Church Kidnaps his own members

[lilah]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/church-stages- ... BsCDfZmSAr

Warning link goes straight to video

A church pastor in Pennsylvania could face felony charges for staging a fake kidnapping of youth group students in order to teach them about religious persecution.

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.

The church leaders who organized the fake hostage situation later told law enforcement that the event was meant to be a lesson to the children on how Christians are persecuted in places around the world, but the "educational" event may actually constitute a crime, Chardo said.

"We are conducting an investigation. False imprisonment of a child is a felony offense, and carries up to 10 years in prison," Chardo said. "We are still in the investigative phase, trying to find out what happened."

Chardo said law enforcement officers are interviewing many of the children and adults involved in the event.

One 14-year-old church member who was terrified by the kidnapping told ABC affiliate WHTM that she was outraged the leaders did not warn the children or stop the exercise once they saw how upset everyone was.

"They said, 'Just do what we say and you won't be hurt,'" she told WHTM. "I thought, 'Why not tell us that it was a joke?'"

The girl and her parents have filed a complaint against the church, citing both physical and emotional harm, according to WHTM.

The pastor, John Lanza, told the news station that the teens were not let in on the truth "to secure the shock value of it and to make it much more real because those who are threatened don't have a warning. It was a youth event to illustrate what others have encountered on a regular basis."

Lanza and the church did not immediately return calls for comment.

[Coconut Flan]

Who thought that would be a good idea? I guess the better question is why didn't they stop and think. Once again, you can't cure stupid.

[doggie]

I posted this months ago I was hoping for a followup.

[Patsy]

Could this be used as a precedent against parents and facilitators who kidnap children for boot camp? Please, someone, tell me it could.

[Kitty]

Could this be used as a precedent against parents and facilitators who kidnap children for boot camp? Please, someone, tell me it could.

I hope so too.

[Coconut Flan]

I think the difference is parents. A parent can determine that a minor should go to camp, private school, boot camp, etc. and it isn't kidnapping or holding against the will. It's exercising the parents right to do what they think is best for the child and the courts will uphold that unless it's proven to be abusive or damaging. A non-parent or non-guardian doesn't have that right. The pastor might have been in the clear if he'd gotten signed permission slips from the parents before his little bit of drama. I doubt that they would all have agreed to this though.

[debrand]

This is just dumb. There is no justification for kidnapping the kids. Although I bet some idiot parents will side with the pastor.

Few American children will ever need worry about their church being invaded by crazy people. I realize that Christians like to think that they are persecuted but in reality America is a very safe place to be Christian.

Just curious. Are there any reliable news reports where Christian churches in other countries are invaded on a regular basis? I'd like to know what event the pastor used as a basis for his action. Was there a foreign church that was invaded by armed gun men recently? Even in countries that aren't friendly toward Christians, is this a common occurence? And how likely is it that these American kids would visit that country? Not everyone decides to be a missionary in a hostile nation.

[dawbs]

This:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/2 ... 11728.html

says unlawful imprisonment charges