“Rebelution” may not be the only word Alex and Brett use that sounds exotic in heathen Portland. Here are some other helpful definitions:
1. Praise ballads: Worship songs in the mawkish style of U2 and Coldplay, with lyrics asking God for his love and power (or powerful love). The ballads at Do Hard Things 2008 were led by Alex and Brett’s older brother Joel, and included choruses like: “Stepping forward /Lead us into action /Keep us from just singing /We must go.”
2. Evangelical Christians: More than 70 million Americans—or about one in four—identify as evangelicals. They are Protestants, ranging from Billy Graham to Left Behind novelist Tim LaHaye. And they believe Jesus is their savior and that they are called to preach the gospel to others. But many on the conservative fringes, such as Michael Farris and the Harris family, define Christianity more narrowly. They argue that people who do not pray and study their Bibles daily or dedicate themselves to courtship (see below) show signs of being unsaved.
3. Christian exclusivists: Home-schooling leaders who believe Christian children should not socialize extensively with their non-Christian counterparts.
4. Fundamentalist: A term created during the turn-of-the-20th-century Protestant church splits to define those who held to the “fundamentals” of Christianity—the inerrancy of the Bible, the virgin birth of Jesus and his literal resurrection from the dead. The term is now considered pejorative. (Wheaton College philosophy professor Alvin Plantinga famously observed, “The full meaning of the term…can be given by something like ‘stupid sumbitch whose theological opinions are considerably to the right of mine.’”)
5. Reformed: Protestants who affirm the five points of Reformation-era theologian John Calvin: total depravity of mankind, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints. These roughly translate to a belief that humans are hopelessly wicked and condemned to hell, and that God has decided since before Creation which people he will save through the sacrifice of Jesus.
6. Courtship: A rejection of dating, or spending one-on-one time with someone of the opposite sex until both people feel called by God to marry. Joshua Harris’ now-defunct magazine New Attitude and his best-selling memoir I Kissed Dating Goodbye popularized this practice among evangelicals (mostly home-schoolers) in the late 1990s.
7. Joshua Generation: A phrase referring to the biblical hero Joshua, who “took back the land” of Canaan for the Hebrews after Moses led the exodus from Egypt. Home School Legal Defense Association founder Michael Farris announced earlier this month that his organization is considering suing Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign for trademark infringement over the phrase. Obama has launched the Joshua Generation Project to attract young evangelical voters; HSLDA’s Generation Joshua program was founded in 2003 to involve conservative Christian teens in politics.
Yet, at the same time, I am reminded that after a time Lot was commanded to leave Soddom and Gommorah. There comes a point when the culture has deteriorated so badly we must leave it to collapse under the weight of its own sin.
Have we reached that point today? I don't know. I don't have an "elector detector" (def. a fictious machine showing me who is to be saved and who isn't). I need to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in order to be able to discern that. And sometimes in the past, I have misunderstood that leading.
What a demeaning and degrading article.
But there is truth to it...there is another whole generation of christian teens out there. and they are on fire!
I applaud what these kids are doing. I do NOT think they’re mandating a theocracy. What I read is that they are attempting to motivate our young people to not just sit around and play video games, but to take their own personal holiness seriously, and to take Jesus’ Great Commission seriously. It’s fantastic if some of them actually do so.
The message of Jesus is radical. It’s a message of radical forgiveness, radical faith, and going radically against a world that is set in it’s evil ways. It’s also a message of radical freedom...freedom from the desires and lusts that drag us into hurt and misery every single time.
Having said that, I disagree with their idea that Huckabee would be a good President. I do not believe in “righteousness through legislation”. That isn’t the job of government.
(Oh, BTW...even though this isn’t a popular thought, I’ll say it anyway: There WILL be a worldwide theocracy...read the end of the Book.)
What a cynical piece. It takes a lot of work to spin Alex and Brett into slick, isolated hucksters. But the Harris twins’ integrity and the strength of their message make it through regardless.
I feel sorry for this author. He had an opportunity to review a wonderful movement among teens, and instead he seeks to trash it.