Christian Teens, Come Alive to Your Spiritual Inheritance!

"Come alive! You're in the Pepsi Generation!" Thus the advertisers taught us how life was full of fun and excitement if we would only use their product. The movie industry convinced us that the way to be happy was to spend time at the beach with beautiful girls and a bottle of Pepsi. Listen to your peers, not your parents. With little meaning or purpose, the Baby Boomers are now called, delved into drug usage and rebellion at a time when too many families were becoming increasingly weak. The sense of duty gave way to the "if it feels good, do it" ethic. As Christian morals were being replaced by secular humanism, the situation continued to get worse. Today, the teenagers whose parents were the Pepsi Generation are told to use condoms so that they don't get pregnant or get AIDS. Efforts to teach teenagers that sex involves commitment and responsibility rather than "just fun" are often met with the standard argument that teaching abstinence before marriage is a violation of separation of church and state. Have fun and stay out of trouble until you graduate from college and start earning an income.

Ironically, families in the Hindu, Muslim, and Chinese contexts usually know better than to delve into these self-destructive patterns. They mistakenly believe that the moral tailspin in the West is a result of Christian teaching. Muslims and Hindus do not know that secular humanism is guiding popular culture in the West. Unfortunately, many urban Hindus, Muslims, and Chinese youths are beginning to go the wrong direction as well. Western media is propagating hedonism and loose sex morals abroad. A May, 2002 article in the Christian Science Monitor said, "In the land of Britney Spears videos and NBA chat rooms, where the strong hand of Western culture has a hold on Chinese youth, it is difficult for a government to control the use of the Web." But it's not just the Western media. It went on to describe how teenaged girls in China are being taught through Taiwanese soap operas that it's normal for a girl to have both a partner and a lover at the same time. According to the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), in urban India more than 40 percent of couples say they had sex before marriage. A leading sociologist in Delhi, Ms. Suzanne Vishwanathan, told the BBC that increasingly explicit films in India were influencing their youth. "Pre-marital sex is being quickly accepted as normal behavior," she said. Another sociologist adds that sex is no longer taboo in India.

The United States government, in their war on terrorism, is trying to convince young Muslim Arabs to adopt Western values. Radio Sawa, which means "together" in Arabic, is an ingenious attempt to get potentially anti-American young Arabs to hear America's side of world events. Brief news clips with a pro-American slant are wrapped in Western and Arab pop music. After hearing a brief statement by President George W. Bush, for example, they may hear these lyrics: "Oh kiss me, beneath the milky twilight, lead me on the moonlit floor, lift your open hand, strike up the band and make the fireflies dance."

So what's wrong with innocent love songs?, you might ask. It may be harmless in some contexts. But what about cultures where youths don't make independent decisions and they have arranged marriages? If the listeners adopted romance as a basis of selecting a mate, it could potentially divide and weaken families.

It's difficult for us Westerners to differentiate between our culture and biblical principles. We must not equate popular Western values and practices with godliness. For several generations we have assumed that marriage must come from romance. In some cultures, your spouse and your in-laws are just extensions of your family. Instead of marrying the one you love, you learn to love the one you marry. Is there anything unbiblical about that? Granted, the dowry system and the casualties that come from it are wrong. But we often forget that marriage doesn't have to follow our cultural pattern. Mary and Joseph probably weren't in a romantic relationship before they got married. And you can see the problems that arose when Jacob insisted on marrying Rachel because of his romantic love for her, rather than her less attractive sister.

The Backlash
Change is coming at a rapid rate, and not everyone welcomes it in traditional cultures. The backlash is especially strong in the Muslim and Hindu contexts. In these cultures, they know that Western hedonism and unchecked individualism are destructive. But Western hedonism isn't the only destructive worldview. Hindus who join the brutally militant Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, are recruited and indoctrinated at an early age. Most members of this all-male group sign up before age 12. Sumit Sarkar, a history professor at Delhi University told the Christian Science Monitor, "The RSS prefers to catch their recruits at a tender and very impressionable age. Doubting Thomases are not welcome." Once they join this movement, they are indoctrinated with the belief that Hindus are the only ones worthy to live in India. They are taught that Hindus are the original inhabitants of India and the creators of Indian civilization. They believe that Hinduism is a superior religion, yet Hindus have suffered because they are too peaceful and accommodating to other cultures. If you think this sounds like what the Nazis taught the Brown Shirts youth in the 1930s, you're right. With this kind of thinking, RSS members feel that it's their right to viciously murder Christians and Muslims, because they don't belong in "Hindustan" anyway.

In the Muslim world, we have seen the backlash over and over again these last couple of years. Al Quida recruits often came from the poor and the powerless from Pakistan and other parts of the Muslim world. With no jobs and no future, they think they have nothing to lose by joining these armies led by evil millionaires like Osama Bin Laden. In Palestine, Arabs have become so hopeless that they are willing to kill themselves if only they can also kill a number of unarmed Jewish civilians. As you will see on day 19, Palestinian adults encourage such behavior. It's hard to imagine that Satan is not behind this.

Rebel groups in Africa and Latin America often recruit child soldiers, frequently through force. There are now about 300,000 child soldiers in the world today. Rebel leaders often prefer to use children as soldiers because they are more easily manipulated than are adults, and they are more willing to commit atrocities for their leaders.

What is the Answer?
Satan offers many counterfeits for youths looking for a cause. Often they find an injustice to fight against, and Satan, who has already blinded their eyes to truth, darkens their hearts with bitterness. The cause almost always eventually shows its evil side. For example, communism offered answers to the injustices of the 19th century. The two biggest mass murderers in world history were communist dictators. Given a chance, Muslim militants would love to pick up where the communists left off.

But one leader is far different: Jesus Christ. He commands us not to kill and destroy human enemies to gain power over them; rather we are to bless them. In the case of personal offense, instead of demanding endless revenge and retaliation, He tells us to turn the other cheek. The application of such response, however, is not expected in acts of criminal offense or military aggression.

It's not going to be easy to get this message to the world's youths. But it must be done before another generation self-destructs. Will you pray for the world's teenagers this month?

• Pray that the Holy Spirit will pour Himself forth in abundance over the willing and accepting youths in every people group on earth.

• Pray that Christian teens from the reached world will pray and go to their peers around the world who have not had a chance to know their Lord.

• Pray that church youth leaders and parents will encourage their children to live sacrificial lives for Jesus Christ. Pray that such leaders and parents will make it a priority to teach teenagers eternal values and make them a part of God's plan for the world.