Virtue Terrorists vs. the Fascist Mega-Pep Rally

San Francisco was invaded this weekend. From yesterday's Chronicle:

More than 25,000 evangelical Christian youth landed Friday in San Francisco for a two-day rally at AT&T Park against "the virtue terrorism" of popular culture, and they were greeted by an official city condemnation and a clutch of protesters who said their event amounted to a "fascist mega-pep rally."

The organizer of the thing, Ron Luce, is something of a stealth wingnut. He soft-pedals the politics (his website doesn't even mention homosexuality, for example) in a calculated attempt to appeal to suburban audiences. It seems to have worked pretty well with Janine De Fao, who wrote a second, more softball story that ran today:

The teens were greeted Friday at a kick-off rally at City Hall by an official city condemnation and protesters who called them anti-gay, anti-choice and intolerant. Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, suggested they "get out of San Francisco."

While youth did travel from throughout the Western United States for the two-day event, which cost $55, Leno may have been surprised how many live in the Bay Area, and even in the city itself.

No protesters were on hand Saturday, and the vibe was not one of condemnation, but of celebrating the fact that it can be cool to be Christian.

The rest of the story is about nice teens rocking out to good Christian music, with a whole slew of positive quotes from the kids. Gee, isn't that nice?

Make no mistake, though: Luce is cut from the same cloth as Ayatollah Dobson and his ilk. Luce was a featured speaker, for example, at last year's "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" conference, and will be at the upcoming Christian right whine-a-thon (both sponsored by VisionAmerica, one of the most active groups in the fundamentalist-political complex).

And however innocuous the presentation, there was no mistaking the real agenda here:

A Battle Cry invitation to teenagers made plain the symbolism of gathering in San Francisco for a pre-event rally at "the very City Hall steps where several months ago, gay marriages were celebrated for all the world to see."

And then, of course, there's the ubiquitous military imagery:

"Battle Cry for a Generation" is led by a 44-year-old Concord native [he actually lives in Garden Valley, Texas], Ron Luce....Luce wants to unleash a "blitz" of youth pastors into the communities.

"This is more than a spiritual war," Luce said. "It's a culture war."

Military metaphors abound in Luce's descriptions of the struggle. He tells young people of how "an enemy has launched a brutal attack on them." At a pre-Battle Cry rally Friday afternoon on the steps of City Hall, Luce told his mostly teenage audience that "terrorists of a different kind" -- advertisers -- were targeting them and that they were "caught in the middle of the battle."

"Are you ready to go to battle for your generation?" he asked, and the young people roared "yes!" and some waved triangular red flags flown from long, medieval-looking poles.

I'm no expert on war, but as I understand it you kind of have to have an enemy. I'm guessing that's us.

People like Luce are arguably a lot more dangerous than their more obviously wingnutty brethren. A lot of anxious parents (and teens) who wouldn't fall for the explicit bigotry of Dobson could easily get sucked in by Luce's approach to the problems attendant on a morally complicated society. He certainly fooled the Chronicle reporter (I'd be willing to bet they ran the softball piece after getting wingnut complaints about Saturday's more critical article). His ends are the same as Dobson's, though...and we cannot allow ourselves to forget it.

[Cross-posted at If I Ran the Zoo]