July 31, 2000

A CROWD OF TEENAGERS (top) sways to the music of Third Day, a popular Christian band, as they perform for a sell-out crowd of 10,000 people at Six Flags Over Texas July 21.

Baptist Youth Days send positive message
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___ARLINGTON--Electronic media are "infiltrating" homes with ungodly messages, and Christian adults are largely unaware of their impact on teenagers, Walter Mickels told about 250 people at an adult leadership rally during Baptist Youth Days at Six Flags Over Texas.
___Mickels, president of First Step Training Institute of Ethics and Values in Dallas, spoke

PETER FURLER, lead singer of the Newsboys, performs during a July 21 concert at Six Flags Over Texas. (Photos by Ferrell Foster)

during daily rallies at the Arlington amusement park July 20-22. The Bible study/discipleship division of the Baptist General Convention of Texas sponsors the annual rallies and partners with Six Flags in presenting concerts by contemporary Christian artists.
___American media are promoting a culture of sex, violence and vulgar language while Christian adults do little, Mickels said.
___"We as parents, as youth leaders, have not come to grips with the impact" the media has on teens, he said. "Our culture has intimidated us ... into allowing them to set the boundaries" for teenagers' lives.
___Mickels cited seat-belt, no-smoking and drunk-driving campaigns to illustrate the power of advertising in shaping attitudes, philosophies and ideas. It would be "difficult to believe" that media programming doesn't have an impact as well, he suggested.
___Sex is a big part of the media, Mickels said, citing a study that found two-thirds of TV shows are "laced with sexual suggestion and sexual innuendo." And in "just about all popular music you can find a perverted view of love, which is, in fact, sex. ... Our kids are feasting on it to the point it is affecting the way they think and the way they act."
___Video games, on the other hand, are "laced with violence, laced with aggressive behavior," Mickels said, and yet "we don't think it has any impact on their behavior." He likened video games to simulators used in pilot training. Simulation teaches pilots to respond by instinct to various circumstances. "That is exactly what's happening in the lives of our kids through video games."
___Why is there so much teen violence today? "Because that is what they are being programmed to do through video simulation," he said.
___Teens' language also has become coarser as a result of their exposure to various media, he asserted.

ALLEN WEED of interl'nk interviews two members of the Newsboys. The Baptist General Convention of Texas partnered with Six Flags to present three youth-oriented concerts during Baptist Youth Days.

___The language of many youth, both girls and boys, is "more vulgar than a group of drunken sailors," Mickels said. And "they don't even flinch when adults come around."
___He cited a survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania that indicates 77 percent of teenagers have a stereo or CD player in their bedroom, 57 percent have TVs in their rooms, 39 percent have video games, 36 percent have basic cable, 20 percent have computers and 11 percent have access to the Internet.
___"That means we do not have a clue" what teenagers are "being infiltrated with, what's being pushed and shoved off onto them, what's molding and shaping their ideas and their thinking," Mickels said.
___He noted that the average parent spends two minutes a day in positive contact with a teenage child. That same child is exposed to various media for an average of four to six hours daily.
___"Parents, we've got a serious problem in our culture, and only we can do something about it," Mickels said.
___He cited Proverbs 4:23, which says, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Solomon was not talking about the organ that pumps blood, Mickels said. "He's talking about their minds, ... the thing that makes them who they are." What goes into a person's mind will come out in the form of attitudes and behavior.
___"God's word has given us everything we need ... in a culture that is so perverted," Mickels said. But many Christian adults have "chosen to relax on teaching and sharing God's word."
___

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