Church decides to scare the shit out of kids...

[Archae]

When I was 11 or 12, I was lured to a movie theater to see a free "motorcycle movie."
It really was one of those lurid "Christian Endtimes" movies, and after the movie, we were preached to about the "Antichrist" and such.
And they wouldn't let us leave.

Several years later I saw on the news that the fundy group had broken up due to a sex/money scandal.
Good.

But churches still are pulling shit like that, apparently.

Staged abduction at youth group meeting leaves teen scared, horrified

Reported by: Christina Butler

Contributor: Nate Wardle

A church youth group meeting comes to a horrifying halt when men bust in blind and bound the children and throw them into a van. But it was all staged by church leaders.

While at least one child was injured and traumatized, those leaders say they stand behind their "lesson."

Church leaders say this was a learning exercise designed to teach about religious freedom. But one girl was so shaken up that her parents have now gone to police.

http://www.whptv.com/news/local/story/Staged-abduction-at-youth-group-meeting-leaves/32sF2v9FAkul6G68Mws4Kg.cspx

[immoderate]

1. Well meaning meets utterly stupid.

It takes a village idiot! Well, a congregation of them.



--imm

[jmowreader]

2. How in HELL is this supposed to teach about religious freedom?

I know a lot of churches teach that persecution is something to be expected when you're a Christian, but this?

[Archae]

4. I guess they were "re-enacting" the old Commie raids on churches in the old USSR.

Sounds like the church "leadership" never got out of the Cold War.

[Mariana]

11. I bet they told the kids that this will happen to them

for real, sometime in the future, and that they should be prepared for it. Lots of Christian churches teach that Christians will be (or are currently being) persecuted.

[LibAsHell]

3. Psychotic behavior

Should be prosecuted.

[Speck Tater]

5. What it really taught them was...

see what crazy religious fanatics are capable of! They may know better than to trust religious fruit cakes again. Let's hope so.

[Initech]

6. Culture of fear at work.

[SamG]

7. Viewing the video in the link...

just terrifies me, an adult, that anyone would do this to children in the name of Christianity.

"We never meant to harm or injure anyone, that was obviously an accident."

The seventh grader is smarter than the adults.

[Poll_Blind]

8. This was a crime against those children and should have been treated as such.

It genuinely put the children in fear of their lives in a very realistic, very hyper-traumatic way. Nuff fucking said.

PB

[saras]

9. Good thing the kids haven't learned "stand your ground"

[Mariana]

10. Wait a minute. The parents didn't know ahead of time

that this was going to be done? They didn't sign permission slips or anything? Wouldn't that make this a kidnapping? All the church personnel involved in this mess should be prosecuted, and then the church and each individual sued into oblivion.

If the parents did know about it and gave permission. SHAME ON THEM!

Who wants to bet that most of the parents will continue taking their kids to this church?

[Mopar151]

12. Is Dennis Rader (BTK) a deacon in this "church"?

That's a major fucking crime, Jack! A violent felony where I come from, punishable by decades of hard time. What's next, some "educational rape" from Fr. Porter/Shanley/Goeghan?

Bearing in mind that notorious serial killer Gary Schaefer (VT) was a Sunday School teacher in the "Christadelphian" church. How do I know about this? His uncle (big wheel in the same church) was my Dad's boss......

[AsahinaKimi]

13. some people need to go to jail over this

Who the hell do they think they are?

[DLevine]

14. Why have these idiots not been arrested?

Last I checked, kidnapping is a crime. I hope at least some of these parents file lawsuits. Disgusting beyond words.

[Brickbat]

15. Whatever happened to the lock-ins where the girls snuck in the basement windows after hours?

[Quantess]

16. This was a real kidnapping.

Oh sure, they meant well. They weren't going to hurt anyone. But it was a real kidnapping, allright.

This is so stupid. Did none of them think? Or did the accomplices just go along with whatever the pastor said?

[NAO]

17. When I was a teen, we had a staged "Communist Raid" at summer camp

right out of the movie "Red Dawn".

It was Summer Baptist Bible Camp, about 1982, and we were pulled out of our beds in the middle of the night by camp councilors and rushed into the forest. We were told the Communists had invaded and that they were sending special forces against the Christians, especially Christian youth.

The "Communists" had jeeps with searchlights and we had to hide face down in the pine needles.

Later, after the "Communists" moved on in their search, our camp leader got out a shovel and dug up a Bible that had been buried under a tree marked with a cross.

After they felt the lesson had "sunk in", we were debriefed and told that this could actually happen, that this was how life really was in some countries. Then we pledged allegiance to the flag, and sang the Star Spangled Banner.

Afterwards, we were told NEVER to tell anyone how many guns or how many Bibles we had in our house, because then the Communists would know how many to search for. Seriously.