SAN FRANCISCO- Along with 25 thousands of youths from all of the United States, some Asian American Christians joined the Battle Cry for a Generation with their families, uniting together to challenge the fallen secular culture.
As a kick-off event for the Battle Cry for a Generation, some hundreds of Battle Cry for a Generation participants gathered at the San Francisco City Hall for a rally at around 3:00 p.m. To the advertisers, film producers, designers, internet businessman, the generation chanted aloud saying they have "enough" of drugs, violence, porn and lies of what will make them happy.
The huge crowd has not only represented Christians from churches or youth fellowships across the denominational line, but it has also congregated members of African American, Caucasian, Asian American, Pacific Islander and Hispanic/Latino community.
A group of 23 people, including both parents and their teenage children, from an evangelical Asian American Christian fellowship- Peninsula Christian Fellowship (PCF)- in San Bruno, CA, traveled to San Francisco for the event for the very first time.
Carol Price, the coordinator of the group, who is a Chinese originally from Singapore, commented, "Battle Cry for a Generation is an event for our teens to be able to express the message that this [pop culture] is not they want to see. What they want is not a life that’s corrupted, but a life that’s with God."
Price, a mother of two teenage daughters and a 7-year-old son, came with her husband and children. She has successfully encouraged the other families with teenage kids in her fellowship to come as well.
Among Chinese or Asians, the influence of pop culture on teenagers may not be as significant as that on Caucasians, mainly because of the more conservative traditional family values and education.
While Price totally agreed that "family is very keen to teach what kind of clothes to wear and what kind of things to look at" and "parents play a very important role in a child’s life," Chinese or Asian Americans families show great concern over the issue as they understand the importance of raising a godly generation for the future of the world.
"As Chinese Christians, we do have a burden for the teens that they will not lose their focuses on God and keep pursing God," Price explained. "We do understand the pressure and stress faced by the teens today. They are actually very hard, when they look around, those things are right on their face, advertisements and billboards are everywhere we go. So we have a burden for them."
"We pray for what God really wants to do for our teens. The teens are the next generations. We have to pass the baton to them so that they can lead the next generations. We wish to see a generation of godly children to take over," she continued.
Therefore, when asked how she persuaded the church members to join, Price gave a simple and precise answer, "I told them that this is an event for them," adding that with everything and music bands prepared for them, they are very willing to take the opportunity to come and experience.
The nationwide movement Battle Cry for a Generation was used to take place in Sacramento for the state of California. Price believes that it is more significant to be held in San Francisco because it can grasp much more attention. San Francisco is known as a "sin city" and homosexual movement is very active.
"Even though the advertisers tell the kids watching what kind of movie and wearing what kind of clothes will make them popular, from today’s Battle Cry event it’s evident that that is not the lifestyle the teens want. They want a lifestyle centered on God," said Price, as she was encouraged by the huge number of youngsters coming to the event.
Acknowledged that the bad influence of secular culture over the young generation is a global trend, especially in well-developed and prosperous cities around the world, Price suggests that the Battle Cry gives a good model for the rest of the world to follow in fighting against secularism.
"The U.S. is the leader for everything. In all the cities around the world, there may be same problems going on, but it’s important for the rest of the world to see that the teenagers here in the U.S. are battling for Christ," she said.
When asked what is the role of the church in this battle, Price said that it should get more involved as saying, "People on the world always make their voice heard, I don’t think Christians should be secret. We should stand up for God and stand up for what is right."
"It is an ongoing battle; it’s not a one-time thing. We live on this world and this is a world that belongs to Satan. We have to face many battles, but I wish we can focus on God and to understand His will and His heart," Price concluded.
