the future, he added, because “today’s television is so much more severe than anything that we saw in the 1970s.”

According to Steven Isaac, who follows media issues for Focus on the Family, current TV shows that are especially graphic and violent are Fox’s “24” and “Fastlane,” FX’s “The Shield” and the “CSI” shows on CBS.

“Anything airing during prime time hours is fair game for criticism because of all the different hours families keep. Kids don’t go to bed at 8:30 like they did decades ago,” Mr. Isaac said.

The University of Michigan study is based on interviews with 329 persons who were part of a study that began in 1977, when they were ages 6 to 10. Spouses and friends were interviewed, and criminal records were checked.

Researchers found that children who were most aggressive were the ones who most identified with a violent character, especially when the character “is rewarded for the violence and in which children perceive the scene as telling about life like it really is.”

“Thus, a violent act by someone like [Clint Eastwood’s movie character] Dirty Harry that results in a criminal being eliminated and brings glory to Harry is of more concern than a bloodier murder by a despicable criminal who is brought to justice,” researchers concluded.

Some shows rated as very violent in the 1970s were “Starsky & Hutch,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “The Bionic Woman,” “Charlie’s Angels” and the “Roadrunner” cartoons.

The authors praised efforts by parents to watch television with their children and comment on characters’ behaviors and the realism of the shows.

V-chip technology is a step in the right direction, the authors said, “but only if a content-based rating system is used that would actually allow parents to make judgments on the basis of violent content instead of the age guideline rating system used for many programs.”

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Today’s teens becoming ‘world’s sickest adults’ (WorldNetDaily, 031209)

Major medical study blames unhealthy eating, drinking, sexual, drug-taking habits

Today’s children and teens – due to their unhealthy eating, drinking, sexual and drug-taking habits – will become the sickest, most mentally ill, obese and infertile adults in the history of mankind, warns a major medical study released yesterday.

In a comprehensive report by the British Medical Association, titled “Adolescent Health,” statistic after statistic shows today’s youth to be a public health time-bomb. A few examples:

* In the UK, one teenage girl in 10 aged 16-19 has the sexually transmitted disease, chlamydia, which can make women infertile.

* One quarter of 15- and 16-year-olds smoke.

* At least one in five 13- to 16-year-olds is overweight or obese.

* Eleven percent of 11- to 15-year-olds reported having used drugs in the previous month.

“Young people in Britain are increasingly likely to be overweight, indulge in binge drinking, have a sexually transmitted infection and suffer mental health problems,” said Dr. Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, according to a report in the London Telegraph.

The report reveals the shocking finding that “up to one in ﬁve adolescents may experience some form of psychological problem” – problems ranging from “behavioral disorders to depression, eating disorders, self-harm and neurosis.”

“Mental health problems which develop in adolescence often persist into adulthood and can deteriorate over time,” the report adds. “They are often associated with other problems including risk taking behavior.”

Drinking habits of the nation’s adolescents also are cause for alarm, according to the report, which says, “adolescents in the UK have one of the highest European levels of alcohol use, binge-drinking (consuming more than ﬁve drinks in a row) and getting drunk.”

Specifically, it found that 24% of English 11- to 15-year-olds had had an alcoholic drink in the last week: in Scotland the ﬁgure for 12- to 15-year-olds was 21% in 2000. In 2000, 55% of Welsh 15- to 16-year-olds reported drinking at least once a week. In 1999, in Northern Ireland, 66% of girls and 70% of boys reported drinking in the past 30 days.”

Dr. Russell Viner, a consultant in adolescent medicine at two London hospitals, decried the lack of “services” targeting young people, calling it a “scandal.”

“The next generation will be the most infertile and the most obese in the history of mankind and it might also have the worst mental health,” he said, according to the Telegraph story.

The medical report calls on various agencies and departments of the British government to work together to find solutions to self-destructive teen behavior – including more sex education, drug and alcohol education, and diet and exercise programs in schools.

Today’s teenagers’ behavior, warns Nathanson, poses “an extraordinary threat to an entire generation. We can’t expect young people to think that far into the future. We have to do some of the thinking for them.”

In a report by the London Guardian, Viner – one of the few British consultants to specialize in adolescent health – adds: “We need to develop a coordinated approach to adolescent health that involves healthcare, education, social services and youth justice system so that we can target all young people including those who may be most at risk such as young offenders, the homeless and people from deprived communities.”

Of course, government agencies are already engaged in various outreaches intended to solve the problems. As an example, a spokesman for the nation’s Department of Health boasted to the Telegraph: “Last year we launched a multi-million pound advertising campaign to encourage safe sex among young people.”

Editor’s note: Today’s increasingly bizarre youth culture – pierced, tattooed, and hyper-sexualized – is the focus of the shocking December issue of WND’s acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled “KILLER CULTURE.” If you’ve ever wondered why rap music and gangland clothing, extreme “body modification,” every type of sexual experience, drug abuse and other harmful behaviors have taken such a powerful hold on today’s young people – and at progressively younger and younger ages – December’s Whistleblower has the answers you’ve never read anywhere else.

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Study: Television Violence on the Rise (Foxnews, 031210)

NEW YORK — Fights, gun battles and blood are increasingly making their way into homes each night through television, according to a study released Tuesday.

The study by the Parents Television Council counted 534 separate episodes of prime-time violence on the six major broadcast networks during the first two weeks of the November ratings “sweeps” in 2002. That was up from 292 violent incidents during the same period four years earlier, the organization said.

Although the study is slightly outdated, the PTC says preliminary data from last month shows the trend toward increased violence is continuing.

The violence is getting more serious, too. The study found 156 incidents where guns or other weapons were used during the two-week period in prime-time in 2002, up from 67 four years earlier.

“In both quantity and quality it is getting worse,” said Brent Bozell, founder of the conservative media watchdog group. “I think it is a cause for concern.”

Fox narrowly beat CBS, 151 to 148, for having the most violent incidents, the PTC said, even though Fox broadcasts an hour less each night than ABC, CBS and NBC. Fox executives say they never comment on PTC studies, although they privately note that some of their more violent shows in 2002 have since been canceled.

Four of the networks — ABC, Fox, the WB and UPN — had more than double the violent incidents in 2002 than they had four years earlier, the study said.

NBC was the only network where the level of violence went down, from 51 in 1998 to 42 last year, the PTC said.

During the four-year period, CBS’ forensics drama, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” became the nation’s most popular television program. CBS has already completed one spin-off of its most successful show and is planning another.

At the same time, HBO’s “The Sopranos” was one of the nation’s most influential programs. Although its violence level wasn’t studied here, the broadcast networks took note of the drama’s success and tried to imitate it.

There was no immediate comment from the TV networks on the PTC’s study.

Among the incidents cited in the study from last year: Gil cutting a finger off a dead man’s body in “CSI”; a man being shot in the forehead on NBC’s “Boomtown”; a warlock on the WB’s “Charmed” taking a human heart from someone still alive.

Television isn’t operating in a vacuum, Bozell said, noting violent content in video games and in music. And he said that it’s likely television was even more violent during the 1970s and early 1980s, with Westerns and police dramas popular.

“It’s a cyclical thing, I think,” he said. “But this is cyclical with an edge to it.”

The PTC isn’t opposed to violence on television, particularly if it comes with a moral message that makes clear the consequences of actions, Bozell said. But the networks should be mindful of what they’re beaming into homes, he said.

“If you believe that the product has consequences and you believe you can influence an audience, particularly impressionable youngsters, then I think television along with all the entertainment media ought to be mindful about what they’re teaching,” he said.

One positive finding for the PTC was that three networks — CBS, NBC and the WB — cut back on the level of violence during TV’s so-called family hour, between 8 and 9 p.m. For the WB, that’s due almost entirely to losing one program, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Otherwise, the PTC found that violence increased during every time slot.

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Planned Parenthood Invades Youth Groups (Free Congress Foundation, 040311)

What has happened to the organizations for young people that were supposed to reflect -- even advocate -- our Judeo-Christian ideals?

Take, for instance, the Girl Scout Promise. It states, “On my honor, I will try: To serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law.”

Then there is the statement for the Young Men’s Christian Association that asserts the organization’s mission is: “To put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind, and body for all.”

Recently there were two instances that demonstrated the loss of true faith that pervades many of the people who run these organizations. Replacing that faith is a hollowed out belief in secularism, equivalent to the Easter egg that has a chocolate coating on the outside but no filling.

Many people will think how hard-hearted to call for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies. The fact is that the local Girl Scout organization had recognized a Planned Parenthood executive by presenting her a “woman of distinction award.” Worse, the local Girl Scout organization had endorsed a Planned Parenthood sex education program which admittedly claimed not to officially mention abortion but provided material on masturbation, homosexuality, and illustrations of couples having sex. A half-day conference called “Nobody’s Fool” was held in Waco each July attended by 400 to 700 girls ranging in age from 10 - 14 years old.

Brownie leader Donna Coody disbanded her troop, explaining why in an Associated Press article: “You’re telling these girls to raise their fingers up to honor God and country, and yet you’re handing out material saying homosexuality is OK.”

Another mother, Lisa Aguilar, a self-described non-activist, just a concerned mom, removed her daughter from a local Girl Scout troop. “For us, it’s the morality. Where is Girl Scouts going?”

Pro-Life Waco decided enough was enough. Because a local pro-life activist, Dr. John Pisciotta, an economics professor, spoke up through an e-mail and then a sixty second spot on a local Christian radio station, interest and controversy was generated throughout West Texas, giving rise to the boycott and troop withdrawals as well as coverage by local and national newspapers, which only furthered awareness of what was going on and creating added controversy. He also says an instruction book was provided to girls in grades 7 to 9 that did contain a chapter that listed nine ‘good reasons’ why women have abortions.

The local Girl Scout Council abandoned its tie to Planned Parenthood. Local mothers have now decided to form their own organization for girls based on a Christian curriculum.

When Dr. Pisciotta appeared on the Today show last week he noted that an abstinence program, McLennan County Collaborative Abstinence Project (McCAP), is available. Rather than associating themselves with this program, the local Girl Scouts chose the objectionable Planned Parenthood program.

This is a great example of concerned local activists taking the initiative to challenge a popular organization that has lost sight of the principles upon which it was founded. The Girls Scouts was designed to help young girls grow to be women of character and faith and patriotism, not underage Playboy bunnies.

But this is not the last that will be heard of the issue. Dr. Pisciotta plans to “rev it up” and he sparred with Kathy Cloninger, the national head of the Girl Scouts on the Today show. Officially, the national Girl Scouts organization has no affiliation with Planned Parenthood, but Kathy Cloninger made clear that if it’s okay with local organizations to have alliances with a sex education and abortion advocacy organization, then it’s okay with her.

She said local Girl Scout councils “tackle the issues of human sexuality” and that local councils have “relationships” with Planned Parenthood chapters and will continue to do so. She emphasized that Girl Scouts partner with like-minded organizations such as Planned Parenthood to provide “information-based sex education programs” which means programs devoid of any Christian values.

Then there is the battle with the YMCA of Greater St. Paul regarding the decision to rent a camping facility to Planned Parenthood to conduct mother-daughter, father-son sex education workshops that sound similar to those that have been staged in West Texas.

Darla Meyers, a “Catholic-Christian pro-life advocate,” was appalled to discover what was going on and is leading a campaign to try to return the local YMCA to its moral bearings. That will be very tough because the local YMCA appears resolute in its decision to rent to the local chapter of the nation’s largest provider of abortions. The local YMCA evidently places profit above values. However, the Urban League decided to cancel a father-son retreat to be held at the camp in conjunction with Planned Parenthood.

Darla and her husband, Michael, have a good line that puts everything in the proper perspective: “Don’t Let Planned Parenthood Take the ‘C’ Out Of the YMCA.”

American Life League’s Ed Szymkowiak is dispensing useful advice for pro-life and traditional values activists across the country by urging them to check out what alliances local organizations such as the Girls Scouts and the YMCA may have with organizations such as Planned Parenthood. He urges campaigns to have such local youth organizations and their national offices pass resolutions establishing clear policies that forbid promotion or alliances with organizations that provide or advocate abortion, graphic sexual education, or contraception.

What’s happening in West Texas and in Greater St. Paul is the equivalent of Boston Tea Parties, awakening concerned Christians and Jews throughout the nation to resist the urge to support local Girl Scout councils or YMCAs that are in alliance or do business with Planned Parenthood. My colleague, Bill Lind, has long discussed the idea of establishing “resistance” to organizations that have lost their bearing. Home schooling was one example in which Christian parents resisted the secular teachings of the public schools. The resistance displayed in West Texas and Greater St. Paul is another. They are to be welcome and emulated. Finally, Christians and Jews who believe in traditional Judeo-Christian values are starting to realize that they are mad and they really do not have to take it anymore.

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‘There is a Lad Here’ (Christian Post, 050302)

Long before Dr. James Dobson started talking about bringing up boys, British Lord Robert Baden-Powell was already doing something about it. Baden Powell, a war hero, founded the Boy Scout movement. He derived the idea, in part, from using boys for responsible jobs during the siege of Mafeking — a battle during the South African war with the Dutch Boers in 1899. There “B.P.,” as he was called, learned the way young boys could courageously and with equanimity respond to life’s most serious challenges.

Scouting ultimately spread to the United States after William D. Boyce, a millionaire publisher from Chicago, visited London and got lost in a dense fog. While standing under a street lamp, trying to get his bearings, a young lad approached Boyce and asked if he needed help. Boyce conceded he did and the young boy offered to guide him to the address he was seeking. Boyce offered to pay the boy a shilling for his help, but the boy replied, “No, sir, I am a scout. Scouts do not accept tips for good turns.” Boyce was so impressed with the youngster, he went home determined to start Scouting in America.

The Boy Scouts of America celebrated its 95th Scouting anniversary during the week of February 6-12, 2005, with the theme “On My Honor, Timeless Values.”

Winston Churchill once said of Scouting: “Many venerable, famous institutions and systems long honored by men perished in the storm; but the Boy Scout movement survived. It survived not only the war [World War II], but the numbing reactions of the aftermath. While so many elements in the life and spirit of the victorious nations seemed to be lost in stupor, it flourished and grew increasingly. Its motto gathers new national significance as the years unfold upon our island. It speaks to every heart its message of duty and honor: ‘Be Prepared’ to stand up faithfully for right and truth, however the winds may blow.”

If Churchill were alive today, he would be proud of the way the Boy Scouts of America has stood for “right and truth,” despite the way the winds of moral change have blown. In fact, this virtuous organization has been besieged on every side from attacks by leftists who are determined to either reform or kill it. Still, the Scouts have never turned from their oath to do their duty to God and their country and to obey Scout law; to help other people at all times; to keep themselves physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Think of it. Here is a youth program based on doing “good turns.” They have helped to make volunteer service an American ideal. With their every act of kindness, they have strengthened our nation’s commitment to civic responsibility.

Scouting has helped young people develop for public service and become effective leaders in our nation. According to the website ScoutingAround.com, approximately 64% of Air Force Academy graduates, 58% of West Point graduates, 70% of Annapolis graduates, 72% of Rhodes scholars, and 85% of FBI agents were Boys Scouts. Moreover, one of every 100 Scouts will enter the clergy due to his Scouting relationships.

Nevertheless, because the Scouts insist their members profess a belief in God, because they will not accept girls as “boy scouts,” because they believe that to be “morally straight” means to reject the practice of homosexuality, they have been attacked by local governmental bodies, school systems, the United Way and radical groups like the American Civil Liberties Union. As Gavin Groom, executive director of Save Our Scouts, puts it: “With the support of many in the media and well-financed nonprofit organizations, today the Boy Scouts have been made to look like the ‘bad guy.’”

Last year, even the Pentagon agreed in a negotiated settlement with the ACLU to cease direct sponsorship of Boy Scout units on military facilities. That decision by the Department of Defense prompted Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) to introduce the Save Our Scouts legislation. Frist says “[T]he legislation stipulates that no federal law, including any rule, regulation, directive, instruction, or order, shall be construed to limit any federal agency from providing any form of support to the Boy Scouts of America ... or any organization chartered by the Boy Scouts of America.” Frist had hoped the measure would pass by unanimous consent, but it didn’t.

The Senate Majority Leader plans to reintroduce the Save Our Scouts bill this year, saying he hopes “common sense will prevail and both chambers will give their support to protecting the scouts.” “However the issue is resolved,” writes Eagle Scout Hans Zeiger, “it is not a battle we can afford to lose. There is too much at stake here to give up on the Boy Scouts. Our very capacity for self-government is at risk when we allow the ACLU to deny a boy’s opportunity to learn to be ‘trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.’”

Hundreds of years ago on a grassy knoll outside the city of Bethsaida, when Jesus’ popularity was at its peak, a tremendous crowd gathered around our Savior to hear him. Looking with compassion on the hungry multitudes Jesus said to Philip, his disciple, “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat” (John 6:5). Philip was despondent in his answer: “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little” (John 6:7). Almost mockingly Andrew, another disciple of Christ, stepped forward to exclaim, “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes” (John 6:9). Interestingly, the miracle Jesus wrought next by feeding over 5,000 people with only five barley loaves and two small fishes was dependent on the awareness, “There is a lad here ....” *

In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus demonstrated that some of the highest hopes of a nation are predicated on the presence of its boys. Boys, hardwired as they are for aggressive behavior, need to be shaped and molded for good. Baden-Powell’s purpose in creating the Boy Scouts was for that very reason — to make young boys into fine men. What is more, our Lord indicated that the judgment for those who oppose such an objective would be so terrible, it would be better that a millstone be hung around their necks and they be cast into the deepest part of the sea (Matthew 18:6).

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Parents: it’s time to step up (townhall.com, 050304)

Rebecca Hagelin

It’s been quite cold here in Northern Virginia this past week—we’ve had below freezing temperatures and enough snow and ice to close local schools for two days.

But if you were to judge the weather based on what many teen girls are wearing, you would think the temperature outside was 1,000 degrees—actually, that’s probably the body temperature of the teen boys who, believe me, are noticing what the girls are wearing. Which is not much.

I am blessed (truly I am!) to be the mother of three teenagers. I’m keenly aware of the clothing “fads” and all the time it takes for my boys to carefully pick out clothes that make it look as if they’ve given no thought to getting dressed.

It’s actually quite amusing to me to watch my boys and their friends deliberate about what or what not to buy or wear. I often have flashbacks to my own days of observing the strange dressing practices that my teen brothers and my folks’ reaction to their choices. Bottom line was, my parents didn’t care much for my brothers choices of clothing or hair. Fast-forward thirty years and now I’m the fuddy-duddy parent that thinks my sons’ choices in clothes and hair are a bit, shall we say, undesirable. But I don’t make a big deal out of it—they are clean, it’s their style, and there’s nothing actually wrong with their “look”—it just ain’t my cup of tea. Although some guys “sag” to the extreme (i.e., wear their pants so low that underwear shows and other objects are in danger of showing), these are not the problems of most of the teen boys I know.

It’s different with the teenage girls. Sadly, most of them look just plain trashy.

Call me sexist. Call me a prude. Call me what you will. But I absolutely refuse to allow my daughter to dress according to the dictates of the manufacturers of girls’ clothing, which has been patterned on the preferences of such role-models as Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, et al.

The sad fact is that a lot of today’s tween and teen girls dress like street-walkers.

For the record, my 13-year-old daughter “gets it.” She has a modest streak and enough sense to know that wearing shirts that are up to here and low-cut jeans that are down to there is a dumb idea. Besides that, she knows she would never make it out of the store dressing room —much less our house—in such attire. She knows that Mom and Dad don’t allow it, so there’s no sense in asking. She also knows, and even warns her friends, that bare bellies and bare upper thighs are not allowed in our house. Period. Often, her friends don’t believe her. She’s brought home more than one friend who has learned otherwise when I’ve sent them back upstairs to find something in my closet to cover-up with. I decided long ago that my home is not going to resemble a strip-club, “honky-tonk” or public school.

Ouch! Did I say public school? Sadly, I did. The dreadful reality is that many of today’s schools have simply given up on the idea of meaningful dress codes.

Last week I wrote about my experiences as a substitute teacher (all two days of it) in a middle school when I went “undercover” several years ago to find out for myself what our local middle school was really like.

I wrote briefly about the sexualized behavior of the scantily clad girls—but the scene I described seemed to touch a place deep in the hearts of many of my readers. My inbox was filled with e-mail from teachers, former teachers, substitutes, etc. who shared their observations of schools that are out-of-control. Disrespectful behavior, raunchy-looking kids, over-sexualized little girls—why on Earth have decent parents allowed our kids to be so underserved, so undervalued, and so undisciplined?

The issues are many—far too many to focus on in one column—so I want to focus on just one: How do so many other little girls end up looking like sex objects?

How? Because their parents let them. And because many of the schools have given up—administrators are just too tired, or too lazy, or too liberal to care anymore. Moms and dads, administrators and teachers, it’s our fault if America’s little girls look like a tramps.

Face the facts: Most 12—16 year olds don’t have access to a lot of cash—unless, of course, their parents give it to them. And, last I heard, if you’re below the age of 16 you simply can’t hop in a car and drive yourself to the local mall. Nope, it’s not the kids’ money that is being spent, it’s the parents’ money. And it’s usually the mom that happily drives the little darlings to the mall for a fun day of shopping. Face it: Little girls dress according to what their mommies allow.

I thought mothers were supposed to protect their daughters, to teach them to value themselves and their bodies. What chance does a little girl stand of keeping her childhood or innocence intact when it’s mommy that’s driving her to the store and paying for the thongs, the itty-bitty skirts, the hipster jeans and the plunging necklines?

And when did fathers start letting their precious little girls dress like “ladies of the night”?

Hello, is anybody out there?

Parents, here’s a novel challenge: Be the parents.

Your daughters are looking to you for direction and protection. Your little girls want you to set loving standards, to let them know they are of value. And there isn’t anyone else that’s going to do it. Our culture has sold our daughters short—will you be guilty of it too?

Rebecca Hagelin is a vice president of The Heritage Foundation, a Townhall.com member group.

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The Spiritual Life of American Teenagers—A New Study (Christian Post, 050418)

“American teenagers can embody adults’ highest hopes and most gripping fears.” That statement introduces an important new study on the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers. Led by principal investigator Christian Smith, a group of researchers has conducted a massive study of American adolescents and their religious beliefs.

The group’s findings are published in Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, recently published by Oxford University Press. Smith and his colleagues conducted their research through the National Study of Youth and Religion, located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The data and analysis produced by this research project provide an interesting perspective into the beliefs and practices of American teenagers.

The prevailing stereotype of the American adolescent is of a young person who is likely to be in conscious rebellion against all forms of authority—starting with parents. One of the most important findings in this massive study is the fact that the vast majority of American teenagers identify strongly with the religious beliefs and practices of their parents. Evidently, today’s teenagers do not see themselves as rebels against the faith of their parents.

This is a quintessentially American study, and the teenagers interviewed in this project—more than 3,000 in total—appear, if anything, to be fully representative of the nation at large. The very idea of adolescence is a modern invention, isolating a period of life between childhood and adulthood that is understood to be a time of experimentation, self-actualization, and struggle. In essence, we have developed a concept of adolescence that gives young persons incredible, indeed almost adult-like freedom, but without adult responsibility and demands.

Beyond this, America has gone through periodic spasms of concern over its adolescence. In retrospect, many of these anxieties were well grounded. Nevertheless, Christian Smith and his fellow researchers found that most American teenagers appear to be highly functional, even if they experience the normal pangs and perplexities of adolescence. Most remarkably, the researchers found that these young people have a “highly conventional” set of religious convictions.

Given the scope of this sociological project, the teenagers studied included Christians—both Protestant and Roman Catholic—as well as Jewish teenagers and Mormons. As expected, the analysis is not truly theological in character, but sociological, focusing on religion as a social phenomenon and individual choice. In the main, the researchers found that “there are a significant number of adolescents in the United States for whom religion and spirituality are important if not defining features of their lives.” Yet, the range of different levels of involvement and belief was very large, encompassing those only marginally connected to their faith and other whose lives are pervasively entwined with faith commitments.

Many observers will be surprised by the finding that “very few American adolescents appear to be caught up in the much-discussed phenomenon of ‘spiritual seeking’ by ‘spiritual but not religious’ seekers on a quest for higher meaning.” The researchers had expected to find a much larger percentage of young people fitting the “spiritual but not religious” profile, but this was simply not reflected in the lives of the young people interviewed for this project. To the contrary, most appeared to be very conventional in their commitments and beliefs. As Smith and his team discovered, “Contrary to popular perceptions, the vast majority of American adolescents are not spiritual seekers or questers of the type most often described by journalists and some scholars, but are instead mostly oriented toward and engaged in conventional religious traditions and communities.” It may be that the “spiritual but not religious” profile is more commonly found among the baby boomers and the children of the 70s and the early 1980s.

But if most of the teenagers reflected conventional beliefs and practices, very few were able to offer even a rudimentary explanation of what these beliefs and practices mean. These teenagers were remarkably incoherent and inarticulate in speaking of their own convictions. “If there is indeed a significant number of American teens who are serious and lucid about their religious faith,” there is also a much larger number who are remarkably inarticulate and befuddled about religion,” the researchers assert. “Interviewing teens, one finds little evidence that the agents of religious socialization in this country are being highly effective and successful with the majority of their young people.”

Those thrown off by academic jargon such as “agents of religious socialization” should understand that the researchers are here talking about parents and religious leaders such as pastors, youth ministers, and others who work with youth in Bible studies and related ministries.

In a related finding, the researchers found that parents are most determinative in establishing the beliefs and practices held by their adolescent offspring. In most cases, these teenagers are not rejecting the faith of their parents, they are merely reflecting the low level of their parents’ commitment and convictions.

Against claims that American teenagers are primarily influenced by peers and agents outside the home, Smith and his team found that parents “exert huge influences in the lives of American adolescents-whether for good or ill.” Other findings offer similar insights. Smith reports that American teenagers “are not flocking in droves to ‘alternative’ religions and spiritualities such as paganism and Wicca.” As a matter of fact, the team found that teenagers involved in organized pagan groups represent “fewer than one-third of 1% of U.S. teens.”

Furthermore, American teenagers do not reflect a great spectrum of religious diversity. The team found that less than one half of one percent of U.S. teens consider themselves Muslim, with Buddhists and Hindus coming in far behind. In reality, Mormonism appears to be a much stronger competitor to Christianity, with five Mormon teenagers for every one Muslim adolescent.

By any measure, the theological beliefs held by American teenagers appeared to be confused and confusing. While more than 80% indicate belief in God, only two thirds believe in a God who is a personal being. At least 13% believe in “something like a deist view of God as having created the world but not being involved in it now,” and 14% reflect some form of New Age belief. These twin findings must be understood in tandem. As Smith explains, “Those who assume U.S. youth have been largely secularized might be surprised by the first finding. Those who assume U.S. youth are continuing on with a biblically traditional or orthodox view of God should be surprised by the second finding.”

In other words, American teenagers are very religious, with a vast majority indicating a belief in God. Yet the God in whom many of these teenagers believe bears virtually no resemblance to the God of the Bible.

The lack of theological clarity evident in the responses from these teenagers appears in relation to two critical issues—moral judgment and the nature of proof. Higher levels of church involvement are directly tied to lower levels of premarital sexual activity, use of pornography, and other temptations common to adolescence. Nevertheless, few of these teenagers seem to know exactly why their faith commitments should impact their moral reasoning or how specific beliefs should relate to moral decision-making. Furthermore, the teenagers tend to be extremely non-judgmental, framing issues of morality as individual decisions that should be beyond the scrutiny and judgment of others.

Christian Smith and his colleagues suggest that this is the residue of the radical individualism that marks the worldview of the baby boomers, who are presumably parenting this generation of adolescents. In addition, the researchers provide ample evidence that the moral behavior of America’s teenagers is no worse-and may even be better-than that of their parents.

This situation is further complicated by the fact that many adults, including the parents of these teenagers, are primarily involved in their own issues and problems. As Smith and co-author Melinda Lundquist Denton explained, “Significant numbers of teens today live their lives with little but the most distant adult direction and oversight. They spend the greater part of most weekdays in schools surrounded almost exclusively by their peers. Their parents are working and otherwise busy. Members of their extended family live in distant cities. Their teachers are largely preoccupied with discipline, classroom instruction, and grading. Their neighbors tend to stay out of each others’ business. These teens may have their own cars, cell phones, spending money, and televisions in their bedrooms. Or, they may simply spend all their free time hanging out with friends and associates at the mall, on the streets, at friends’ houses, or other places away from home. In any case, when school lets out, it may be hours before a parent gets home from work.”

When it comes to their concept of truth, “American teenagers appear to espouse rather inclusive, pluralistic, and individualistic views about religious truth, identity boundaries, and the need for a religious congregation.” While some adolescents hold to particularistic and exclusivistic understandings of Christianity, a far greater number “tend in their attitudes to be fairly liberal, relativistic, and open to differences among religious types.”

This is fully consistent with earlier research conducted by James Davison Hunter of the University of Virginia, who found that younger evangelicals surveyed in the 1980’s appeared poised to compromise the biblical teaching that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. In today’s cultural and intellectual context, largely shaped by a reflexive embrace of relativism, such claims appear to be out of step and “intolerant.”

In the main, the researchers found that the contours of adolescent belief—across all institutional and denominational boundaries—can be reduced to what they called “moralistic therapeutic deism.” This “de facto creed” was found most commonly among mainline Protestant and Catholic youth, but this profile was also visible among some conservative evangelicals. According to “moralistic therapeutic deism,” God’s main concern is that individuals be happy, good, moral, and pleasant. In the main, this religion is “about providing therapeutic benefits to its adherents.”

This important new study offers a wealth of sociological analysis. Soul Searching is a thoughtful and credible investigation of adolescent beliefs and practices. We must recognize that sociology has its limits, and the response of the Christian church should be based in theological conviction rather than sociological strategy. Nevertheless, this research project should serve as a catalyst for careful Christian thinking, and as an impetus for missiological awareness as we consider the vast mission field represented by America’s teenagers.

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R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Connecting the dots (townhall.com, 050527)

Rebecca Hagelin

Crammed upside down at the bottom of a trash bin with cement blocks piled on top of her tiny body, yet another of America’s little girls was seen as nothing more than garbage. Kidnapped, raped and left to die a horrible death, the eight-year-old child is the latest in an ever-growing torrent of victims of a toxic culture.

We may never know exactly what drove 17-year-old Milagro Cunningham to treat Lisa Taylor as if she were nothing more than a thing to be used and discarded at will — as if she were a tissue and not a precious human being created, like the rest of us, in the image and likeness of our Creator. Only God knows how such dark depravity could come to grip his mind and bring him to commit such a sickening act.

But we are fooling ourselves if we pretend that the reality of his abandonment by his own parents, his illegal presence in America with no one responsible for him, combined with a toxic culture that surrounds all of us, didn’t play a significant role. Milagro couldn’t have missed the signals sent by a raunchy media culture that says: Do whatever you like, whenever you like. Consequences? What consequences? Struggling, undoubtedly, with his own feelings of rejection, and with no stable family to help him sort through the lies, he took the selfish, hedonistic messages of pop culture that teaches everyone else is disposable and took them to their horrifying, and in his warped mind, logical conclusion.

My heart is breaking for America’s children.

We now live in a society where it’s not unusual to have metal detectors and armed police in our nation’s schools. The latest debate about enforcing the peace in our classrooms centers around police using tasers to subdue unruly students. But while pundits take one position or the other on the appropriateness of stun guns at school, the reason for the escalation in the madness is largely ignored by the mass media. Few seem to be “connecting the dots” from the obvious cultural corruption, to the failure of parents to truly “parent” their kids to the brutal consequences being suffered by our children.

Consider:

- According to a 2004 report by Advocates for Youth, a full fifty percent of the new STD cases are in our young people, ages 15-24

- A series of recent articles in the Chronicles of Higher Education reveals that greater numbers of freshmen are entering colleges with diagnosed depression and other mental illnesses

- A September 2004 report in the medical journal Pediatrics reveals that teens that watch a lot of sexualized programming on television are twice as likely to engage in intercourse than their peers who don’t watch much TV

- The London School of Economics reports that 9 out of 10 children ages 8 to 16 that go online (usually while looking up information for homework assignments) will stumble across hard-core pornography

As I discuss in my book, Home Invasion, my Heritage Foundation colleague, researcher and policy analyst Patrick Fagan points to the sad state of the American family as one key causal factor that has led to what he calls our “culture of rejection:”

In 1950, for every hundred children born that year, twelve entered a broken family—four were born out of wedlock and eight suffered the divorce of their parents. By the year 2000, that number had risen fivefold, and for every one hundred children born, sixty entered a broken family, with thirty-three of those born out of wedlock, and twenty-seven suffering the divorce of their parents.

The combination of a culture gone mad and parents gone AWOL has turned out to be lethal for America’s children.

The good news is that American parents are becoming increasingly disturbed by a pop culture that glorifies gratuitous sex, senseless violence, incivility, broken families and narcissism. In the one hundred plus interviews I’ve done since my book launched in mid-April, the calls and e-mails I’ve received from parents reflect a universal concern over the future of our children. The bad news is that far too many parents still don’t realize that the first step in protecting our children’s innocence and lives is for us to step up to the plate and truly parent.

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‘Being 13’—TIME Takes a Look at the New Adolescents (Christian Post, 050805)

“What does it mean to be 13, back stage adults, watching on tiptoe, waiting to go onstage?” That question sent TIME Magazine and a team of its reporters into an extended investigation of the lives of America’s youngest teenagers—contemporary 13-year-olds. The magazine’s report will at times shock, inform, and interest America’s parents and all others concerned with the nation’s young.

The age of 13 has always held a special and symbolic significance. In many traditions, reaching age 13 represents something like an initiation into the world of adulthood. At the same time, any sane parent recognizes that a 13-year-old boy or girl is more child than adult. What’s going on here?

TIME gets right to the heart of the issue. In the magazine’s cover story, “Being 13,” reporter Nancy Gibbs suggests that the age of 13 is about magic, mystery, sexuality, innocence, and a host of other conflicting experiences. As she explains, the 13th year “is the age of childhood leaning forward and adulthood holding back, when the world gets suddenly closer, the colors more vivid, the rules subject to never-ending argument.”

Of course, 13-year-olds present an almost unprecedented array of diverse personalities and varying levels of maturity. Just listen to Gibbs’ way of describing this diversity: “Ask 13-year-olds what they want for their birthday, and the answers range from a puppy to a laptop to getting their bellybutton pierced to ‘my girlfriend’s virginity.’” While teenagers delight in shocking and offending their parents, the reality is that many of these teenagers are involved in activities and lifestyles that would truly shock and alarm their parents. Growing up in a culture of overt sexuality and constant erotic stimulation, these children entered puberty just as the society decided to lose its mind over issues of sex.

Gibbs is certainly on to something here. “Thirteen-year-olds have more power than discipline, more weapons than shields,” she observes. “They demand more respect from their parents and show them less.” She suggests that the Motion Picture Association of America [MPAA] “understood the nature of the age when it invented the PG rating—parental guidance suggested—as though it knew that from here on, parents can guide, they can suggest, but kids are making more decisions, taking fewer orders.”

In many families, this is undoubtedly true. Anyone who works with teenagers knows that many are simply under-parented and under-supervised. Whether because of exhaustion or a misunderstanding of the age, many parents seem to assume that, even as their children reach age 13, they are ready to face the world on their own, more or less.

TIME and its team of reporters conducted a massive research project based on a survey of 501 thirteen-year-olds. They found that this generation seems to be almost uniquely pessimistic about the future. Almost half believe that when they reach their parents’ age, the country will be a worse place to live than it is now. The vast majority said that being a teenager is harder now than it was for their parents. As Gibbs observes, “It’s fair to ask whether any teenage generation has ever thought otherwise, but every age has new anxieties.” Indeed, surveys indicate that this generation of 13-year-olds is considerably more pessimistic than those who reached the same age just five or ten years ago.

We should keep in mind that this generation of 13-year-olds is old enough to remember the shock and horror of September 11, 2001, much like previous generations of older children and young teenagers came to moral awareness and an understanding of the world in the context of Pearl Harbor , Vietnam, Watergate, or similar national crises.

There is good news as well—some of it quite surprising. Many readers would be fascinated to know that 53% of the 13-year-olds surveyed indicated that they had “excellent” relationships with their parents. By the same percentage, the kids indicated that their parents are “very involved” in their lives, knowing “just about everything that goes on.” In other words, just over half of these teenagers report that they have actively engaged parents with whom they have very satisfactory relationships. That is profoundly good news.

On the other hand, that leaves just under half reporting less satisfactory relationships and less—sometimes much less—parental involvement in their lives. Only seven percent of the 13-year-olds indicated that their parents are “much too strict,” and exactly 50% believe their parents to be “a little too strict.”

When it comes to dating and sex, only 30% reported a belief that teenagers 13 and under should be involved in dating relationships. As a matter of fact, the majority of these teenagers offered responses that indicate a rather conventional and traditional sexual morality. Fully 60% believe that a couple should wait until marriage to have sex. Nevertheless, the definition of what “sex” means may be open to interpretation among some young teenagers.

TIME offers what amounts to a series of articles and special features related to their cover story. The magazine and its reporters consider what age 13 means in terms of education, entertainment, consumer preferences, and spirituality. Beyond this, the magazine also acknowledges that basic physiological changes appear to mean that today’s 13-year-olds are physically advanced—in terms of both physical size and sexual maturation—than previous generations. If that is not scary enough, the magazine also acknowledges that “teens are growing up in a culture that sexualizes children and immerses them in adult images.”

TIME’s cover story and related features should remind Christian parents that 13-year-olds are more child than adult. Nevertheless, a child’s arrival at age 13 announces to parents that their hardest work now lies immediately ahead—and that time is running out for the kind of parental involvement, oversight, discipline, and encouragement that young teenagers desperately need.

The cultural invention of adolescence is something unique to our times. In previous generations, 13-year-olds might well be getting ready for marriage, even as many would already be involved in the workforce. Today’s parents must understand that young adolescents need more—not less—parental time and attention. With the advent of adolescence comes the capacity for abstract thinking and a host of related anxieties, fantasies, and issues. For the first time, these young adolescents are able to imagine different lives, different beliefs, and different realities than the ones they have always known. It is an age of unusual vulnerability, even as it is also an age of incredible wonder, imagination, and promise.

I read TIME’s cover story with something more than remote detachment. For me and my wife, this means more than cultural observation. We have a 13-year-old son who is a living, breathing, and constantly exhilarating reminder of what age 13 really means. This age represents a season of both promise and danger, and God expects parents to be up to the challenge. When I get home, I’m going to give my son an especially tight hug—and watch him like a hawk.

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R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

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What If There Are No Adults? (Christian Post, 050823)

The transition to adulthood used to be one of the main goals of the young. Adulthood was seen to be a status worth achieving and was understood to be a set of responsibilities worth fulfilling. At least, that’s the way it used to be. Now, an entire generation seems to be finding itself locked in the grip of eternal youth, unwilling or unable to grow up.

Concern about this phenomenon has been building for some time. Baby-boomer parents are perplexed when their adult-age children move back home, fail to find a job, and appear to be in no hurry to marry. Though the current generation of young adults includes some spectacular exceptions who have quickly moved into the fullness of adult responsibility, the generation as a whole seems to be waiting for something—but who knows what?—to happen.

Frederica Mathewes-Green sees the same phenomenon. In her brilliant essay published in the August/September 2005 edition of First Things, Mathewes-Green describes this new reality with striking clarity.

She begins with the movies. Describing herself as a fan of the old black-and-white classics from the 1930s and 1940s, Mathewes-Green remembers how young actors customarily played the part of mature adults. Actresses like Claudette Colbert and Jean Harlowe were “poised and elegant” onscreen. She notes, “Today even people much older don’t have that kind of presence.” She then compares Cary Grant with Hugh Grant. The first Grant was “poised and debonair” while the more recent Grant “portrayed a boyish, floppy-haired ditherer till he was forty.” She cites reviewer Michael Atkinson, who dubbed today’s immature male actors as “toddler-men.” As Atkinson describes the distinction, “The conscious contrast between baby-faced, teen-voiced toddler-men movie actors and the Golden Age’s grownups is unavoidable.”

As Mathewes-Green explains, “Characters in these older movies appear to be an age nobody ever gets to be today. This isn’t an observation about the actors themselves (who may have behaved in very juvenile ways privately); rather, it is about the way audiences expected grownups to act.” Fast-forwarding to today’s Hollywood culture, she observes: “Nobody has that old-style confident authority anymore. We’ve forgotten how to act like grownups.”

Frederica Mathewes-Green is surely correct in seeing this contrast. Gladly, she not only depicts the reality as we now face it—she goes on to explain how we have arrived at such a state of institutionalized immaturity.

As she sees it, “The Baby Boomers fought adulthood every step of the way.” In other words, Mathewes-Green points to the parents of this current generation of young adults as the locus of the problem. Speaking of her own generation, she remembers: “We turned blue jeans and T-shirts into the generational uniform. We stopped remembering the names of world political leaders and started remembering the names of movie stars’ ex-boyfriends. We stopped participating in fraternal service organizations and started playing video games. We Boomers identified so strongly with being ‘the younger generation’ that now, paunchy and gray, we’re bewildered. We have no idea how to be the older generation. We’ll just have to go on being a cranky, creaky appendix to the younger one.”

Mathewes-Green’s analysis pushes back even further than the baby boomers. She blames the parents of the baby boomers for trying to protect that generation from the realities of a cruel world and a hard life. Having fought and survived the great trial of World War II, they wanted to protect their own young children. “They wanted their little ones never to experience the things they had,” Mathewes-Green explains, “never to see such awful sights. Above all, they wanted to protect their children’s innocence.”

Mathewes-Green is a writer of great ability. Her picturesque imagery makes her point with poetic force. She describes the days “when large families lived together in very small houses” and when “paralyzed or senile family members were cared for at home.” When the realities of life were not hidden away, institutionalized, and sanitized, children grew up understanding that life itself is a trial and that adulthood requires a willingness to grow up, take responsibility, fend for oneself, and fight for one’s own.

In summary, Mathewes-Green believes that the parents of the 1950s “confused vulnerability with moral innocence. They failed to understand that children who were always encouraged to be childish would jump at the chance and turn childishness into a lifelong project. These parents were unprepared to respond when their children acquired the bodies of young adults and behaved with selfishness, defiance, and hedonism.”

In her historical analysis, the parents of the baby boomers attempted to separate childhood and adulthood into two completely separate compartments of life. Childhood would be marked by innocence and adulthood by responsibility. As Mathewes-Green warns: “Be careful what you wish for.” Missing from this picture is a period of urgent transition that would turn the child into an adult. What we face now is a generation of children in the bodies of adults.

Understanding the reality of the problem is a first step towards recovery. Nevertheless, mere description is insufficient as an answer to this crisis.

In days gone by, children learned how to be adults by living, working, and playing at the parents’ side. The onset of age twelve or thirteen meant that time was running out on childhood. Traditional ceremonies like the Jewish Bar Mitzvah announced that adulthood was dawning. This point would be clearly understood by the young boy undergoing the Bar Mitzvah. “By the time his body was fully formed, he would be expected to do a full day’s work. He could expect to enter the ranks of full-fledged grownups soon after and marry in his late teens. Childhood was a swift passageway to adulthood, and adulthood was a much-desired state of authority and respect.”

Today’s patterns of schooling do not, in the main, appear to produce a similar result. Instead, the educational process continues to coddle, reassure, and affirm young people without regard to their assumption of adult responsibilities. This approach, Mathewes-Green explains, prepares children “for a life that doesn’t exist.”

When a generation is continuously told that its options are limitless, its abilities are boundless, and its happiness is central, why should we be surprised that reality comes as such a difficult concept?

Mathewes-Green points to the delay of marriage as the most interesting indicator of what is happening. As she notes, the average first marriage now unites a bride age 25 with a groom age 27. “I’m intrigued by how patently unnatural that is,” Mathewes-Green observes. “God designed our bodies to desire to mate much earlier, and through most of history cultures have accommodated that desire by enabling people to wed by their late teens or early twenties. People would postpone marriage until their late twenties only in cases of economic disaster or famine—times when people had to save up in order to marry.”

Is the current generation of young adults too immature to marry? Mathewes-Green insists that if this is the case, it is only because the older generation has been telling them they are too immature to marry. Does early marriage lead to disaster? Mathewes-Green is ready to prescribe a dose of reality. “Fifty years ago, when the average bride was twenty, the divorce rate was half what it is now, because the culture encouraged and sustained marriage.”

Look carefully at how she describes the personal impact produced by this pattern of delayed marriage: “During those lingering years of unmarried adulthood, young people may not be getting married, but they’re still falling in love. They fall in love, and break up, and undergo terrible pain, but find that with time they get over it. This is true even if they remain chaste. By the time these young people marry, they may have had many opportunities to learn how to walk away from a promise. They’ve been training for divorce.”

Rarely does one article contain so much common sense, moral wisdom, and promise. The way to recovery surely must start with a rediscovery of what adulthood means and a reaffirmation of why it is so important—both for the society and for individuals. Adulthood must be tied to actual, meaningful, and mature responsibilities—most importantly, marriage.

There is reason for hope. Many in this new generation demonstrate a willingness to buck the trend. They are the new pioneers of adulthood, and they will be uniquely qualified to influence their own peers and to reshape our own culture. Taking marriage seriously as a life-long commitment, they will be more inclined to raise children who will understand what it will take to live as adults in our time of confusion. They will understand that eternal youth is not a blessing, but a curse.

__________________________________________________

R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

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6 Middle Schoolers Arrested After Planning Massacre (Foxnews, 060423)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Police said a group of seventh-graders hatched an elaborate plan to cut off power and telephone service to their middle school, slay classmates and faculty with guns and knives, then escape from their small Alaska town.

The arrest Saturday of six students in North Pole, a town of 1,600 people about 14 miles southeast of Fairbanks, marks the nation’s second breakup of an alleged Columbine-style school attack this week. Five Kansas teenagers suspected of planning a shooting rampage at their high school were arrested Thursday, the seventh anniversary of the massacre in suburban Colorado.

The Alaskan seventh-graders had been picked on by other students and wanted to seek revenge, Police Chief Paul Lindhag said. They also disliked staff and students, he said.

The students had planned to disable North Pole Middle School’s power and telephone systems, allotting time to kill their victims and flee from town, Lindhag said.

A parent alerted police of rumors of an attack, Lindhag said. He would not elaborate on the case, or what kind of documented evidence led to the arrests.

“These are the ones who had major roles in this,” Lindhag said. “All our information came through our interviews.”

The students, who were being held at the Fairbanks Youth Facility, could face charges of first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, authorities said.

The North Pole boys, whose names were not released, were among 15 students at the school who were suspended after a parent tipped police Monday evening. A child told the parent that rumors were circulating about the alleged plot, which had been postponed from Monday until Tuesday, Lindhag said.

“We feel very thankful that a student felt they could talk to an adult, and very thankful that the adult had the wisdom to contact the North Pole Police Department,” said Wayne Gerke, an assistant superintendent with the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

The suspended students were identified by officers working with a school safety official. Parents were advised to keep their children away from 500-student campus Tuesday. Lindhag said authorities don’t believe all the suspended students were involved, but officials erred on the side of caution.

“There were a lot of rumors flying around,” Lindhag said.

Locals are “shocked, saddened and heartbroken about whole situation,” but area schools have policies to deal with such a crisis, Gerke said.

The other students remain suspended while the investigation continues, and police will have a presence at the school for the rest of the year, officials said.

In Riverton, Kan., school officials learned that a threatening message had been posted on the Internet, authorities said. The boys, ages 16 to 18, will stay in custody through the weekend while prosecutors decide whether to file charges, a judge ruled Saturday.

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Parents Warn of Popular, Dangerous Teen Trends (Christian Post, 060609)

Teens today are engaging in cultural trends that seem harmless at first, but have resulted in a number of deaths. Many parents, however, are unaware of the dangers or even the existence of such popular activities as conversing on MySpace.com and playing “the choking game.”

In the latest report involving MySpace.com, a Chicago 14-year-old faces felony harassment charges for threatening the life of a school official on the highly popularized website. The threat was posted on the Internet site at the beginning of the school year, but discovered only recently, according to the Aurora Police Department.

The report is only one of a long string of cases that brought charges on sexual predators and teens who have made inappropriate postings and other forms of threats since the launch of the new online phenomenon in 2003.

According to Focus on the Family, many parents are in the dark about the widely popular online meeting space. Bob Waliszewski, director of Youth Culture at Focus on the Family, called MySpace.com the “good, the bad and the ugly” in a Focus on Radio segment Thursday. Waliszewski reported 74 million profiles currently on MySpace.com, which is almost as big as Yahoo!. And everyday, around 85,000 new profiles are added to it.

For those unaware of the website, it’s like a “computerized locker space,” Waliszewski simply put it. Users can post up their favorite music and films, pictures, blog entries and even share their faith. The “bad” aspect, however, has seemed to dominate over the “good.”

The search phrase “Bible Study” gets 246,000 hits, according to Waliszewski, compared to the 2,300,000 hits the word “porn” receives.

“It can be very pornographic,” he said.

Another popularized teen trend less known to the public is “the choking game” or what some call “the dream game” or “blackout.” In a usually group setting, teens use their hands or other devices to choke each other or themselves until they pass out. It’s a game that has been around for generations yet that has recently resurfaced among today’s youths.

The game is “comparable to a high from drugs and alcohol,” described Tim Wilson, pastor of River of Fire Church in Kansas and parent of a teen daughter who accidentally died from the playing the game on her own last year. With an addictive nature to the game, some children do it for hours at a time.

Doctors warn that cutting off oxygen to the brain can cause permanent brain damage or, like Kimberly Wilson, death.

Parents of victimized children are now trying to spread awareness to other parents and warn them before it’s too late. Tim and Carol Wilson have resolved to save as many children as possible from this fate that kids are, in many cases, playing completely unaware of the dangers.

Some of the warning signs parents need to watch for include unusual marks around the neck, complaints of headaches and blood shot eyes.

Regarding the more talked about and widely used activity of MySpace.com, youth expert Waliszewski suggests more involvement on the part of parents.

“Because this is such as seedy world, if parents are going to let their children have a MySpace account ... the ground rules are the parents have to be involved in this world,” he said. “They have to have the freedom to access the discussions that are going on their children’s MySpace account and that they’re keeping it entirely private where the friends that come in are a very close circle of friends that the parents know.”

While parents may be concerned of the violating their children’s privacy, Waliszewski and the Wilsons call today’s world “a different world.”

“We as parents have to be involved,” said Waliszewski.

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‘Jesus Camp’ Disturbs Some Christians (Christian Post, 060920)

An upcoming documentary on the youngest warriors for Christ is causing a scare to some audiences for its raw depiction of white evangelical children being radically trained to lay down their lives for the gospel.

“We’re talking this week about how the devil uses tactics to destroy our lives,” says Becky Fischer, Pentecostal children’s minister and director of Kids in Ministry International, in the film “Jesus Camp.” “The first tactic that he uses is to tempt you with sin.”

Fischer, who grew up in a traditional Pentecostal church environment, runs a summer camp called “Kids on Fire” for evangelical Christian children at Devil’s Lake, N.D. There, hundreds of children experience the “power of God” with fiery worship, sobbing prayers, and charismatic experiences that leave children shaking on the floor.

“The night Uncle Leon prayed for me I was on the floor bawling, and my tummy was shaking,” says 12-year-old Emily, a 2003 camper, on the Kids in Ministry website. “There were so many kids piled up on the floor and there was no room for me ... Also in the prophecy class we were praying in tongues and I saw a parade. Leon said it meant revival. Other people in the class saw revival too. So I know revival is coming.”

A growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of their religious movement, states the film synopsis.

“It (the summer camp) opened up a way to explore not just evangelical kids but the larger story of the culture war underway in the United States,” says filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady in an interview with the International Documentary Association (IDA).

Tens of thousands of teens and young adults recently acknowledged the culture war as they participated in a new Christian campaign called Battle Cry, a movement launched by the Teen Mania, one of the largest teen ministries. In the midst of a cultural war, Christian teens launched a countercultural movement, crying out against the drugs, alcohol and sex that are prevalent among teens today and uniting under the culture of Christ with top Christian artists.

While major evangelical leaders back the teen movement to “take back this generation for Christ,” “Jesus Camp” paints a more radical picture of a younger and extremely fervent crowd of Christians trying to “take back America for Christ,” as Fischer says.

“Jesus Camp” kids are in their early teens and are crying out in a different way.

One review by award-winning freelance writer Joanne Brokaw reports, “In what was the most disturbing and chilling scene of the documentary, a speaker talks candidly to the kids about abortion, explaining, ‘One third of your friends could be here tonight but they never made it.’ He challenges the kids to ‘raise up a moral outcry and overturn abortion,’ and by the end of the session these grade schoolers are in a shouting frenzy, pumping their fists in the air and parroting his call for ‘Righteous judges! Righteous judges!’”

“I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam,” Fischer says early in the film, according to Brokaw. “I want to see them radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all of these different places.”

“I really feel like we’re a key generation for Jesus coming back,” says one young camp participant in the film.

Some observers say the film demonizes the evangelical youth movement, according to ABC. The film won the Scariest Movie Award when it was screened by Michael Moore at the Traverse City Film Festival. And some evangelical Christians have distanced themselves from those portrayed in the film.

Ewing made it clear that among the 100 million evangelical Christians in the United States, there are many “subsets” and that “not all evangelicals share the same views, politically and theologically.”

“So it was challenging to present one group and not generalize about the many millions who worship and live differently from the people in our film,” according to IDA.

Parents of children involved and pastors including Fischer do not believe the documentary is negative and are promoting the film.

“I never felt at any point that I was exploited,” Fischer says, according to ABC News.

Chap Clark, an associate professor at the Fuller Theological Seminary, told ABC that people who see “Jesus Camp” should not come away with the idea that evangelizing to youth consists mainly of political indoctrination.

The filmmakers were initially unaware that they were “making a film that was intertwined with politics until we started filming,” they said.

Nevertheless, Clark believes “this is a very hopeful time because of the youth ministry movement.”

The film opened last week in such cities as Colorado Springs, Colo., where Christians have a strong presence and so the film could be “seen on a blank slate” without media reviews, says Magnolia Pictures President Eamonn Bowles. It will be released in theaters in New York on Friday and in Los Angeles on Sept. 29.

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Study: State of High School Seniors Today (Christian Post, 061024)

Fuller Seminary’s Center for Youth and Family Ministry (CYFM) released results from its first wave in a three-year longitudinal study surveying high school seniors going off to college.

Studying the current state of seniors and the type of students youth ministries are developing today, the College Transition Project received responses from high school students around the country for wave one of the milestone study.

Surprisingly, the top reason students go to youth group is because of their youth pastor. According to the responses received, 162 of which were usable, 68% said it is “very true” or “completely true” they go to youth group because they like their youth pastor. The second most popular reason was “I learn about God there,” which was followed by 58% who said “It’s fun.”

Other reasons listed as “very true” or “completely true” by at least 50% of the students included “I feel comfortable there,” “I’ve always gone to church/youth group,” “It’s a place where I can learn to serve,” and “It feels like a real community.”

Some youth workers expressed ambivalence about the top reason students listed but they also raised the question if it’s possible that the students have become “too dependent” on their youth pastors.

“Interestingly, seniors’ connections with their friends at youth group don’t rank as highly as many would have guessed,” noted the report. “By average score, seniors ranked the options regarding community and a sense of belonging seventh, eighth, and tenth.”

The least likely reason students listed was that their parents make them go or that they feel guilty if they don’t go.

Students were also asked what they wanted to see more of in youth ministry. At the top was the desire for more service projects. Following that, 70% of the respondents wanted more or much more time for deep conversation; 65 wanted more mission trips; 65% wanted more accountability; and 58% wanted more time to worship. Ranked last was the desire for more games.

“The major theme of these seniors’ responses is a desire for deeper responsibility and interaction; they want to express themselves and their faith through service and mission trips, and they want deeper interaction through conversation, accountability, and alone time with leaders,” stated the study. “The vast majority do not want more games.”

Although 56% said they wanted more Bible study, the study highlighted its lower ranking among the listed changes and pointed to the little time seniors spend on reading the Bible on their own. A separated questionnaire had indicated that the seniors read the Bible by themselves an average of 2 to 3 times per month.

On an additional note, involvement in Sunday youth group gatherings was found to have a significant relationship with seniors’ choices on such risk behaviors as drinking alcohol and sexual activity. Earlier results from the project’s first pilot phase had found that 100% of students who graduated from youth ministry had engaged in risk behaviors.

However, the more activities, such as Bible reading or youth ministry works, students engaged in, the greater effect it had on their faith and life choices.

A third question in the study asked seniors about their feelings toward their adult youth leaders. Youth leaders were looked to as a greater source of support than fellow peers or “other students” in their youth group.

“Overall, this is encouraging news for youth leaders,” the report highlighted. “Seniors feel supported, valued, and appreciated by youth ministry adults. Perhaps surprisingly, seniors’ perceived levels of support from other students in their youth groups pales in comparison to the support they receive from their adult leaders.”

Their perception of being supported by their youth group leaders also made a difference in their choosing to or not to drink alcohol. It had no effect on their levels of sexual activity.

Having discussions with parents was also found to make a significant difference on students and the choices they make.

When it came to integrating their faith into their life choices, 85.1% agreed that it is important that God be pleased with their dating relationship; 81.5% agreed that they try to see setbacks and crises as part of God’s larger plan; 75.9% said it is important that their future career somehow embody a calling from God; and 72.2% said it was important to them to seek God’s will in choosing what college to attend.

“The good news is that students’ faith makes a difference in their perspective on dating, crises, college selection, and future career,” the study noted. “The bad news is that students’ faith has far less impact on their choices related to money and schedule.”

One college sophomore described, “In high school, everything was scheduled. In college, every choice is up to you, and you set your own schedule. You can do whatever you want.”

Wave one of the College Transition Project collected data from 162 high school seniors through online and paper surveys. The majority of the respondents were female, had a GPA of 3.0 or above, live with both parents, and said they were involved in student leadership or leadership training at their churches.

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Youth Campaign Kicks Off to Counter Liberal Agenda with Pro-God Message (Christian Post, 070820)

This week, Christian students throughout the nation have the opportunity to receive a free youth Bible to give out to a non-Christian classmate.

For the fifth consecutive year, Revival Fires International is teaming up with the American Family Association and American Family Radio to encourage teenagers to distribute “The Truth for Youth” Bibles during a weeklong campaign to counter the ill effect that the liberal agenda is having on young people.

Tim Todd, director of Revival Fires International, was inspired to start up the project after visiting Moscow, Russia, where his parents’ ministry was asked by the Ministry of Education to assist in providing Bibles as textbooks in their public schools. After seeing the success of this program, Todd wanted to have a similar impact on schools in the United States.

“I am determined, if students can distribute Bibles in the public schools of Russia, our young people should be able to distribute Bibles in the public schools of America too!” he had said.

In the past, Todd had noted how the liberal agenda has been promoted “aggressively” in America’s public schools.

“Many public schools have allowed Planned Parenthood to establish clinics where condoms and birth control pills are being distributed to students, and yet Bibles are forbidden,” said Todd. “The National Education Association is promoting a liberal agenda to have a homosexual lifestyle, and many are teaching that abortion is just the slopping off of a mass of tissue and that abortion is a woman’s choice.”

Meanwhile, Christian students are often restrained in the expression of their firmly-held beliefs.

“There has been an influx of Gay Straight Alliance Clubs (pro-homosexual clubs) in America,” as Benjamin Lopez, lobbyist for Traditional Values Coalition, has noted in the past. “Any person can come in during any lunch hour and talk to children about the homosexual stance [but] if a student expresses a religious objection to homosexuality, they are told in the classroom that they are discriminating and hateful.”

Organizers and participants of the annual “Truth for Youth” week are hoping to change this by countering the pro-gay, pro-sex agendas with a pro-God message.

The “Truth For Youth” Bible consists of the entire New Testament in the God’s Word version, along with full color comics that are packed with “absolute truths” regarding issues young people are faced with, such as: Evolution, Sexual Purity, Homosexuality, Abortion, Pornography, Drugs, Drunkenness, Peer Pressure, School Violence and Secular Rock Music.

According to Revival Fires, its “Truth for Youth” weeks have resulted in more than 250,000 Bibles being given away in school over the past five years and more than 1,100 young people sending decision coupons, emails or letters confirming they have surrendered their hearts to Christ.

A total of more than 1.2 million “Truth for Youth” Bibles have been distributed since the conception of the special youth Bible.

Christian leaders who have endorsed “The Truth for Youth” include Pat Boone, the late Bill Bright, the late Jerry Falwell, T.D. Jakes, actor Dean Jones, Art Linkletter, William J. Murray, Rod Parsley, and Michael Reagan.

Teenagers are urged to participate in the Aug. 20-24 campaign by going to: thetruthforyouth.com or calling toll free 1-800-733-4737 and ordering a free Bible for a teenager to distribute at school.

To avoid any legal problems from rising, a list of student’s legal rights on public school campuses is displayed on the back cover of “The Truth for Youth” Bible informing school administrators and officials of the students’ rights – which include handing out Bible during non-instructional school time.

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CWA Disagrees; Sex Is a Big Deal (Christian Post, 070201)

There is now solid evidence that teen girls who engage in risky behaviors are more vulnerable to depression, said a senior fellow at Concerned Women for America.

Janice Crouse pointed to a study conducted at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which found that sex and drug behavior predicted an increased likelihood of depression, especially for girls.

“So much for the cultural mantra that ‘sex is no big deal’ and that all we need to do for teens is provide them with condoms and teach them ‘safe sex’ practices,” said Crouse, according to CWA, a public policy women’s organization promoting Biblical values.

Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the study tested whether gender-specific patterns of substance use and sexual behavior precede and predict depression or vice versa. Although depression did not predict behavior, researchers found that both experimental and high-risk behaviors among girls predicted depression. The data came out of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

“The message is clear: teens engaging in risky behavior are at risk for depression,” she stated. Crouse further highlighted the parallel between widespread depression and the percentage of high school students saying they had intercourse, drank alcohol and used marijuana (47, 43, and 22%, respectively). Those figures were referenced from a 2003 report.

“Almost one-third of the students said that their feelings of sadness and hopelessness had kept them from doing normal activities over the past year,” Crouse noted.

Girls are more likely to fall into depression after both experimental and high-risk behaviors while for boys, only high-risk behaviors increased the odds of later depression.

“Depressed girls who are abstinent, however, have decreased odds of engaging in any high-risk behavior,” Crouse pointed out.

“So, why is the left so determined to continue the myth that teens are going to ‘do it anyway;’ that they are captive to their hormones so we must provide them with ‘protection’ and ignore everything else?”

Crouse emphatically argued that sex is a big deal and even if prevention methods were 100% effective, she said casual sex still has a significant psychological impact that “can never be eliminated.”

“No amount of argument to the contrary will change that basic biological reality.”

While Crouse argued that adolescents should be made aware of the possible consequences and the risks that they are taking when engaging in risky behaviors, she shed light to recent data that showed a decreasing trend in teen sexual activity and abortions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in the summer of 2006 that the percentage of high school students reporting ever having sexual intercourse has declined during the past 15 years.

“We are seeing positive results from pointing young women to the truth.”

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Over 32,000 Teens Urged to Stop Dating World, Marry God (Christian Post, 070416)

More than 32,000 teens were urged to forsake all their lovers and commit to God.

“Some of you guys have been playing around just sort of dating God, dating the world, dating God ...” Teen Mania Ministries founder Ron Luce told the thousands of teens at Detroit’s Ford Field on Saturday. “Maybe you never stopped dating the world and committed to Christ.”

The youth leader was preaching at the second rally of this year’s BattleCry campaign, which has so far drawn over 54,000 teens in the West Coast and in the mid-states. BattleCry rallies are large-scale two-day stadium events gathering the young generation in a fight against pop culture and the loss of Bible-believing Christians.

In a media- and sex-saturated culture, Luce says there’s a culture war being waged for the souls of youths, and unless they do something to combat the negative messages targeting teens, the evangelicals will lose. So he and Teen Mania are out “banging the drum” as loud as they can until they win.

“We’re fighting that outside influence,” he said, according to the Detroit Free Press. “We’re teaching teenagers to see through it. We’re teaching them how the Bible can help them.”

But he doesn’t want teens to just give a quick prayer and say they believe in God. He wants to see a marriage commitment to God.

“If you really believe ... then commit,” he told Detroit’s young crowd. “It’s not a cheap, sort of half-hazard [commitment] ...; it’s like you’re marrying God.”

That means, giving up other lovers—including drugs, alcohol and sex before marriage—and taking up the cross.

“[Jesus] is saying I want you to love me so much you’re not thinking about ‘Oh, I can’t do drugs, I can’t drink, I can’t have sex anymore until I’m married,’” said Luce. “He’s [saying] when you come, you’ve got to think about it because you’ve got to forsake everything else; you’ve got to walk away from it; you’ve got to let it go; you’ve got to let that part of you die.”

And when a person commits, it is not a religion thing, it’s a God thing, said Luce as he warned them to first “think about it” before they make that commitment.

Thousands of teens, many in tears, kneeled at the foot of two illuminated crosses on the sides of the stage to commit themselves to Jesus Christ and walk away from their old lives.

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Ultra-violent gang found in 42 states: Central American members move to Los Angeles, then branch out (WorldNetDaily, 070427)

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – Cliques of the ultra-violent Latin American MS-13 gang have been identified in 42 U.S. states, according to the director of an FBI task force, speaking at a conference here.

Another violent group, the 18th Street Gang, is in 37 states, said Brian Truchon, director of the FBI MS-13 National Gang Task Force, or NGTF.

As WND reported, Truchon spoke at the Third Gang Enforcement Conference 2007 conference, which is focusing on MS-13.

“One thing we figured out with the on-going cases was that Los Angeles is our starting point,” Truchon stressed. “When the gang migrates throughout the U.S., there is always a road back to L.A. From L.A., there is always a road back to Central America.”

The FBI has identified 13 core cities for MS-13 in the U.S.: Los Angeles, Washington, Baltimore, New York, Houston, Charlotte, Sacramento, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Omaha, Newark and Boston.

Currently, the FBI has in excess of 110 MS-13 investigations in 40 different FBI field offices. For the 18th Street Gang, the FBI has more than 20 on-going investigations in 15 FBI field offices.

The FBI has found foreign connectivity from MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang back to El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.

“One piece of information a particular FBI field office develops may fit into an international puzzle,” Truchon emphasized. “The information might actually help us with a case we are developing in an entirely different city.”

Truchon said individuals in gang cliques in the U.S. often are influenced by gang members in Latin America, even from within the prisons.

“Gang members in a prison in El Salvador are able to reach out from prison and kill gang members in L.A.,” he said.

Truchon reported that deported members from Hollywood Locos Clique incarcerated in Ciudad Barrios Prison, El Salvador, were found to be able to impact MS-13 gang members in Virginia. Sailors Clique MS-13 gang members imprisoned in Quezaltepeque, La Libertad, El Salvador, were also found to exert an impact on gang members in Virginia.

“We find a great deal of movement and communication between gang members in the U.S. and their counterparts in Mexico and El Salvador,” Truchon said.

The FBI has NGTF has instituted a criminal file/fingerprint retrieval initiative known as the Central American Fingerprint Exploitation (CAFÉ). The CAFÉ initiative has been developed to retrieve the criminal fingerprints from the countries of El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras.

FBI currently has 3 million criminal fingerprints from Central America and Mexico. Preliminary results on test batch of first 180,000 prints show over 3,800 hits (11.75%) on existing records 86 hits to active wants. Offenses include murder, armed robbery, sexual assault, burglary, numerous drug related charges, and immigration violations.

The FBI’s MS-13 task force also has entered a Transnational Anti-Gang Program to place FBI agents permanently in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico, to investigate and counter trans-border gang activity.

“We are making progress in understanding the international connectivity and flow of people and information between MS-13 and 18th Street in the U.S.,” Truchon told the conference. “We are going to pursue joint proactive investigations with Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. We will apply the analytic efforts of the National Gang Intelligence Center to the effort.”

Truchon said that in the FBI’s efforts to disrupt and destroy gangs like MS-13 and 18th Street, it has to “reach across jurisdictions, not only from the federal NGTF at the FBI, but now across to law enforcement officers in Mexico and Central America.”

Joe Trias, a program manager overseeing gang investigations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, headquarters, told the conference Operation Community Shield has arrested some 1,362 MS-13 members or associates since the program was initiated in February 2005. Of these, 343 were arrested criminally. Some 637 of the arrestees were found to have had criminal histories.

El Salvador was by far the leading country of origin for some 754 of the arrestees, followed by Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.

“We believe that MS-13 controls the smuggling corridors along the Mexican border, for both drugs and weapons,” Trias told the conference.

“MS 13 is not going away,” Trias said. “We are seeing second generation MS-13 members and MS-13 recruitment is increasing. We also see signs of a more formal criminal structure developing within MS-13, both in the United States and in Central America.”

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How to Respond to Rapidly Changing Youth Culture (Christian Post, 070510)

Most Americans are immersed in the influence of media but when it surrounds people 24/7, they usually start to forget it’s there, a Christian author said. And the most targeted market demographic in the world is today’s teenagers.

Five years ago, the most powerful media form in shaping the life of teens was music, said Walt Mueller, author of the new book, Youth Culture 101, according to Youth Specialties, a youth workers ministry. Today, it’s marketing.

Research shows that most people in the United States see anywhere from 3,500 to 16,000 marketing messages a day, noted Mueller, who is also president of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. And today’s generation is the most media-saturated and media-savvy generation there’s ever been, he added.

“Media runs their life,” the author said.

Back when Mueller was young, the average American household had one television that families watched together. Today, more teens have their own television set in their rooms where they can engage it alone without the input of their parents or any other adult, he noted.

Marketing doesn’t just sell a product, Mueller commented. “It sells a worldview.”

“What are you going to do to teach your kids to interact ‘Christianly’ and critically with the media?” he posed.

Youth Culture 101, slated for release in June, provides an overview of popular culture for youth workers, parents and educators. It explores they dynamics of why kids are drawn into the culture and how it shapes their lives. The upcoming release comes out of Mueller’s critically acclaimed book, Understanding Today’s Youth Culture, which is widely recognized as one of the most thorough and comprehensive overviews of youth culture.

Mueller had already written two editions of the youth culture book in 1994 and 1999 and is now coming out with a third.

“Culture’s changing so quickly. A book like this has to be redone every few years just to pick up on the new tendencies, trends and changes taking place,” said Mueller. “Because the rate of change is increasing so quickly, it’s snowballing; it’s really time for something new and something fresh.”

Tackling the powerful role of media in his new book, Mueller stresses the need to raise awareness of kids to when and how they’re being marketed to and to give them a sense of how to respond “Christianly” and how youth workers and parents can respond.

Oftentimes, when adults hear their kids listening to music or viewing images they don’t like, the typical reaction is to tell the kids to turn it off.

“[That] doesn’t hold water with kids when we just say ‘turn it off,’” said Mueller. “We need to know enough to have credibility.”

Explaining that culture and media can function as a mirror, Mueller said parents or adults can stand over kids’ backs into the ‘mirror of the media’ which can reflect specific cares, concerns and issues that the youth may not want to or be able to express themselves. That clues the adult in on how to respond to their kids.

Mueller clarifies that he is not trying to be an “alarmist” in the book. Rather, he says the book is practical, mainstream and a “state it as it is in a hopeful way” resource.

Other issues addressed in Youth Culture 101 are materialism, depression and suicide, peer pressure, and suggested responses to each.

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16,000 Teens Battle Pop Culture with Christian Voice (Christian Post, 070514)

BRISTOW, Va. – Over the weekend, rock music was blaring and thousands of teenagers were pounding their fist in the air and screaming excitedly as walls of powerful lights flashed on stage. But this was no ordinary concert. This was the battle cry of faithful youth fighting to save a generation under attack.

Some 16,000 teenagers on the east coast flocked to the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Va., May 11-12 to embrace the culture of Jesus Christ and to be motivated to take back their generation from popular culture.

At the last BattleCry event of this year, teens were passionately urged to use their voice to change the culture from one driven by sex, drugs and alcohol to one that promotes the teachings of the Gospel.

“Do you have a voice?” shouted Teen Mania founder Ron Luce, whose group initiated the BattleCry movement, on Saturday.

“I have a voice!” screamed thousands of teenagers holding up signs with the BattleCry logo and reading “I HAVE A VOICE!”

“Then use it!” responded Luce.

The youth leader shared a story of a youth group that used its voice to change secular culture.

A member of the youth group went into a Victoria Secret store and confronted the manager. “Don’t you care about our generation?” he asked. “How can you put that picture in the window? You’re messing up my image of a woman!”

The manager kicked that person out of the store and another person from the youth group would go in and complain. This went on 31 times with each of the members going into the store, requesting the manager and complaining. Finally, all 31 people went in at the same time and complained in front of all the customers. The store grew silent as the customers and youth group watched the store manager fearfully take down the photos one by one.

“You guys are good at ruffling people’s feathers,” said Luce, whose youth organization is one of the nation’s largest. “So instead of ruffling your parents why don’t you use it for God?” he asked, drawing laughter from the audience.

In addition to music performances and speakers, the closing day of the event also honored two powerful people who used their talents, money and influence to reject popular culture and replace it with the Gospel.

Eduardo Verstegui, a former Mexican soap opera star and boy band member, gave up his career doing secular work when he came to know Christ several years ago because he realized what he was doing was “offending God.” So for two years he turned down every project he was offered because it went against what the Bible teaches.

Yet his new low-budget, pro-life film, Bella, has been a surprise hit winning first place at the Toronto International Film Festival and set to receive an award from the Smithsonian Museum in September. It has also been shown at the White House and to the Mexican ambassador to the United States.

“Hollywood belongs to God,” said Verstegui, holding his “Shine the Light” award at BattleCry. “We have to take it back.”

The other award recipient was J. Frank Harrison III, the C.E.O. of Coca Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, who among many generous donations to charity has also taken the risk of placing a chaplain in every Coca Cola plant.

Luce concluded: “So when you go to school this week, whose voice are they going to hear?”

“God’s voice!” screamed thousands of teenagers excited to impact the world for Christ.

BattleCry, the two-year-old growing initiative of Teen Mania, was launched in San Francisco with a “Reverse Rebellion” rally where Christian youth protest pop culture like MTV and media messages promoting sex, drugs and alcohol. Counterculture rallies have kicked off every BattleCry stadium events which are held three times each year across the country.

Earlier this year, BattleCry events were held in March at the AT&T Park in San Francisco and in April at Detroit’s Ford Field. The BattleCry stadium events are part of a larger initiative to round up 100,000 churches to double and disciple their youth groups each year for the next five years since the initiative’s launch.

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Poll: 4 of 10 U.K. Teens Claim to be Faithless (zcp, 070914)

LONDON – A recent poll conducted by one of the largest and best known multi-specialist research companies in Britain found that a worrying 43% of U.K. teenagers say they have no religion or faith.

The Ipsos MORI poll, commissioned by the British Library, the national library of the United Kingdom, found that non-belief was widespread among teenagers, although trends varied across age groups.

Across all age categories, the findings revealed that 21% of all those polled said they had no religion or faith.

The poll revealed a direct correlation between age and levels of faith, with an increase in age corresponding to an increase in the number professing faith. Out of those in their 20s who were polled, just 20% answered that they had no faith. In the 65 and above age category, just 8% responded that they had no religion or faith.

“Does this mean people tend to find faith or become more religious as they get older — or, alternatively, does it mean that the younger generation are increasingly less likely to follow a religion or have any belief?” posed a British Library spokesperson in response to the results.

Of all those polled, Christianity was the most followed religion, with 64% of people saying they follow Jesus Christ. Islam, although the second-most followed, only claimed 4% of respondents.

However, in comparison, Muslims were much more likely to be active in their faith. A massive 92% of Muslims said that they tried to practice their religion either “a great deal” or “a fair amount” in their day-to-day lives, in comparison to only 46% of Christians who responded in the same way.

In addition, 95% of Muslims said that their religion was “relevant to their life,” whereas just 54% of Christians thought so.

Interestingly, of those who said they had no faith or religion, 32% said they used to be Christian, and 58% said they had never followed any religion.

The Ipsos MORI poll results were compiled from a sample of 2,030 adults between August 10 and 16.

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We get what we expect from our children (townhall.com, 071119)

By Carol Platt Liebau

Recent reports of a policy allowing 11- to 13-year-old students at King Middle School in Portland, Maine to receive contraceptives without parental consent elicited a storm of press coverage and shock on the part of everyday Americans, given the students’ youth. Just last week, a news story from Ohio reported that three girls, two 13 years old and one who is 14, were having sex with as many as fourteen boys and men, even as the CDC announced that one million cases of Chlamydia were found in the U.S. last year — the highest ever reported for any sexually transmitted disease. All the stories are only the latest symptom of an underlying cultural pathology – one that relies on the silence and timidity of responsible adults in order to flourish.

Societies, like parents, get the behavior they expect from their children. Given the messages transmitted by our popular culture, it’s hardly surprising that even middle schoolers would conclude that developing a sex life is not only acceptable, but almost expected of them. American society has come far from the days when parents, clergy and the culture stood together to encourage young women, in particular, to resist sexual behavior that could have lifelong negative repercussions for them. Then, sexual modesty was honored, even in the breach; today, when it comes to sex, the cultural mandate is to “just do it” – and most of the time, that mandate goes unchallenged.

This is an era when sexually-charged television shows like “Laguna Beach” dominate the teen market, movies making light of unmarried pregnancy like “Knocked Up” clean up at the box office, and music with repulsively raunchy lyrics tops the charts. Especially for girls, the media obsession with celebrities like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton drives home the point that “sexiness” – all too often defined as little more than vulgar exhibitionism in dress and behavior – trumps any other quality that a girl might possess, like intelligence or character.

Ironically, radical feminism is partly to blame. The insistence that men and women are not just equal – they are the same – has resulted in a social landscape where young women are encouraged to ape the least attractive aspects of stereotypical male sexual behavior. Having sex without emotion or commitment, like those oh-so-fabulous heroines on “Sex and the City,” is deemed to be the hallmark of liberation. “Empowerment” has come to be understood by many young girls as little more than license to treat themselves as sex objects. And young women are paying the price.

In a sex-saturated society, girls face increased pressure to find some way of becoming sexually active. Along with the well-known dangers of unwanted pregnancies or STDs, giving too much, too soon results in girls experiencing guilt, shame, and lack of trust in males. In fact, academic research has recently confirmed that for girls (though not for boys), even modest sexual experimental increases the risk of depression. Could this phenomenon help to explain the CDC’s latest report finding that suicide rates among preteen and young teen girls had spiked by a whopping 76%?

Certainly, it’s not easy to reject what trendsetters decree is “cool.” Those who object to the sexual saturation of the culture are likely to be ridiculed as uptight, joyless prigs. But by acquiescing, even implicitly, in a social order where girls are encouraged to present themselves as nothing but sex objects – and being called a “prude” is more stigmatizing than being characterized as a “slut” – America has been letting young women down.

When adults fail to speak up in opposition to the sexual values being transmitted by pop culture, young people interpret their silence as indifference to or agreement with those mores. And so it’s unfair to glorify women like Spears and Hilton – and then insist that girls not emulate them. It’s wrong to shower rappers like Eminem with music industry honors – and then hope that young women will discount his lyrics. And it’s unrealistic to present teens with movies, magazines and books larded with sexual content, and then expect them to take seriously admonitions to abstain from sex.

Change is possible. But it will come only when Americans decide that the toll on young girls exacted by a sex-saturated society is unacceptably high. Without a broad social consensus for toning down the sexual content dominating so much of pop culture, policies recognizing the inevitability of underaged sex, like the one at King Middle School, will endure, and so will news reports of other young girls with multiple sex partners, and the rising rates of STD’s – all weary reminders of a needless, sad reality.

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Thou Shalt Date Online: Online dating is not wrong—it’s just one more way to co-create your life with God. (Christian Post, 071117)

Bishop Noel Jones

I am primarily a pastor in Southern California, but I also serve as a spokesperson for Faithmate, an online dating service. Not long ago, I was interviewed about the site by one of the leading gospel radio and magazine personalities in Houston, and we were bombarded by callers questioning whether the church should support online dating. I held my own, but the conflicting views of callers placed us at an impasse.

I was about to reach into my bag of rhetorical persuasion when my host was asked, “How did you meet your wife?” His response was shocking: “Online.” He went on to extol the virtues of meeting his wife on the Internet and the happiness they now share.

I believe Christian online dating is just one more avenue to meet people. It does not replace conventional ways of meeting, nor does it add to or negate the intellectual and cognitive process associated with establishing a relationship. It simply puts more potential prospects within your reach.

You scrutinize a person online as you would if you met them in any other context. The criteria you use to decide to be with someone do not change online. The same potential for people to deceive you in person exists on the Internet, so you must use discernment either way.

There are advantages to being introduced to someone by a friend or a relative. First, there is the comfort of having someone whose opinion you trust make the recommendation. This person, who knows both of you, can also be a good source of advice. And should it seem that something is going wrong with the relationship, this person likewise becomes a source of comfort.

There is no such safety net when you meet someone online, but one advantage is that your decision to continue or stop a relationship is not influenced by a third person to whom you feel obligated because he or she made the introduction.

But there is another, spiritual issue surrounding online dating: the guilt instilled by some Christians who accuse online seekers of not waiting on God. My response to this argument is that the Internet is simply a place to position oneself in a larger arena. How many people position themselves for dating in the church by being available for a plethora of different services, going to conventions, singles ministry functions and all else that the church offers? There is nothing wrong with that. It is putting oneself in a more effective position to wait on God. It does not mean you are desperate. To the contrary, it simply means you are ready for the next level.

One of the mistakes we often make in the urban Christian community is to become extremely mystical in our quest for solutions to life’s issues and challenges. We speak so eloquently and ebulliently about what God is going to do in our lives as it relates to certain essentials.

Two of the more common issues are our financial and personal relationships. We are repeatedly told that God is going to do marvelous things for us in our finances and relationships. After myriad prophetic utterances and prayer lines, no one ever thought to ask the prophet or preacher, “How is God going to do it?”

In many instances, we want God to do things for us but not through us. This seems to be the stumbling block that keeps our faith from moving from the mystical to the practical. God does more through us than for us. In fact, God does it for us by doing it through us!

We are co-creators with God. In the same way that you will not receive a check in an envelope postmarked “heaven,” you will not receive a husband or wife lowered from heaven through your chimney. You and I have to participate in the process of achieving both success and a good relationship with the right person.

We need the opportunity to be exposed to a larger universe of potential mates. Indeed, if there were enough candidates in the local church, many of us would have already found a life mate. We need to broaden the playing field to a larger market of potentially qualified mates.

Online we can literally browse through thousands of profiles and reduce the numbers of prospective candidates without the laborious, agonizing, and expensive prospect of going out with the many to find the one! This is the joy of online dating.

Proverbs 18:24 says: “If you want friends, you must make yourself friendly.” Online dating is a wonderful way to communicate and to efficiently assess someone’s character and personality. It is through communication that we identify the qualities and dispositions others possess. Online, we have the freedom to communicate without fearing someone’s reaction as we would necessarily do if we were physically in their presence.

This is what Faithmate and other dating sites are designed to help us do. Being online simply widens the playing field.

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Bishop Noel Jones is Pastor of City of Refuge Church in Los Angeles, CA. He is a national speaker and appears at many national and international conferences.

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Forecast of Teen Trends in 2008 (Christian Post, 080103)

It’s a new year and the church today faces a generation shifting from the conventional ways of Christianity and exploring more options to live out their faith.

International youth ministry Dare 2 Share has provided a spiritual pulse of today’s teens, forecasting the direction Christian teens will head this new year and the challenges they will most likely face. The following list the ministry compiled reflects today’s teens’ desires for a cause to rally around, their search for meaning, purpose and authenticity, and their adaptability in responding to the opportunities and constraints facing this generation.

1. “Go Green” will become the rallying cry for this generation

Today’s teens are looking for a cause to believe in and many will be finding their cause in the Green Revolution. As the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War became rallying cries for the younger generation in decades past, this generation of teens is stepping up to embrace the “Go Green” Movement. Just as the issue of global warming has begun to enter the social awareness of the mainstream culture, teens are flocking to the Green Revolution. Teens will increasingly channel their passion and idealism toward environmental causes, and their impact will begin to be felt in everything from vegetarian lifestyle choices to influencing their parents to “Live Green” and buy a hybrid.

2. There will be a rising cynicism toward organized religion among teens

While the Millennials do not necessarily harbor negative feelings toward Jesus, they are increasingly disconnecting from the traditional institutions of organized religion. Emancipating themselves from the institutions of their parents, Christian teens will increasingly reject the established, structured churches of their parents’ generation to create newer, more unstructured approaches to living out the spiritual dimension of their lives, exploring options ranging from internet message board communities of faith to gathering with their friends over lattes at their local Starbucks to talk about spiritual things. As evangelistic atheism becomes more prevalent, as evidenced by the number of atheist-authored books recently appearing on the bestsellers list, it will find increasingly fertile ground among teens disillusioned by organized religion.

3. “Starbucks Spirituality” will become more prevalent in the media

The recent rise of the movie sub-genre known as ‘Christian,’ as evidenced by the Christian film label Fox Faith, will increasingly segment movies with a Christian theme or worldview away from the mainstream media into a ‘Christian entertainment ghetto.’ Hollywood will snub mass marketing of movies which strongly depict a Christian worldview, relegating them to a smaller niche market. The ghettoizing of the Christian worldview away from mainstream media will diminish and further distort secular perceptions of Christian beliefs, values and lifestyles. As a result, a “Starbucks Spirituality” will begin to dominate the marketplace of ideas, with individuals picking and choosing religious worldviews that are customized and ‘made to order.’ For example, “Starbucks Spirituality” can be characterized as taking an aspect of Wiccan, adding in a particular tenet from Buddhism and blending it with a few core beliefs of Christianity. This phenomenon will result in broader acceptance of uniquely customized, non-traditional worldviews among teens, because they are heavily influenced by the entertainment industry’s depiction of reality. Teen’s experiences with communal intelligence and ‘Wiki-reality’ will further reinforce the Millennial’s perception that all truth is relative.

4. Teens will utilize technology in sharing their faith

The use of technology and social networks by Christian teens when sharing their faith will accelerate in 2008. MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube provide extensive exposure for creatively using technology to talk with others about spiritual issues. Blogs and text messaging lend further spontaneous opportunities for teens to communicate the importance of their faith in the midst of their daily lives, whether they are communicating to one friend or an entire network of social relationships.

5. Teens will have a higher economic awareness

Economic realities in 2008 will raise teen’s awareness of economic issues due to the increasing economic stratification of society. Climbing food and energy prices, coupled with the ripple effect of the housing market foreclosure crisis will force parents on the lower end of the economic spectrum to say “no” even more frequently to their teen’s financial requests. Conversely, parents on the high end of the economic spectrum will be unaffected by these economic realities and will continue to spring for high-budget item requests like new cars, next-edition iPhones or the Spring Break trip. As a result, teen cliques will become even more aligned based on the economic standing of their parents.

Founded in 1991, Dare 2 Share Ministries International is a non-profit organization that trains tens of thousands of teenagers every year to know, live and share their faith.

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Phoenix Teen Admits Killing Father for Restricting His Use of MySpace (Foxnews, 080306)

PHOENIX — A Mesa teenager says he fatally shot his father last month because he wouldn’t let him use the Internet, police reports show.

According to a Mesa police report released Wednesday, 15-year-old Hughstan Schlicker told a homicide detective that he considered committing suicide in front of his father after finding a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition in the garage of their home, but decided to murder his father instead and then commit suicide.

Hughstan apparently surprised 49-year-old Ted Schlicker, who was standing in the kitchen when the boy approached him from behind, the police report said.

Police arrested Hughstan after the slaying at the Pueblo Seco Condominiums and accused him of first-degree murder.

After the slaying, “the defendant first called his friend and told her what he had done. He told her he was going to kill himself but she told him not to. She convinced him to call the police and deal with the situation,” the report said.

Hughstan told detectives that he used the Internet to communicate with his friends and since his father took the Internet away, he was “just so depressed all the time,” the report said. Specifically, Hughstan said he hated his father because he was restricting his use of the MySpace Web site.

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South Carolina Teen Arrested for Alleged High School Bomb Plot (Foxnews, 080420)

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A high school senior collected enough supplies to carry out a bomb attack on his school and detailed the plot in a hate-filled diary that included maps of the building and admiring notations about the Columbine killers, authorities said Sunday.

Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested Saturday after his parents called police when 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in Chesterfield and they discovered the journal, said the town’s police chief, Randall Lear.

The teen planned to make several bombs and had all the supplies needed to kill dozens at Chesterfield High School, depending on where the devices were placed and whether they included shrapnel, Lear said. Ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people.

“The only thing left was delivering the bombs,” the police chief said.

Schallenberger kept a journal for more than a year that detailed his plans for a suicide attack and included maps of the school, police said. The writings did not include a specific time for the attack or the intended targets.

He also left an audio tape to be played after he died explaining why he wanted to bomb his school. Lear wouldn’t detail what was on the tape except to say Schallenberger was an angry young man.

“He seemed to hate the world. He hated people different from him — the rich boys with good-looking girlfriends,” Lear said.

In his writings, Schallenberger said he admired the two teens who killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 before committing suicide, Lear said. The attack happened nine years ago Sunday, but Lear said investigators do not know whether there was any link between the anniversary and Schallenberger’s plans.

Schallenberger was one of the top students at the high school of about 580 students and had not caused any serious problems before his arrest, principal Scott Radkin said.

The teen was in the Chesterfield County jail Sunday night, charged with possessing materials to make bombs, the police chief said. A bond hearing was scheduled for Monday. Other than the bomb-making material, no other weapons were found at his home, Lear said.

Lear said Schallenberger did not have an attorney. His parents could not immediately be located Sunday by The Associated Press.

Security will be tightened at the school when students return Monday. Students will walk through metal detectors borrowed from a courthouse, and bomb and drug sniffing dogs have been called in. Lear said he does not expect any problems.

Chesterfield is a town of about 1,500 people in northeastern South Carolina near the North Carolina line.

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Study Reveals Decline in Teen Pregancies, Abortions (Christian Post, 080416)

In what is perhaps the most comprehensive study produced in a decade, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed record drops in the rates of teenage pregnancies and abortion.

According to the results, both abortion and teenage pregnancies have been steadily dropping since 1990.

Overall, the total number of abortions fell 24% to 1.22 million in 2004 from a historical high of 1.61 million in 1990.

Teenage pregnancies also declined during the same period, accounting for only 12% of all pregnancies in 2004 – a drop from 15% fourteen years earlier.

As rates of abortion and teenage pregnancy had been steadily rising for decades, the new results were something of a curiosity for researchers.

Stephanie Ventura, the lead researcher of the study, noted that among the reasons for a decline in abortion rates and teenage pregnancies was the overall decline in total pregnancies and a new tendency among women “to postpone child bearing and delay the start of their families.”

Ventura, while pointing out the correlation, noted the significant drop in the abortion rate among women ages 15 to 44 from nearly 30.0 per 1,000 women in 1990 to only 19.7 per 1,000 women in 2004.

“More [women] are likely to have the baby rather than having an abortion compared to 1990,” Ventura said, according to Reuters.

Lower abortion rates reflect “a lot of different reasons: changes in access to abortion, changes in attitudes about having a baby and a decline in teenage pregnancies, which end in abortion in many cases,” she added, according to Bloomberg News.

Even as abortion and teenage pregnancy rates decreased overall, however, rates continued to be disproportionately heavy among blacks and higher than any other racial group.

“There are large racial disparities in most of these measures,” Ventura told Reuters.

Nearly 40% of pregnancies to black women were aborted, according to the study.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which exists “to promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability,” is the nation’s largest public health agency.

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Continued Good News on Teen Pregnancy and Abortion (townhall.com, 080417)

By Janice Shaw Crouse

In a study released this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports record declines in the rates of teen pregnancies and abortions. The drop in teenage pregnancy rates continues a long trend: the decline of 38% is a fall from an all-time high in 1990 to an historic low in 2004. Significantly, the CDC, the nation’s largest public health agency, stated that their report is the most comprehensive study of this decade.

Teen pregnancies were only 12% of the total pregnancies in 2004, down from 15% in 1990. Teen abortions were at a historical high in 1990 at 1.61 million, but had declined by 24% (1.22 million) by 2004. Another way of looking at the data is to note that among 15- to 44-year-old women, abortions per 1,000 women declined from 30 per thousand in 1990 to only 19.7 per thousand in 2004.

Clearly, the only thing that has changed in the years under review is the increase in schools offering abstinence education. Contraception, especially the condom, is readily available, but that’s nothing new; that availability has remained constant during the period of the decline. Over the past decade, though, abstinence programs have become far more widespread. In addition, they have been increasingly more effective as more money has been available to test the programs and provide research about best practices in teaching abstinence. The programs focus on increasing teen self-esteem and teaching delayed gratification, how to say “no” effectively, how to resist peer pressure, and how to plan and achieve goals for the future. Such programs provide legitimate means of teen empowerment.

Further, teens have access now to all the technological evidence, via high definition sonograms, that the babe in the womb is really a pre-born child with fingernails and sucking a thumb. These views of the baby inside the womb are having a profound impact on the future generation of mothers and fathers; they understand the seriousness of abortion — that it truly does kill an infant.

Equally important, today’s teens have seen broken relationships up close and ugly; they’ve seen friends used and discarded. They want more; they want a future and hope for those things that now seem possible for everyone.

The culture is changing for the better.

Unsurprisingly, the battle is not over yet. The left is still behind the times and is still arguing the same old talking points. The Guttmacher Institute headed their press release about the decline in teen pregnancy and abortion with the improbable claim: Improved Contraceptive Use a Key Factor. We are supposed to believe that suddenly teens have become consistent and reliable about using a condom. In fact, an earlier analysis by Guttmacher reported that 86% of the decline in teen pregnancy between 1995 and 2002 was due to more teens using contraception and using it more effectively. Apparently unaware that they seemed to be trying to have it both ways, Guttmacher complained that “the proportion of U.S. teens receiving any formal instruction about birth control methods has declined sharply.” Most of their press release promoted the “need” for comprehensive sex education instead of abstinence programs for teens. Further, they cited the need for increased funding for comprehensive sex education and recommended cutting all funding for abstinence (even though current funding shows an untenable disparity — $12 in comprehensive sex education funding for every $1 in abstinence education.) They want it all, even though their programs have proven ineffective.

There is still much to be done in changing attitudes and promoting the well-being of America’s young people, but teen sexual activity is down, teen pregnancies are down and teen abortions are down. That is great news from the cultural battle fields.

Over the past decade, we have offered our nation’s teens a bright future and expected the best from them. Not surprisingly, they have met the challenge and are seizing the opportunities to grasp all the possibilities available to their generation. Our national leadership needs to continue to keep faith with them by supporting abstinence education as clearly the best choice for their current and future well-being.

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Saving Youth from Church Exodus Not Enough, Says Youth Leader (Christian Post, 080418)

The defensive youth ministry approach of saving young people from exiting the churches isn’t up to speed with one youth leader who sees tens of thousands of teens’ lives changed every year.

“To be honest I’m kind of getting sick and tired of the ‘let’s save the children’ approach we have taken in trying to get teenagers to keep their faith after they graduate [from high school],” said Greg Stier, president and founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries.

Stier recently came out of a nine-city “Survive” tour that drew tens of thousands of teens from around the country since November and trained them to share about their faith in Jesus Christ to everyone they knew – starting even with that weekend.

Every year, Dare 2 Share hits major cities not to host an “I love Jesus, how about you” spiritual pep rally, as Stier said, but to raise the bar spiritually for teens to take Jesus Christ and the Great Commission seriously.

“Our goal is not to just keep kids from leaving the church. It is to raise up an army of Christian teenagers who are reaching every teenager in their world with the message and mission of Jesus,” he stressed.

At every conference, Stier “double dares” young Christians to take the bold approach of talking to their friends about Jesus and form e-teams (evangelism teams).

“Imagine with me every teenager in America hearing the gospel through another teenager that they know. The Double Dare has started making that dream into a reality.”

Still, the mass exodus of teens from the pews is alarming, Stier acknowledges. The Barna Group found that two out of three Christian teens will leave the church after they graduate high school. LifeWay Research showed last year that more than two-thirds of young adults who attend church stopped attending church regularly for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22. More studies are being conducted and resulting in similar statistics, making it the talk of the town in youth ministries across the country.

But Christians have to do more than play defensive, according to Stier.

“Sure I still use the great graduation evacuation statistic (70% graduating seniors walk away from the church after high school),” Stier said. “But the Double Dare this year gave us a chance to be offensive and not purely defensive. As one soldier put it, ‘Nobody ever won a war by being defensive.’”

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Report: Girls Gang Blows Up Houses With Homemade Bomb Over Boy (Foxnews, 080511)

A gang of London teenage girls is suspected of destroying three houses and killing a man with a homemade liquid bomb during an argument over a boy.

According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, witnesses say a purple, smelly liquid was poured into a mailbox of one of the homes, which set off a massive explosion.

The intended target of the attack, Charlotte Anderson, was injured in the blast and rushed to the hospital with severe burns. Her next-door neighbor, Emad Qureshi, 26, who was at home with his parents, was killed when he was crushed by falling debris, it was reported.

Earlier, Anderson had phoned the police with a complaint that a gang of girls was harassing her over a boy outside her home.

Investigators inititally thought the explosion was caused by a gas leak, but now suspect the purple liquid — believed to have been made from a recipe found on the Internet — could have vaporized and caused the explosion, it was reported.

British police have launched a murder investigation and is searching for the girl gang, according to the Mail.

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Teach Your Kid How to Sense BS (townhall.com, 080512)

By Doug Giles

How many of you have met the book smart 4.0 magna cum laude lady who, in regard to street smarts, is a magna dumb loopy chick? What about the poor honey who is neither book nor street smart? What a shame, eh? My goal for my girls is for them to own the twain. My wife and I push our daughters to academic excellence; we insist that they strain their brains so they won’t sound like Paris Hilton when they open their mouths.

That being said, as much as I want my little rays of sunshine to have a high GPA (not that a jiffy GPA means squat anymore given the bogus bunk being taught in school) I want them to have an equal or higher level of street smarts: what some would call a sixth sense, an otherness, a discerning spirit, a fourth dimension, or what I call a well-honed and greased BS Detector (BSD).

Street smarts will give our kids the shrewdness to see through the veil of crap most guys, governments, gimmicks, gadgets, gurus and evil girlfriends live behind. Being the helpful guy that I am, I want to help you help your kids whet their BSD and overcome any proclivity they have to becoming as sharp as a sack of wet rats and assist them to discern that which is detrimental to their lives—even if it’s all dressed up as the greatest thing in all the world.

Bad dates, greasy politicians, scum sucking marketing leeches, PR mooks, agents, corporate America, late night infomercials, televangelists, used car salesmen, and mechanics all love the gullible dolt who has a weak dung detector. Therefore parents, one of the most important things you can ever do for your offspring is to help them become shrewd and skeptical young ‘un who cannot be bamboozled by people, places, and ideas that seek to do them harm.

So what is BS?

You can call it bull crap, or the nicer sounding Latin term “stercore tauri,” or simply bull, horse hockey, bollocks, gobbledygook, humbug, Reverend Wright, tall tale, propaganda, fiction, lie, bunkum, spin, or truthiness. Whatever you want to call it, BS can be defined as: “Communications where reality and truthfulness aren’t nearly as vital as the ability to manipulate the audience to get it to do whatever one wants done.”

Unofficially, the term BS wove its way into the American whoop and warp back in 1915 when Theodore Roosevelt screamed it after he saw an ugly bearded woman carrying a temperance sign. The earliest attestation mentioned by the Concise Oxford Dictionary is in fact T. S. Eliot, who between 1910 and 1916 wrote an early poem to which he gave the title “The Triumph of Bullshit.” In American slang the term came into popular usage during World War II.

As your children plow through life in postmodern times they’re going to be hit with a tsunami of sewage coming from various institutes and people. I know it’s cruel, it sucks, and it’s a shame that our kids have officially missed out on the Leave it to Beaver scenario that many of us were fortunate enough to have lived through. But it’s no use crying about it. We must make certain our charges can deftly navigate the crap-laden rapids of our culture and come out of this thing smelling like roses.

To keep it simple, tell your children that their BS detector is essentially, as one comedian said, that little voice inside their heads telling them to listen to the little voice inside their heads. It’s an internal salvific alarm alerting them to the fact that they’re in the process of being bamboozled. It will be to their own detriment if they ignore this in-house salvo. If they hone and listen to it when it screams, they’ll be the wiser, safer and richer for it.

Everybody has a BSD. Obviously, some folks have better ones than others. No matter where your kids currently are in their abilities to spot BS in all of its varied forms, if they will apply the following three simple principles I guarantee their dates with morons, their purchases of stuff they don’t need, and their gullibility in regard to the MSM’s propaganda will diminish, and they’ll take on a shrewd life-saving edge:

1. Become a skeptic. Our English word skeptic comes from the Greek word skopos, which means someone who scopes things out. Whether it’s a car or a polygamist cult or a current politician, train them to look under the hood a little bit more, would ‘cha pops? An easy exercise to increase their righteous doubts is to have them stand in front of a mirror with their arms crossed and one eyebrow raised, look down their nose and say, “yeah, right” in a sarcastic tone. Have them do this about 100 times every morning before they’re off to school. Yes, parents, it is your job to make your kids healthily suspicious before they date it, buy it or vote for it.

2. Trust your Gut. God has hardwired us so that when we are in danger, or when we’re getting scammed, or when we’re about to say, “yes, coffee sounds great!” to an axe murder that our body, mind and spirit freak out. Our “gut” will check us, and the little voice inside our head will start calling us unflattering names in an attempt to get our attention before we get raked over the coals. Remember, your gut check/BSD is your friend, and never forget this maxim: When you are picking up on something, you’re picking up on something. Pay attention, por favor.

3. Hang out with mature, sharp and successful people and allow them to speak into your life. I know for young people it’s not sexy to hang out with people other than their peers. However, if you’re honest, young person, most of your friends are idiots with very weak BSDs, correct?

Young person, if your parents, grandparents, pastors or whoever are successful and have enriched, happy lives, sidle up to them because they can sharpen your BSD. They have expertise, experience, honesty, and a spiritual maturity that you can roll into your profit if you surround yourself with them . . . and if you listen.

Yes, young blood, you can become wise beyond your years and by osmosis have a highly-attuned BSD which will set you up for safety and security by simply befriending and adhering to the counsel of mature, righteous adults. Yep, older folks who have been there and done that bring many things to the table that your goofy BFF cannot provide. Don’t blow these people off. Matter of fact, the more you surround yourself with wise counselors the more life is going to kiss you on the mouth rather than kick you in the butt.

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Florida Teen Charged With Tainting Severely Allergic Mother’s Food (Foxnews, 080522)

DADE CITY, Fla. — A Pasco High School student has been arrested after police say she spiked her mother’s food. The girl was allegedly angry that her cell phone had been taken away for texting too much, MyFOX Tampa Bay reported.

Authorities say the 16-year-old was charged yesterday with aggravated domestic battery after her mother, 39, suffered a serious allergic reaction called “anaphylactic shock.”

The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office says the mother told deputies she has numerous food allergies. Some are so severe that she must keep with her always an injector of epinephrine, or adrenaline, to immediately treat the shock.

According to a police report obtained by the St. Petersburg Times, the suspect’s 11-year-old sister said she remembers the teen using the salt, but she said her older sister threatened to “beat her up until she was dead” if she said anything.

Authorities say the teen admitted spiking her mother’s food with seasoning salt.

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Diversion from Reality (BreakPoint, 080527)

By Chuck Colson

Teens and Entertainment

The University of Minnesota School of Health recently published a study documenting how teenagers who have a television in their bedroom are more likely to have unhealthy lifestyles: from poor eating habits, to bad grades, to less time spent with the family.

The results of the study are by no means surprising.

Increasingly we live in an entertainment-saturated culture, and teens like any first-adopters of new trends, live in the forefront of societal shifts. Thanks to television, movies, text-messaging, virtual gaming, chat rooms, and websites like Facebook, entertainment and diversion are always just a click away for teens these days. And while teens do need some “down time” to escape the pressures of school or even work, something is wrong when “down time” becomes “all the time.”

While entertainment is not necessarily a bad thing, it is by its very nature something that draws our attention from one thing to another. Unfortunately, most of the entertainment teens are exposed to today does not divert them from the frivolous to the noble, but the other way around.

Take for instance, a controversial Internet video game that has soared in popularity in Britain since its release earlier this year. The “Miss Bimbo” game is marketed to teenage girls. In this virtual world, players are given a virtual character to care for. They then purchase diet pills, breast enhancements, plastic surgery, and other treatments to make their doll look good. In the game’s own description, the object is to have the “hottest, coolest, most famous bimbo in the whole world.”

While other games may not be quite as in your face as that, they are doing their own damage. Some studies say as many as 10 to 14% of families have someone who has become so obsessed with video games, Facebook, and other computer-based pastimes that their virtual lives are damaging their real lives.

And here is what should really concern Christian parents, as author Dick Staub of The Culturally Savvy Christian points out: “When diversion becomes a way of life, we avoid the very issues to which we should be most attentive. We are diverted from the grim, unpleasant truth that our lives lack meaning without God . . .”

And have no doubt: Teens are looking for meaning. Probe a little while, and you will see. The culture is telling them that entertainment and self-gratification are ends in and of themselves. That is why it is so important for parents, grandparents, Sunday-school teachers, and adult friends to help teens wrestle with the important questions in life—and point them to where they can find the right answers.

Even more importantly, perhaps, Christian adults need to model a lifestyle that is countercultural. Do our entertainment habits sink to the lowest common denominator of mindless entertainment, or are they tempered, molded, and informed by our Christian worldview? Do we live to serve others, or do we live to serve ourselves and our own appetites? Remember: Our teens are watching us.

And remember, also, that character is not taught; it is learned when we see good role models to follow.

So tune in to “BreakPoint” this week, as Mark Earley and I continue to look at teens and teen culture—and how we can help make sure that our teens shape the culture with a Christian worldview, rather than their being shaped by it.

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Make Me Immortal (BreakPoint, 080528)

By Mark Earley

Teens and the Celebrity Culture

It is almost impossible to get away from the media’s fascination with the self-destructive tendencies of modern celebrities. Whether it is the tabloid splashing a picture of Britney Spears in and out of rehab, or a video circulating across cyberspace of Amy Winehouse using a crack pipe, the trend seems ever-with-us.

And whether we realize it or not, teenagers are always the ones to bear the brunt of such trends, especially celebrity trends. In fact, it is marketed to them. Take for instance the string of suicides in a small mining town in the South Welsh Community of Briggend. At last count, 21 young people had committed suicide, most of them by hanging.

Investigators have not found a suicide pact, but they have found something that the teenagers shared in common. They each used the popular social-networking site called Bebo, similar to MySpace and popular among youth in that area. After the suicides of the first of these teens, memorial websites were created—sites where these teens who took their own lives enjoyed a kind of celebrity status. Many of those who subsequently killed themselves were among those who left messages of grief and visited these sites—and then ended their lives in a copy-cat style.

Child psychologist Kimberley O’Brien fears such sites could add to the appeal of suicide. She warns, “The web pages are usually placed in really beautiful positions, and it gives them some sort of notoriety.” And Cathie Sherwood, a social-networking commentator, warns, “The fact that these people have achieved some kind of status through their deaths” may lead teenagers to see suicide as a way to fame.

What’s wrong with this picture? It isn’t the fact that imitating is a significant part of teen culture. We know that: From our earliest years we learn to imitate others, for good or ill. What is wrong is that teens more readily identify with celebrities and people they meet over the Internet than they do with their own parents, community, and church members.

What are these teens really looking for? I think it may be something that God imprinted on every human’s heart: and that’s the desire for immortality. In their own way, whether it is the celebrities or the teens who imitate their destructive patterns, they are crying out in one voice, “Make me immortal.” Even in suicide, it is strange how often immortality is the real longing of the human heart.

As Christians, we ought to know, however, that immortality does not mean that our glory lives on forever in the memories of others—or even on memorial websites. Immortality means sharing in God’s glory—living in His presence—forever.

And that is the danger of the celebrity culture for our teens: It presents a horrendously false view of what truly matters—not just now, but eternally.

In light of such serious trends, it is obvious that young adults need to know how their deepest desires can be fulfilled. And for that, they need not only loving role models, but also solid grounding in the countercultural truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Isolated Teens (BreakPoint, 080529)

By Mark Earley

Time to Knock Down the Walls

From the double-edged sword of new technologies to the omnipresent media, today’s teens are facing unique challenges. And they often face those challenges alone—without input and guidance from adults.

Today, teenagers can go through days, if not weeks, without ever spending meaningful time with adults. The typical teenager wakes up, goes to school, and then to an extracurricular activity. They spend the majority of their waking hours interacting with other teens. If your teenager is like many today, he or she may not even eat with the family, but instead eat dinner while watching TV. After dinner, there is homework or chatting on the phone or online with—again—people their same age.

And what about Sundays at church? Even there, your teen may attend a youth worship service, attend Sunday school, or go to youth group—again, away from the influence of adults.

The result is that young adults—who desperately need the input, modeling, molding, and love of adults at this critical stage of life—are almost entirely devoid of meaningful interaction.

But even when we adults do interact with our teens, are we providing the kind of love and truth that is vital to their lives and to their souls? Of those teens in high school who profess faith, surveys by the George Barna group indicate that somewhere around 85% of “born again” teens do not believe in absolute truth. Nearly 50% said Jesus sinned during His earthly life.

It is no wonder we are losing them. Voddie Baucham, author of Family-Driven Faith, suggests the reason: “Their religion is largely ambiguous . . . due in large part to the lack of time and attention devoted to spiritual matters compared to other activities.” Baucham quotes from the National Study of Youth and Religion, which says, “When it comes to the formation of the lives of youth, viewed sociologically, faith communities typically get a very small seat at the end of the table . . . dominated structurally by more powerful and vocal actors.”

That’s the reason teens can tell you more about the lives of their favorite TV characters than about David, Jesus, or Paul. It is why they may know more about global warming and STDs than about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Meanwhile, parents may show more concern over their teenager making good grades than on forming Christ-like character. In fact, another George Barna survey found, astoundingly, that only half of the Christian parents surveyed thought that their children having a relationship with Christ was as important as a good education. My goodness.

Clearly, it is time to knock down the walls that separate us from our teens—both at church and at home. As moms and dads, you must reclaim the God-appointed role of spiritually parenting your children and teens in a biblical worldview. And, while recognizing the value of teen-specific ministry, we need to do more to integrate our teens into the life of the whole community, where they can share their gifts and talents with the entire body of believers.

Visit our website, www.BreakPoint.org, for ideas on how to do just that, and to find out how you can get a copy of Voddie Baucham’s excellent book, Family-Driven Faith.

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Rebels with a Good Cause (BreakPoint, 080530)

By Chuck Colson

Teens Doing Hard Things

This week on “BreakPoint,” we have been talking about teens and the particular challenges facing them. But did you know that the word teenager did not even exist until the twentieth century? That’s what teenage authors Alex and Brett Harris share in their new book called Do Hard Things, which they wrote for their fellow teenagers.

Apparently, the first documented use of the word occurred in an issue of Reader’s Digest in 1941. David Barnhart and Allan Metcalf in the book America in So Many Words, tell us that before the twentieth century, “we had thought of people in just two stages: children and adults. And while childhood might have its tender moments, the goal of the child was to grow up as promptly as possible. . . .”

When child-labor laws rightly created restrictions to protect the physical well-being of children, and mandatory education was extended through high school, an unintended by-product was the creation of a new sub-category: the teenager.

Since then, our expectations for adolescents have plummeted, while their disposable income has soared. While Madison Avenue figures out ways to harness teenage buying power, the teen years have come to be seen as a “vacation from responsibility,” say Alex and Brett. They go on to point out, “Society doesn’t expect much from young people during their teen years—except trouble. And it certainly doesn’t expect competence, maturity or productivity.”

We have already looked this week at how technology and media create unique challenges for teens, and how teens suffer from a lack of involvement with adults and lack of training in biblical worldview. Perhaps underlying all of these other issues are the low expectations society has set for teenagers. As Alex and Brett write, we live in a society where a teen who makes his or her bed has done an act of valor.

That is one reason why I think the book Do Hard Things is so important. It is challenging teenagers to rebel against the low expectations placed on them, not the least of which are low spiritual expectations. And the voices that are asking teens to rise to meet this challenge are voices from their own generation. That thrills me. But we adults should be setting higher standards, as well.

It thrills me even more to see two young men like Brett and Alex living out what they are calling others to do. At 16, they served as the youngest Supreme Court interns on record in the state of Alabama. At 17, they launched www.TheRebelution.com, now one of the most trafficked Christian teen websites on the Internet. At 18, they began touring the country talking to teens. And at 19, they became published authors when their book Do Hard Things hit the stores.

If you’ve got a teenager in your house—or if you have one who is a grandson or granddaughter—I want to encourage you to pick up a copy of Do Hard Things. It would make a great graduation present or summer reading.

And don’t just give them the book; make a point to ramp up your interaction with the teens God has put in your life. Become a spiritual mentor to your teens and help them rebel against low expectations. Help them become rebels with a good cause, seeking more out of life than mindless channel-surfing.

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Faith Community Urged to Combat Gang Culture (Christian Post, 090629)

LONDON – A leading criminologist says that the faith community has a role to play in combating gang culture in the United Kingdom.

Professor John Pitts will be speaking at the Bite the Bullet church conference on gang culture, which will take place in north London on July 12.

He believes churches are in the ideal position to run gang initiatives, with their members being local and often connected with the young people and families experiencing gang-related problems.

"They have made a personal commitment to helping and they are likely to be around for much longer than the professionals – and continuity is very important in this kind of work," he said.

Pitts said "good intentions and commitment" were not enough to rid the U.K. of its gangs.

"This is complex and sometimes dangerous work and we need to find ways in which statutory and voluntary agencies can work with faith groups to provide high quality training and ongoing support," he stated.

The conference is being organized by the Street Pastors initiative in conjunction with the Baptist Union of Great Britain. Street Pastors founder the Rev. Les Isaac said he hoped many Christians would attend the event and gain a greater understanding of gang culture by hearing Pitts' insights.

“Gang culture is stopping some of our young people from fulfilling their potential, because they get drawn into a culture that is negative, violent and criminal,” said Isaac.

He noted that he had heard of instances where young churchgoers are intimidated by gangs and will not attend church events because they have to pass through certain postcodes areas.

Young people, he said, have admitted to attending church with "tools" in their bags to protect themselves in the event of encountering trouble.

"Churches can no longer say that gang culture is not impacting their members. John Pitts will provide details of the origins of urban gang culture and hopefully provide some pointers on how churches can counter it," Isaac said.

Other speakers at Bite the Bullet will include former gang members, representatives from the Metropolitan Police and Christians who work with gang members.

The conference will be followed by a music event featuring urban gospel artists E-Tizz, Triple O and others.

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Study: Religious Beliefs 'Strongly Predict' Teen Birth Rates (Christian Post, 090917)

A new study is suggesting a "strong" link between the religiosity of a state's residents and the teen birth rate there.

Though only half of the states listed among the ten most conservatively religious also appear in the list of ten states with the highest teen birth rates, researchers behind the latest study say increased religiosity in residents of states in the U.S. strongly predicted a higher teen birth rate.

"With data aggregated at the state level, conservative religious beliefs strongly predict U.S. teen birth rates, in a relationship that does not appear to be the result of confounding by income or abortion <http://www.christianpost.com/us/topics/abortion> rates," researchers reported in the summary for their report, "Religiosity and Teen Birth Rates," which was published Thursday in the Reproductive Health journal.

"One possible explanation for this relationship is that teens in more religious communities may be less likely to use contraception," the researchers added.

For the study, Joseph Strayhorn of Drexel University College of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh compiled publicly accessible data on birth rates, conservative religious beliefs, income, and abortion rates in the U.S., aggregated at the state level. While the religiosity information came from a sample of nearly 36,000 participants who were part of the U.S. Religious Landscapes Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted in 2007, the teen birth and abortion statistics came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For religiosity, Strayhorn and report co-author Jillian C. Strayhorn averaged the percentage of respondents who agreed with conservative responses to eight statements, including: ''There is only one way to interpret the teachings of my religion," and ''Scripture should be taken literally, word for word."

"At the state level in the U.S., religiosity, as operationally defined by the eight questions of the Pew Survey, accurately predicts a high teen birth rate," the researchers wrote in their report.

"[T]he magnitude of the correlation between religiosity and teen birth rate astonished us," they added.

But the researchers cautioned against inferring from their results that "Religious teens get pregnant more often."

"It would be a statistical and logical error" to do so, they stated. "Such an inference would be an example of the ecological fallacy."

Instead, the researchers speculated that conservative religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging use of contraception among their teen community members than in discouraging sexual intercourse itself.

Notably, while researchers found a positive correlation between religiosity and teen birth rates, they also found that abortion rates correlated negatively with religiosity.

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Canadian youth more footloose than homebody Americans, poll finds (National Post, 090924)

CALGARY - Young Canadian adults are greener, better travelled and more free-spirited than their U.S. counterparts, according to a fascinating new study that looks at the values and lifestyles of North Americans ages 18 to 34.

Those living in the United States tend to be more conservative and prefer to stick close to home, said Samantha McAra, senior research manager with Ipsos Reid, a Canadian public opinion research firm that studied how young adult North Americans differ on the two sides of the 49th Parallel.

"I describe [Americans] as more traditional and domestic because they seem more interested in establishing a home base," said Ms. McAra.

In the U.S., 39% of 18 to 34 year-olds are married, compared with only 25% in Canada. However, Canadians in that age group are significantly more likely to shack up as Americans, with 18% versus 7% opting for domestic partnerships.

Whatever the living arrangements, 45% of the young Americans polled own their homes, compared with 35% of their Canadian counterparts.

Jobs, education and health care were rated as the top three issues by young adults from both countries. Other key findings:

• Only 19% of 18- to 34-year-old Americans travelled to a destination outside of their country. Nearly half of Canadian respondents (48%) ventured beyond our borders.

• 76% of young adult Canadians have some post-secondary education, compared with 68% in the U.S. And 17% of Canadians in the group reported being full-time students compared to 13 per cent of Americans.

• 88% of Canadians said they "actively participated in a recycling program," compared with 72% of their America counterparts, while 33% of Canadians used public transit at least once a week; only 20% in the United States did so.

Marketers and decision-makers in business, government and other organizations are all very interested in knowing more about young adults as they take their place in the workforce and exert a growing influence in the marketplace, Ms. McAra said.

"They've been sought after for years across all different industries because they've typically been characterized as having a large amount of discretionary income and a passion for consumer goods."

The study, conducted by Ipsos Reid between May 20 and June 3, is based on the responses of 1,069 U.S. adults and 1,177 Canadian adults who answered the online survey.

Results are considered accurate within 2.99%age points, 19 times out of 20, for the U.S. results, and within 2.85%age points, 19 times out of 20, for the Canadian results. U.S. respondents were interviewed in English, Canadian respondents in English and French.

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Teen Scarred After Artist Inks 56 Tattoos on Face (Foxnews, 090617)

A teenager got the shock of her life when she asked for a few small tattoo stars and woke up to find half her face was covered in them.

Kimberley Vlaeminck, 18, is now suing the tattoo artist who she claims went way beyond what she had asked for.

The Belgian teen says she woke up in pain after falling asleep as Rouslan Toumaniantz drew the permanent ink designs.

She then discovered 56 “frightening” black stars of different sizes from her nose to ear and brow to chin.

“I wanted him to tattoo on just three little points but he suggested three stars, saying it would look prettier,” Vlaeminck said.

“When he started the tattooing I didn’t want to feel the pain and so I went to sleep. I woke up when he was starting to tattoo my nose and I saw what he had already done. I counted 56 stars, it’s frightening.”

But Toumaniantz, who works in the town of Courtrai, denied that his client had fallen asleep and said he fulfilled her request.

“She was awake the whole time,” he said. “I don’t use hypnosis or drugs. She agreed to it. The problems started when her father and his friend saw the tattoos.”

Vlaeminck, from the city of Kortrijk, about 50 miles north-west of Brussels, said she wanted to keep the tattoos on her forehead but would have the rest removed.

She now hopes they can be taken off using laser surgery, which would cost thousands of dollars.

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Study: Surprising Number of Teens Expect to Die Young (Foxnews, 090629)

A surprising number of teenagers — nearly 15% — think they’re going to die young, leading many to drug use, suicide attempts and other unsafe behavior, new research suggests.

The study, based on a survey of more than 20,000 kids, challenges conventional wisdom that says teens engage in risky behavior because they think they’re invulnerable to harm. Instead, a sizable number of teens may take chances “because they feel hopeless and figure that not much is at stake,” said study author Dr. Iris Borowsky, a researcher at the University of Minnesota.

That behavior threatens to turn their fatalism into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Over seven years, kids who thought they would die early were seven time more likely than optimistic kids to be subsequently diagnosed with AIDS. They also were more likely to attempt suicide and get in fights resulting in serious injuries.

Borowsky said the magnitude of kids with a negative outlook was eye-opening.

Adolescence is “a time of great opportunity and for such a large minority of youth to feel like they don’t have a long life ahead of them was surprising,” she said.

The study suggests a new way doctors could detect kids likely to engage in unsafe behavior and potentially help prevent it, said Dr. Jonathan Klein, a University of Rochester adolescent health expert who was not involved in the research.

“Asking about this sense of fatalism is probably a pretty important component of one of the ways we can figure out who those kids at greater risk are,” he said.

The study appears in the July issue of Pediatrics, released Monday.

Scientists once widely believed that teenagers take risks because they underestimate bad consequences and figure “it can’t happen to me,” the study authors say. The new research bolsters evidence refuting that thinking.

Cornell University professor Valerie Reyna said the new study presents “an even stronger case against the invulnerability idea.”

“It’s extremely important to talk about how perception of risk influences risk-taking behavior,” said Reyna, who has done similar research.

Fatalistic kids weren’t more likely than others to die during the seven-year study; there were relatively few deaths, 94 out of more than 20,000 teens.

The researchers analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of kids in grades 7 to 12 who were interviewed three times between 1995 and 2002. Of 20,594 teens interviewed in the first round, 14.7% said they thought they had a good chance of dying before age 35. Subsequent interviews found these fatalistic kids engaged in more risky behavior than more optimistic kids.

The study suggests some kids overestimate their risks for harm; however, it also provides evidence that some kids may have good reason for being fatalistic.

Native Americans, blacks and low-income teens — kids who are disproportionately exposed to violence and hardship — were much more likely than whites to believe they’d die young.

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Body of Missing Missouri Girl, 9, Found in Woods (Foxnews, 091023)

ST. MARTINS, Mo. — The body of a missing 9-year-old Missouri girl was found in a wooded area near the state capital on Friday, two days after she was last seen walking from a neighbor’s home, police said.

Cole County Sheriff Greg White said a juvenile, described only as a “person of interest,” was taken into custody. The juvenile was acquainted with the girl, Elizabeth Olten, White said.

The sheriff not give any details on how Elizabeth died or about the juvenile in custody except to say that the person lived in the area west of Jefferson City and was older than the girl. Police said Elizabeth’s body was found just before 3 p.m.

“We were able to obtain some physical evidence and through some analysis of some of the evidence and in all honesty some written evidence, we were able to develop a person of interest,” White said. “Once we reached that person and interviewed them, ultimately they led us to where we’ve recovered Elizabeth’s body.”

Elizabeth was last seen when she started walking home from a neighbor’s house on Wednesday evening. A woman who answered a family spokeswoman’s phone Friday said Elizabeth’s family had no immediate comment.

White said had spoken with Elizabeth’s mother and said the family is “deeply grieving.”

“I’m a parent, and I know how I would feel. I would simply leave it to you that they are grieving,” he said.

Earlier Friday, about 70 people had searched for Elizabeth on horseback, with all-terrain vehicles and on foot while another 70 investigators checked leads, White said. Several hundred people had joined the search Thursday despite a steady rain and rough terrain.

Police focused their search area after they figured out roughly where Elizabeth’s phone was located. White said the phone was later found but declined to say if it had turned up evidence.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol searched by helicopter with thermal imaging radar, and the Missouri State Water Patrol checked ponds in the area with sonar.

Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. James Keathley said he wishes the outcome was better.

Related StoriesMissouri Girl, 9, Vanishes After Leaving Friend’s House

“It’s been quite an ordeal for the last few days. There’s a lot emotions involved in this. It’s been tough on everybody involved in this case,” Keathley said.

David Schulte, who lives nearby, said Elizabeth typically would walk through his front yard about 30 or 40 feet away from the road on her way back home from the friend’s house. Schulte said he didn’t know Elizabeth well but that she had come through the neighborhood to sell cookie dough for a school fundraiser.

Schulte, who had helped with the search, said the area around where the phone was transmitting signals was about one-quarter of a mile away from the county highway and in the middle of the woods. He said it is easy to get turned around and difficult to hold straight search lines because the terrain is all “ridges and valleys” along with brambles.

“You’d have to want to be back there,” said Schulte, before police announced that Elizabeth’s body had been found.

Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.

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15-Year-Old Charged With Missouri Girl’s Murder (Foxnews, 091024)

ST. MARTINS, Mo. — Authorities said Saturday that a 15-year-old has been charged with first-degree murder for the death of a 9-year-old central Missouri girl found in the woods two days after she went missing.

Police did not release the teen’s gender or name and provided few other details about the person suspected of killing Elizabeth Olten. Cole County Sheriff Greg White has said the teenage suspect is not related to Elizabeth but was acquainted with her and is from the same area just west of Jefferson City.

Several hundred people braved soaking rain and cold weather to search a heavily wooded area near Elizabeth’s home after she was reported missing Wednesday evening. Police found Elizabeth’s body Friday afternoon after the suspect led them to a wooded area several hundred yards from her St. Martins house, White said.

“We had been in that area — actually more than once. The body was very well concealed,” said White, who would not say whether police believed Elizabeth had been killed there.

Under Missouri law, children as young as 12 can be charged as adults with first-degree murder. But the case must start in the juvenile court system while a hearing is held on whether to transfer it to an adult court. Juvenile court records generally are closed under Missouri law unless a judge grants an exception.

Cole County Juvenile Court Administrator Michael Couty said the suspect was in the custody of the juvenile justice system and would undergo a background and psychological check. Couty planned to request a hearing next week before a family court judge to determine whether the suspect should be tried as a juvenile or as an adult. That hearing would be closed to the public.

Police initially had said Elizabeth was last seen walking home from a neighbor’s house on Wednesday night. White said that timeline was developed through interviews.

But on Saturday, White declined to say whether police believed Elizabeth had started walking home when she encountered the suspect. He said many details could not be released to avoid risking the prosecution’s case and because the suspect is a juvenile.

An autopsy was being conducted Saturday to determine the time and cause of death.

Police would not say Saturday whether there had been a confession, nor would they describe the teen’s demeanor or offer more details about written documents that led them to the suspect. White also declined to say whether calls had been made from Elizabeth’s cell phone, which was found “very, very close” to her.

Police narrowed the primary search area after tracing the phone’s general location, but the phone’s battery had died by Thursday morning.

The Olten family has received help since Elizabeth’s disappearance from Missouri Missing, a group that highlights missing-person cases and provides emergency aid to families. Group spokeswoman Ra’Vae Edwards relayed a request for comment Saturday to Elizabeth’s family.

“They don’t have anything to say right now other than they’re working on arrangements for the funeral,” Edwards said, “And they wanted to thank the community for their support and prayers.”

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Missouri Girl Allegedly Killed ‘to Know What It Felt Like’ (Foxnews, 091119)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Blessed with a Friday off school, 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante dug two holes in the ground to be used as a grave, authorities said. For the next week, she attended classes, all the while plotting the right time for a murder, they said.

That time arrived the evening of Oct. 21, when Bustamante strangled 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten without provocation, cut the girl’s throat and stabbed her, prosecutors said. Why?

“Ultimately, she stated she wanted to know what it felt like,” Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified Wednesday during a court hearing over the slaying.

Rice, who interviewed Bustamante in the days after Elizabeth’s disappearance, said she confessed to investigators and led them to the fourth grader’s well-concealed body in a wooded area near their neighborhood in St. Martins, a small town west of Jefferson City.

A Cole County judge ruled Wednesday that Bustamante, who has been held in Missouri’s juvenile justice system, should be tried as an adult. Hours later, the teen was indicted on adult charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action for allegedly using a knife to kill Elizabeth. A judge later entered a not guilty plea on Bustamante’s behalf and referred her to the public defender’s office.

The court proceedings marked the first time that the suspect in Elizabeth’s death had been publicly identified since a two-day search for the girl by hundreds of volunteers. When they found Elizabeth’s body Oct. 23, authorities only said that a 15-year-old had led them to it and was in custody for the slaying.

Bustamante remained largely expressionless as she sat with her hands shackled around her waist in court Wednesday. She occasionally looked down beneath the brown bangs that covered her eyes and swallowed hard as a judge read the charges against her.

On one side of the courtroom sat her mother and grandmother, who has been Bustamante’s legal guardian for about half of her life. On the other side sat Elizabeth’s mother, relatives and friends, several of whom wore pink — Elizabeth’s favorite color.

Bustamante was ordered held without bond pending her trial. If convicted of first-degree murder, she would be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Witnesses at Bustamante’s adult certification hearing described a girl who was bright yet depressed and clever in a sometimes sneaky sort of way. She ranked in roughly the top third of her class at Jefferson City High School, the principal said, and had been in no trouble at school or with the law.

Yet Bustamante had tried to commit suicide at age 13 and had been receiving mental health treatment for depression and cutting herself, said David Cook, the chief juvenile officer in Cole County. Once, she led her family to believe she was attending a local church event when she instead sneaked off to a concert in St. Louis, about two hours away, Cook said. On one or two other occasions, Bustamante spent the night in the woods without permission, he said.

After her arrest, Bustamante tried to cut herself with her own fingernails while being held in juvenile custody, said her appointed juvenile defense attorney Kurt Valentine.

He argued Bustamante should remain in the juvenile system, where she could potentially be rehabilitated before being set free by age 21. Valentine warned that Bustamante would either kill herself or be assaulted and killed by others if she were placed in an adult jail cell or prison.

“We are throwing away the child and we are signing a death sentence for Alyssa,” Valentine said. “She is not going to survive her time in the Cole County jail.”

Cole County Sheriff Greg White said later that Bustamante would be held at a different, undisclosed location.

Cook recommended Bustamante be tied as an adult. Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem agreed, saying the killing was vicious and that the state had no adequate facilities or services to treat Bustamante if she remained in the juvenile system.

Bill Heberle, with the Missouri Division of Youth Services, testified that the state has no secure facilities with fences for female juveniles. Youths in Missouri’s juvenile system generally are housed in group settings and are not typically watched by staff 24 hours a day, he said.

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Teen Accused of Stabbing Neighbor 60 Times Over $5 (Foxnews, 100120)

LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla. — An arrest report says a South Florida teenager is accused of stabbing a 62-year-old neighbor more than 60 times over $5.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office released the report Tuesday saying the 16-year-old had entered Vibbins Williams’ apartment Saturday night in Lauderdale Lakes and asked her for $5 so he could buy marijuana. Williams refused and told him to leave.

The police report says the teen then grabbed a knife from his pocket and stabbed her. He also stole $34 from her purse.

Williams was barely alive when she was discovered by her granddaughter. She was transported to a local hospital but pronounced dead on arrival.

The teen was charged with first-degree murder and taken to the juvenile assessment center. He’s not being identified because of his age.

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British Court Sees Cell Phone Video of Brothers’ Vicious Attack on Young Boys (Foxnews, 100120)

The brothers whose vicious attack on two young boys shocked England captured the assault on film, it has emerged.

The victims — then aged nine and 11 — were lured from a recreation ground in Edlington, South Yorkshire, by the brothers, who were 10 and 11 at the time, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Last September the brothers admitted causing their victims grievous bodily harm with intent, among other offenses.

Justice Keith, who is presiding over their sentencing exercise, agreed Wednesday for footage of the attack to be shown in court.

Nicholas Campbell QC warned the court that the video was “upsetting to view” before it was played.

The six-second clip filmed using a mobile phone begins with a close-up of the 11-year-old boy’s bloodied face.

The shot widens to reveal him lying on the grass with his arms up in an attempt to shield himself as the younger attacker “taunts and jabs” him with an object.

Sky News correspondent Gerard Tubb, who is in court, said one kick to the boy’s upper body left him recoiling like a “rag doll.”

Campbell told the court: “This footage is upsetting to view but it is important evidence as you consider the nature of this attack as a whole.”

The judge also heard that the brothers punched the boys, forced them to eat nettles, ran broken glass across their throats and threatened to kill them.

The victims, he said, had set out on Saturday April 4 with their BMX bikes and their dog, when they were approached by the brothers, who asked to use their bikes and also if the boys wanted to go and see a dead fox.

Lured away to an area concealed from passers-by by vegetation and broken branches, the victims were stamped on and their heads pelted with stones and bricks.

The sentencing exercise is expected to end on Friday.

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Runaway Christian Convert to Remain Free of Parents, Judge Rules (Foxnews, 100120)

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A runaway teenage girl from Ohio who converted from Islam to Christianity has reached a court settlement that allows her to remain free of her Muslim parents.

The agreement Tuesday says that 17-year-old Rifqa Bary will stay in a foster home under state custody in Columbus until she turns 18 in August. After that, she’ll be an adult and free to live where she chooses.

Bary’s attorney read a statement in Franklin County Juvenile Court, saying that the girl and her parents love and respect each other and will try to resolve their differences through counseling.

Bary ran away to Florida last summer, saying she feared her father would harm or kill her for leaving Islam.

Her father denied the claim, and a law enforcement investigation found no credible threats to the girl.

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Guatemalan cops nab 13-year-old as killing suspect (Foxnews, 100415)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Police in Guatemala say a 13-year-old boy has confessed to shooting a woman to death for a payment of about $12.50.

The National Police say the suspect was carrying the fatal gun when arrested.

Spokesman Donald Gonzalez says the boy told police he was paid to shoot the woman as she took her two children to school on the outskirts of Guatemala City.

Interior Minister Carlos Menocal said Thursday that street gangs hire minors to carry out killings because they face lighter treatment in Guatemala’s legal system. The boy could face 6 years in a juvenile custody facility if convicted.

The legislature is debating a law that would lower the age at which suspects could be tried as adults from 18 to 15.

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Nick Pearton, 16, chased and stabbed to death in park (London Times, 100506)

A teenage boy was chased through a playground by a mob of youths wielding knives and baseball bats before being stabbed to death in London’s latest outbreak of fatal gang violence.

Nick Pearton, 16, who was cradled by his mother as he lay bleeding from multiple knife wounds, became the tenth teenager to be murdered in the capital this year. Seven of those victims have been killed in the past six weeks.

He was attacked in Home Park, Sydenham, at about 6pm on Wednesday after apparently being lured to the recreation ground by a phone call then ambushed in what was believed to be a revenge attack connected to an earlier gang fight.

Local people, who called police to report a disturbance in the park, said today that they saw the boy, who is white, running away from a group of black youths armed with knives and baseball bats.

The injured teenager staggered to a nearby fried chicken shop, where he collapsed on the floor. His mother, Kim, ran to the scene and neighbours said they heard her cries as paramedics tried to save his life.

A local youth said the murdered boy had cycled to the park to face members of a rival gang after a confrontation earlier in the week.

“There was a fight over something silly,” he said.

“Nick was lying on the floor of the chicken shop bleeding. His mum came out screaming ‘my baby boy, my son’. I didn’t see him get stabbed, just on the floor.”

Police were on the scene quickly and Scotland Yard said that a number of suspects had been arrested in the area and were being questioned about the murder.

Sources at Scotland Yard played down suggestions of a racial motivation. London’s street gangs are known to be multiracial and organised loosely around schools, housing estates or postcodes rather than ethnicity.

There is, however, growing anxiety among senior police officers and politicians about the recent surge in gang violence, in which a boy has been stabbed in a rush-hour killing at Victoria station and a schoolgirl shot dead in a pizza takeaway in Hackney.

There are fears of a return to youth violence on the scale of 2008, when 29 teenagers were murdered in London, which prompted a series of political and policing initiatives including tougher sentencing regimes and widespread stop and search operations.

Last year the number of teen homicides fell to 14 but the 2010 death rate has run into double figures in less than five months.

Official figures show that knife crime in London rose 2.2% between April 2009 and March 2010 while gun crime leapt by 14.2%.

Police sources claim the situation among street gangs is much worse than the statistics suggest.

One said: “These murders are not occurring in a vacuum. There are a lot of other stabbings taking place that the media never report and the public never hear about.

“The fatal stabbings are the tip of the iceberg – there are gang stabbings, fights and assaults happening on a regular basis.”

The murdered boy’s father, Vince Pearton, said his family were too shocked to talk about what had happened: “There’s nothing I can say, we can’t take it in,” he said.

One neighbour said the Peartons were “totally shell-shocked”.

The woman added: “It’s been a terrible shock. We are a really tight-knit community. We all know each other. It is just what it has come to these days. No one can believe what has happened.”

Kit Malthouse, London’s Conservative deputy mayor for policing, said the job of tackling gang culture and violence would take time and insisted that tough enforcement action was necessary.

“It has been a tough start to the year and we have never claimed victory in this battle,” he said.

“To those who say we should be scaling back on stop and search, these events illustrate why we cannot do that. We should be putting more resources into this, not taking our foot off the throttle.”

Scotland Yard said that detectives were keeping an open mind regarding the the circumstances of the incident and any motive.

A spokesman added: “A number of male youths were arrested in the vicinity and are now in custody.”

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Survey: Most Youth Worldwide Spiritual, Say Religion is Good (Christian Post, 081117)

The majority of youths in the world say they are spiritual and think religion and spirituality are both positive, according to an extensive, first-of-its-kind survey.

Fifty-seven percent of young people (ages 12-25) see themselves as being spiritual, reported the survey by Search Institute’s Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence that was sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.

The research surveyed more than 7,000 young people from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds, spanning 17 countries and six continents. It took two years to complete the study that offers one of the first snapshots of spiritual development across multiple countries and traditions.

“We have spent two years listening to youth ages 12 to 25 from many countries and traditions talk about spiritual development and its role in their lives,” reflected Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, co-director of the Center for Spiritual Development, in a statement. “Many young people are keenly interested in these issues, but relatively few have opportunities to talk with others about the things that really matter to them.”

The survey found that about one in three youths consider themselves “very” or “pretty” spiritual, but this varied vastly across countries. The high was in the United States where 52% of the youth self-described themselves as “very” or “pretty” spiritual, and in Thailand where 50% gave this same response.

In contrast, Australia had the low of 23% youth who said they were highly spiritual. Almost half of the youth surveyed in Australia (47%) indicated that they are not spiritual, compared to only 12% in Thailand and about 20% in Canada, India, Ukraine, and the United States.

Religion and being spiritual are related but different, according to the world’s youth. Respondents are still most likely to say they are both spiritual and religious (34%). Nearly a quarter (23%) say they are spiritual, but not religious.

One in five of the youths indicated they don’t know.

American youths’ response was slightly different. They were more likely to say they are both spiritual and religious (43%) than the world’s youth in general (34%). A comparable number to international youths said they are just spiritual (27%).

Being spiritual, for this young generation, most often is associated with believing in God (36%), followed by believing there is a purpose to life (32%), and then being true to one’s inner self (26%).

But the most popular definition for being spiritual differed across countries and culture.

Indian youths were more likely to say being true to one’s inner self (38%) is being spiritual more so than believing in God (33%).

Whereas in Canada, the youths said being spiritual is believing in God (52%) and then believing there is a purpose to life (48%). Also, more than a quarter of the participants from Canada (28%) said spirituality involves having a deep sense of inner peace or happiness, which was unique to Canadian youths.

Meanwhile young people in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States all defined spirituality first and foremost as believing there is a purpose to life. Believing in God was ranked second at 33% for youths in the United States.

In focus groups, some young people expressed the differences they see between spirituality, religion, and religious institutions.

“Spiritual is something one experiences in your own being. Religion is, well, your religion,” said a 15-year-old girl from South Africa. “Most of our religion is forced - the do’s and don’ts. Being spiritual means standing on a mountain with the wind blowing through your hair, and the feeling of being free.”

Another 15-year-old girl from Australia said, “‘Religious’ is kind of knowing the things in your head, but ‘spiritual’ is knowing them in your heart.”

Most of those surveyed perceived being spiritual is good (72%) as well as being religious (67%). About one in four youths around the world see being spiritual or religious as neither good nor bad.

When it comes to spiritual help, most young people said they turn to their family (44%) and friends (15%). Only 14% of youth indicated that their religious institution helps them the most.

Nearly one in five youth (18%) said they have no one to help them regarding their spiritual lives.

The proportion of youth who said no one helps them increases to 38% in the United Kingdom and 37% in Australia. Only 4% of youth in Cameroon said no one helps them spiritually.

Don Ratcliff, Wheaton College’s Price-LeBar Professor of Christian Education and an advisor to the Center for Spiritual Development, reflected on the research study: “I am impressed that while church attendance decreased for most teenagers, a large majority still affirm belief in God and a spiritual dimension to life, as well as believing in life after death,” in a statement released Friday.

Ratcliff hopes that this study will lead to additional research related to the reasons for the decline in church attendance that may have roots in childhood as well as adolescent years.

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