Today’s Agenda

When Pope John Paul II chose to peg his appearances in Denver last Thursday to International Youth Day, he was playing to one of his strengths--his proven appeal to young people (though the diversity in Youth Opinion shows that the appeal isn’t universal.)

Despite his and the Catholic Church hierarchy’s adamant opposition to birth control and abortion and their strict views on sexuality, positions with which a majority of teen-agers and young adults disagree, Roman Catholic teens flocked by the busload to Denver to see him.

“He’s real, authentic, without hypocrisy and completely straightforward,” says George Grose, president of the Academy for Judaic, Christian and Islamic Studies in Anaheim. Grose, a Presbyterian minister, says he emphatically disagrees with the Pope on some social issues, but “even people who do not agree are able to trust him. People outside his flock can admire him.”

Which, says Grose, helps us understand how religion needs to respond to the valid questioning of young people. They know that Somalia almost starved, and now some Americans are dying so Somalians won’t starve. Kids see thousands of innocents being killed, raped, starved in Bosnia. “They ask: ‘How can God let this happen?’ ” says Grose. “I call it the honor-of-God question.”

The honor of God, he says, is established for Christians by God’s meeting evil head-on in the Crucifixion of his son, which in Christian belief is an act of love to save humankind. Strong love and honor are expressed in a contemporary way by the Pope, who urged President Clinton to lead in the rescue of the Bosnians, so “the Islamic world would not believe that the Christian world would abandon Muslims in the heart of Europe.”

Young people need love, says Grose. “If it’s from a weak source, it doesn’t really hold us or keep us.”

Americans on the whole accept other kinds of people, which is a great strength, he says: “Hate crimes must be stopped, but they’re not pervasive. The special challenge now is how the three major U.S. religions--Christian, Jewish and Muslim--will get along. One must be strong enough in one’s own faith not to be threatened by others. Otherwise, hostility emerges out of fear. The outcome of strong faith will not be narrow-mindedness but graciousness to others.”

And when young people see this kind of faith? “They’ll find something that they can follow,” says Grose. “Young people will accept inspiration and guidance from a strong and honest source.”

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Kids also need safe environments, good libraries and recreational facilities--among other things. And Huntington Beach--yes, Huntington Beach, whose reputation was somewhat marred recently by the activities of skinheads--is satisfying these needs better than any other city in Southern California, according to a survey by the organization Zero Population Growth. Today’s In the Neighborhood highlights what the survey found that Huntington Beach has that other cities don’t when it comes to children.