In Rolling Stone issue 1024 (April 19, 2007), Jeff Sharlet reports on the “teenage holy war” being waged by Ron Luce’s BattleCry, a Christofascist organization that attracts thousands to “Acquire the Fire” rallies held in stadiums in the US and has sent 53,000 teenage “missionaries” around the world to preach spiritual “purity” (e.g., chastity, sobriety) and a commitment to capitalism.
Luce rejects what he calls “cultural Christianity” and the “pigpen” of secularism.
He considers evangelical Christians as soft and bland, instead he wants “stalkers” who will bring criminal passion to the their pursuit of godliness. Luce says that he and his teenage apostles are involved in a real, not a metaphorical, war and building a “attacking church.”
Sharlet quotes him as saying “We gotta be ready to fight and not be these passive little namby-pamby, kum-ba-yah, thumb-sucking babies that call themselves Christians.”
To reach his goals, Luce entices youth to stadium-size rallies with Christian rock bands like P.O.D., Skillet, Pillar, and Casting Crowns where he tells them to make lists of secular pleasures they will sacrifice for the cause and then has kids toss their lists into a garbage truck.
The final spectacle of the Acquire the Fire events has Luce acting out the Biblical story of the Levite and his concubine , from the Book of Judges,
in which a man who, after he gives over his concubine to be gang-raped, kills the disgraced woman and cuts her into twelve pieces, then sends one to each of the tribes of Israel as a reminder of what happens to the ungodly…[Then] Luce or one of his junior pastors dissects a mannequin labeled with the sins of secularism and then—to the cheer “Cut up the concubine!”—sends his assistants into the crowd to distribute the pieces.
Messages at the rallies include claims such as obedience to God matters more than education. And that seems to be a guiding principle at BattleCry’s “Honor Academy” in Texas, where the shock troops in-training engage in “emotionally stretching opportunities of a lifetime,” and are taught media and PR skills, but the library at this “school” is never open.
But there is hope for American culture and Rolling Stone is obviously optimistic, because the article that follows the expose of Luce and BattleCry is an interview with Iggy Pop.
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