After two years of planning, our first BattleCry event took place in San Francisco in March with more than 25,000 kids. Our goal was to encourage young people to engage the culture and start reaching this generation through their local communities.

As part of the event, we decided to have a rally at the San Francisco City Hall to unveil the Teenage Bill of Rights, which declares young people’s right to set the pace for their own generation rather than letting the anchors of media, violence, and pornography shape their generation. This is the same city hall where homosexual marriages had been performed.

Approximately two weeks before the event, we learned that groups were planning a counter protest. Three days prior to the event, we found that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors issued an official condemnation of the BattleCry rally, which is interesting coming from “the most tolerant city in the world.” Little did we know we were about to put our fingers into a hornet’s nest.

As we arrived at City Hall, we found about 50 male protesters dressed in drag. They had blow horns and were chanting and screaming, “Christian fascist, go away!” as well as other phrases. This was a stark contrast to the 300 young people who arrived at the BattleCry rally thoughtfully praying and pensively considering what they were finding themselves in the middle of.

The protesters lumped all Christians into one group. They assumed that because they had been treated in a hateful way by other Christians they were about to experience the same from us. Nothing could have been further from the truth. As the hateful cries continued, these young people loved on them and prayed for them. This became the media story. The San Francisco Chronicle came out with two positive stories commenting on the fact that the youth were kind to these very hateful protesters who were accusing them of being unkind. Soon we found ourselves in a national media flurry, as NBC, CNN, FOX, Focus on the Family, “The 700 Club,” and Bill O’Reilly picked up the story.

Fighting the Culture War

There is a culture war in America today; and instead of sitting back passively and letting those who have no morals win, we need to speak up and be salt and light in this world. If we are true followers of Christ, it is our responsibility to create an environment where we let conviction, character, and Scripture help us set the tone for what our culture is all about.

Some people don’t care if we keep our Christianity in our churches, in our youth groups, or in our stadiums. But as soon as we bring our faith to the public sector, where others have dominated for so long, they get riled up and angry.

Isn’t the public square where we as Christians are called? We have been silent for too long; and as a result, we have allowed them to dominate our culture. Freedom of speech has been used to justify more violence, sex, and vulgar advertising than ever before.

It is time to encourage young people to let their voices be heard. They are young and innocent, and it is hard for anybody — except for people as confused as those in San Francisco — to put them down for wanting what is pure for their generation.

Youth leaders should provide practical ways for kids to voice their opinions and set the pace for our culture. For example, if they walk into a mall and see a poster of
Victoria showing all of her secrets, they can go to the manager of Victoria’s Secret and say, “This is offensive to me. Would you please take it down?”

Someone involved in the San Francisco BattleCry event walked into a convenience store where he saw pornography displayed openly. “Is this legal?” he asked.  When the clerk refused to do anything, the young man walked outside, pulled out his cell phone, and called the police.

It is time for our young people to be good citizens by reporting those who disobey the law.

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Ron Luce is the founder and president of Teen Mania Ministries.