Battle Cry Campaign

This initiative, started in 2005 and headed by Teen Mania founder Ron Luce, had an evangelical Christian orientation; it primarily sought to influence American and Canadian social and political culture.

Major backers included prominent evangelical leaders Joyce Meyer, Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, Josh McDowell, and Jack Hayford.

"[8] The Battle Cry Campaign maintained that "for the first time ever," "sexualized culture," "point and click pornography," and young people being "saturated with media influence" spelled doom for Christianity in America.

[5] It also cited gay marriage and other "culture war" issues as matters of current and future concern: The campaign focused on corporations and media outlets for targeting young people with advertising and programming depicting content often labeled objectionable by evangelical leaders: When interviewed at a Battle Cry event in 2007, Ron Luce condemned "purveyors of popular culture" as "the enemy," who according to Luce are "terrorists, virtue terrorists, that are destroying our kids... they're raping virgin teenage America on the sidewalk, and everybody's walking by and acting like everything's OK. And it's just not OK."[13] Battle Cry materials contain charges that a "sexualized culture" is the product of "media people" who are the "virtue terrorists" responsible for sexual content, naming examples such as "MTV, VH1, Desperate Housewives, and movies like Broken Back Mountain [sic].

"[18] At a Cleveland Acquire the Fire event, he said, "The devil hates us, and we gotta be ready to fight and not be these passive little lukewarm, namby-pamby, kum-ba-yah, thumb-sucking babies that call themselves Christians.

"[19] Biblical passages reflecting this militarism that were often referenced in Battle Cry and Acquire the Fire events and promotional gatherings during the first year of the campaign included the following: Some critics maintained that the statistics used by Teen Mania to support its cause were suspect and exaggerated.

[50]Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame and a specialist in the study of American evangelicals, said he was skeptical of the "4 percent" statistic and that that figure was inconsistent with research he had conducted and reviewed.

[31] Two weeks before the first Battle Cry stadium event in San Francisco, Teen Mania announced a pre-event rally to be held on the steps of City Hall on March 24, 2006.

Elizabeth Creely, a San Francisco activist with the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights, explained the purpose of the resolution this way: ...no one in city government made any attempt to silence anyone.

[60]Noise complaints from nearby residents received by the city due to the early Saturday morning start time became an issue during the preparations for the return of the Battle Cry event to AT&T Park in March 2007.

Toronto Star writer Jen Gerson began her account of the event this way: They enter oblivious, hands outstretched, fat cheeks and watery eyes staring skyward to the Lord.

Convinced by arguments crafted from statistics and fear, these children of God are told they are to be the salvation of a generation in decline, one beset by the perils of pop culture, advertising and corporate greed.