I've blogged about this before, but for any Ypulse newbies who don't know, my mom is a born-again Christian or a "Messianic Jew" so I grew up surrounded by lots of evangelicals in the buckle of the Bible Belt otherwise known as Nashville, TN. I am a culturally Jewish agnostic, but because of the way I grew up, and because evangelicals are spending lots of money, time and energy to co-opt every aspect of youth culture and recreate it in their own image, I follow Christan Teen Media on Ypulse.
So of course I was fascinated by this profile of C-Lister Stephen Baldwin on Salon.com (daypass or subscription required). I posted an Essentials item about his Christian graphic novels the other day but had no idea how large, and frankly a little scary, his Livin It ministry actually is. According to Salon:
- "The Livin It tour drew an audience of over a million in 2005, selling out stadiums from Atlanta to Kingston, Jamaica. At the Minneapolis Metrodome, the tour packed in 40,000 people in a single evening; the wait for an autograph after the 'altar call' lasted three and a half hours. (Last year's X Games drew only 16,000 to a skateboarding competition.)
- The 'Livin It' DVD came out in 2004 and was expected to sell 20,000 copies in four years; it sold 150,000 in 15 months."
Ok -- now here's what's scary about Baldwin and his ilk:
- "Baldwin preaches that free will is a lie of Satan -- we must shut off our brains, he says, and be led by what God tells our hearts. Furthermore, he writes, efforts to end global poverty and violence are just the sort of 'stupid arrogance' that incur God's wrath, which we'll be feeling any day now in the coming apocalypse."
He even goes after Bono: "'The Unusual Suspect' [his new memoir, which is shooting up the best-seller lists] features an open letter to Bono, lambasting him for lobbying for debt relief for developing countries instead of preaching the gospel on MTV.
- Ryan Dobson receives a shout-out in Baldwin's book as a messenger for 'Homey,' as Baldwin calls God. In Dobson's book 'Be Intolerant,' he rails against relativism, homosexuals, environmentalists and 'inclusive, open-minded Christians,' charging his readers to 'get your armor on and take up your cross.'"
If you thought the documentary Jesus Camp sounded scary, think about what an army of teenagers, pumped up on intolerance, can do...I'm all for people having faith in whatever they want, but the combination of MTV cool combined with Christian fundamentalism scares the bejeezus out of me....
Check out this video from Current TV of a BattleCry ralley:
Related:
Are Advertisers the New "Terrorists"?
Posted by anastasia
Christian Teen Media
Comments
I heard him on Ron & Fez (XM 202 9am-12pm PT). Man was he a goon. He actually spent a good deal of time saying that Bono was misguided because what good is it to give people food, health, debt relief, etc when they will just go to hell when they die.
Posted by: bietz | October 10, 2006 2:27 PM
Having come from the church (Baptist) as well, there's one thing I can say about this. The harder these teens swing one way during high school, the harder they swing the other way in their 20's. I've seen it happen to the majority of these kids that take up the cross. It's a shame that no one in any church is teaching balance rather than marching as to war.
Posted by: Rick
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October 10, 2006 2:32 PM
As an actively believing Christian, there are things here that make me cringe. Unfortunately, fundamentalist Christians have learned the media lesson well. They know how to work it. Equally unfortunate, they focus too much on "who's in and who's out," i.e., who's going to heaven and who's going to hell. And also unfortunate, there are some good things happening and being said here.
Evangelicals miss the point of the message of Jesus Christ. It's not about who is going to heaven or going to hell. It's about the kingdom of God, and if I had some time and space to talk about that, you might be surprised as to what that really means.
Instead, go read anything that Brian McLaren has written, and Marcus Borg's The True Heart of Christianity.
Posted by: Tom | October 12, 2006 9:03 AM