Peter Suderman accidentally receives a copy of Rolling Stone and discovers that music isn't just nü-metal, post-grunge or that crazy hippity-hop music with the words all spelled kinda funny:
The newest issue has a piece on BattleCry (there’s also a multimedia component here), a Christian youth movement that holds giant rallies complete with a heavy multimedia component and Christian rock of the eardrum-rattling, tattoo-and-spiked-hair punk and metal variety. The group, comprised largely of kids whose aesthetic might best be described as “suburban punk rock,” preaches a militant anti-secularism (against MTV in particular and Hollywood in general), but basically just puts a modern, youthful twist on fairly traditional Christian values—chastity, resistance to drugs and alcohol, personal sacrifice, and foreign missions work.
Sounds innocuous, right? Not at Rolling Stone. The article is more or less a case study in the sort of sneering, condescending portrayals of Christians that inspire groups like BattleCry in the first place. The group’s branding is described as looking as if it were pulled “from Stalin’s archives.” Kids are “seduced into the cause” and adults are “scared” into supporting it. The article is filled with rather unsubtle jabs at the group’s conservative political outlook, and every opportunity is taken to portray the kids as simpletons. Essentially, the piece is designed to make the group look like a kooky cult for kids who’ve been brainwashed into thinking that rock and roll can co-exist with religion. No wonder these kids are suspicious of "secular media"; look how it portrays them
.Ahh, yes. BattleCry, we know them well. Good to see that Ron Luce is still the Bill Graham of the social maladroit set.
