US 'disciple generation' skateboards for Jesus

DALLAS, Oct 9 (Reuters) Forty years after young Americans marched for peace and reveled in sex, drugs and rock n' roll, a new generation is emulating the secular counterculture of the 60s, but for a very different purpose.

Whether they are playing heavy metal music or pulling stunts on skateboards, they are doing it for Jesus, author Lauren Sandler says in a book about a new generation of evangelicals that aims to reshape public policy along Christian lines.

''Members of the sixties New Left could never have dreamed they'd see their own cultural tactics achieving mass outreach on the Christian Right,'' Sandler writes in ''Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement.'' ''Of course, this counterculture is not organised to perpetuate the politics of the sixties,'' Sandler said.

''Feminism, sexual freedom, secular liberalism: all these words are profanity'' to what she calls the 'Disciple Generation.' According to Sandler, this group comprises the 15-35 age bracket, is obsessed with Christ and often displays its devotion in youthful or unorthodox ways.

''I kept seeing these quirky one-off stories like these crazy kids on skateboards and they were being treated as these oddball lifestyle stories. In my reporting I saw an entire youth movement building,'' Sandler told Reuters in an interview.

As a result she went ''on the road'' with young evangelicals and dug into an exuberant subculture that is very different from the movement led by people like 73-year-old televangelist Jerry Falwell but one that shares its political goals.

Those include capturing most if not all levels of government in the United States, running America along Christian lines, outlawing abortion, banning same-sex marriage, bringing prayer to public schools and the Biblical story of Creation to biology class.

Among them is Wil Graham, grandson of the evangelist Billy Graham, who tells Sandler that he hopes to be president of the United States some day, because only a ''Christ-led government'' can reverse America's moral decay.

Religiously-motivated conservatives have become a key base of support for President George W. Bush and the Republican Party.

''I think they (the Disciple Generation) will be an influence on every aspect of our politics down the road,'' Sandler told Reuters in a telephone interview, not least because of their energy and demographic profile.

ROCKERS AND SKATEBOARDS Sandler's book introduces us to Christian rock festivals that draw crowds of 50,000. They are like their sixties counterparts but without the drugs and their message is stridently conservative.

We meet teenaged Christians who comprise the backbone of a nationwide movement of at least 300 ''skateboard ministries'' across the United States, according to Sandler. Teams tour the United States to preach the Bible at skateboard demonstrations -- an effective way to reach troubled teens who respect athletic prowess and showbiz dazzle.

Sandler also explores the ''generation gap'' between father-and-son evangelist teams who often have the same agenda but depart in their methods.

Jay Bakker, the son of disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, preaches to congregants perched ''on folding chairs and bar stools, juggling cocktails, and cigarettes ... the new U2 album plays before the service.'' Ryan Dobson rides a motorcyle and is inked with tatoos -- to the chagrin of his father, James Dobson, the founder of the powerful conservative lobby group Focus on the Family.

''As far as my dad and I see it, we look different and talk different, but that's it,'' says the younger Dobson who is author of a book called ''Be Intolerant.'' The goals between the generations sometimes differ.

Wil Graham's presidential ambitions set him apart from his father Franklin and his grandfather Billy, who has famously ministered to many presidents but always kept a wall between his faith and his politics.

Sandler's own message is unabashedly political -- and the lack of an index suggests her book may have been rushed out before the November 7 elections that will decide which party controls Congress.

''Until secular America strengthens its own front lines by developing strong communities and a culture that uplifts, ...

this (Christian) army will have no viable opponent. It aims to destroy everything that it is not,'' she writes.

''Maintain no illusion: they are wide awake. They are ready.'' Reuters DKA VP0955