Salvaging young lives

It is the week when most American high-school students return to their campuses. The number of 14- to 18-year-olds is surging, and will pass 20 million by 2005. What will they find at their schools this year and the next few years?

Some will find excellence. Washington Post education writer Jay Mathew detailed the workings of the country’s finest public schools in his book “Class Struggle,” and there is a lot that does succeed in some of the nation’s classrooms. But it is impossible to miss the trajectory of youth culture today, and that trajectory is not good. All of those problems – but especially the levels of violence and eroticization of adolescence – seem to collide on high-school campuses. Throw in new and dangerous levels of substance abuse and the life of high-school students is far from ideal.

The vast majority of these young adults survive and prosper. But many are washing out. A handful explode in tragic scenes which we have seen before and will inevitably see again. Even among those who only lose their footing for awhile, the costs of a value-free adolescence can be staggering.

Which is why I work with and financially support Young Life and hope that you will as well. For 60 years this Christian organization has been dedicated to simple concepts: Go where the young people are. Earn their trust. Tell them truths. Be their friends. All kids, but especially the kids who seem way out there on the margins.

It works. I believe it works because the Gospel is true and the power of Christ to change lives is infinite. But even the hardened atheist would have to survey the work of Young Life and conclude that this approach is a powerful antidote to the culture that, at times, seems designed to destroy young people.

I hope you will consider helping Young Life with a contribution.

It is the beginning of the school year, the time when this organization stretches to reach new campuses and new kids by placing full- and part-time youth workers in the schools that will have them, as an assistant coach here, a volunteer janitor there. These workers are typically in their early 20s, highly trained and very professional. The Young Life staff earns the right to be a friend to young people and does not bang bibles over heads or in any way push the well-known limits of the interaction of public schools and private beliefs. I have worked over the years with senior leadership in politics, education and journalism. There is no beating the Young Life team for their commitment to high ethics and quality training. This is part of the reason they can connect with kids. The other part, the largest part, is the Christian compassion they collectively feel for America’s youth.

Young Life befriends and works with all kids, and does not demand conversion or even attention to its Christian principles. The conviction of the organization is never hidden, but neither is it ever an obligation upon a participant. The Young Life leaders have a simple mission: To listen and care for high school students. It deserves your support.

There are lots of ways to give that support.

If you like a little bonus, then send $25 to Young Life; 109 Willow Pond Road; Santee, California. (Note the community. There is a great need there.) That will get you a Hugh Hewitt Virtual Running Club T-Shirt, provided you like white and blue, sizes are large or extra-large, and provided we don’t run out.

If you would like to contribute at a larger level, send a check to Young Life’s Colorado Springs Headquarters. The address is Young Life; P.O. Box 520; Colorado Springs, CO, 80901-0520.

And if you are really motivated, here’s a special challenge. Young Life is opening a new area in Santa Ana, California – a neighborhood that is tough on kids because it is tough, period. It has poverty problems. It has housing and gang problems. It is exactly the sort of place that Christians are called to serve, so Young Life is going there, even though it’s hard to see where the resources are going to be found. They need a six-figure check. I’m sure some of the people reading this can write that check. Please do. Make it out to Young Life and send it care of me at P.O. Box 8674; Brea, CA. Or send me an e-mail via the “Contact” button at my website (HughHewitt.com) and I’ll have the Young Life Regional Director give you a call.

At 45, it’s a bit of a stretch for me to recall high school, but I know for certain that it wasn’t anywhere near the challenge then as it is today. I have discussed the reasons for that change in the past, and will do so again in the future. But this is the week to recognize that a lot of buildings are on fire. We can talk about prevention later, and we can assign blame even later still. This is the time to pick up the bucket and start passing the water forward. That means checks. Hopefully that means your check.

This is an unusual column for WND and I appreciate Joseph Farah’s willingness to run it. There will be awful special bulletins from the nation’s schools again and again. Though we may not know where or how, we can be certain that Young Life has prevented many more such bulletins from being broadcast in the past and will do so again in the future. And that makes your contribution the best investment you could possibly make.