Ministry with Children

Media sexualization of young girls

Salon.com has an important interview with M. Gigi Durham, a professor of mass communication at the University of Iowa, on the occasion of the publication of her new book The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It.

One of the reasons I got involved with media literacy, lo these many years ago, has to do with wanting to find ways to empower young women beyond the destructive images of female-ness so pervasive in popular culture. That was 30 years ago. I find it more distressing than I can express that things have gotten worse, rather than better.

Read Durham's book. Get involved in media education. Build spaces for empowering young women AND young men (especially the blogroll) beyond these destructive dynamics. Make these issues a central part of your faith formation and identity work in communities of faith (Claire Bischoff's work is worthy of attention in this area).

What our curriculum should look like

Here's an interesting post from another blog on children and ministry. In it the author takes seriously the gospel mandate to love the "other" and points to ways in which our curriculum with children should be responsive.

Media, kids and faith

I'm not sure what it says about me -- or my theology? -- but even though this piece comes from a pastor at Hillsong Church in Australia (a mega-church of the more conservative Protestant persuasion), I pretty much agree with what he lists as implications of media culture for kids and families today.

For instance:

"Unlike the consumer culture you and I grew up in, our kids are growing up in a participation/collaboration culture.
Music is digital and free in our kids minds.
The ‘experience’ (events, concerts, meetings etc) will only increase in importance.
Most of the families in your church (and probably you) are breaking copyright law in some way — which suggests to me that the law needs to change.
We as ‘grown ups’ need to change NOW, in order to understand the natives in this new world (our kids)."

Good news on young people

According to a new study put out by CIRCLE, "Today’s young people are socially conscious, civically engaged and dedicated to helping those less fortunate than themselves."

Teens and social media

Hat tip to TheCorner for the link to this new Pew report on teens and social media.

Immigration raids and children

PastorDan's blog points to a new study by La Raza which describes the terrorizing effects of the recent immigration raids on children.

Digital youth/global kids

The Spotlight on Digital Learning blog has a rich and substantial post up about a recent project the MacArthur Foundation supported, in which kids from 26 countries posted over 1000 messages about online issues. The discussion has been summarized in a fascinating report, and is crucial reading for all who care about kids.

Walking a Mile

There's a fascinating new study out from Public Agenda that used qualitative methods to try and understand what American Indians think about non-Indians, and non-Indians think about American Indians (and for reasons made clear in the report, these are the terms used). The report is entitled Walking a Mile: A First Step Toward Mutual Understanding (pdf format). I believe everyone should be reading it, but especially those of us who live in states with large Indian communities.

What makes kids happy?

What makes you happy? That was one of the many questions an MTV poll posed to 13-24 year olds across the US. The answer? spending time with family and friends.

HIV, AIDS and ministries

You might not think that a post on HIV/AIDS and ministry would be topical on a children's ministry blog, but you'd be wrong. There are children all over the world who are living -- and dying -- with these diseases. The Lutheran World Federation has made available for free on the web (it's a pdf document) an extensive handbook on working with HIV and AIDS issues. It includes a powerful section on religious questions and other issues. You can also find for free on the web another pdf handbook, this one publicized through the e-alliance, on HIV, AIDS and Islam, produced by the group Positive Muslims. These are great resources, definitely worth sharing!