Teen Mania Founder Calls 'Book of Daniel' Series 'Virtue Terrorism'
A national voice on teenaged youth slammed NBC’s new series about an Episcopal priest and his dysfunctional family, calling on parents to watch over their children’s intake of television and not let media raise them.
Ron Luce, the founder and president of Teen Mania Ministries, called the glamorization of sin in shows such as NBC’s “The Book of Daniel” and their effect on the nation's children "virtue terrorism." NBC’s newest series, which aired Friday despite the harsh criticism from both the Christian and mainstream arena and the refusal of three affiliate networks to air the program, showcases an Episcopalian priest who has a homosexual son, a drug-dealing daughter, a skirt-chasing adopted son, and an alcoholic wife.
"It's virtue terrorism and it is having a dangerously dramatic effect on our children,” said Luce, whose Christian youth organization reaches millions of young people worldwide. “Just look at the explosion of illicit sexuality our kids are exposed to through TV shows and media like Desperate Housewives, Sex in the City, and MTV videos."
Numerous studies document adolescents’ susceptibility to the media’s influence on their attitudes, values and beliefs. In one poll of teenagers, 60 percent of the males and 40 percent of the females reported wanting to try out some of the behaviors they had witnessed. And 31 percent of males and 18 percent of the females admitted doing some of the things viewed. The RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, has documented that kids who watch regular sitcoms are twice as likely to have sex.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the parallels between the increasingly offensive 'entertainment' in America and the increasingly shocking behavior of our young people," said Luce. "There's scientific proof that media is shaping these kids, but they still don’t take any responsibility for it.”
"As long as they can make a living out of it, they will feel justified," he added.
Luce charges that the new NBC series is propagating morally corrupt values for the sake of making a few bucks.
"For the sake of controversy and making a little bit of money they don’t care what they're teaching to kids,” he said. "The media doesn’t take any responsibility. They say it's the parents' responsibility. They say it's freedom of speech, and they excuse anything they want to put on there as long as it makes money.”
Luce said what is even worse is that the show is being billed as representative of a "real" Christian family.
"They label it 'The Book of Daniel,' and you feel like, 'Oh, this is gonna be a Christian, Bible-centered thing, and it's really not," he said.
"They're not doing any favors to the majority of Christians, who are going to church and trying to raise their kids right," he added.
If anything, shows such as “The Book of Daniel” are making it more difficult for parents to raise their children correctly.
"We have parents totally shocked,” the Teen Mania president stated.
“They think they raised their kids in church, as good Christians, but these kids watch TV and go on the Internet. They get drunk, go to parties, and get pregnant," he said.
"Did you really raise them, or did the media raise them?” Luce asked. “They sat in your house, but they were kidnapped by the TV and brainwashed right under your own nose, and you don’t even realize it."
Before working with over 12 million teens for the past 16 years in more than 50 countries, Luce was a self-described “16-year-old party animal” who ran away at the age of 15 and became addicted to drugs and alcohol. But a life-changing experience with Christianity prompted Ron to dedicate his life’s work to reaching kids and pulling them out of the same circumstances from which he came. His latest book, "Battle for a Generation," highlights the destructive impact of negative media on millions of the nation's youth.
“Today’s teens make up the largest generation of teenagers in U.S. history," Luce said in a statement. "The worldview they adopt today will greatly influence the future of this country. An enemy has launched a brutal attack on them. It’s not in the Middle East, and terrorists are not the threat. But millions of our teens are at risk.”
According to statistics released by the Kaiser Family last year, some four million teens contract a sexually transmitted disease each year and 20 percent of girls and 30 percent of boys have already had sexual intercourse by the time they're 15. By the time they reach 17, more than half have had intercourse.
