Yes, I am big on looking at current events and considering how we as Christian youth ministry folk address these with our youth groups. Most of the time I think we fail to do so. It might be helpful if we considered adding a current events segment to youth group time once a month or so just to briefly address things. The latest… the shooting in Norway. I was coming off two weeks (17 days actually) of hosting our Irish guests and had not paid much attention to new when this one hit. What caught my eye was how some of the media had portrayed the gunman (murderer) as a fundamentalist Christian with extreme right views. Hmmmm… why did they label him that way? Well, a quick look into the news stories revealed that on Facebook he identified himself as a Christian and a conservative. That was all it took! I am listed that way on Facebook as well. That is rather frightening. So, if we apply a little logic, the world is filled with people like Anders who might at any time open fire on young people? I find that more than a bit disturbing considering we know that such behavior is the opposite of what the gospel compels us to do. This guy did not act out of any Christian convictions. There is no teaching in the bible that suggests mass killing of young people (or any people). The label that the media has used is bogus and amounts to nothing more than anti-christian rhetoric. Why does not the rest of the media attack that? Well, me thinks they are too caught up in the problem to be a solution. Could we say that the media in labeling Anders Behring Breivik has engaged in a hate crime themselves? Maybe that would be a bit extreme. However, I really worry that no one is teaching our young people to discern what is false in the media and recognize what is true. Who is teaching young Christians to defend their faith against anti-christian rhetoric?
Tim Challies has a thoughtful post on this… Pondering Norway’s Darkest Hour
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