Karen Bell's telephone rang as she cooked supper. When her teenage daughter picked up the receiver and mouthed that a salesman was on the other end, the frazzled homemaker shook her head no and told Ashley to say she wasn't home.

 Like any good mother, Karen had taught her children not to lie. But like many a weary parent, she modeled something different. And like any impressionable teen, Ashley learned that in the heat of the moment, you do what feels right at the time. Even if it's wrong.

 "Youth in our society have more temptations than past generations," says James H. Jenkins, chief of police in Odessa, Texas. "There is a considerable breakdown of the family unit, and even when two parents live at home, both often work, and kids are left alone."

 "Some kids are raising themselves," adds Stacy Riggs, juvenile case coordinator in this west-Texas oil town, "and they develop a predator mentality. No one ever taught them it's not right to steal what they want."

 A typical eighth-grader, according to Stacy, carries weapons, dope, condoms and paint for sniffing. Christian parents, of course, consider their kids atypical. But statistics show that even good kids take chances and may be drifting more than their parents realize.

 Three years ago, Josh McDowell of Campus Crusade for Christ teamed up with 13 evangelical denominations and the Barna Research Group to survey more than 3,700 evangelical youth. The survey results revealed that even youth who come from positive family situations and are highly involved in church are losing their moral footing. Two out of three have lied to a parent, teacher or other adult. One in three have cheated on an exam. By age 18, more than half have engaged in fondling breasts, genitals and/or sexual intercourse.¹

 To combat the eroding morality of our youth, Josh created the "Right From Wrong" campaign, which helps church workers, parents and teenagers determine what makes right right and wrong wrong.

 "I don't believe there's a more relevant message for our youth," says Dennis Houston, youth pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church. "I knew we were moving toward an anti-Christian society, but Josh opened my eyes to the urgency."

Like a night watchman sounding an alarm, Dennis awakened his church to the problem and challenged them to teach how to make right choices.

 The sandy-haired youth pastor approached the church staff with Josh's interactive video series Setting Youth Free to Make Right Choices. Feeling this five-session curriculum was too powerful to break up into weekly studies, the Southern Baptist church held a three-day revival in January 1996.

 Senior pastor Tom Hiser took the congregation through a video and workbook designed for adults, while Dennis taught the youth. After each session, the two groups discussed what they had learned. "It was like someone plucked the scales off the eyes of our parents," says Dennis. "I think a lot of them didn't understand that their kids know people who are drinking or carrying weapons. Parents have to know what pressure their kids face. Their kids are the minority now--no one wants to be that."

 "Right From Wrong made a difference in how my parents and I treat each other," says 16-year-old Amanda Linzy. "Since they went, they listen to me and respect how I feel."

 Within a month of the video series, the music minister brought in the musical Truth Slayers, based on a novel written by Josh and Bob Hostetler. The play shows what happens when four teenagers make wrong choices. In June, after performing the musical at church, the youth group took it on the road to neighboring communities. One teenager who attended a performance in Hobbs, N.M., had planned to move out of the house to live with another girl and two guys. After seeing Truth Slayers, she decided to stay put.

 In the meantime, Dennis and another youth minister heard Josh speak about the Right From Wrong campaign in Dallas. Dennis returned to Odessa and alerted other youth ministers. Immediately six churches banded together to bring the campaign to their community.

 Dennis and the others mailed 250 invitations for a church staff briefing where Josh showed pastors and other church leaders how today's new definition of tolerance erodes the moral foundation of our society (see page 9 for his basic message). He explained how the Right From Wrong campaign was designed to help youth make right choices. Two more churches got on board.

 "The Right From Wrong material," says Darren Tidwell, youth minister at Northside Baptist Church in Hobbs, "helps youth pastors teach the basis of truth in a simple way that youth and parents understand."

 A month later, 1,200 attended a parent's seminar, where Josh pointed out how the new definition of tolerance plays out in kids' lives. Josh also outlined how to make right choices by taking a decision back to the nature and character of God. Parents left with a practical blueprint for passing on Christian values to their children.

 "I learned there are absolutes that are true for all people for all times in all places," says Melanie Belt, mother of two middle-school-aged kids.

 "I learned the importance of teaching your kids absolutes," chimes in Angie Perkins. "You tell them not to cheat, [but then you] speed to get to school."

 "If I lose my temper," Melanie continues, "I apologize and ask their forgiveness. That's hard to do, but it shows them you're human. Then they learn to come to God for forgiveness."

Both parents and youth awaited Josh's return to Odessa in February for one last event--the youth rally. The Newsboys, a leading contemporary Christian rock group, opened the evening with several of their top hits. Before taking a break, they introduced Josh, who challenged the audience to make right choices--particularly in the area of sex.

 As a result of the Right From Wrong campaign, Nick Smith, a 17-year-old at Sherwood Baptist, stands ready to make right choices. At an away track meet Nick found several teammates glued to a movie on the HBO channel. "Y'all shouldn't be watching that," said Nick. "It messes up your mind." One of the boys agreed with him and left the group.

 "If you focus on God," says Nick, "you don't have to worry about doing the wrong thing. He'll guide you."

 Nick has noticed a change in his parents as well. "Rather than sending me off to my room, when my dad gets mad at me for acting ugly to my little sister," says Nick, "he'll stop and talk to me about why what I did was wrong."

 "Parents understand that it is no longer good enough to spend a few minutes talking to their kids and [then] eat supper on the couch watching television," says Dennis. "Unless they spend quality time with their kids, they will never have the trust relationship where the kids feel the freedom to share with them."

 If youth can't turn to their parents when they don't know what to do, they make decisions based on what everyone else is doing and what feels right at the time. "I think youth culture is in big trouble today," says Dennis. "When I went to school, it was looked down on to smoke and it was wrong to drink or have sex. Sure there were folks doing it, but at least it was viewed as wrong. Today, not only is it not viewed as wrong, it's viewed as normal. If you're not having sex, you're [considered] weird."

 Parents at Sherwood Baptist have heeded Dennis Houston's alarm. They're trying to model truth in their own lives and teach their children that right choices are based on the character and nature of God.

 Now, when telemarketers call, Karen Bell tells them she's not interested. And if her children don't want to talk to a friend who calls, Mom won't say they're not home.

 Karen also praises her kids when they make a wise choice. Rather than harping at them when they make a wrong choice, she gives advice on what they could do differently next time. And she tries harder to model the little things that show her children what God's character is like, so that in the heat of the moment, when the kids must decide between right and wrong, they will do not what feels right, but what is right.

1. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, Right From Wrong (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994), pp. 8,9.