Jewcy confidant Jeff Sharlet has a terrific article in this month's Rolling Stone about BattleCry, Ron Luce's off-campus crusade for Christ. As Jeff describes it in his email:
The story's about a fundamentalist youth crusade called "Battlecry," the most militant of its type I've encountered in seven years of reporting on religious conservatism. For most kids it's a three day rock concert, but for 6,000, it's a year or more of training at BattleCry's "Honor Academy." Their parents think they're getting "character education," and in a way, they are: they pay nearly $8,000 a year to spend at least 31 hours a week cold calling churches to sell tickets to BattleCry's stadium events or recruiting "missionaries" as young as 12 over the phone. The rest of the time is spent studying "purity" and "growth," often in classes without books, and learning that secular media makers — you — are "culture terrorists," no different than Al Qaeda. Of course, the kids are all right. They just need a little context. Outside media is generally forbidden at the Honor Academy, but a lot of their parents are worried about their kids. Which is where my activist angle comes in. My guess is that even most conservative Christians will be distressed if they find out what their kids are really doing. There have been a few media stories about BattleCry, but they rarely go beyond the spectacle of the mass rallies. So, if you're interested, spread the word. Steal the story. Take my quotes. Don't worry about crediting it. Or report a new story. There's a lot more to be found out — Rolling Stone's fact checkers started unearthing some strange financial business, but it was too late to include. Meanwhile, these kids just need somebody to clue them in that there's more to life than cold showers and cold calling.
Unfortunately, Rolling Stone's only posted a small excerpt of the piece on its website. But given Jeff's closing cri de coeur (and the fact that he sent along a PDF), I'm sure he'd appreciate your giving it a read. Click here.
Also, here's a YouTube video of some of BattleCry's propaganda. Note the high production quality. I think my favorite bit in Jeff's article is where he describe the former producer of VH1's Behind the Music who's now working with Luce:
He's not afraid of secular media, because he doesn't think it's really all that secular. "Think about Behind the Music," he says. "What's the story, every time? Rise, fall, redemption."
Remember that the next time you see the face of Leif Garrett in your danish.