Sunday, October 15, 2006

Are Your Teens Practicing Witchcraft?


Remember that you find all of my articles on www.womantalk.us page when you click on the TEEN CAFE logo on that page.

As we are in the “Halloween season” and conversations revolve around witches, haunted houses, spells and magic, etc. there is an even bigger problem growing behind all of the innocent Halloween hype which is becoming quite popular. Due to many popular TV programs that have aired in the last few years such as; Charmed, Sabrina, The teenage witch, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to name a few there has been a great attraction with teens and magical pursuits. Due to these pursuits, teens are now increasingly turning to looking for religions that offer them a sense of power and authority.

Wicca has become one of the most sought after religions and is one of the fastest growing in America especially among high-school and college age students. It is a form of religion which appeals to those who have a great reverence for nature and the environment and is especially appealing to the teen girls as they seek for identity and a place to belong in this world. Wicca is believed to have three to five million followers here in the US alone with 60% being under the age of 30 and 62% of them being female. Teen girls are seeking out Wicca because it presents the female as the most powerful principal even over the male and because in the above mentioned TV programs, the female is the one performing all of the great and powerful forms of magic.

In this day we are living in, Wicca is beginning to come out of hiding so to speak and many people including Christian denominations are even deeming it acceptable and at best tolerable for teens. Teens believe Wicca to be more tolerant of their behaviors and that it has a stronger diversity.

Find out next week what teens are actually learning in Wicca and what kind of characteristics to look for to see if your own children are involved in this religion. One of the greatest myths with many of these religions is that many people in small towns do not want to believe that it would affect them when the opposite is true. The majority of these types of religion actually look for smaller communities as they are less likely to be found or noticed.

Teens, what do you think? Do you know about Wicca? Are you involved in Wicca? Let me know your thoughts here!
Signed,
Peppermintmocha@chosen4action.com

Barrier Breaking Champions

All of the articles which are posted on this website are written for TEEN CAFE on the website of Sharon Hughes and Friends @ www.womantalk.us
Rape, abuse, drugs, alcohol, gangs, pregnancy, rejection are just a few issues that young people today are facing in society, school and worst of all at home. Many of these issues are “attention getters” in hopes that someone will sit up and take notice and give them a sense of belonging.

In last week’s article about the 15 million kids who are home alone, I asked for young people who want to be mentored and people who would like to mentor to email me and get involved. Hopefully you heard the program with Sharon and I on the radio program this week regarding kids on my space, and if you haven’t I would encourage you to listen to it. You will hear the raw details about what is happening to our youth and how important it is to mentor them and become involved.

In fact, I am so committed to this mentoring campaign that I am filming a pilot TV program for teens the end of October discussing issues they are facing and encouraging parents as well as teens to watch and identify with some of these same issues. We will be filming Teen Café from the Arcadia Theater in Texas with teen girls from all over the area and the show will be entitled “Breaking Barriers”. The show will later be aired on a youth channel around the globe as we get the message out about what is really happening among our youth.

Role models are needed and as a team we can join to make a difference by sharing a small portion of our time each week. This week we have a survey here on our page asking teens to share with us if they have an active adult role model in their life and if not, would they like to have one and what state or country they are writing from. We want to hear from you.

There are teen girls out there who need to know that they are champions and they can break through these barriers. No matter what these girls are facing, there are answers for them and we want to get the answers to them.

Barrier Breaking Champions will continue building a database identifying teenage girls who are in need of a mentor and pair them up with a mentor who can make a difference in their lives. There is a mentoring gap of 14.2 million young teens between the ages of 10-18 who are in the middle to low risk category which means they are not yet sexually active and are not involved in substance abuse. This means we have a golden opportunity to still make a giant difference in these young lives.

Blog with us at www.youthchosen4action.blogspot.com or email us at the address below. Please, if you are a teen, take our survey here on this page.

Signed,
Peppermint Mocha –
Peppermintmocha@chosen4action.com

Saturday, October 07, 2006

15 Million Kids Home Alone




How many times have you looked at our teen girls out there today and wondered if they had a Mom to go home to and take care of them? Our teenage girls miss out on so much today because of loneliness and companionship and we have many role model adults out there who could help with this ever growing problem. Look at the following facts and see for yourself what is happening in our society:

More than 28 million children today have parents who work outside the home

As many as 15 million kids have no place to go once the school day ends


Girls not only need a place to go but they need guidance on topics about life in general including friendship, love and dating, physical fitness and nutrition as well as sexual diseases such as HIV and STD. Girls need to be involved in group discussions about all of the above.

Role models – They need to have an adult such as a school faculty member, a Mom, a grandmother, retired ladies, etc. who can communicate with them at least an hour each week.

The next step is to get these teen girls involved in a community service including clothing drives, race for the cure for cancer, reading to children, etc.

We need to be upfront and discuss with them about abstinence from drugs, alcohol and premarital sex. We want to find role model students to help them see that they need to say “no” to this risk behavior and make positive choices.

Finally, they need to be involved in Cultural enrichment activities which would include theater and dance performances, concerts and other shows around the area.

I am sure you are saying yes this is true and I see the need as well but what am I to do about it? Well, I would like to offer you ladies out there the opportunity to make a difference in a girls’ life today.

Help me kick off with our very own mentoring forum where Teen Café presents Barrier Breaking Champions by building a database identifying teenage girls who are in need of a mentor and pair them up with a mentor who can make a difference in their lives.

As I begin to facilitate this forum I would like to see us build it by identifying teenage girls in our community who are in deep need of a loving and caring mentor to be there for them and communicate with them and a mentor willing to do this. So teens I need your help, please email me if you would like to have a mentor that would be there for you. Potential mentors, email me if you would like to adopt a teenage girl and take part in this forum. Studies show that 96% of mentors would recommend mentoring to others.

Remember, this is a team effort and together we can make a difference. I look forward to hearing from you.

Signed,

Peppermint Mocha –
Peppermintmocha@chosen4action.com

You can find all of these articles and more where I am a regular contributor/writer @ www.womantalk.us
You will find them there on the TEEN CAFE page.