Right now there is this gigantic convention happening in Washington for Christian youth ministers and their young flocks. The subways are stuffed full of white teenagers and their parents. I say that this convention is gigantic because it is larger than any of the ones I've ever seen in Washington. Not only has it taken over the new Washington Convention Center, but also the MCI Arena as well.
My rommmate was bored yesterday, so she decided to infiltrate this event. When I asked her later if she had made it into the exhibition hall, she asked me, "Which one?" It seems that this convention has 3 huge exhibit halls. We're talking lots of slick materials about Jesus aimed at American teenagers.
My roommate, always the social hacker and friendly person, decided to go around and interview some of the teenagers. Part of this was to actually engage them in interviews for a later story, but she was also interested in doing a little subversive meme spreading. She told me about talking to several teenagers who had been homeschooled their entire lives. They were pretty clueless about the real world--they didn't even know what Enron was, for example. My roommate also reports that many of these teens were pretty ignorant of their own religious tradition, including some of the more obscure stories from the Christian bible.
My roommate also reports that the teens she talked to were very open to new ideas and weren't hostile to somebody who talked to them about activism.
Chuck0