Posted on 07/23/2014 11:09:55 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
So do I, especially when the insensitive religionist scoffers also ignore the basic etiquette of communication.
But the "in-your-face" spiritual waterboarding of children is most definitely not the CEF style, as the previous mocker you quoted falsely maintains.
The CEF mode is to couch the gospel in such simple language and illustrations, within a child's vocabulary, and tenderly offered, that the Biblical truths cannot be denied by child or adult.
Regarding your Scripture quotation (and the translation of krino in the perfect tense is excellent), its following context amplifies the issue being discussed:
"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (Jn 3:19 AV).
It is precisely those who are under condemnation and who love the darkness--who don't wish their children's spirits to be illuminated nor their evil deeds exposed--that object to the CEF approach, even though it is done with considerate methodology subject to obtaining parental consent.
(BTW, font-blasting is not exactly a polite way to present one's theology, as it belongs in the same category as other "in-your-face" tactics.)
CEF does not skirt that issue, which is why I can recommend adoption of their method of proclaming the gospel not only to my children, but to others.
If you are, you are on the side of defeating the exercise of the freedom of speech in a Constitutional society, propriety or not. And that is not the general practice in these FR forums.
How they wish to feel is a personal inviolable characteristic of any society, free or repressive. What they choose to do about it is not. AFIK
Really. And where is that in the Constitution? The First Amendment protects us against speech control BY THE GOVERNMENT. We do NOT have the unlimited right to approach a stranger’s child. Besides, if someone did this to my child, and I am a Christian and my children are Christians, I’d be suspicious and offended.
If we have the “right” to do this, then Satanists and witches have the right to do this. NO.
Unfortunately, it’s not your place to silence the speech of others. My children having been hearing about Islam throughout their school careers.
If I, a 32 year old adult without children, kept approaching strangers’ children(not that I ever would) I’d soon find myself handcuffed in the back of a police car.
Neither is sword swinging, but it got Baalam's asses' attention!
Matthew 15:16
"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them.
Matthew 231. Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
2. "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
3. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
4. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5. "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;
6. they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;
7. they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them `Rabbi.'
8. "But you are not to be called `Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.
9. And do not call anyone on earth `father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
10. Nor are you to be called `teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.
11. The greatest among you will be your servant.
12. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
14. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
15. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
16. "Woe to you, blind guides! You say, `If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.'
17. You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?
18. You also say, `If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.'
19. You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20. Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
21. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.
22. And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.
23. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
24. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
28. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
30. And you say, `If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
31. So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
32. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
33. "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
34. Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
35. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
36. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
37. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
38. Look, your house is left to you desolate.
39. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, `Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' "
Mark 7:26-27
26. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27. "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
The first authority to keep you from trying to control his speech is the speaker. And you can go as far in suppressing him as your ingenuity and politics carries you. In a free society, that is, Satanism, witches, Muslims, educators, or whatever. They are all here, and they are active.
What is your point?
Do you have a point to make?
I think the atheist newspapers and AP got what they wanted out of this story. There is a difference between looking around for unattended children at a park and then going up to them & telling them the Gospel & asking them to ask their parents if they can attend a Christian event AND, in contrast, seeing families and going up to them. It seems from the one parent quoted in the story, that the evangelists involved the parents. What is actually meant by this story is that the message is crafted to children and the evangelists go looking for them on playgrounds and at pools but it would be more accurate to say they are seeking families. Remember, too, if the evangelists were “targeting” unaccompanied children rather than approaching the parents instead, that “stranger danger” concern would be clearly stated in the story. I don’t think they’re doing anything wrong in that sense. They’re setting up a mobile VBS and inviting kids to it, by approaching them with their parents, I’m sure.
Continuing the context:
"And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed" (Mk Mar 7:28-30 AV).
Shows a person of faith in Christ. And the relation to the CEF, which is the issue under consideration?
LOL. I think my point, refuting your erroneous spew, is perfectly clear. Figure it out.
Wrong. If you read my posts I said I would give a warning first. If I have to tell an adult more than once to stop talking to your child then there is a problem. I don’t know why you don’t see this. It’s completely inappropriate no matter what the subject.
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