Christian evangelists seek out children at Portland playgrounds, pools

San Jose Mercury News/AP ^ | 7/22/14 | AP

[Faith Presses On]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- An evangelical Christian group plans to try to convert children as young as 5 at Portland apartment pools, public parks and dozens of other gathering spots this summer -- a campaign that's got some residents upset.

They've banded together in recent weeks to warn parents about the Child Evangelism Fellowship's Good News Club, buying a full-page ad in the local alternative weekly to highlight the group's tactics.

"They pretend to be a mainstream Christian Bible study when in fact they're a very old school fundamentalist sect," said Kaye Schmitt, an organizer with Protect Portland Children, which takes issue with the group's message and the way it's delivering it.

CEF says Protect Portland Children is a shadow group run by atheists who seek to dismantle Christian outreach. The group said its methods are above reproach.

"Children are easy to manipulate, we all know that," said CEF's vice president Moises Esteves. "We don't use any of the schemes and high-pressure tactics that we're accused of. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Esteves' group decided to hold its annual summer mission program in Portland because of the area's irreligious leanings.

[El Cid]

Re: 37

If someone's house was on fire, and the children were inside asleep -- should the parents get rightly upset if someone tries to wake the children up to flee the fire?
Because that is essentially what these Christian missionaries believe themselves to be doing.
Are their parents also equally upset with the satanic bilge water that is pumped into their houses via the TV airways, or the brainwashing that their children are exposed to during their school hours?

[Kackikat]

Jesus commanded “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” And that is what they have been doing since Jesus was here.

[jjotto]

The Jewish teaching, ‘That which is hateful to you do not do to others’ is very different from the Christian ‘Do unto others...’

[Lurking Libertarian]

If someone's house was on fire, and the children were inside asleep -- should the parents get rightly upset if someone tries to wake the children up to flee the fire? Because that is essentially what these Christian missionaries believe themselves to be doing.

So if Moslems or Mormons or Scientologists tried to convert your children without your knowledge, would that be OK with you? They also "believe themselves" to be saving your children from a terrible fate.

[Lurking Libertarian]

The Jewish teaching, ‘That which is hateful to you do not do to others’ is very different from the Christian ‘Do unto others...’

Even if that were true, and it isn't, how is that relevant to this thread?

[jjotto]

Wouldn’t you want someone to be rescue you from sure death? ‘Do unto others...’

Don’t like being proselytized while you go about your business? ‘That which is hateful to you...’

[El Cid]

So if Moslems or Mormons or Scientologists tried to convert your children without your knowledge, would that be OK with you? They also "believe themselves" to be saving your children from a terrible fate.

What do you think?
Talk is talk. We are all exposed to the atheistic and humanist evangelists non-stop. They think they are doing 'god's' work. Moslems, Mormons, Scientologists, JWs, etc - have less of a platform than the atheistic humanists that tell us non-stop that the Sodomite lifestyle is wonderful, and that we should extinguish human life to support mother earth... Children need to be taught what is right, and how to distinguish the truth - because we will all be exposed to lies and garbage throughout our lives.

[daniel1212]

I’m sorry, I don’t approve. It sounds a bit predatory to me to target young children for programming of belief at a public venue like a swimming pool.

That is just what the devil wants and you are dead wrong. Of course it sounds predatory, as the real predators are those like mercurynews.com which favor the MSM indoctrination on such things as "gay rights," ("Mercury News editorial: Supreme Court should declare gay marriage legal;" "Opinion: Supreme Court justices didn't go far enough on Prop. 8," "Elton John says Jesus would support gay marriage," "Why is job discrimination the last piece of the gay-rights puzzle?"...)

That just do not want completion, and if they had their way then every "Bible clubs" and even raising children up in Christian faith would be outlawed, while today's kids are the most Biblically ignorant and morally confused generation America has ever raised, and very few parents raise up their kids in Scriptural evangelical Christian faith.

God has no grandchildren, and at any gven time the church is one generation away from extinction. Evangelical outreach to kids at apartment pools, public parks and dozens of other gathering spots is part of just what this country and world needs, and is that is being "predatory" then you can leave them to the devil, who "as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" (1 Peter 5:8)

Anyone who opposes the public evangelization of the young by those who are presenting the simple basic gospel message, not trying to rope them into a particular elitist church (or have other plans), are siding with the devil.

If that seems too strong, then wait till you see what happens when with those who do not find Christ.

Instead, get a tract like "How to get to Heaven," and "target" kids yourself with them, handing them out with grace wherever you go, along with adult ones: http://www.fellowshiptractleague.org/english.html .

[daniel1212]

Just because a reporter and an atheist group says this groups tactics are predatory, doesn’t mean they are. It means the reporter wants a knee jerk reaction from people reading the article and they got just what they wanted.

You have that right. Pray about the increasing kind of news like this, and overcome evil with good. The goal is to make government and its arms that only agency that can trusted.

[9YearLurker]

I agree.

I don’t think members of this sect would appreciate, say, Muslim outreach to their five-year-old children.

[daniel1212]

If their very own parrents deny Christ and the Supreme Court has banned the Bible from the classroom, then it becomes the responsibility of Child Evangelism Fellowship’s Good News Club to Save these children from the oppressive Godlessness of their family and public schools.

But too many parents in essence want their children to go to Hell. They will send their kids to public schools and end up with indoctrinated offspring favoring sodomy, but if someone offers a kids gospel tract to them then they treat you as if you were Hitler.

[GeronL]

but the homosexuals can recruit them and no reporter will write such inflammatory stuff

[daniel1212]

I don’t care what their message is, you don’t engage children in anything without the parent’s permission. Or at least knowledge.

That should be the norm, but when in Communist country that indoctrinates kids into atheism, and the parent overall follow its ideology, then outreaching in public, and engaging souls young and old with the gospel message, is necessary.

[GeronL]

and public schools do what?

[daniel1212]

The parents should have a strong say in what their kids are exposed to when they are young, IMHO.

Of course, but look around at the freedom kids have to be exposed to all sorts of anti-Christ and immoral junk, while giving them some gospel literature in public and perhaps engaging a group in some brief dialog if wanted is seen as predatory.

Parents should be glad someone is doing so, while if it was Mormons of the local brown shirts then they should be confronted and told to stop.

[MamaB]

Baloney. Public schools do that for hours a day.

[Elsie]

Instead, get a tract like "How to get to Heaven,"...

---

 

John 6:28-29

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

---

[daniel1212]

If someone tried this on my kids they would get one warning then catch a severe beating.

Really?" What is "Tried this?" So who would you beat up? Someone who offered a gospel tract to your kids as they passed by or in a park? Or "At a park on Monday, the group laid out a tarp for children and chairs for their parents. A pair of volunteers led about 12 kids through Bible verses and songs that praised a Christian god. "

"A Christian god." Is it too hard to Jesus? Obviously this was written by an atheist, and the same article gets its warning from a group run by atheists, which assert, "They pretend to be a mainstream Christian Bible study when in fact they're a very old school fundamentalist sect," said Kaye Schmitt, an organizer with Protect Portland Children, which takes issue with the group's message and the way it's delivering it.

Whose side are you on?

[imardmd1]

Approach my kids at that age, and I’ll just about anyone to get lost.

CEF's clients are those whose parents are lost, who have never clued their dependents on sin, the Savior, and salvation.

I am acquainted with adults who were attracted by, and became saved, because CEF gave them the same Good News given to their children. And this includes adult parents raised up in and attending Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Catholic cultures, who though superficially religious, had no idea they were spiritually lost.

For CEF to approach my grandchildren or anyone else's children, I will tell them, "Go to it!" and give them my support and my encouragement.

They are obeying the Lord's ordinance of the Great Commission.

[daniel1212]

Actually, unless they are acting in a very creepy manner (kind of like the one I described) I applaud their efforts. If they are just passing out tracts - go for it. In today's society, children are going to be exposed 24/7 to unfiltered sewage from their schools, and from their televisions. Exposing them to a glimmer of the Truth is a kindness.

The Christian common sense gene again. You cannot help it; you were born again that way.