Legacy Youth Ministry Resources

Illustration texts

Frost on Believing Something

There are those who believe something, and therefore will tolerate nothing; and on the other hand, those who tolerate everything, because they believe nothing. Robert Browning

Marshall on Falling for Anything

The man who doesn?t stand for something will fall for anything. -- Former US Chaplain, Rev. Peter Marshall

IBM Has Firm Beliefs

"I firmly believe that any organization, in order to survive and achieve success, must have a sound set of beliefs on which it premises all its policies and actions. Next, I believe that the most important single factor in corporate success is faithful adherence to those beliefs. And, finally, I believe if an organization is to meet the challenge of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself except those beliefs as it moves through corporate life.? (Thomas J. Watson, Jr., former Chairman of IBM)

Universities are Turning Out Barbarians

?Universities are turning out highly skilled barbarians because we don?t provide a framework of values to young people who more and more are searching for it.? (Steven Mueller, president of Johns Hopkins University

How Much Fun is it?

Ever notice how much less immoral something seems after we discover how much fun it is? George E. Scherer

Absence of Alternatives

A student who grows up with no religious base has to look at all the options of sex, protected sex, no sex, wait till sex -- as all live options. Having to make your own choices on all matters of morals at young ages is too much weight to bear. That's one reason that having biblical standards makes decision-making so much less complicated. As Henry Kissinger said, "The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously." --Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger

A Hard Heart Breeds a Cold Heart

Don't keep rejecting God. Watch over your heart and your choices. They affect the kind of person you become. Shock rocker Marilyn Manson kept rejecting God, even when he knew he should accept Christ, while he was in Christian School. Instead, he kept hardening his heart. The description of the development of hardened hearts in Romans 1:18-20 parallels Manson's life as described in his autobiography. Each time he came to a fork in the road, he seemed to choose the dark path. When confronted with alcohol and drugs, he took them. When he had the opportunity to have sex, he went for it. When he saw the potential of power through black magic, he was positively intrigued. When his parents fought fell short of perfection, he grew bitter towards them. Eventually, his heart seemed to be almost devoid of compassion. Although his parents were not perfect, like his dad telling him repeatedly that he wouldn't amount to anything and threatening to kick him out of the house, they also showed signs of love. His dad took him to hear his favorite band. His parents took money they had saved for a weekend getaway and instead bought him a set of professional racing skates for over $400.00. He admits that his mom spoiled him. But he was ungrateful, suspected that his mom had been cheating on his dad, and abused her. Marilyn Manson admits that he "hit her, spit on her and tried to choke her. She never retaliated. She just cried, and I never felt sorry for her." (Italics mine) When the family decided to move, he "was bitter and angry -- not just at my parents, but at the world." His life became a series of one dark, selfish decision after another. Extremely conceited, other people are looked upon as dumb, beneath him. He stole, ingested drugs, and used people. Watch your heart and your decisions. You can either forgive and make compassionate choices, taking you down one road of life, or hold onto unforgiveness and bitterness, becoming a totally selfish person. His motivation to become a performer? "?I wanted to be the loudest, most persistent alarm clock I could be, because there didn't seem like any other way to snap society out of its Christianity- and media-induced coma." He took his stage name from sex symbol Marilyn Monroe and convicted murder instigator Charles Manson. Marilyn Manson identified with him and saw him as a "gifted philosopher, more powerful intellectually than those who condemned him." Shortly later he admitted, "By now, I had begun to feel removed from the everyday world of morality. Guilt had become more a fear of getting caught than any sense of right or wrong." With no God and no sense of right and wrong, even murder can be justified. In Manson's own words, "My respect for human life had long since dulled." He witnessed a head-on collision and was approached by a woman who was severely injured and distraught. She walked up to him and said, "Please, somebody hold me." Again, in his own words, "I could see the humanity and desperation well up in her brown eyes. She just wanted some kind of physical, nurturing contact as she died. But I kept walking. I wasn't part of it and didn't want to be part of it." He hated a girl named Nancy, and decided to try to kill her. Here's how he justified his attitude: "With Nancy, while I didn't think it was right to take a human life, I didn't think it was right to deny myself the chance of causing someone to die either, especially someone whose existence meant so little to the world and to herself." (p. 111) A couple of police cars drove by and scared him before he could carry out the murder. Shortly thereafter, Manson reflected that he had only "one weak spot still left in my cold black heart: pity, a word that over the course of the arduous year to come would be excised from my vocabulary." After considering letting a fellow band member die in his own vomit, Manson said, "I was becoming the cold, emotionally crippled monster I always wanted to be, and I wasn't so sure I liked it. But it was too late." (p. 126) (Written by Steve Miller, Copyright April 25, 2002. Source: Marilyn Manson in his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, Regan Books, 1998, pp. 20, 26, 46-48, 64, 80, 87, 96, 111, 112-114, 118, 125, 194, 197, 198)

Marilyn Manson on Satanism

Marilyn Manson admired and respected Anton LaVey, founder and high priest of the Church of Satan, meeting with him personally whenever he summoned. He considered LaVey sort of a father figure. LaVey believed that "a louse has more right to live than a human," that "natural disasters are good for humanity," and that "the concept of equality is horseshi?." According to Manson: "The devil doesn't exist. Satanism is about worshipping yourself, because you are responsible for your own good and evil. Christianity's war against the devil has always been a fight against man's most natural instincts -- for sex, for violence, for self-gratification -- and a denial of man's membership in the animal kingdom." Think through the implications of what Manson's saying. If we're simply a member of the animal kingdom, not special in God's image, and if we worship ourselves, then there is no objective right and wrong. If I someone bothers me and I think that the world would be better without him, then it's very appropriate to gratify my animal instinct to kill that person. This is where a philosophy of no absolutes can lead. (Written by Steve Miller, Copyright April 25, 2002. Source: Marilyn Manson in his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, Regan Books, 1998, pp. 164,165,170, 176.)

Going the Wrong Way

As a senior citizen was driving down the freeway, his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, "Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on I-75. Please be careful!" "Hell," said Herman, "It's not just one car... It's HUNDREDS of them!"

Adultery is Still One of Them

Some people think they can bargain with God. Like, "Hey, if You'll let me do this one sin, I'll serve you forever." It's kind of like the story of when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with 10 Commandments. He told people of Israel : "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that I got the commandments down to 10. The bad news if that adultery if still one of them." (From file of Barry St. Clair)

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