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By Jamilah Hoffman
May 12, 2006. Houston City Hall

A group of us decided to go down to City Hall to meet with supporters of Battle Cry, and to engage them on what they believe and what Battle Cry stands for. It was an interesting and harrowing experience.

We casually walked up to their protest and listened with the intent of asking questions and trying to foster a dialogue with these young people. They saw our signs and even remarked that they were surprised that they had protesters. The sign that I held said: The Bible Taken Literally Is A Horror. That drew stares and with their video and digital cameras, they took pictures of us.

We wanted to ask questions about Ron Luce, the leader of this Battle Cry movement. They said that this is not about Ron Luce, or even about Bush, as we had The World Can't Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime posters as well, but about Jesus. Well, we called them out on that point because Ron Luce is leading this thing. He was a Bush appointee. And what they seemed to not get, was that we are not against religion, but against a theocracy.

This brought up such statements from them as we're not into politics, again it's about Jesus. But with the strong ties to politicians, it's hard to deny that fact.

Also, we called them out on their surrender to god, their unchallenged submission to god, authority, as well as the bible; even when it doesn't make sense to them. I know from experience that this can be very detrimental to a person. I brought up hurricane Katrina to one person and that a theocracy in America would be blaming natural disasters on sins and not preventing and holding accountable those who had the power to prevent such things. I saw a flicker of understanding in her about that point.

But whenever we would demand concrete answers to questions about the Old Testament and the violent images thereof, they would talk about the new covenant in Jesus and the New Testament. So we're like, "Oh, so just give up the old testament?" And of course they would say no, it's all important and then we asked them to uphold the infallible word of god, old and new and the conversation would just go around in circles.

One guy I spoke with, who had been "born again" for about four years was very interesting. He thinks Ron Luce is this great guy who footsteps he wants to follow in. He kept telling me that he wanted to, if he could, take his heart and put it in my chest and that way I could see the love that god has for me, or something like that. I had to tell him that I was a "born again" Christian for thirteen years and that all the things he was telling me, I already knew. In fact, I had said them myself and that I wanted to confront reality as it truly is in order to transform it. That's why we were protesting, not religion, but the threat of this country becoming a theocracy. He would say that we're out here protesting Bush, etc, but I made sure to bring it all back to the fact that a theocracy was very possible and that you can have religion, I'm not against that, I am against a theocracy and I was going to make sure I could do everything I could to make sure this country did not go in that direction.

We did engage in a lot of back and forth and I know that we were level headed. We brought Bibles and happened to have people on our side who were/are Christian and actually studied the Bible so that we could confront these youth with the same information that they were going by. But what struck me was the condescending nature of these Battle Cry youth when they couldn't answer our questions, more often when confronted with the hypocrisy of their stance against the violent images on TV with that in the Bible itself and how very violent this war in Iraq is and how do they reconcile all these contradictions. In fact, the young man I spoke with in length gave me an analogy that I will quote in order that someone may be able to tell me what it meant.

Battle Cry Youth: Do you know what happens before a Basketball game?

Me: They huddle?

BCY: No, they practice.

Me: OK.

BCY: They have a ball and you also have a ball, but it is a ball of lies.

Me: Huh?

BCY: And you are shooting that ball of lies, but you're missing the basket. That's the problem.

Me: I don't think I'm carrying a ball of lies.

BCY: If I could give you my heart)

Me: I have a heart, thank you very much.

At first, I didn't want to go and debate these youth and young adults, many my own age about religion and its effect on society and why we must do what we can to make sure a theocracy doesn't happen in this country. After the hour and an half of standing at the steps of Houston City Hall rather peacefully, minus the cop who needed to know everything was cool, (it was), I was so glad I went. I really needed to hear, from these young people themselves, what they were believing and why.

I want people to know that this is just the beginning. They are mobilizing and they are holding on to a belief that they are right, and we are just sent here from satan. Like the call of The World Can't Wait states: 'People ) who believe they're on a "mission from God" will not got without a fight'. We must be equally sure with the moral certainty that what we believe and stand for is right because this administration is moving each day closer to a theocracy and these young people are the ones who will be the foot-soldiers, bringing about a society where there is no critical thought and the Bible will be taken literally. If we don't act now it will be a horror indeed.

A side note: One of our supporters was talking to a woman there who was not totally in lock step with Battle Cry. In fact she agreed with some of the things we were saying in regards to the Bush administration and what it has done here and around the world. She actually asked to pray with that supporter and her prayer, which I will paraphrase thanked God for bringing the protesters here so that she could learn about a different prospective. This woman was very sincere and while this Battle Cry movement is marching ahead, there are people in it who are open minded, willing to listen and to search on their own for the truth of what this administration is doing. We must reach out to those people as well because I gather that a lot of them feel pulled in the direction that Battle Cry is taking them and they need to know that there is an opposition to that trajectory and that they can join us too.

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