These were two questions I heard my dad ask as he called me earlier in the week and also two questions I read in emails directed to me. It was in reference to the rallies that took place, or tried to take place, last Saturday here in Prague and the international coverage they received. Oh by the way, the easy answers to those questions are, “Yes I’m fine,” and “I was two hours away from Prague.”
Neo-nazis and anarchists tried to march and have rallies downtown. The key word is try. I’ve read several articles this week trying to decipher what actually happened and I still am highly confused. So I thought I would give you a couple links to check out if you so desire (click here or here or here) and the video below from youtube. I have to warn you if you go to the youtube page that houses this video you will see many angry and obscene responses, so be warned. I do recommend watching the video right here on my blog. It’s in Czech but someone translated over it in English. Its just a news report about what happened last Saturday.
Needless to say, as I’ve read all of this and watched several videos I’ve been at a complete loss to what the heck is going and what happened. I get the gist of the neo-nazis a bit and what they are about, but the anarchists and their purpose yeah…I have no idea. What I think we got here is a lot of angry young men who don’t know what to do with that anger.
What’s interesting is this came just days after I read a post entitled Jesus Hardcore: Reaching Angry Mosh-Pit White Guys by Anthony Bradley over at TheResurgence.com . Bradley thinks out loud a bit and challenges the men of America to reach out to angry young men:
Can Christianity reach this awesome sub-culture? Not without a new brand of leaders. Most Christian men today are too soft, passive, and fearful to have any credibility with this growing movement. American Christianity often produces the kind of men that ‘the hardcore’ detests. Hardcore needs to be embraced, not condemned by the church.
Hardcore culture can be reached by a new brand of hardcore missionaries–men who have ‘salt and light’ fortitude and move toward human brokenness instead of away from it. This is where missional men come in.
Well, it’s not just American Christians who need to figure this out. Check out the whole of the article and pray for us here in Prague and Europe as it seems these groups of angry young men are on the rise. We will see what happens today in Prague as there are rumors floating around about more rallies, especially since today is the 18th anniversary of the fall of communism, that took place November 17, 1989. Here are a couple of articles (here and here) about what could happen today. May the God or radical love who beat down sin and death become King of these guys’ lives.