Good News Club

For those of you who are unaware, I am absolutely opposed to any form of religious teaching when it comes to young children without parents supervision (and even certain parent supervision is iffy).  I know there is a lot of people who have the complete belief...

"Give me the children until they are seven and anyone may have them afterwards."
- St. Francis Xavier (Spanish Basque religious leader, saint, & apostle to India (1506 - 1552))

but in all honestly think about that. The only thing that decided a child's religion is the fact they were born to you in the United States, and in most cases the only reason you were your own religion is because it was the religion of your parents.

What this blog is about is about a group known as the Good News Club.  Good News Club is a weekly evangelical program for 5–12 year old children featuring a Bible lesson, songs, memory verses, and games. It is the leading ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), which creates the curriculum, translates it for use around the world, and trains instructors to teach it.  I think it would be a great opportunity for adults who have chosen their religious beliefs on their own to gather and talk about their beliefs and learn more about what they are passionate about.  What I have an issue with is centrally locating these institutions in public schools and the blatant focus on child sinfullness.  CEF states that "we are intentional about evangelism" and that "attention is focused on the lostness of the child without Christ." CEF also states that in order to appropriate salvation, man has a responsibility "to recognize and agree with what God has said about man's sinful condition, thus to see himself as a lost sinner."  Well what about people who are not Christian, what about those people who directly believe something that is a sin to the teachings of this organization.  If we are going by the teachings of the bible, then if a child comes across another child with a different religion, they are taught by the bible to...

"If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant; 17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; 17:4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel; 17:5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die."

Deuteronomy 17

Now I have heard the rebuttal too many times to not know it's coming, "You can't use Deuteronomy, I don't believe in things in that part of the bible" (ie. working on the Sabbath, homosexuality, contact with pigs, eating shellfish, selling your daughter into slavery, etc.).  Which gets us into another issue about picking and choosing your morals like an atheist, but I digress.  Do you really want your 5-12 year old child hearing about this and then making snap decisions on what to do about the Muslims, Jews, or non believer around them?  I for one would not want the children calling my son a sinner and telling him he is going to hell because he does not believe their 1 of 30,000 interpretation of the bible.  He will make his own choices about his faith or lack there of when he gets older and can make that decision on his own without indoctrination from me or other institutions.  This group doesn't care about any of those rights, their goals are:

"CEF began an initiative to move Good News Clubs from neighborhood homes into public elementary schools. It launched an "Adopt-A-School" program to recruit evangelical "church partners" to open clubs in public elementary schools and train their volunteers. In 2002, only about 1000 out of nearly 4800 clubs met in public schools. By 2011, over 3500 out of nearly 5000 clubs met in public schools. CEF reports that it "hopes to one day have a Good News Club in every elementary school in America."

I personally hope this will not be the case.


UPDATE:
I finished reading this after writing this piece:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Good-News-Club-Christian/dp/1586488430

In 2012, journalist Katherine Stewart published The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children, describing the local controversy that erupted when Good News Club came to Seattle's Loyal Heights Elementary School and chronicling what she learned as an undercover reporter at CEF's triennial National Convention in 2010. Separately, Stewart has reported on complaints by parents of children of other faiths being warned, by their Good News Club classmates, that they may go to hell, and of Good News Club's teaching, as an object lesson on obedience, of I Samuel 15:3's divine imperative to "attack the Amalekites" and "put to death men and women, children and infants."


For more information

Wikipedia Entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_News_Club

Good News Club Website
http://www.cefonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=13&Itemid=100049/