August 15, 2007

Young Evangelicals: Is God Now Progressive?

Posted by Sarah Burris at 12:15AM

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As a Kansan, I'm always curious about ultra-right evangelical Christians -- what they are up to, how they are organizing, and how many seem to vote against their own values. A solid number of them are non-religious but what turns my mind to wonder are the ever increasing number of young evangelicals that are quick to join the ranks of the right wing.

The last presidential election brought big issues (gay marriage, abortion and even evolution) that Evangelical Christians stood for with their votes down the ticket. They caused quite a whirlwind of organizing for the GOP. Some of that outreach undoubtedly was aimed at youth, the fertile next generation of conservative activists. But did young folks take the bait?

Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement by Lauren Sandler gives an honest look at the path many young people take. Sandler's interviews and questions with those who intensely involved in this movement shows an enthusiastic culture of kids and young professionals who leave their lives as skaters, rockers, band groupies and join a similar Christian lifestyle communities at festivals, communes, and megachurches all over our country.

Sandler follows a young girl who became a believer at a mega concert for evangelicals called Acquire the Fire. At this stadium filled concert she describes a world where children are made to feel like they are evil doers for normal teenage transgressions like ignoring their parents, smoking, and experimenting with sexuality; they're told they need only accept Christ to be forgiven for their evil deeds.

Once the young girl is reduced to a pile of guilt and sin she bursts into tears prepared to repent. She rushes the concert stage where interns of Ron Luce's HolyRoller Bootcamp are waiting with comfort and recruitment paper work. Luce's camp acts as a training mechanism for young people who are about to enter the so-called liberal world of higher education. By deferring college for a year these kids are sent to a program where they are trained like the National Guard to be the next generation of Evangers.

Evanger is my word for a kind of "Evangelical avenger." We've seen this mmovement before - I'm remembering a phrase "This Means war" being chanted with 8-12 year olds.

The level to which this kind of organizing is influencing, recruiting, and mandating commitment to the Evangers far exceeds that of any progressive endeavor.

CNN recently did a short piece about young people who attended The Call where thousands of students come to fast, pray, and silently protest. Attending these events are members of a group called Stand USA who register the crowd and encourage young people to get out and vote for candidates who support their beliefs.

CNN's piece reported that there has been a backlash from those who read beyond the GOP playbook. Suddenly the hot issues for the religious have become immigration, poverty, and the Christian climate initiative. And while they once supported Republicans and the President, young evangelical support has drooped from 87% to 47%. As such, democrats are quickly gaining traction by being leaders on issues that matter to the new world of non-right Christians. Some "new Christians" are even going further to attack the right wing as being cold, boring, and old fashioned by parodying the Mac vs. PC commercial.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean certainly understands it:

"We went out and advertised on Christian broadcast networks ... because in the evangelical movement, young people are changing America -- and they're changing the evangelical movement.''

And Lauren Sandler says it too:

they sparkle with compassion and intelligence, all street fashion and wit... They could make formidable feminists, and maybe would have, if only a secular group, and not a network of religious right activists, had held the sort of events they'd want to check out with friends ... if only leftists had offered the promise of love articulated within a genuine expression of youth culture."

Young people are clearly the future whether the religious and evangelical movement or in the progressive movement.