WYA calls on members to show support for Justin Bieber

Subject: WYA calls on members to show support for Justin Bieber

Dear WYA Members,

Perhaps many of you have already heard of 16-year-old pop artist Justin Bieber? You may also have read or seen the recent attacks on him when he spoke out against abortion and talked about his views on sex during a Rolling Stone interview. If you haven’t, here is a quick video on CNN to give you a brief background: http://bit.ly/gMezbP

It is unfortunate that when a young person speaks about a serious topic such as abortion – especially when his opinion is not the same as the “popular opinion” – people start to cast doubt on him, calling them “too young” to know anything. We, at the World Youth Alliance, know that our youthfulness is not a negative thing.

At WYA we work to train young people to understand the concept of the dignity of the human person, to immerse young people in a lived experience of their dignity through our cultural projects, and to be the voice of the youth defending human dignity in international organizations. We are proud that our members number among the young people in this world who care, and are willing to stand up for what they believe is consistent with human dignity in relation to pressing current issues and concerns.

We would now like to call on our members to show their support to a fellow young person who stood up for his opinions – and is now receiving media backlash for it. We have started by publishing a blogpost by our very own International Director of Operations, Chris White, which you can view here –http://bit.ly/gkWYMj . In his post, he says:

“While he has been criticized for being naïve and uninformed, we at the World Youth Alliance believe he should be applauded for speaking out on issues that affect and influence the lives of young people. Bieber’s statements point to the importance of making responsible decisions and developing self-control. The World Youth Alliance and our one million members thank him for taking this stand.”

You can do your own part to help, too! Here’s how – over the next 24 hours, we are activating all our members from our five regions to make their voice heard through social media in three simple ways:

(a) Express your support through your Profile Picture

Add the World Youth Alliance twibbon to your profile picture to be recognized as a WYA member. Visit this page to customize your profile picture: