Christian Youth Event Sparks Protests In San Francisco

[cmotherofpirl]

Christian youth event sparks protests in San Francisco
Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
OneNewsNow.com
March 12, 2007


City officials in San Francisco, California, have tried to silence a weekend Christian youth revival service known as "BattleCry." More than 20,000 teenagers from several states gathered to attend the Saturday morning service sponsored by Teen Mania Ministries.

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This marks the second year in a row that BattleCry has been held in San Francisco. Last year, city officials issued a condemnation of the weekend revival.

This year, the city's board of supervisors issued a resolution saying the public address system at the San Francisco Giants' stadium could not be used before 10 in the morning. However, Teen Mania Ministries founder Ron Luce says a local Christian radio station agreed to broadcast the morning service so those attending the event could participate through the use of radios.

In an interview prior to the weekend revival service, Luce explained, "It'll be broadcast live from the stage. None of the P.A. system will be turned on, but we'll be hooked in live to the radio. We're encouraging young people to bring radios, so it may be the first 'persecuted church' service in America done in a very unique way with the help of our radio friends."

In preparation for the Saturday worship service, thousands of Christian teenagers came together on Friday afternoon for a prayer rally led by Luce on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, an event homosexual activists had vowed to protest. Luce says homosexual activists and their supporters are not used to being challenged.

"These people have dominated our culture for so long," the Teen Mania spokesman observes, "and they don't want anybody that disagrees with them to raise their voice." Essentially, these homosexual activists "have gone unopposed," he says.

But now that young Christians are raising their voices to communicate a message that contradicts that of the homosexual activists, Luce asserts, "they're saying, 'Wait a minute. We don't want you to lift your voice.' And I think part of the reason is that, the Christian world view -- nobody can compete with it."

Last year's prayer rally at City Hall was interrupted by homosexual protestors, and city officials formally condemned the BattleCry event. As similar events have unfolded surrounding this year's Teen Mania events, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council notes that the American Center for Law and Justice has intervened and is considering legal action in an effort to get the city to reverse its decree prohibiting the use of the Giants' stadium sound system before 10 a.m.

In a recent Washington Update brief, Perkins pointed out that the stadium hosts concerts and ballgames year-round at all times of the day and night; however, he commented, "San Francisco has found the limit of its tolerance in BattleCry's morning worship service." The FRC spokesman said San Francisco city officials have been "working overtime to dampen what has proven to be a life-changing, health-promoting rally for the nation's youth."

[KnightofChrist]

Wow, how ingenious to use radios!

[prose]

I hope some people bring their own broadcast systems for the morning service. Not just hand held radios, but portable PA systems.

The PA-250 by Fender would be great.

Get 100 of those in a stadium. Woo hoo!