BattleCry 50-state attack due on May 12, 2006

That itunes search didnt work, could you upload it to indymedia in the comments to this post.

To everyone from battlecry reading this post, I know you are there my angels. I am the one who started the chant
RACIST, SEXIST ANTI-GAY. CRISTIAN FASCISTS GO AWAY!
on the steps of SF City Hall.

And I was one of the 'Four Bull-horns of the Apocalypse' sirens that shut down your sniveling lying Ron Luce on the steps of SF City Hall. He claims nothing about the youth of Battle Cry is political as he leads you into intense political situations.

"Your Battlecry is based on lies. Think for yourselves. OPEN YOUR EYES!"

"Religion is one thing. Theocracy is another. THE CRISTIAN RIGHT IS WRONG!"

First, please be certain to get your basic facts straight about this organization! (Otherwise you just play into their strategies of provocation.)

Teen Mania did not receive 8.5 million dollars from the government - that number (form 990 line 2) is "program service revenue" - money they make from the shows and other "programs" that they run. As far as I know direct government contribution to this organization is $0. See page 6 of that file for the breakdown of where that $8.5 mil came from.

Second, remember that this organization has been 'under the radar' for twenty years. They are now aggressively seeking publicity for their own organizational purposes - and intentionally trying to provoke an opposition into existence by going to a city (San Francisco) where they knew they could count on somebody giving them exactly the counter-response they wanted. That counter-response is then used by them to organize their people all over the country, on the basic biblical martyr's assumption that if they're seeing opposition then what they are doing is "right." (It may not make sense to you, but that's how they think.)

They have been using what happened in San Francisco all over Christian media and all over the right-wing blogosphere as "proof" of how "persecuted" they are. Bogus, but this is how they strengthen and organize themselves. From that they sent press releases before their Detroit event trying to further this persecution meme, trying to forment, via press coverage, a confrontation in Detroit... that barely materialized! But they used the video their own video production unit (Center for Creative Media) shot on the street in San Francisco, on the big screens in both the stadium shows thus far, as an example of how much harder they need to work, because none of the counter-demonstrations that they see directed toward them gets to their self image, because almost everything they see counter-protesters saying has no connection to what they say, or what they're actually doing.

Any response has to be speaking knowledgably about the organization and the people in it - and what you're proposing as talking points is not that. Any organization of this size has assets, and just because the value of those assets has a lot of digits says nothing about the people and what they are doing, and why they are a problem!

Point one: They are creating more of the usual teen crises that doesn't exist, as many have throughout recent American history, in an effort to create what is basically a political movement (actually, this is the part of the implementation of what Kevin Phillips was talking about when he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed (4/2) that the GOP is becoming a "religious party," what I'd call a religio-political hybrid).

Point two: Having created a list of "threats" to teens that are part of this phony "crisis," they offer religious conversion (specifically, to become a "follower of Christ," a "warrior" for Christ) as a universal solution. No other faith or non-faith need apply - no, all other things must be pushed to the sidelines as their fictional rewrite of American history (a la David Barton) dictates that this is a Judeo-Christian nation and the government must reflect their recent rewrite of those 'values' (value #1: war against your neighbor gives purpose, meaning and expansion opportunities) and nothing else.

Point three: They offer this solution to perpetuate churches; it's a justification to organize teenagers to sell religious conversion to others, and part of that strategy is to remove restrictions (both perceived and real) on religious activity in public schools - a captive audience they seek to harness to further this end. They spread fear among their people by insisting that only four percent of the U.S. population are going to be evangelicals of their desired flavor soon if they don't do something drastic right now; this number, like many of their partisan, questionable "statistics" is completely pulled out of a hat by a Christian statistician who is part of this system.

Point four: They seek legislation to create government involvement in this church expansion program, if only to validate some of the more whacked-out ideas in it (that sexually explicit (or even suggestive) media causes physical changes in teen brains and thus must be regulated as a faulty product or environmental contaminant, as one example) or to raise the social status of churches through government endorsement of a particular flavor of religion (theirs). The regulation of expression - and ultimately things the religious consider 'blasphemy' - is floating around in this in offhand comments.

The core point being that any response that has any hope of carrying any meaning and effectiveness, and not just helping them inflate their own movement is going to have to be knowledgable about what they are actually selling, down to the details - and then responds based on that knowledge.

Watch for an update on acquiretheevidence.com in the next few days.

Thanks for any corrections. I totally agree for the need to be informed and respond in a way that reflects credit on our side rather than giving them more of what they want- publicity. I look forward to your update!

It's up there, I opened it from iTunes, but it's a 27Mb upload and I don't think I can upload that big a file. They had kids saying they were just there to show their love of Jesus. There are still people in america who have morals, and that's them.

One young man says "Nothing against San Francisco but I think it's forgotten the Lord."
As if to demonstrate, the video then pointedly shows a clip of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

This video attempts to spin this as a battle of evil adults against kids who just want to do good and love Jesus. I guess they didn't get a clip of the young man mentioned here (from the SFBG):

http://www.sfbg.com/40/26/news_shorts.html
"...a boy from Luce's group who looked to be about 12 years old at one point flipped the bird at a transgender man and mouthed, "Faggot!"

But hey- he's just a kid right? Kids learn what they hear from adults, both the good and bad. These kids aren't bad kids. But not many of them are able to think independently of the needful teenage clique of peer consensus, or of a very persuasive charismatic leader like Luce.

I just want to make something clear to those who support Ron Luce (and Teen Mania Ministries and BattleCry™). For me, the beef isn't about whether you are Christian or not, or how you choose to live your life. If Christianity works for you, that is wonderful. It is not the only solution however. I have read post after post about how "if we would only let Jesus into our lives"... This is disrespectful of the rich tradition of other beliefs, as well as the many excellent opinions from those who believe in the absence of any deity.

This is not just about your religion. It's about our political struggle. If you don't understand that yet, you soon will. And why do some of you keep playing the youth card? If you want to be treated on equal terms, then take personal responsibility for your views, rather than saying you're being picked on by people who are older than you. This isn't a schoolyard fight, it's an intellectual disagreement.

For Ron Luce to show video of some kid saying something about how SF has lost "the Way", and then point to a particularly beloved SF group (The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence) is just ignorant. So I call Mr. Luce on it. For Ron Luce to show up at our City Hall because that's where people married their same-sex partners was personally offensive to many here who support LGBTI rights. We expressed our free speech about it. So did Ron Luce and his group. No problem! Mr. Luce can deny that's what it about, but I'm inclined to disbelieve him, as it was in his literature promoting the event. And I differentiate between the kids who find a solution in BattleCry™ and the organization which promotes it (and spins the facts about it) for their own reasons.

By the way, that "crisis for teens" I keep hearing about? One big Non-solution to this (so-called) crisis: attempting to isolate yourself from all the things you find objectionable about modern culture. Challenges are part of life. I like to think they build character.

In order to find their videos, you need to click into the podcasts section of the iTunes Music Store, and then search for BattleCry.

we don't want your religion. Some of us think for ourselves.