I was truly enthralled by this glorious, powerful and artistic rhetorical commercial for Old Spice Swagger.  Just the intense tone the principle actor employs in his delivery of the script stole my heart and sent me to the store on a mad-hunt for this product!  It's completely illogical, but 100% credible because there's an NFL Superstar rockin' the scene!  I consider this video to be solid, flawless rhetoric!  Huzzah!

Barren Pews

            I remember the day.  All seemed normal, the sun shining through the window.  But I could sense some dark, undercutting atmosphere permeating the peaceful morning rays.  My mother sat my siblings and I down; she had something to share.  That was the day she told all. I never guessed my cousin was sporting a false, deceptive facade.  What had been his snare?  Those detrimental substance abuse addictions, the agents of which affliction were drugs and alcohol.  The one I had looked up to admiringly, now fallen and stripped from any sort of peace in religion due to the far too common subservience to natural temptations and tendencies of man, regained a skewed reputation. Had he really been on the road to recovery like he externally exuded?  No, and had he begun again to actively participate in church?  No.  And miserable experiences were his fruits.

            In the modern world in which we live, a dangerously high and diverse plethora of alternatives stand in stout opposition to the role of religion in conservative American society, especially among youth.  When did my cousin begin engaging in immoral, degrading behavior?  Teenage years.  The youth of modern society are attacked, and after yielding to  intense secular pressures, often retain zero desire to adhere to religious morals and principles taught impersonally by pastors and preachers.  They're bombarded while in their growing, impressionable and vital adolescent years with numerous concourses of choices to make, and what to believe, and how.  Without some measure of hopeful, inspiring religious activity, youth can seriously dive off cliffs into vicious water. The drugs and alcohol abuse that rampage throughout society and contribute to many of its major problems, also assist in tearing and keeping youth in America down and away from worship pews, thus decreaing our nation's church attendance among young adults.  

Annotated Bibliography

1.  Fawcett, Bruce G.; Francis, Leslie J.; Linkletter, Jody; Robbins, Mandy.  "Religiosity and Alcohol Avoidance..."  Journal of Youth Ministry.  10-1-12.  http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=39&sid=28d1943e-750c-492e-afd0-14876931432b%40sessionmgr4001&hid=4109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=82666780

            Summary:  This article is primarily about the use of alcohol and drugs among youth as it limits their capacity to function properly.  When it becomes an addiction, as it frequently does among the rising generations, it can have serious, negative repercussions.  Under the binding influence of abused substances, all that they can think about, all that they can desire is that drug or that chug of mind-numbing drink.  Whatever resources, whatever skills they have our buried in the obsession for one thing; suffice to say, very dangerous.  Therefore, religion is a complete and utter absent priority from their disturbed lives, and they increase the lack of youth attending church.  Productivity levels steep, and their ability to socially engage in activities, or organizations, like church, are lofty ambitions. However, on a brighter note, church affiliation can assist youth in quitting involvement with harmful material, and restore them to wellness, spiritually and physically.

            Evaluation :  I most surely can incorporate this information and material into the body of my paper, used to strengthen my claims.  The use of alcohol and drugs are evidently awful influences if one desires to be strongly involved and planted in their faith.  If there is the replacement, the distraction and the corruption that stems from the degrading, excessive consumption of potentially ruining substances in an adolescent's life, there is no room left for church.  It's sad to know just how common the exposure to harmful substances at a younger and younger age; perhaps many of our other problems and troubles with families, education, work and safety are tied to this skewing of the moral compass that addiction brings.  Instead of being dedicated to smoking, sipping, or injecting, they can find joy and relief in adopting and learning the values and principles of a religious faith.

            Criticism:  There is no lack of abundance of information and statistical evidence from various reports and groups of the article, and leans heavily on the way of how church helps addicted individuals relinquish their desires for drugs and alcohol.  One thing I believe the author should have spent time focusing on just exactly why kids have the desire in the first place to depart from traditional values, and waywardly commence substance abuse.

 2.  Benda, Brent; Corwyn, Robert.  "Religiosity and Church Attendance..."  International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.  10-1-2000.  http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=9ad6c6cd-3745-4be1-9a61-ac01026aaac3%40sessionmgr112&hid=118&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=4817854

            Summary:  There is little regard to religion and its influence in society's youth nowadays.  Kids are just told to go to Church because they hear their parents forcing them  to at a young age, and therefore commence attendance for all the wrong, unwilling reasons.  They begin to see church as a burden rather than a service with which they are deeply attached, like some teenage alluring program, activity they were actually interested in.  Alternatives that don't pressure them, judge them, or try to control their behavior like experienced in younger years through attending church, easily override and take the place of religiosity in their lives.  Another "gain" that they might feel that results from frequent church appearances, just 'showing up', not intending to learn or participate in any way, will secure them points for eternal salvation in Heaven, when that's not at all how it works!  Church attendance does not, then, when presented and instilled in this manner, help minimize drugs/alcohol exploits in rebellious, freedom-seeking teenagers.  What really helps regulate and diminish "hard drug" use is a personal involvement and desire to learn about particular faiths in America.

            Evaluation:  I think this article is also a super fantastic resource for developing my major, central idea and angle of my issues paper.  Just the wise point is brings up about how when kids feel forced to go to church, their desire to actually be there and open their hearts and minds to learning is negatively affected, and so succumbing to that first drug or bottle of beer is all the easier, and morally neutral.  I think it's important also to understand that regardless of the family, or community, or culture, if not cared for with correctness,  religion can become buried and stamped out in the chain of importance.  Then the evil substances have greater chance to distract the adults and their youth from high moral, conservative values.

            Criticism:  First off, to clear some murky water, the whole article was based chiefly off of a single city study and observation, which really doesn't help to validate the results and the findings of these authors.  Also, the other outcome of church attendance could have been inserted into the church healing aspect; they said personal reconciliation and study with God  was the best way to limit drug use, but teachers and lessons from church cannot be the only connection  to exterminating all darkness within a group of people.

3.  Dudley, Roger; Mutch Patricia; Cruise, Robert.  "Religious Factors and Drug Usage..."  Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.  06-1-87.  http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=7ffc3b53-0cf7-4658-a465-9da658b219e4%40sessionmgr198&hid=106&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=4897397

            Summary:  This article for me is more outdated, but provides an interesting slice into this issue as it arouse heavily in the past.  A study was done among North American Seventh Day Adventist Youth to monitor or set out the correlations between their religious faith and use of drugs and alcohol.  They present drugs as being a major enemy to devout religious practice and application of standards into one's life, but say alcohol isn't as greatly condemned by some American Christian denominations.  Religious parents, a personal zealousness in church activity and attendance serve as a defense against a lifetime of misery caught up in "immoral" addictions.  Those that are caught, however, struggle to attend church.

            Evaluation:  The effects of both drugs and alcohol still stand, especially when abused by youth.  Even if abstinence is the primary goal, and aversion the key moral, if adolescents slip or have bad influences surrounding their impressionable minds,  they can fall away from converted congregations and into precarious, unhealthy paths.  This puts not only their spiritual salvation on the line, but their ability to contribute to family life, their community, and society in general.

            Criticism:  From what I read, this article does a very nice job of presenting both possibilities of the alcohol/drug usage among their group of studiers.  They do acknowledge it is only Seventh Day Adventists they're studying, and another sketchy component is that the article was  published in 1987.  So, kinda outdated, but they still can be used for a historical support for my paper.   

4.   Kinnaman, David.  "Americans Divided on the Importance of Church".  Barna Group.  3-25-14.  https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/661-americans-divided-on-the-importance-of-church#.VQAHIPnF-Sr

            Summary:  This document/web page does an excellent job of addressing some of the general, broad questions that initially crop up when the issue of religion and youth in America is introduced to a group.  Through utilization of visual charts, Venn diagrams, and other trendy displays, statistical data in regards to surveying on the big questions are presented.  One of the line graphs about "Do you attend Church?" distinguishes Millennials from Americans, and it's plain to see that the percentages for Millenials former attending church nowadays is far less, only around 25%, over the past decade, pretty consistently.  Also, almost 60% of Millenials growing up in the church, or that did, will drop out eventually, especially with prodigal rebelliousness in teenage years, or the acceptance of drug s and alcohol.

            Evaluation:  Most assuredly, for the setting portion at the front end of my paper, I'm going to want to include strong, undisputable statistics such as these, to really bolster my credibility and set a sure, trustworthy foundation for the remainder of the paper.  Those attending church claim they need God in their lives, that hope and light, which is very true, and the counter-argument to that also is strong; those who have drugs and alcohol filling in the spiritual desires of their soul have no need to go to Church.  If we can better protect and warn the youth of today bout the long-term effects of their choices concerning health, then many will be protected, and many more preserved in the precious pews.

            Criticism:  Of course, not everyone can always b fully satisfied.  I would have liked to see even more, and even diverse questions posed and answered through statistical data, but not every question can be appeased.  And some of the sub-topics were analyzed in longer text after their visual display, but some had nothing.

5.    Solas, Marc.  "Top 10 Reasons our Kids Leave Church".  Blog.  2013.  http://marc5solas.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/

            Summary:  This article gives the author's top 10 reasons why youth aren't as fully attendant at church as they could be.   I won't list them all, but there are a few pertinent ones to my specific topic.  One of them is competition; church services suffer competition on Sunday, with other affiliations people have discovered today (possibly addiction serving?).  They bring up" phony advertising", that everyone is totally accepted and welcomed into their congregation, and yet when a druggie or alcoholic arrive, they're treated lower, and feel super harshly judged by others in attendance.  How can youth ever feel comfortable trying to return to church if they're not going to feel the love, the encouragement of his brothers and sisters there, seeing him who he can become.

            Evaluation:  It's a great article, and launches me into a series of many great ideas surrounding the heart of my issue.  I can use them as reference points, and then run with my further analyzing and ideology, as seen just up above.  I find it super enthralling the idea that churches can be so caught up, too, in trying to make themselves 'approved' by the modern world, that everyone will feel at ease in the walls.  If a church is patterned off of the way the world is now, there would not even be any sort of holiness there.  It's all super corrupt and unjust.  Good, solid churches reach out and help bring others up to their level, in nurturing, caring ways, with charity, but many churches descend to the substance abusers level, and have nowhere to go--they've sunk themselves.

            Criticism:  Of course, there are points key to this issue that weren't part of his list of ten, but it's his opinion, and he's a seasoned scholar, so I respect that.  What really could be fixed though is that with a couple of his points there's hardly any elaboration or explanation, in comparison to huge chunks of commentary for all the others, and this makes me feel like he didn't feel as strongly or passionately about those, and just included them to get to 10.