Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SPIRITUAL JOURNEY: Following the Right Path

Devout teens in Sin City try to set an example and stick to beliefs

The temptations of Las Vegas appear to be centered on the Strip, but teens who have strong religious beliefs say they manage to resist. Posing on the Strip recently are, from left, Nick Shillingburg, 13, Natalie Dattoli, 17, and Amanda Stewart, 18. Photo by Samantha Clemens.

Here it is, the Las Vegas landscape in all its glory: Over there, a taxi, its rear end -- appropriately enough -- decked with a sign sporting a line of dancers showing their best assets in an anatomically improbable pose. Over here, a billboard trying to convince us that no weekend is complete without a cold brewski and a pair of twins. There, a giant photo of men attired not in business suits but spandex shorts, their overdeveloped and oiled pecs gleaming in the harsh desert light.

Even to those who aren't seeking them, it's clear that Las Vegas' temptations are varied and abundant. So how do religiously devout teens, already forced to deal with the pressures of staying true to their morals in an increasingly immoral world, deal with the siren songs that threaten to crash them on the rocks?

In ways as varied as the teens themselves.

The billboards are generally a benign form of temptation, simply taunting teens to partake in activity that's not readily available to them. And they don't bother Natalie Dattoli, 17.

"Not so much," said Natalie, who attends Central Christian Church. "It doesn't really offend me. As an American, I think we should have the right to have the billboards up there."

But they bug other teens, including Amanda Stewart, 18, a member of the Valle Verde Ward of the Green Valley Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"I don't like them at all," Amanda said. "I think they're degrading. It's kind of sad when you're driving down the freeway with your 10-year-old brother and there are these billboards."

"You just try to block it out," said Boniface Njoroge, 17, a nondenominational Christian who attends Trinity Christian High School. "It's everywhere -- especially in this city. It's borderline irritating. It's hard to get away from it. It's everywhere you are."

"It makes me annoyed," said Nick Shillingburg, 13, who attends Meadows Fellowship Foursquare Church. "It's like they have to show off everything they have. I try to stay away from the Strip. There's a lot of really bad billboards out there."

"I don't ever go down to the Strip," Amanda said. "It's just kind of a dirty, gross place."

But what about the more overt forms of temptation, such as the teen parties they may attend where other underage kids are drinking, smoking and experimenting with a medicine cabinet worth of drugs?

Avoiding temptation, Boniface said, is as simple as, "first of all, being around the right type of people, who share your beliefs."

"My friends and I hang out with friends who have the same standards as me," Amanda said. "I don't ever go to parties where there's that kind of stuff going on. If there's stuff like that going on, I would leave," which she said has happened "a couple of times."

"I just surround myself with people with good morals and their priorities set straight," said Jesse Phalin, 14, a Roman Catholic who attends Trinity Christian. However, she said, if she attended a party where immoral activity was going on, "if I felt uncomfortable, I would leave. But if I wanted to stay there, I wouldn't drink."

"If someone tries to get me to do something, I just think I don't need to do that, because I have friends at church," said Krystian Eklund, 13, who attends Meadows Fellowship Foursquare Church. "If those people don't like me, then my friends at church will like me. I just think of all the cool stuff I can do with my church friends. I like to go to a local coffee shop, a Christian coffee shop called the Holy Grounds. Our church has a lot of stuff we can do, and I like to help out with that."

Sean Panciro, 17, a nondenominational Christian who attends Trinity Christian, takes a more proactive approach.

"I try to associate with the right crowd, but at the same time, I try to bring other people to God," he said. "I try to socialize with all types of crowds, try to bring as many people to Christ as I can." By being in a situation that may be tempting to others and managing to resist, he sets an example, he said.

Natalie is even more proactive. She said she doesn't "hang around with a church crowd. Most of my friends aren't Christians or don't have a religious belief. I want to be able to show people why it's good."

"I prefer to go where I know there's going to be sinful activity and just represent my faith," she said. "Instead of keeping myself out of it, I just put myself back in it, and still resist."

But resisting, she said, can be difficult.

"It's hard sometimes because, especially when you're at a party, people try to offer you, for instance, alcohol, maybe five times in a night, and why aren't you drinking it? It becomes difficult because everyone else is. You just go back to `This is what I believe.' If I don't stand up for what I believe right now, then everything I said to these people is a lie. The way I resist is to know that if I don't resist, there's no way to affect these people's lives in a positive way. Because one of the Christian beliefs is actually to shine the light of Jesus Christ through yourself."

Rogierre Hughes, 16, who attends Second Baptist Church, draws strength from her faith to get through the day.

"Every day just before I go to school, I pray and I read the word and I just live each day knowing that the Lord is watching out for me and that everything will be OK," she said.

Said her brother, Michael, 13, "I believe you must just stay prayerful and read the Bible every day, talk to God, talk to your parents, talk to your friends if you're having a problem -- and talk to people who are religious or Christian friends."

The teens were split on whether Las Vegas is a good place to raise children.

"Not necessarily," Amanda said. "I think I had a good childhood. But I didn't really grow up in Las Vegas; I grew up in Henderson. It was a little different. We don't even go to the Strip or do any of these things. I think I've lived a pretty normal life."

"Most of the problems this area has are on the Strip," Natalie said. "There are plenty of parks and places to take their kids. It's how you choose to live here -- what you choose to indulge in."

"Aside from the Strip, there are so many things in Las Vegas," Jesse said. "Most people focus on the Strip, but there are so many places to go, like Red Rock" National Conservation Area.

But Nick pointed out temptations can be hard to escape.

"Taxis come along every other place, so you pretty much can't avoid that," he said. "If people have to travel across town, then they're going to see that. It tempts people to look further into things. It gets into your mind."

Matthew Hughes, 15, Rogierre and Michael's sibling, doesn't think life in Las Vegas is all that different from anywhere else. When it comes to raising kids, he said, "really, there is no good place. I think they're all the same. Las Vegas is just another city. Some people don't believe there's religious things going on in Las Vegas, but there are."

"Nowhere's a good place to raise a family," said his brother, Michael. "But it really comes from the foundation of the family and how your parents raise you and who you're around."

"To be honest, I love this city," Sean said. "I think it's one of the greatest cities in the world. I think Summerlin and Green Valley are great places to raise kids.

"There's a lot more to this city than people think."

And that, it seems, would also pertain to teens for whom faith is important.

"We're not perfect," Boniface said. "Sometimes we do fall to temptation. But the main thing is we ask God for help."