美国国家公共电台 NPR Christian Teen Magazine 'Brio' Returns With A 'Biblical Worldview'

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

An evangelical Christian¹ group is trying again to offer an alternative girls magazine. The group Focus on the Family once published Brio. It positioned itself as a more wholesome² alternative to magazines like Seventeen and Teen Vogue³, which offer tips on fashion and dating. Now Brio is coming back. NPR's Sarah McCammon reports.

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE⁴: In some ways, Brio was like a lot of other teen magazines in the 1990s. Debbie Fischer remembers devouring⁵ articles like "How To Give Yourself A Manicure," something she definitely wasn't learning from her older brothers.

DEBBIE FISCHER: I was in middle school, and I didn't really know. You know, I wanted to take care of myself, you know, and look more like a grown-up girl. I just didn't really know how to do it.

MCCAMMON: But other sections were different, like music reviews. Fischer is now 34 and lives in Madison, Wis. She remembers a review of a super popular Boyz II Men album from 1994.

FISCHER: And the reviewer said, you know, "On Bended Knee," this song is good because it's about praying. And that's all well and good. But there's another song on the album, which was "I'll Make Love To You." And that was about premarital sex and not OK.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'LL MAKE LOVE TO YOU")

BOYZ II MEN: (Singing) I'll make love to you, like you want me to.

MCCAMMON: But Fischer, who grew up Methodist and attended a public school, kept listening to the music she liked. For girls like Hayley DeRoche, now 30 and a librarian in Richmond, Va., the conservative point of view made Brio acceptable to her homeschooling evangelical parents.

HAYLEY DEROCHE: It was like the wholesome answer to Seventeen or something like that. So me reading it was never a - a concern.

MCCAMMON: Even Brio, though, seemed like too much for Alissa Wilkinson's parents, who homeschooled her as a teenager in upstate New York. So she snuck home copies from her church library. Wilkinson is now 33 and living in Brooklyn, where she writes for Vox.

ALISSA WILKINSON: I felt like I - you know, I was kind of getting away with something and learning something about what my peers were experiencing. So Brio was sort of my bridge into what I thought teenagers were like.

MCCAMMON: After an eight-year hiatus, Focus on the Family is reviving Brio. Bob DeMoss, vice⁶ president of content development, says it will once again put forward what he describes as a biblical worldview, including opposition⁷ to LGBT relationships, abortion⁸ and premarital sex.

BOB DEMOSS: The heart and soul of the advice does have its roots in what the Bible says about, you know, various things, from everything from peer pressure and, you know, proper dress to sexual purity.

MCCAMMON: Sorcha Brophy, a sociology fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, also read Brio as a teenager and later researched Christian teen magazines as part of her master's thesis. Brophy says she wonders how the new Brio will navigate⁹ the culture of 2017.

SORCHA BROPHY: I think it'll be interesting to see these things play out in a moment where these teenagers are probably less sheltered than possibly the teenagers who were reading the magazine in the early '90s.

MCCAMMON: Officials at Focus on the Family acknowledge it may seem like a strange time to bring back a print publication, but they think there's a market for it among conservative Christian teenage girls, as it begins showing up in subscribers' mailboxes this week. Sarah McCammon, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF FLXXX'S "ZOMBIE LAND - STEVE COOK REMIX")

1 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

2 wholesome   

adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的

参考例句：

• In actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.实际上我喜欢做的事大都是有助于增进身体健康的。
• It is not wholesome to eat without washing your hands.不洗手吃饭是不卫生的。

3 Vogue   

n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的

参考例句：

• Flowery carpets became the vogue.花卉地毯变成了时髦货。
• Short hair came back into vogue about ten years ago.大约十年前短发又开始流行起来了。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 devouring   

吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光

参考例句：

• The hungry boy was devouring his dinner. 那饥饿的孩子狼吞虎咽地吃饭。
• He is devouring novel after novel. 他一味贪看小说。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

7 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

8 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

9 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。