THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701290124
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: L6 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: TEENS AT LARGE
SOURCE: BY TREVOR WRIGHT, CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 64 lines
There seems to be a new fad emerging from the depths of Generation X: religion.
Is being a Christian in today's society the ``hip'' thing to do, or are teen-agers truly tuning in to ``the message?'' I was still undecided one Saturday when I was approached in Lynnhaven Mall by a triad of teens - two guys and a girl.
They stopped me by shouting, ``Hey, did you hear?''
I turned around, confused.
``Jesus loves you,'' they chorused.
I was thinking that this must be a joke, but I was curious.
One of the guys, obviously the leader because he did most of the talking, gave me a brief summary of all the hardships he had faced in his life and how he overcame them by discovering Jesus Christ. I began to buy into his story until he reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded $10 bill.
``Here, let me pay for you,'' he said. Meaning he wanted to give me some spending money.
At that precise moment, I lost my trust in them.
That's because, earlier in the evening, I had stumbled upon another folded $10 bill while browsing through the Suncoast Motion Picture Co. video store in the mall. I picked it up, excited, only to discover that it wasn't money but an evangelizing tract with this message: Disappointed? You won't be if you will let Jesus Christ become the lord of your life.
At first glance, the tract looked like an amusing prank to pull on someone, so I kept it with me. But as I thought about it, my hostility grew at the thought that it wasn't really $10.
So when I finally met up with this trio of ``God's messengers,'' I reacted without thinking. ``I already have one of those fake things!'' I shouted to the leader.
He paused and looked at me solemnly. ``Oh, OK. Well, it's just that I've had a hard life and . . .''
I didn't know whether to believe this or not, so I listened to his speech and took the next tract from him. They thanked me and went on their way.
As I walked to the parking lot later that evening, I was overcome with guilt. Even though I'm still a teen-ager myself, I always looked upon my generation as a group of lazy troublemakers. I began to realize that this wasn't true.
There are those out there who really want to make a difference, even if it means spreading God's message in shopping malls. Maybe if I would have kept listening to the group instead of reacting in rage, I would have heard their point and maybe taken in some of their knowledge.
I found out after the group had approached me that I wasn't the only one who thought negatively toward the teens passing out the tracts. The mall security force did, too. They kept posts all night upstairs and down to kick out the group after they caught them running around the food court yelling about God and his message. If there is a lesson to be learned from this story, I suppose it would be that people should start listening to one another and stop judging each other with a stereotypical view.
After all, it's nice that even Generation X can approach others with words of kindness instead of a loaded .22.
Amen. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Trevor Wright is a freshman at Tidewater Community College.