Battle Cry Campaign - Programs, Activities and Methods

Programs, Activities and Methods

• Mass events in stadiums and arenas. "Battle Cry" stadium event locations in 2006 included San Francisco at AT&T Park, Detroit at Ford Field, and Philadelphia at Wachovia Spectrum arena. In 2007, the "Battle Cry" event returned to San Francisco in March, and to Detroit in April. A third event, originally scheduled for the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, was held at the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Virginia in May 2007. The 2008 events, titled "BattleCry Recreate," were held in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Dallas, Texas, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in February and March.

• Pre-event rallies at places symbolic of governmental power. These smaller rallies in 2006, each with a few hundred participants, included San Francisco City Hall, Detroit City Hall, and Independence Visitor Center, in the area of historic sites associated with the American Revolution in Philadelphia. In following years, rallies were held again at San Francisco City Hall in March 2007 and in Times Square on February 8, 2008.

• Battle Cry Leadership Summits. Advertised as the "Wake Up Call," these meetings, featuring Ron Luce and a guest speaker, were scheduled for 44 cities in the United States and Canada through the fall of 2006. Scheduled guest speakers in that tour included Blaine Bartel (15 cities), Ted Haggard (10 cities), Tommy Barnett (7 cities), Jack Hayford, Jerry Falwell and Wellington Boone. Materials distributed at these meetings presented the Battle Cry Campaign plan, recruited churches and individuals to the campaign, and promoted other Teen Mania Ministries programs.

• Lobbying and gatherings intended to influence legislation and governmental policy. The initial legislative strategy of the Battle Cry Campaign is "to inform lawmakers of the plight of this generation and lobby them to pass legislation that protects our teens from the dangers they face while online and from advertising and other electronic media."
  • "Operation Truth," a rally co-sponsored by Battle Cry and the Christian Action Alliance, was announced for August 6, 2006, at the California State Capitol. One of the announced objectives of this event was "to publicly let legislators know that Christians will not stand idly by while being bombarded with legislation that attacks the core values of believers." Examples of the legislation that motivated the organizers to protest, according to the flyer announcing the rally, included Senate Bill 1437 and Assembly Bill 606 of the 2005–2006 legislative session. These bills were intended to prohibit discrimination in California public schools on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, and to prohibit school activities and instructional content that reflects adversely on persons on the basis of their sexual orientation. Joel Johnson, who was then a frequent co-host of Teen Mania's "Acquire the Fire" arena events, had been announced as an "Operation Truth" speaker. (Similar bills were eventually signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger in October 2007.)
  • Letter to Presidential Candidates. In a letter to U.S. Presidential Candidates released to the press on February 1, 2008, Ron Luce invited candidates to participate in or to address the pre-event rally in Times Square on February 8. The letter asks that candidates consider the priorities of "Teen Mania teens," that "they are looking to you to carry their priorities forward to Washington and the White House." Enclosed with the letter was a "Top 8 Teen Concerns in '08" which through the posing of eight leading questions proposes governmental action against media content, abortion and sex education.
  • Rally in support of California Proposition 8. Ron Luce was one of the leaders of a youth rally, "The Fine Line," held in support of California Proposition 8 on October 1, 2008 at Rock Church in San Diego. Proposition 8 is an initiative that would constitutionally prohibit same-sex marriage in California. Luce presented the "8 for 8" action plan at the conclusion of the event.
  • Message encouraging support of California Proposition 8. On October 30, 2008, Teen Mania distributed an e-mail message to supporters reminding readers of the Battle Cry rallies in San Francisco, "when a culture war was stirred up right there on the street in front of City Hall," casting those Battle Cry and similar events as the reason why "important issues are coming to the forefront and being decided right now." The featured battle "still being fought at the highest levels of California's government" centered on the definition of marriage contained in Proposition 8. The message included this quote from San Diego pastor Jim Garlow: "The definition of marriage is one of these 'tipping points.' No single social issue has threatened to forever muzzle Bible believing Christians like this contest. One person has astutely observed that 'we cannot win the culture war merely on Prop 8, but we can lose it on Prop 8.'" Readers were asked "to continue to get involved however possible to protect the Biblical view of marriage in America" and were directed to iprotectmarriage.com, a website that is part of the youth outreach of the "Yes on 8" campaign. The e-mail was signed by Kevin Benson, "Director of the BattleCry Campaign."
• Battle Cry 33 Affiliated Partner Churches. As of December 2006, 1077 churches and ministries were listed on the battlecry.com website as partner churches of the Battle Cry Campaign. "33" refers to 33 million American teens.
• Marketing program. Battle Cry was marketed as a brand by Tocquigny, an advertising and marketing agency in Austin, Texas. "Tocquigny will help the organization re-launch its Battle Cry brand with the goal of spreading its message to 31 million teens across America." Teen Mania paid Tocquigny $451,397 for consulting services during the first full year of the Battle Cry Campaign.
• "Christian alternative to Myspace", battlecry.com ("Let MySpace be His space")