All language subtitles for Shiny.Happy.People.S02E01.720p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta[EZTVx.to].en

-Right here?
-Okay.

-There we go.
-Okay, good.

Perfect. Okay.

So this is the response to season
one from Jim Bob and Michelle.

"The recent documentary
that talks about our family is sad."

Michelle and Jim Bob
Duggar are coming out swinging,

after a bombshell documentary claims
to expose their family secrets.

"In it, we see the media
and those with ill intentions"

hurting people we
love." Wow.

"This documentary
paints so much and so many

in a derogatory and
sensationalized way."

It was such a victory for
victims of religious abuse.

It's very accurate.

I feel like it was
very validating for me.

"We have always
believed that the best chance

to repair damaged relationships
or reconcile differences

is through love in
a private setting."

Oh, he ticks me off.

He just does. I just...

Oh, man. I want to tell
him what's up so bad.

What a ride it's been.

It's like season one was a holy hey-do.

Let's talk about the
most shocking revelations

from the Duggar families'
new docu-series on Prime.

Messy, y'all check this out,
so we can talk about it.

I am not okay.

Oh, my word. Social
media just exploded.

All of these people that were
not in the IBLP craziness

could relate in some way.

I need you to understand
that this is the tip of the iceberg.

This is literally
just the beginning.

So many stories of just
really crazy belief systems.

And it's not about church.
It's not about religion.

Coming up with "new rules". It's not
necessarily biblical or from God.

-It's just man-made-up bullcrap.
-Crap.

It is.

And even when they say, you
know, "In the name of Jesus,"

it's not always that way.

All right, y'all.
Shiny Happy People, season two.

Here we go.

Here we go.

When I got a text saying
that this show was happening,

the first thing I wrote back was,
"I knew this day would come."

Do you ever have a memory that
you know other evangelicals

and ex-vangelicals share?

This is literally all of
my Teen Mania baggage.

There was this ministry
called "Teen Mania".

-Teen Mania.
-Teen Mania.

Teen Mania Ministries.

Did you ever
hear about Teen Mania?

It was so crazy and so weird.

They were told that they were
going to this big concert.

And it's a really great place to
just like meet other Christians.

That's exactly
what we were told.

-Did you go?
-Because I went to one.

Oh, okay.

How do you know you're
in a cult if that's your normal?

I mean, you don't.

Until someone comes
along and...

"That's not good."

-Yeah.
-"This is a cult."

Teen Mania was the biggest Christian
youth organization in America.

And the founder, Ron
Luce, he's the ringmaster.

This is God. This is an
encounter with the son of God.

"Do you love God,
or do you love God?"

There was three main
branches of Teen Mania.

Acquire the Fire.

It was like Coachella for youth groups.

Music's playing. Lights
are going. Fire shooting off.

This was kids producing
stadium shows.

There was the Global
Expeditions mission trips.

Don't you want to go around the
world and save people for Jesus?

They also ran the Honor Academy,
which was a Christian boot camp.

You were the Marines
of this movement.

There was a lot of
acceptance there.

That's who I wanted to be
with. Those were my people.

We believed we were
changing the world.

But then... it gets weird.

You're about to undertake
the most intense training

I know of in the body of Christ.

Look at you guys, you
look great! You're an army!

Nobody ever tells you,

"Hey, don't get in any coffins
while you're still alive."

Sleep deprivation, food
deprivation, verbal abuse,

refusal of medical
treatment, rolling in vomit.

They opened me up nine
inches. I was days from dying.

Then he says, "You bare on your
body the marks of a world changer."

Jesus said we'd be persecuted,
but not by his own people.

It was a scam with increasingly
disgusting motives.

You were not only a child of God, you
were also part of a political project.

We must either fight
or become slaves.

What if we said we want our voice to be
heard instead of your voice to be heard?

This was fascism in front
of me on a massive scale.

Teen Mania was part
of a broad movement

created by big, heavy political
players to blow up the order as it is.

This is the generation that
was raised to seize power.

-Welcome to the end of democracy.
-We own the country, not them.

Their long term plan is
to amend the Constitution.

I don't think our country
could survive that.

This is a war. Which
side are you on?

They have to be stopped.

Start me with the easy ones while I'm
a little nervous, I can ease into it.

Oh, it's all
going to be pretty easy.

Easier than taking the
cult down.

Yeah.

I grew up
around Tampa, Florida.

I mean, for me, I loved Florida
because I liked the warm weather.

And I liked swimming, and
I liked going to the beach.

My dad died when I was 11.

I'm an only child, so I
grew up just me and my mom.

My main source of
community was my church.

I was at church six days a
week. Seven, if I could be.

I even read the whole Bible cover
to cover in a year when I was 15.

Youth group was a must.

Every Wednesday, Sunday after
church, we'd always hang out.

Those were my friends.

Youth group
started at age 13.

But if you were
emotionally ready, 12.

I was. My
parents were pastors.

My nickname was Rev, because
they wanted me to be a pastor.

So they would call me, "Hey,
Rev, how are you doing?"

You had to be involved in some type
of ministry aspect of the church,

whether it be choir, drama.

My first ministry was dance,

and dance became such a
place of expression for me.

It was like a physical representation
of what I was feeling on the inside.

Those are special times
because we were all...

connected.

We were evangelical millennial
kids, so we were the good kids.

I always grew up feeling like Hollywood
did not understand Christianity.

Whenever I would see it
in a movie, I was like,

"This is like a bad caricature, and
it has none of the positive spirit."

It feels like mocking,

or it just feels like this person has
never met a real Christian before.

Hey, dig this.

♪ God said to Noah,
"There's gonna be a floody, floody" ♪

Wow. Very much that.

And it's the nineties.
We're flooded with culture.

I dare you to impeach me.

With consumer culture,
cartoons, magazines, movies.

Like, it was wild.

Right here,
we have 50 single women.

Right here, we have 50 single
guys, on MTV's Singled Out.

Hello, Stephon, my name is
Sonya, and I want to get on ya.

There is a real
sense of like being assaulted

by these secular
ideas in the media.

This was the height of MTV.

Pop culture was promoting
sexual promiscuity

and other ideas
that were ungodly.

Secular culture was kind of
a gateway where, you know,

if you just crack your door
open a little bit to the devil,

then he can just barge right in.

Growing up, I listened
to mostly Christian radio.

We also listened to some NPR.

I heard it referred to once
as National Perverted Radio.

I grew up listening to James
Dobson. He's a psychologist.

He had a radio show called
"Focus on the Family",

that was mostly about how to have a
happy family, how to raise your children,

all from an evangelical
point of view.

He is the reason that
many, many evangelical kids

were subjected to
corporal punishment.

-There's a whole generation...
-Yeah.

...that would like to catch
me in a blind alley.

Dobson went on to become
much more politically active.

I remember growing up, hearing
about how we needed to pray

that God would restore
America's Christian character.

Family people who are
just ordinary folks.

They're especially
worried about a culture

that is at war with
what they believe.

Hollywood, the rock music
industry, television, and so on.

It came from a sincere
concern that the culture was corrupt.

There was a lot of discussion
of spiritual warfare

and of having to fight
a battle against evil.

It was what drove
us in so many ways

to try to infuse Christianity
into the larger culture.

We were trying to save the world, not
just ourselves, but the whole world.

If the world is
liking this style of music,

then we need to be giving that
style of music as an alternative,

but with like a secret
Jesus message.

♪ Tell me
who's in the house ♪

♪ JC ♪

We're calling Jesus
"JC"! That's so cool.

♪ He was born
to a virgin named Mary ♪

♪ On Christmas Day, he bled
And he did die on the cross ♪

Why do I remember that?
I don't know.

But I thought I was cool because I
was like, "I'm rapping like Carman."

It was very much,

"Let's create the Christian corollary,
and then maybe we can beat MTV."

We ain't nothing but a
bunch of Jesus freaks!

♪ What will people think when they
hear that I'm a Jesus freak? ♪

I was like, "Yeah, Christian
Rock, is it." Awesome.

I think I was too young.

I was a spiritual
world-changer warrior.

-You were just a kid.
-Little kid.

-That's why you're so mean to me.
-That's why we didn't get along.

Our sibling rivalry
was intensely religous.

♪ I dreamed I went to heaven ♪

♪ You were there with me ♪

Our dad is Ray Boltz, who
is a Christian singer.

His music was often labeled as
like inspirational Christian music.

♪ Thank you for
giving to the Lord ♪

He became like a
evangelical celebrity.

We had our own little
celebrity ecosystem

that was so much better than
the the ungodly world out there.

I've been writing about varieties of
religious expression for about 25 years.

At the time, I was writing
for Rolling Stone magazine.

I had been working
on a long project

about these very elite, political,
Christian conservatives,

and I'm calling them "political"
because that was their priority,

more than religious.

By the nineties, close to one in four
Americans were white evangelicals.

It was a huge voting block.

And evangelical leaders have been
very effective in mobilizing voters.

9 million new voters were
motivated in 1994 to come out,

and they gave power
to the Republicans.

We were angry about the
direction of the country.

And it felt like
an exciting time.

But the promises of those
politicians didn't come true.

The Republican
Party made promises.

It ran essentially on a pro-family,
pro-life, pro-moral agenda.

That's what they talked
about. Then to get in office,

and then deal with none of the issues
that they had promised is, is a betrayal.

That's the big political
turn. A wrong was done.

I'm going to fight harder for
this, and we will win in the end.

I believe I'm not the only one
that will say enough is enough.

But I believe millions of
other people will also.

James Dobson
brought together

other politically-minded
religious right leaders.

They had this idea
of retaking America.

They're thinking, "How do we build
not just to elect somebody right now,

but how do we do
the long program?"

It's time to take
this up a notch.

Basic idea is how we pursue this
on many, many different fronts.

Part of the mission was
to train up a generation

that would restore the world and
the nation back to godliness.

We need to take America back
to being a Christian nation.

They were hungry for youth.

You needed someone who could
reach that army of kids.

How do you win a culture war? By
building a culture that will wage it.

And that's what Ron begins.

Hello! Sir,
please, I'm in a real hurry.

What does it mean to love God
with all your heart? Any idea?

It's to dedicate your
whole life to God.

Well, I got to get back.

Who are you?

Hi, I'm Ron Luce.

Hi, I'm Ron Luce.
Hi, I'm Ron Luce.

Ron Luce is a very
passionate person.

It was great to see young people
stand up and do something for God.

An insanely intense person.

-We need a revolution.
-Ron was on fire.

Ron was almost like a
godlike, mythic figure.

-He was on the...
-Fire by Nite.

Fire by Nite was like MTV
on your Christian TV station.

Rock bands, guests, and Ron
Luce was like a guest host.

He gets a segment
called "What's Hot".

He's a Christian
culture taste maker.

According to Rolling Stone magazine,
Striper, the heavy metal Christian group,

is now openly
drinking and smoking.

We're reporting all this so
that you can really check out.

If they were Christians, are they still?
And what kind of message is coming across?

He was a household name
in my house growing up.

He had a great mullet
that just would move.

He would shake, like,
oh... "I got to tell you."

I must go up to throw him down. I'm
gonna rip him up and tear him down.

And chew him up and shove him down
and mess him up and mow him down.

I mean, it was very,
very, very exciting.

We were smitten.

He laid out the path to go.

"Yeah, it's okay for you
to be crazy for Jesus!"

I live for God! And
I won't back down!

He is very focused on God, but
also very like, "We need God."

"You need to get
serious about your faith!"

Everything is so intense,
and God is...

I had never seen
anything like that.

He felt natural and
real. He's angry youth.

See if we can find any young people that
can tell us who they think Jesus is.

I think Ron's genius was as a
media strategist, a showman.

-Hey, how y'all doing tonight?
-I'm doing good.

Who do you think?
Who's Jesus Christ?

-Who is he?
-He's my savior.

I'm into God and stuff. Yeah.

I don't really know what
I consider Jesus Christ.

I'm really not all into that.

There are thousands and thousands
of teenagers and young people

that have had their life

radically transformed,
changed from dark to light.

MTV is the poisoning
of America's minds.

It's poison. It gets in your brain,
gets in your ears, and it's like cancer.

It begins to tear at your
heart. Tear at your self-esteem.

Make you walk away from God, make
you think he's not even real.

-Ron hated MTV.
-Hated MTV.

He's talking about
how bad MTV is.

And I'm like, "Yeah,
it must be really bad."

We petitioned our parents,
like, "We want to block MTV."

We said, "Mom, we
can't have this on our TV."

We need to make a stand,

and we need to make a stand against
the cable company that's including it.

-And so...
-There's a boycott.

God's looking
for young people.

Stand strong in your high school on
Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday.

It is possible.

He and his wife, Katie,
decided that they were going

to begin their own venture
called Teen Mania Ministries.

With me today, I have Ron
Luce of Teen Mania Ministries.

-Hi, Ron.
-Hi.

I had to look here to
get the name right.

For people who aren't familiar
with Teen Mania Ministries,

tell us a little bit
about what that's about.

Well, Teen Mania, we take teenagers on
summer mission trips all over the world.

Last summer, we took like 1100 wild,
turned on, radical teenagers...

At the beginning, Teen Mania's goal
was to get teenagers on mission trips,

go out into the world and tell
all these unreached people

about the good news of Christ.

Actually, we're gonna take the
gospel to the highways and byways

where people from all kinds of
different walks of life come.

Ron's belief was that
once every nation had a chance

to accept Jesus into their hearts,
that Jesus would come back.

So by sending everyone on these mission
trips, he was speeding up that return.

We're on a boat, and we're
sailing all over the Black Sea

with a bunch of wild Teen
Maniacs on their free day.

You guys having a great
time here or what?

Our very first summer, we
took 60 kids to Guatemala.

I'm right here in Mexico.

We got teenagers witnessing
Tarok worshiping Buddhists

and winning them to the
Lord. It's great, Blaine.

Ron, I know...

I would want to remind those of you
interested in going with us this summer,

Fire by Nite, Teen Mania
summer missions trip.

You better get your
application in right away.

They would travel from state to
state, youth group to youth group.

There would be a fire and brimstone
message geared to teenagers,

geared to that MTV generation.

Then they would ask people to come
on mission trips during the summer.

Even when he's on a small stage,
he understands that each youth pastor

is a building block for the bigger
stage he's going to move on to.

God's looking for a
young generation that'll see

through the games that the world
tries to shove down your throat.

We're talking about
a new generation

that just doesn't try to
get away with stuff anymore.

He understood
how to capture the youth

because the wounds of
his youth lived with him.

I can't remember one
good memory as a child.

I mean, it was pretty bad. My parents
were divorced when I was seven,

and I lived with my mom
for most of my life.

There was abuse
going on in the home,

and sometimes I went to school with
bruises and that kind of thing.

He grew up rough.

At 15, he ran away to find the
father who had abandoned his family.

And there's this idea, "If I can
just find this good father..."

It's the very first
night I'm with my dad,

he says, "Now, son, if you're
going to try any of that pot stuff,

you should be sure and bring it
home, so we can all try it together."

And so I brought it home, and
we all smoked it together.

And my life got worse until a friend
of mine invited me to go to church.

He describes this packed out
little church, filled with energy.

He encounters, as he says
it, the angry Christ.

He's excited.

He comes back, he tells his friends,
"They've been lying about Jesus."

He's not a sissy. He's
found this manly man.

I came back the next week and
totally committed my life to the Lord

and walked away from all the worldliness
and just got on fire for God.

He's making himself a soldier of
Christ, until he comes home one day.

And as he tells it, all
his things, his barbells,

his car magazines,
are out on the street.

And his stepmother has
given his dad an ultimatum.

She says, "I don't want
a Jesus freak around."

If you're feeling
broken and lonely,

maybe you've run away from
home, and you feel all alone.

If your family's falling apart,

you feel like your parents
don't give a rip about you.

He's telling this
story of being rejected

by both his mother
and his father.

I want you to know something,
that God loves you.

The Bible says that in your
mother's womb, he created you.

He knit you together.

The family he finds for him
is the one that he built,

ultimately of his own followers.

I was so proud of so many
of you who committed to destroy

all of your secular music.

You got to lose some of your friends
that are causing you to be lukewarm.

It's time for war, no more
Mr. Nice Guy. It's time for war.

It's time to fight and win
the war for the souls of man.

It grew very quickly to larger
churches, and then into stadiums.

Teen Mania was really a bridge at
a critical moment in American life.

He was trying to build what he
described as this army of God,

this core of young folks
who were extra committed.

They were, in his
vernacular, soldiers for God.

They say, "Man, it was those
young people of the nineties.

They did it, man. The gospel to the
ends of the earth. They did it."

They then branded that
experience and said,

"Oh, this isn't just
Ron Luce coming to speak

at your youth group
as a guest speaker.

This is now an event that we will
invite multiple youth groups to.

We will come to your town. It
is a tour, it is an event."

And then it becomes
Acquire the Fire.

I remember being at my
youth pastor's house,

and him pulling out a VHS
tape, putting it in and saying,

"Let's watch this."

And it was an Acquire the
Fire promotional video.

Y'all need to give
it everything today.

Welcome to Acquire the Fire!

The Acquire the Fire is not just
a bunch of singing and preaching.

We got bombs and video clips and...

We got music, a live
band, live sketches.

It's like a 21st century
presentation of the gospel.

This is like a Christian atomic
explosion with teenagers.

I didn't really
know what to expect.

Everyone who talked about it,
everyone who'd been to it,

was excited to go back.

I think I was 12, the first
Acquire the Fire that I went to.

These went
on all over America.

I believe there was about
60 of them per year.

I think I went to my first
Acquire the Fire when I was 11.

I went to a lot of Acquire
the Fires as a kid.

It was like the thing to
do with your youth group.

You're going to see these cool bands
that you've never heard before.

You're just immersed in music.

I'm a professional musician,
probably because I went.

Loved all of it.

My first year, we had seats
in the very front row.

Friday night was this...

Ten, nine, eight...

The lights went down.
There was this dramatic music.

Remember, some Acquire the Fires,
he would show up on a motorcycle.

-Yeah, that was cool.
-He's going to make an entrance.

Ron Luce came on stage, and he
said something to the effect of,

"Are you ready to rock
your face off for Jesus?"

Acquire the Fire is like
Coachella for youth groups.

-Oh, man.
-Christian youth groups.

I remember the Newsboys played.

Audio Adrenaline, Five Iron Frenzy,
all the big Christian bands.

The music was such a big part
of it because the music inspires emotion.

I mean, you see people in the
Taylor Swift concert sobbing.

That is the same feeling
we had all the time,

singing to actual God.

I loved the dancing and the screaming.
Everyone's shouting together.

Music's playing, lights are going,
there's been fire shooting off.

It was so much different than regular
church or any other teen event

that I'd gone to before, that
was very corny and cheesy.

This was not hokey at all.

The other thing
that's making it fun

is that there really were kids
producing these events. Stadium shows.

I mean, every role that you can think
of was being filled by teenagers.

An army of interns.

They were performing, setting
up, tearing down, selling merchandise,

connecting with
the youth pastors.

Pyrotechnics were the responsibility
of an 18-year-old kid, which is wild.

Basically, I turn some keys and flip
the switches, and it all blows up.

They were highly trained,
of course.

Interns were the coolest people.

They've got the headsets.
If you're 13 years old,

that's certified,
that's official.

Interns, you
guys are awesome.

-Hey, interns!
-Thank you, all you interns.

I don't know you guys,
obviously, but I love you all.

I'm interning next year
with you. With you!

It's an old cliche to say that
rock and roll is like a religion,

but what it is,
is a mass ritual.

But this is better
than a concert

because he's giving you the
full range of experience.

You know, a stadium
full of teenagers.

The air is thick with pheromones,
and so many things are happening.

We can feel all these emotions.

It's such a visceral experience.

You get goosebumps or chills, and
you think that's the Holy Spirit.

Ron Luce's preaching was
very dynamic and exciting.

This morning, I'm going to ask
you to do something very courageous.

It's time to have a passion and a fervor
that is so deep seated in your heart.

God, I love you, and
nothing will shake me.

I hate what's evil.
I hate what's wrong.

He's looking for
an army, people.

You just knew that weekend, your
heart was gonna beat faster,

the excitement was there.

I was always looking forward to it because
of that energy that he always brought.

That's my commitment to
you, and when you do that...

Ron Luce gave me permission
to be passionate.

And we'll just get to
where it's just insane.

We'll get to where we're just
so full of God, it's insane.

My heart is so
full of God that...

Thank you for everything you do.

I'm proud of you.

It was the same kind of star
struck feeling you get for a celebrity.

-Yeah.
-Just, oh, my gosh.

I'm in the same presence as this
person that everyone thinks is cool.

Everyone thinks is important.

After my first Acquire the Fire,

I have a distinct memory of laying
on the floor in my cousin's bedroom,

and I am telling her my
whole life is changed.

"It's not just hype."

That was what they always
said. It's not just hype.

And I found a place where I felt
like they understood the fact that...

I cared deeply about...

...saving the world,

and they were saying, "Yes,
we can help you do that."

And you can have
this deep meaning.

I think that was the thing that
Acquire the Fire really did well,

was it always
inspired teenagers.

It gave a sense of purpose
and a sense of belonging,

which is a basic human need.

Think deeply about
what I'm about to ask you.

And then comes the altar call.

It'd be a darkened auditorium.
There'd be a bright, white glowing cross.

Ron Luce would have everybody
turn around in their seats,

and be on their knees, praying.

He would build it up and say, "Okay,
if you're making a commitment..."

I'm asking you to put
your old self on the cross

because only when you die,
that you really begin to live.

It was cry out in the
darkness, "I want the cross."

Take up your cross now.

I want the
cross! I want the cross!

You need to get
right with God tonight.

This is your
opportunity, right now.

Things will
get really serious.

And if you know right
now, that in your heart,

the spirit of God is telling
you that you should go,

that you should help speed
up the return of Christ,

Right now, I want you to lift your
hands, lift your hands right now.

I remember crying a lot,

to be surrounded by thousands of other
people who felt the same way as I did.

The excitement was really there.

If you feel the Holy Spirit
tugging on your heart, come forward.

Goes into the whisper.

I was on my knees, on
the floor, weeping.

And you had kids crying, you had
people bringing things to the front.

At one point I think we
found birth control pills.

We found things that
people were giving up,

the things that
they were giving up.

When you're sitting
there, and they're talking about

"God wants to forgive you for all
the bad things that you've done,"

and the thing is, at 12, I
hadn't done anything bad really.

But I am just bawling over it,

and begging God to forgive
me for not being good enough.

He has seen every
tear you've cried.

He's going to put you back together.
I know, because he put me together.

You know,
acquire the fire.

When God sets you on
fire, you are his vessel.

You had all these kids here ready to
change the world and do something good.

We were all ready to do whatever
it takes by any means necessary

to just save the world.

So what do you do
now that you're all fired up?

Take your fire and
change the world.

Teen Mania's global expeditions
take young people just like you

all around the world,
every summer...

After the altar call, they
would talk about summer missions.

Anyone who was interested in
going would leave the auditorium.

You would go, leave your seat,
go to that particular room.

They would show a video
about global expeditions.

God wants to use you,
not just everybody else.

He wants to use you, not just
to rescue your youth group,

not just other people,
other Christians in general.

He wants to use you
to change the world.

Get an application, fill it
out, choose a couple countries

you might want to go to and
get that thing in the mail.

The project is spreading this
movement, which requires funds.

And let me tell you what,
most young people say,

"Well, I can never get the
money." You can get the money.

Anybody can get the money.

God doesn't have a problem
getting you the money.

You just got to find out
who's pocket is that money in.

-I'm going to Paraguay.
-I'm going to Nicaragua.

-Albania!
-Chile!

I'm going to Ukraine.

I'm going to El Salvador!

Join Teen Mania for a
trip around the world!

Teen Mania and Acquire the
Fire gave us the autonomy to say,

"Oh, I can go to a place that's
not organized around my parents."

And then they say, "Do you want to go
around the world without your parents?

With the coolest 23 year
old you've ever met?"

Yes, I want to go to that.
I want to go to there.

Go for it! Get
out of your chair.

Get out of the country,
leave town, get on a plane.

Go on a mission trip. It'll
fill you. It'll chill you.

It'll thrill you, it'll turn you upside
down and then right side up again.

It'll give you a vision, a sense of
destiny and purpose for your life.

Go, ye, to all the
world and preach the gospel

and make disciples
of the nations.

So that was the peak, right?

It was very spiritual, and
it was also kind of awesome.

So Teen Mania Ministries invited Dad
to write a song and film a music video

to promote global
expeditions recruitment.

♪ I have a heart, I
have a voice I have a testimony ♪

♪ I am a follower of Christ
He is the one and only ♪

I could sing it.

♪ He is the one
and only way to heaven ♪

♪ I want everyone to know, oh ♪

-♪ I will tell the world ♪
-♪ He is returning ♪

♪ Until everyone on
earth has heard ♪

♪ I will tell the world ♪

My first experience on a Teen
Mania trip was going to Bolivia.

Jesus has such an impact here.
It's incredible. It's incredible.

My parents were trying to
convince me to go only for one month,

and I was like, "No, no, no, I'm serious.
I go for two months in the summer."

I was like, "More
people will be saved."

I went to Juarez, Mexico.

I was an interpreter at
a children's orphanage.

The main way of evangelizing
on these trips is through dramas.

We have costumes and makeup,
and we act out a drama

that's set to music and the native
language of whatever country we're in.

You see, this drama is
a picture of the truth.

I was playing the
Pirate King, a lead.

I was the Latin dancer.

My character follows Jesus, but not
before getting beaten by the devil.

There was always a drama
with a Jesus character.

Every picture I've ever seen
of anybody's mission trip,

the Jesus character is always
a blond, good looking boy.

I was a Christian
mime, the mime troupe.

And the mimes
are the set pieces,

and so they've got to be
like completely still.

During dramas, the team leaders would
tell the mimes, "You cannot move."

Like if you move to wipe
sweat out of your eye,

you could distract someone,
and then they won't hear

the message of the gospel,
and then they will go to hell.

"Do you want somebody
to go to hell

just because you couldn't
hold it for another minute?"

That's what's going through your
mind when you're holding these poses.

The pressure literally of the
world is like on your shoulders,

and you're like, "I can't
move. I got to hold up."

I internalized the idea of
people are going to hell.

It is eternal suffering beyond
your possible comprehension.

You can actually do something
to stop that from happening.

And so the only moral and ethical decision
was to participate in this movement.

Numbers were
very important.

They wanted to report
at the end of the summer

-how many people had been saved.
-Yes!

Look at the difference you made.

In four ministry days, we
had over 700 salvations.

Over 900 people were saved.

Ron was always
telling his kids,

"You're world changers,
you're world changers."

For a lot of them, it
worked. They believed it.

Everyone in the village came up,
and the whole village was saved.

They were tearing down
their temples and like...

building churches in their
places. And it was just amazing!

All of the millions of people who weren't
so lucky to see a mime troupe of teens,

I guess they're all just burning
in hell for all eternity.

Sorry about that.

We also smuggled Bibles.

Some girls would have dresses,
and they'd have little pockets.

They put them under
their dresses.

Some people would put them
in bags, under things.

What kind of things have you
seen happen during your trip this year?

We have seen tremendous
miracles of healings,

eyes that were all messed up,
coming clear and legs growing out.

It was just so neat that God used us to
pray for this lady, and she could see.

It was really neat.

There was a woman, one of her legs
was much shorter than the other,

and someone in our group said, "We're
supposed to pray for her leg to grow out."

And we had been praying.

We're so intense, and we were
praying, but God wasn't healing her.

And then you go,
"When do we stop?"

I just remember feeling so embarrassed
that her leg didn't grow back.

Why didn't it happen? I had faith,
I guess I didn't have enough faith.

And I felt so guilty.

Sacrifice itself
became almost a goal.

So we would have the street dramas
where people are mock-beaten.

And you would get students who
were doing like ascetic elements.

We would have students who say, "Well,
I'm not going to wear my kneepads."

"I'm going to go hard for the gospel.
I'm going to physically suffer more."

The motto was, "Die
empty every day."

This is a very safe trip
for your young people.

I have three children and just had my
third little child just a few weeks ago.

And I'm very conscientious
about sending,

parents sending their
babies to another country.

And I go to these different countries
during the summer, and I see young people

just like yours on the mission
field, 13 and 14 and 15 years old.

And I go, you know,
somebody trusted God enough

to let us have their babies for
a month, to let God use them.

And we don't take
that trust lightly.

I was in rural India. I
started feeling really sick.

But we had this book called
Where There Is No Doctor.

So it says this is how you dress a
wound. This is how you fix a broken bone.

Here's how you do a head injury.
Here's how you deliver a baby.

And the book says, "It
might be appendicitis."

I had emergency appendectomy
in Hyderabad, India.

The approach to my appendicitis
was, let's say it was vintage.

They opened me up about nine
inches, take out my appendix,

sew it back up, that proceeds
to get massively infected.

And I develop a case of Mersa.

I'm leaking infection, but Mom and Dad
aren't getting like real information.

"Oh, Phil's fine."

But there's a parent volunteer
who had been taking care of him,

and she got a hold
of our mom and said,

"You need to meet him at the
airport with an ambulance

and go to the hospital as soon
as he arrives in the country.

And eventually they put
me on commercial flight

at the end of the month
to fly back with the team.

And I spent three weeks in
the hospital after that,

with a 600 milliliter abscess
that had to be drained.

My doctor, his baritone, just goes,
"What the hell were you doing in India?"

And I was like, "I was telling
people about Jesus."

The call went out to pray. Ray
Boltz's son might be dying.

So Ron Luce comes by to visit.

You know, the guy in charge.

I was very excited, even in
my fevered, bedraggled state.

I had this little guest book,
and he writes Galatians six.

"I bare on my body
the marks of Christ."

And he changes it to "the
marks of the world changer".

And it's silly to get like
choked up a lot over it.

But I thought, "Oh!

Like this has value, this
suffering has worth."

They tell you you're elite,
you're changing the world.

The real outcome of these trips,
they are creating soldiers.

Eventually, I mean,
you just got to say,

"Okay, God, whatever
you have coming for me."

I felt like I'm going to
go further and harder.

I'm going to give
more of myself.

And so I started saying, "Oh, I
think I want to do the internship."

The Honor Academy, a one year
internship for committed young adults

who are driven to find their purpose
and make a difference with their lives.

The three main branches of Teen Mania
were the Acquire the Fire events,

Global Expeditions. That was where
they got a lot of their revenue.

And then the third part
was the Honor Academy.

I think a real pivot point
for Teen Mania and for Ron Luce

was the development of what
he calls the Honor Academy,

this sort of training school, this
finishing school for his elite.

This is a period in time
when televangelists decide,

"I need my own college."

Liberty University and Regent University,
and Ron is thinking along those lines.

So Teen Mania
Campus was in Lindale, Texas,

which is in the
middle of nowhere.

It was this enormous
East Texas property.

He's training young people,
but he also needs a core of labor.

I mean, there's just real
practical work that needs doing.

So he'll get students.

You're going to go there to learn,
and you're also going to go there

to produce Teen Mania, and you're
going to pay for that opportunity.

-It's an internship.
-When I graduated high school,

it just seemed like the natural next
step to me to go to the Honor Academy.

It's going to be like
Acquire the Fire 24-7.

It's going to be awesome.

Going to a place where everybody else
was like me and was just as obsessed

with being bold for Jesus and being
on fire and changing the world.

Those were my people. That's
who I wanted to be with.

But the idea that this
could somehow be bad for me,

that doesn't even
really enter your mind.

And I got there, and it was definitely
different than what I expected.

But let me ask you something, what are
you willing to give up for the Lord?

What is your life?

The time may come when God is
going to ask us all to give up

the comforts that we enjoy and go
to live for him in a different way.

We don't know what
is down the road,

but it seems like some heartache
and suffering is in store.

We were believers, but we
knew something was weird.

I was a teenage
telemarketer, for Jesus.

It was the same lesson plan
every class, obedience.

There was no questioning
of authority.

Suddenly, some people in
military garb told us to run.

That was crazy.

I didn't know that Teen Mania
had done anything wrong for a long time.

I thought that I
was the problem.

They were taught terror and
taught to pass it along.

We were at war. We were going
to rise up with a battle cry.

Let me hear your
battle cry tonight.

I didn't hear you, let me
hear your battle cry tonight!

I started seeing Ron align more
with the political movement.

We've got virgin, teenage America,
being raped on the sidewalk.

If you build that army,

eventually you have to give
them their marching orders.

We're here as teenagers just to stand
up, as the leaders of this cultural war.

When you join the military,
you lose your whole identity.

Well, the same thing happens
when we're in Christ.

We need to strip off
the old identity.

I'm not going to
survive if I stay here.

I was going to come in and
quell this attack from Satan.

Oh, really? You're going to
deny that this happened to me?

They were raising martyrs, and
they were recruiting children.

You were expendable.

And maybe the most valuable
thing you could ever do is die.