Good News Club Teaches it's A-OK to Kill Unbelievers

[Glass Cowcatcher]

Has anyone here read Katherine Stewart's book?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1586488430

I have it on hold at the library, but it hasn't come in yet.

I have. It was really startling. Prayer in school might not be technically legal, but the fundies have legal protection for many other outlets of brainwashing.

[Mela99]

I'm half-terrified to even read this book... do I WANT to know?

Going after kids. One Halloween back home, some freaky ass religious family passed out these two piece of candy cards. One said something like "God's Law" on the one side -- the white, minty sweet piece of candy -- and some spicy-gross-licoricey piece for "Unbeliever's". The idea was when kids would taste both, they'd prefer God.

::sighs::

[Elle]

I'm half-terrified to even read this book... do I WANT to know?

Going after kids. One Halloween back home, some freaky ass religious family passed out these two piece of candy cards. One said something like "God's Law" on the one side -- the white, minty sweet piece of candy -- and some spicy-gross-licoricey piece for "Unbeliever's". The idea was when kids would taste both, they'd prefer God.

::sighs::

That is so funny. I wonder how many kids they "converted," or how many even read it. The day someone is converted because one candy is sweeter than another is the day pigs fly.

[QAF_Rocks]

I have. It was really startling. Prayer in school might not be technically legal, but the fundies have legal protection for many other outlets of brainwashing.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to it. I had heard about Good News Clubs for years, so I was glad someone decided to write a book about them. Can you imagine if a group was targeting children from Christian families for conversion? These fundies would scream bloody murder. Yet they think it's perfectly okay to go after other people's kids. Guess the golden rule doesn't apply when it comes to "saving souls."

[Swamptribe]

Exodus 17

14And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. 15And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi: 16For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Soooo, did god lie in the bible? Or is this a mistake in the bible? Because, remembrance of Amalek is permanently preserved in it.

[QAF_Rocks]

Wow, this documentary is... scary, to say the least. I have no words. :o

EXm0ROJlL1c

The GNC lesson materials include nearly 5000 references to sin, over 1000 references to obedience, 930 references to punishment, and 300 allusions to, or direct mentions of, hell. These themes are relentlessly and repeatedly woven into almost every hour-long lesson. Several times, children are directly told that they "deserve to die" because they were born with a sinful nature. In one activity, a child is given an envelope containing an insert with the word "DEATH" written on it, and told that this is what they have "earned" as the "wages" of their sin. In another activity, a sign with the word "SIN" is hung around a child's neck, and then the students prompted to accuse that child of being sinful.

By contrast, "grace" is mentioned a mere 58 times, the "Second Commandment" to love thy neighbor as thyself only once, and the Golden Rule is not mentioned at all.

This is no accident. CEF trains GNC staff and volunteers, most of whom are very nice and personable people, to focus their attention "on the lostness of the child without Christ."

You will find few hints of this dark emphasis in Good News Club promotional videos, such as the professionally edited video of Harmony Elementary Good News Club (Statesville, NC) at http://youtu.be/wGx2l93-D00, or of a public school GNC in Samoset, FL, at http://youtu.be/KQD4hXfILxk. But those videos are also worth viewing for additional context.

While attracting children with snacks, fun activities, songs, games, and prizes, the scripted message GNC teachers give those children demeans them with a message of shame and terror to induce mental and doctrinal conformity. While children enjoy the fun activities and fellowship with peers, they are left with a confusing and dangerous residue of fear, shame, and self-loathing that can last a lifetime.

Yeah, no kidding! This whole thing is really sickening. It's bad enough when people indoctrinate their own children, but this group goes after other people's. A lot of those parents have no idea what their children are being exposed to. It's not some mild Sunday School lesson about how nice Jesus was. It's a lesson in hardcore fundamentalism. :(

[NjoyingNsanity]

Okay time to call them on thier bullshit, so if a pregnant woman is an atheist or of another religion do they kill her now and murder the fetus along with her, or wait until the precious life inside her is born and then kill em both? Also WTF did the animals belonging to the nonbelievers do to deserve to die? I don't recall hearing that Jesus died for Fido and Fluffy's sins too, and isn't a bit unfair to Fido and Fluffy to kill them without at least telling them the gospel and giving them a chance to convert? I.m beeing silly and sarcastic here, but the whole fucking stupidity of it caused me to imagine a bunch of fundies giving housepets an alter call before slaughtering them.

[Glass Cowcatcher]

My kids are starting public school in 2 months, this scares me:

The Bible has thousands of passages that may serve as the basis for instruction and inspiration. Not all of them are appropriate in all circumstances.

The story of Saul and the Amalekites is a case in point. It's not a pretty story, and it is often used by people who don't intend to do pretty things. In the book of 1 Samuel (15:3), God said to Saul:

...

This fall, more than 100,000 American public school children, ranging in age from four to 12, are scheduled to receive instruction in the lessons of Saul and the Amalekites in the comfort of their own public school classrooms. The instruction, which features in the second week of a weekly "Bible study" course, will come from the Good News Club, an after-school program sponsored by a group called the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF). The aim of the CEF is to convert young children to a fundamentalist form of the Christian faith and recruit their peers to the club.

There are now over 3,200 clubs in public elementary schools, up more than sevenfold since the 2001 supreme court decision, Good News Club v Milford Central School, effectively required schools to include such clubs in their after-school programing.

..The first thing the curriculum makes clear is that if God gives instructions to kill a group of people, you must kill every last one:

"That was pretty clear, wasn't it?" the manual tells the teachers to say to the kids.

Even more important, the Good News Club wants the children to know, the Amalakites were targeted for destruction on account of their religion, or lack of it. The instruction manual reads:

The instruction manual goes on to champion obedience in all things. In fact, pretty much every lesson that the Good News Club gives involves reminding children that they must, at all costs, obey. If God tells you to kill nonbelievers, he really wants you to kill them all. No questions asked, no exceptions allowed...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... h-genocide

[Guest Anonymous]

Alecto posted that one here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10663