Thursday, September 18, 2003

"Teen Girls Going Ga-ga for Jesus"

That's a quotation from God's Word Goes Glossy, an article on Fox News about Revolve, "a magazine that’s slicked up the New Testament for girls aged 12 to 17":

“We wanted to make sure that it was something that teen girls liked and could identify with, but we wanted to make sure it was theologically in line with what pastors are teaching," Laurie Whaley, editor of Revolve, told Fox News.

[. . . ]

While some may consider Revolve "dorky" rather than "way cool," the glossy version of the good word appears to be a hit. One teenager enthusiastically told the Twin City's Pioneer Press that her peers were all impressed with the magazine.

[ . . . ]

“We came to realize we need an avenue, a venue to be able to tell teen girls ‘You're special, you're worthwhile, you're valuable,’” said Susie Shellenberger, author of "Girl Talk With God."

But not everyone agrees that having questions and answers like the ones in the "Blab" section of the magazine are helpful. Among the Q&As: "Was Jesus a vegetarian? No: Plenty of fish, some lamb. What's wrong with following horoscopes? It's condemned in Scripture."

[. . .]

Revolve's text is also sprinkled with statistical factoids, like this one nestled next to Jesus' talk with the Samaritan woman who had many men (John 4): "Didya Know: 63 percent of teens who have had sex say they wish they had waited."

I must admit that to me it looks horribly like the kind of thing that The Onion parodies so well, especially the enthusiastic quotations from those who have used it. I notice the word "factoid" rears its head too. This is an Americanism, I think? I was listening to BBC Radio FiveLive recently and an American correspondent mentioned a "factoid"; Simon Mayo asked him what a factoid was and the correspondent replied, "It's a kind of fact, but with -oid added on the end."

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