Thursday, 29 March 2012
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Staged Kidnapping: Youth Group Gone Too Far?
Teenagers at the Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church in Middletown, Pa., were surprised when they attended a youth group meeting at the church on March 21 and were ambushed by what seemed to be real kidnappers.Adults, including an off-duty cop, brandished weapons and put bags over the heads of the children, ages 13 through 18, and forced them into a church van. The group was driven to the home of an assistant pastor, who was presented before the group with a seemingly bloodied and bruised face, according to Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo.
One of the adults used a real AK-47, though the gun was unloaded, Chardo said.
If the kid gets forced to go somewhere, that isn’t a “fake” kidnapping, it is a kidnapping.
Pointing a firearm at a kid who is being kidnapped is assault, regardless of whether or not it is loaded.
It is a crime. Kidnapping is a crime. False imprisonment is a crime. AK-47, aimed at children and treated like a toy?
These people should be prosecuted.
What would have happened if one or more of the kids had resisted the attack?
What are your thoughts about this? Is this a case of good intentions but bad actions, or did the adults of this church really commit a crime?
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Comments (38)
I mean if I was a kid from PA, I would take out my hand gun and defend myself.
I sure hope those poor kids didn't have any traumatizing thoughts after that. I'm pretty sure I would have if it happened to me.. I'm easily-scared. But prosecution might be a bit too harsh. Of course it's wrong to scare kids like that, but I think they're old enough to "handle" the scare or enough to understand whatever lesson was behind the whole thing..
Wait, what was the purpose?
I'd report this incident to the police and if that did not work, discuss options with a lawyer. I won't put up with any child of mine being put through a trauma by nutjobs.
I'm guessing maybe they wanted to give them a glimpse into real persecution? If that's what it was, it was a good thought, but very, very poor execution.
I wish I knew more of the story, had some sort of explanation from the leadership or perhaps heard feedback from the students. Is there more to this story or were only the actions reported without any context? If we're not looking at the whole story then I'm not interested in a discussion that questions the ethics of it.
I don't think this is something to play around with, or to make light of, but the U.S. is already trigger happy on the prosecution side of things, and I don't think we need to be fanning that flame any more than we have to. So unless someone was hurt, the CHURCH needs to take its own action in this case.
How absolutely absurd.
This would be the definition of shoving religion down someone's throat.
Christ is the only one who can call, guide and or drag someone to Him. Staged horrifics by other men will only ammount to counseling and a sheer hatred for the church and Christians who are not hearing from Christ themselves.
I'd ask the christians if they know Christ.
-Coral
Yeah, that is a bit much.
When I was in youth group, we had a youth minister, who would talk to the parents ahead of time and swear them to secrecy Then once or maybe twice a year, he would take the church van, and around 9 or 10 o clock at night, drive by all the houses and drag the kids out of their house in whatever pajamas or clothing they we wearing and take us down to the church for movies, popcorn and bible study. It was fun and something we looked forward to.
I think the main issue that people have with what happened in the staged kidnapping this revelife post is about, is they went too real. real guns, real weapons and the bags over the head. If they toned it down, and told the kids ahead of time that sometime during the year, they might be kidnapped and taken to the church for a bible study. I would have less of an issue. so all in all I think less realistic, more fun, and some sort of advance notince that something would happen on an unknown date, I think the kids would have had more fun and it could be a good annual event.
Crossed lines way too far.
Here's a link to the news article.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/church-stages-fake-kidnapping-youth-group-students/story?id=16012844#.T3W4ptWqmSo
Describes the purpose and intent. Still a dumb idea, no matter how well intentioned.
Much ta do about nothing. An atheist story from an atheist blogger. Nothing but anti-Christianity here. Why don't you keep your atheist BS on your own blog where it belongs!
The DA has no idea what the constitution says. First amendment by far trumps what this idiot, Pennsulvania DA is saying. They have the right to raise their children in any religous teaching they wish. This girl and her mother can leave the church. No lawyer would ever take the lawsuit they claim or think they can get because it would be thrown out of court based on a 1st amendment trump card. Nothing here but bad judgment with good intentions. The little crybaby and her Mom need to be booted out of the church.
This is nothing but a case of bad judgment but good intentions. No big deal.
No crime has been committed and I can guarentee you 100% if they are charged either the charges will be dismissed or they will be found not guilty under the 1st amendment freedom of religion clause. No judge or prosecuter or DA in their right mind would try to prosecute them and if they did they would never ever win. One person is complaining and her mother because; "They see a goldmine at the end of this lawsuit!"
You know you weak willie nillie Christians are really naive to be sucher punched by a proclaimed God-hater as the Op is. You should know better than this! Think for yourself and do not allow yourself to be led by a self proclaimed God-Hater as this OP is. This person is a wolf in sheeps clothing eternally damned. What good does light have with darkness?
God Bless,
Brother RobertLeeRE
@RobertLeeRE@xanga - For all intents and purposes it was a real kidnapping to the children involved. It IS false imprisonment because the children were not aware it wasn't real and they could walk out without being harmed/killed. What about the psychological trauma they suffered? Oh, right "This is nothing but a case of bad judgment but good intentions. No big deal. " Like they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
@caroliiineee@xanga - They were trying to teach them about religious persecution in other parts of the world.
While I think persecution is an issue that all of us need to be more aware of, I don't think this was the best way to go about it.
I don't understand... Why were they being "fake"-kidnapped anyway?
Regardless, yes, they should be prosecuted. It's like if two kids were
forced to strip naked and perform sexual acts on each other or some
creepy dude... He can't just say "oh, this was all fake" and the kids
shrug it off. Screw that. You can't kidnap my child whether or not it
was claimed to be "fake."
No charges filed means they shouldn't get prosecuted.
Lighten up.
Oh I am not surprised by this at ALL!
More Christian nut jobs -- armed with assault rifles - loaded or unloaded it doesn't matter because in the perception of the children being terrorized they were real.Too bad the police didn't witness this and take out a few christian terrorists and we would all be better off for it.It sorta sounds like the fully grown and athletic christian teacher Iutheran School who used to take me to the basement - make me pull my pants down - and then paddle me with a wooden handled janitors brush in order to "teach me to study"! LOL IDIOTS are the title for ANYONE who throws money at this evil and corrupt religion.It would have helped a lot if the author of this post included the intent and purpose of the 'kidnapping'.
I read this story before in my newspaper, and it said that there was a missionary trip somewhere abroad (where religious persecution is still alive) and so the kidnapping was to show the kids what they could possibly face.
@RobertLeeRE@xanga - That's rich! It is you that does not understand the constitution and if you think that the first amendment protects adults from abusing children you need a lesson in the law.
@RobertLeeRE@xanga - I'm a first amendments attorney (fresh out of law school) and you have no idea what you're talking about. It's terribly hilarious.
If you take the religious aspect out of this and just think of the scenario. Some adults "pretending to kidnap" children to teach them a lesson is ridiculous. People need to understand that shock value is one of the WORST methods of teaching ever. These kids won't remember the lesson, but simply will remember being terrified for their lives.
MADD does the same thing. They have the best intentions, but showing teens gruesome footage to try and stop them from drinking and driving just gets them upset and doesn't teach anything. All I remember from any MADD presentation was it was really sad, I was embarassed to cry infront of my classmates, and then I skipped every other presentation for the rest of my school years. I don't remember the message.
Also, the xanga post did a bad job of reporting the incident by not bothering to post the reason behind why they did it.
It doesn't matter what the adults were trying to prove. It's just wrong! Who knows what mental and emotional scarring happened?!
@fool_in_the_rain121289@xanga - Haha, you have got to be the dumbest attorney ever to think you can over turn the first ammendment. What a cracker jack box license you have.
Is it for April Fools?
@RobertLeeRE@xanga -
The Supreme Court disagrees with your analysis of how the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment works.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Division_v._Smith .