A Legacy of Columbine: Teenagers Turn to God
This was published in the fall of 1999 in the Yale Standard.
In his account of the Great Awakening, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, Jonathan Edwards wrote, “At the latter end of the year 1733, there appeared a very unusual flexibleness, and yielding to advice, in our young people.” In the wake of the tragic shootings at Columbine High School on April 20, there seems again to be an unusual flexibleness among young people in this nation.
From Redmond, Washington, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, teenagers are turning out by the thousands at youth rallies with themes such as “What are you standing for?” and “Yes, I believe in God.”1,2 Prayer, worship, Christian rock music, student testimonies, and calls to a deeper faith in Jesus Christ have been the order of the day. Inspired by the example of Cassie Bernall, the 17-year-old Columbine student who was asked at gunpoint if she believed in God and shot after she replied in the affirmative, these young people have taken up her last words as their rally cry.
“The Cassie story has become huge among kids,” Chris Henry, a youth pastor at Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church in Evanston, Illinois, told the Chicago Sun-Times.3 “If there’s anything positive to come out of the Columbine shooting, it’s been that it’s gotten people to talk more about spirituality and discuss some difficult questions.” The paper reports a “spiritual surge” among Chicago teenagers who are forming Bible study groups, meeting to pray before school, and talking about Christianity in pizza parlors.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Alan Mather, who leads a local youth prayer ministry, compares recent stirrings to the Jesus Movement he was involved in during the 1970’s: “We’re getting ready to enter into a spiritual awakening in America. You usually see it in the youth first….The passion and fire is found in the youth.”4
“Teenagers will respond to the presence of God. They will not respond to religion.”
He witnessed several examples of this boldness following the events in Colorado last spring, which galvanized the Tulsa students into action. At Sapulpa High School, several students, including a young man who was formerly the “biggest drug dealer” at school, stood up on tables in the cafeteria and shared about their faith in God. The entire room of students subsequently held hands and prayed a prayer of repentance.
Another young lady, broken-hearted over the drugs, alcohol, and violence at Sapulpa Junior High School, invited people to accept Christ during a school talent show. Nearly the entire student body responded. “Tears were pouring down my cheeks,” recalls 15-year-old Stephanie Hager. “Parents and grandparents were crying.”5 Notes Mather, “Teenagers will respond to the presence of God. They will not respond to religion.”
The youth in Littleton are not sitting back and waiting to hear about these stirrings in other parts of the nation. Revival Generation, the only entirely student-run ministry in the U.S., has as its mission “to ignite the fire of revival by uniting teens through a giant outpouring of prayer and praise, led by students, driven by the Holy Spirit.”6 Based in Littleton, Colorado, the organization was started two years ago by Joel Newton, a high school student with a desire to help other Colorado students take advantage of a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that granted religious clubs the same access to public school facilities as other private groups.7 By last spring the group had succeeded in helping start over 350 prayer clubs in Colorado and other states.
The pace has accelerated since the shooting, attracting the attention of the national media.8 During the summer, the group participated in youth rallies in 28 states,9 including one in South Carolina in mid-August, which drew 6,000-8,000 young people. The response to the invitation to Christ was so overwhelming that members of the Revival Generation team jumped into the crowd to assist the counselors. “It was like seeing a Billy Graham crusade,” said 16-year-old Olivia Perry-Smith of Revival Generation. “So many people were rededicating themselves or accepting Christ.”10
Not only is Littleton going out to the rest of the nation, but the nation is coming to Littleton, according to Claudia Porter, whose husband Bruce is pastor of Celebration Christian Fellowship.11 The couple organized the “Columbine Torchgrab Rally,” which was held on August 6 and 7. At the rally, 1,000 student delegates from 30 states were challenged to “become living martyrs” and take up the torch dropped by Cassie Bernall and by Rachel Scott, another high-profile Christian student from Columbine, at whose funeral Pastor Porter had officiated.12 The teenagers were called both to be “aggressively compassionate” to the potential Eric Harrises and Dylan Klebolds around them, and to be “set apart to God’s values…so different from the world that people don’t have to read our T-shirts to know we’re Christians.”
A similar call to holiness was heard at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, during Teen Mania Ministries’ first annual meeting. Three days after the Columbine shooting, the 73,000 young people at the convention committed to stand up for standards no longer upheld by the nation.13
From Littleton, Colorado, Perry-Smith offered this explanation: “God has totally turned the situation around for Him. Cassie [Bernall]’s parents say that more people came to know Christ through her death than they ever would’ve if she were still alive.”14 Her story is about to be revived: She Said Yes: the Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall, Misty Bernall’s book about her daughter, is scheduled for release on September 10.15
Ultimately, Cassie Bernall’s own life illustrates the best hope there is for the young people of this nation. Two years ago, she was dabbling in drugs, witchcraft, and suicidal thoughts and writing hateful letters to her parents. “She said she wanted to kill them,” recounts Pastor George Kirsten of West Bowles Community Church, which the Bernalls attend.16 “She was going down the road to Dylan and Eric.” Then over a weekend youth retreat she gave her life to Jesus. “She left an angry, vengeful, bitter young girl, and came back brand-new,” said Pastor Kirsten.
While their elders continue to debate over gun control, separation of church and state, and the prevention of hate crimes, teenagers in Littleton and beyond have been finding their own answers both for themselves and for this country—in Jesus Christ. Baby-boomers rejected God and Gen-Xers are indifferent to Him, explains Perry-Smith. “We’re accepting the faith that our parents rejected.” Citing similar movements in England and Canada, she asserts, “God has chosen this generation to be the revival generation…God has chosen this generation to be the one to begin a turnaround in this nation.”
Helen L. Kwon, Davenport ’96
1 Marc Ramirez , “Faith takes a stand—in the wake of Columbine, Redmond High students rally around their strength: a relationship with God,” The Seattle Times, May 21, 1999, p. E1.
2 Deborah Sharp, “17-year-old’s last words inspire other Christians,” USA Today, June 1, 1999, p. 3A.
3 Susan Dodge, “Spirituality is surging in schools,” Chicago Sun-Times, June 10,1999, p. 5.
4 Telephone interview, August 17, 1999
5 Telephone interview, August 19, 1999
6 http://www.revivalgen.org
7 Jean Torkelson, “It’s a God thing’: Running on pizza and prayer, teens spread their message in schools” Denver Rocky Mountain News, July 4, 1999, p. 38A.
8 See June 14, 1999, issue of Newsweek. Time and the Oprah Winfrey Show also called the group.
9 K. L. Woodward, with S. Keene-Osborn and C.Kirk, “The making of a martyr,” Newsweek, 6/14/99, p. 64.
10 Telephone interview, August 17,1999
11 Telephone interview, August 12,1999
12 Jennifer Chergo, “Victim’s legacy grows at youth rally,” The Denver Post, August 8, 1999, p. B-01.
13 Jean Torkelson, “Teens will pray for victims, survivors at rallies,” Denver Rocky Mountain News, April 23, 1999, p. 23A.
14 Telephone interview, August 10, 1999
15 Lisa Miller, “Marketing a martyr: Bernall’s story a book,” The Denver Post, 7/17/99, p. B-03. Proceeds to go to a foundation set up in Cassie Bernall’s name.
16 Dave Cullen, “From solace to ‘Satan’: Do Columbine-area evangelists soothe or fuel kids’ alienation?” The Denver Post, May 30, 1999, p. G-01.