At lunchtime on a recent Wednesday afternoon, 20 elementary school children file out the door of the Tumalo Community School and into a mobile trailer with the words, “Child Evangelism Fellowship” emblazoned on its side. After some brief chatter, the students take their seats, dig into their hamburgers and stare expectantly at the adult at the front of the room, who quickly grabs their collective energy and attention by leading them in what has become a familiar song for the group.
“Good news! Good news! Christ died for me. Good news! Good news! If I believe; Good news! Good news! I’m saved eternally. That’s wonderful EXTRA (with fist pump) good news!”
After settling down inside the Good News Club trailer, the students spend the next hour studying Bible verses, asking questions about God and earning prizes, as their peers eat lunch and run on the playground 150 yards away. The scenario is nothing new in Central Oregon where the Good News volunteers have been proselytizing outside public schools for decades. Today, though, its relationship is closer than ever thanks to court rulings that have opened up public schools to religious groups like the national Good News Club organization. It’s an uneasy truce. Many religious groups including Good News would like more access to the classroom. Meanwhile civil liberties groups and some parents think that religious groups are operating too freely within earshot of the secular schoolyard.
It’s the fact that Bible lessons are happening adjacent to public school property during the school day that has some parents raising their eyebrows and questioning whether the school district is doing enough to police religious organizations like the Ponderosa Chapter of the Good News Club.
At Tumalo Community School, one of the 19 public schools in Central Oregon visited by the Good News Club, the Ponderosa Chapter has two of these 35-foot long white trailers, each complete with benches, white boards and Bible verses tacked to the walls. Local chapter leaders estimate that they work with 400 to 450 students each month. Students are involved with consent from parents, who must sign permission slips allowing the children to visit the trailers.
“I think, in the public school, it’s important [for students] to learn as much as they can about Jesus and the Bible and their faith,” says Kim Hockin, who is a volunteer teacher and whose children attend the Good News Club at Bend’s Pine Ridge Elementary, which she leads.
But other parents are not as enthused and find the close relationship between schools and the Good News Clubs confusing and troubling.
“It’s just like a billboard beside the school,” says Paula Bullwinkel, a substitute teacher and parent of a child at Juniper Elementary. “You don’t provide religious services at school. It just makes me mad.”
Trailers are just one way that the clubs reach out to public school students. The Good News Clubs conduct meetings inside several school buildings, albeit after regular school hours, a little-known fact that’s made a number of parents feel like they’ve been left in the dark.
“The concern I have is that fuzzy line between religion and public schools, especially if they’re holding meetings in the school,” says Kolleen Yake, a parent of an Elk Meadow student.
CLUBS ARE LEGAL, BUT SCHOOLS HAVE DISCRETION
In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled state-sponsored school prayer unconstitutional (see: Abington School District vs. Schemmp). But a 2001 Supreme Court case (Good News Club vs. Milford Central School District) ruled in favor of the clubs and stated that the Clubs’ right to free speech had been violated by the district. The Court decided that the Good News Club should be afforded the same access to school areas as other non-religious clubs. School districts have some leeway, however, and some have banned the Good News Clubs. In Minnesota, the Elk River Area School District prohibited the clubs from passing out materials at open houses. In 2009, the Childhood Evangelism Fellowship, the Good News Clubs’ parent organization, challenged and had the ban overturned, but courts ruled that school districts are permitted to restrict access to non-school clubs, as long as that it is done unilaterally. Elk River responded by adopting a closed forum policy, which only allows district materials to be distributed to students.
Interestingly, members of the Bend-La Pine school board are shaky on the district’s policy surrounding the faith-based clubs. Board member Beth Bagley, a deputy district attorney who is running for judge, said she was unaware of the Clubs’ existence, and fellow board member Kelly Goff notes that while she does not allow her own children to attend the Clubs, she is unaware of any overarching district policy on the matter.
“I don’t believe religion should be taught in public schools,” said Goff. “I do know that there are a lot of friends that feel the same way I do. I also have friends who are deeply religious and feel strongly about the clubs. And, you know, to each his own.”
The Bend-La Pine School District has, however, set guidelines on what material can be advertised on the school grounds. One of the districts’ three guiding policies on the matter states, “material will have educational value and will enhance the district program.”
Flyers for the Clubs are located in school offices and on bulletin boards next to adverts for AirLink and Camp Fire USA. From the flyers to the trailers parked out back, so far, principals within the district say that the Good News Clubs have not caused a disruption.
“It’s really not for me to say (whether the presence of the Clubs is right or wrong) since it’s a constitutional right,” says Tumalo Community School Principal Michelle Herron.
THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE
After singing their welcome song, in the trailer outside Herron’s school, the Good News Club volunteer teacher launches into her weekly Bible verse lesson. This week is John 3:16 – which says that God gave the world his only son and that whomever believes in him shall live eternally. As the hour wears on, the children become increasingly fidgety, but ask some tough questions of their volunteer leader.
“Who is God?” asks one child. “If God created the universe, who created God?” another wants to know.
Even if elementary students don’t fully understand the explanations, they have an incentive to come back. Volunteers hand out candy and other treats for attendance and participation. They also seek to make missionaries of the young audience. If the students bring in their peers from school, they will be rewarded with points and prizes during their next visit to the trailer.
“All [I] wanted to do was go into the trailer because of the candy,” says 25-year-old Bend native Naime Conrad, who visited the Good News Club as a first-grader at Bear Creek Elementary. As a youngster, all Conrad understood was that kids came out of that trailer with candy and she wanted some, too.
Yake, the Elk Meadow parent, worries that young students might view the trailers as Conrad did and lump the practices of the Club with their school experience.
“To them it’s sort of fun, but there’s a conversion there that’s their ultimate goal. It seems extremely targeted to a very vulnerable population of students,” says Yake.
THE ORGANIZATION’S BACKGROUND
While the atmosphere in the Good News Clubs is in many ways similar to the nearby public school classrooms, there are some key differences. Most notable is the fact that the curriculum is set not by teachers and education professionals but by a group with a distinct political ideology that is rooted in the group’s conservative evangelical philosophy and taught by a volunteer who has completed a one-and-a-half-hour-long training session, according to the Ponderosa chapter’s co-directors Betty and Terry Edwards.
The Clubs’ parent organization, Child Evangelism Fellowship, founded in 1937, operates worldwide and has three ministries geared toward children. A hyper-organized and well-funded machine, the CEF certainly has the means to reach even more children in the future. The organization counts roughly 750 full-time employees and a small army of volunteers. An audited financial statement from June 2011, puts the CEF’s total assets at nearly $10 million. In 2001 alone, 16,805 children were involved with Good News Clubs in the U.S. By 2009, that figure grew to 139,221, an increase of 728 percent, according to a recent book Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children by Katherine Stewart who spent roughly two years researching the organization.
In the course of her research, Stewart, who has reported for the New York Times and Reuters, came across, THE PLAN, a comprehensive, 400-plus-page guide outlining how to start up a Good News Club. Well scripted and rehearsed, the multi-million dollar organization leaves little to chance, she says.
“It’s kind of like the McDonald’s of evangelism,” says Stewart in a recent phone interview.
Even though the volunteer-led Good News Clubs operate in more than 3,000 public schools, little has been reported on them, until the release of Stewart’s book this past January. In the book, Stewart reveals details about the financial and political engine behind the Good News Club and its fundamentalist leanings.
Last year, when Stewart attended the CEF’s triennial National Convention in Talladega, Ala., she says she found the messages from the keynote speaker, Dr. A. Charles Ware, to be filled with pro-creationism, anti-homosexual and anti-interracial marriage rhetoric.
“If people really understood what kind of religion is being taught, they would be less likely to send their kids,” Stewart says.
CEF bills itself as “a Bible-centered, worldwide organization that is dedicated to seeing every child reached with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, discipled and established in a local church.” But Stewart’s book asserts that what parents see at the clubs isn’t necessarily the bottom line.
Such fundamentalist messages are not absent from the local Good News Clubs, which teach creationism and refer to homosexuality as a sin, according to organizers.
Not surprisingly, some parents find those kinds of messages alarming.
“It sounds like they are training children to preach,” Bullwinkel says. “To me it’s propaganda.”
LONG HISTORY IN CENTRAL OREGON
While court rulings have helped to pave the way, the clubs have a long history in Central Oregon. Good News Club, Ponderosa Chapter, serving Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook Counties, has been operating in the area since 1968. Betty Edwards, co-director of the Ponderosa Chapter, has been at the helm of the evangelical program for 12 years. As director, her duties include soliciting donations from area churches, driving the trailers, coordinating with schools and teaching new volunteer leaders. Before she took over as a director she was involved with the clubs as a volunteer herself and pressed her husband to do the same.
“We prayed about it and I was drawn in,” says Terry Edwards, Betty Edwards’ husband, who along with her is a co-director of the local Ponderosa chapter. Currently, there are 19 Good News Clubs in Central Oregon, which is down from a reported 31 clubs in 2007.
“We want children to hear about Jesus Christ,” says Terry Edwards. “We offer a gift.”
Hockin, a volunteer at Pine Ridge Elementary and parent, sees the Clubs as just that.
“I want every child to know that Jesus loves them,” she says.
Hockin has been a volunteer Good News Club teacher for five years and reports that she’s seen the number of her students swell from six kids, when she first started, to 23. Three of her own children attend her lessons, too.
“They love it,” she says. “I think the one thing that they enjoy is that the Bible is full of adventure stories and you know kids love those stories.”
As the week’s lesson winds down at the trailer outside Tumalo Community School, the volunteer leader fields more questions, leads more songs and hands out candy and other prizes before releasing the children back to their classrooms – a 30-second walk away, across a gravel turn-around area and a line between schools and religion that is becoming more and more hazy around Central Oregon and across America.
This article appears in Feb 23-29, 2012.
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Greetings Mr. Williams:
After reading the highly critical, biased article regarding Child Evangelism, I can’t help but wonder whatever happened to the principle of objectivity of reporting in journalism. Yes, I know it’s a feature, but does that provide an umbella to promote your obvious religious beliefs of atheism and all of its cousins; I.e. homo sexuality, evolution, abortion, etc.?
I’m reminded of another atheistic, antagonist journalist of Christianity by the name of Lee Strobel from the Chicago Tribune. I challenge you to read his book [or DVD] entitled THE CASE FOR CHRIST to see if he’s also a simpleton like you’ve attempted to portray the Child Evangelism proselyters.
Throughout the years the vast majority of the atheists whom I’ve met, exhibit basically the same characteristics: [1] an egotistical self-pride; [2] if I say there is no God enough times, then that will make it true and, therefore, I’m NOT accountable to Him, [3] They believe the evolutionary lie that they evolved over billions of years from a “rock”, etc. — and all of that without a shred of proof.
God says in Romans 1:18-25 that ALL human beings know that there’s a God somewhere because of their conscience and because when they view nature — the probability of it happening by accident is impossible!!!!
You know what? God says you’re going to die one of these days and HE will judge you on the decision you make regarding Jesus Christ. Oh yes, today is February 22, 2012 dated on whose life?
Sincerely,
Harold H. Moore
As “some parents (are) raising their eyebrows” (over G.N.C.’s) others are overjoyed to have this option for their children. It is a choice of the parents. When you speak of the handouts sent home with kids from G.N.C. as needing to be “material (that) will have educational value and enhance the district program” I believe these kids are becoming better people as they learn Bible verses relating to their struggles in life. How can this not enhance any district program? Also if these clubs are “targeted to a very vulnerable population of students” isn’t it a good idea to put that responsibility on their parents, who are raising them with their own values? There will always be those who don’t accept the Bible as a sacred book, but for those of us who do, we want to pass it on to our children.
Thanks for you homework on CEF; Maybe somewhere along the line you too will find a faith and relationship with Christ to spur you on to tell others about Him.
This is just WRONG! This is exploitation and recruiting of children through bribery. The schools need to stop this wacked out evangelist exploitation of children. Children need protection from religious nutcases at schools just as they would be protected from any adult predator!
Oh, imagine how loudly they would howl if I parked my Atheist Happy Story Fun Time Free Candy Wagon right next to their Jesus trailer!
Actually, that’s about all it would take to put the school districts in an indefensible position where they would have to either a) give every group equal access or b) give access to none. In my opinion, no group, religious or otherwise, should be allowed to park a trailer across from a school and entice children with candy, no matter what the message. On its face this is downright creepy, no matter how positively the message is couched.
Christians: teach YOUR dogma to YOUR kids on YOUR own time, and let other parents do the same. No matter what your holy book tells you to do, be decent human beings and respect the wishes of parents who send their children to public school and do not share your beliefs and do not want their kids to learn about the gruesome crucifixion of Jesus on their lunch break.
In other words, if you want to spread your religion, stop trying to game the system; get off of your entitled behinds and go knock on doors like all the other cults.
Oh, imagine how loudly they would howl if I parked my Atheist Happy Story Fun Time Free Candy Wagon right next to their Jesus trailer!
Actually, that’s about all it would take to put the school districts in an indefensible position where they would have to either a) give every group equal access or b) give access to none. In my opinion, no group, religious or otherwise, should be allowed to park a trailer across from a school and entice children with candy, no matter what the message. On its face this is downright creepy, no matter how positively the message is couched.
Christians: teach YOUR dogma to YOUR kids on YOUR own time, and let other parents do the same. No matter what your holy book tells you to do, be decent human beings and respect the wishes of parents who send their children to public school and do not share your beliefs and do not want their kids to learn about the gruesome crucifixion of Jesus on their lunch break.
In other words, if you want to spread your religion, stop trying to game the system; get off of your entitled behinds and go knock on doors like all the other cults.
If the bus parked out front wanted to spread the teachings of the Dalai Lama, you anti-christianity wonks would be fine with it. You get to pick and choose which religions to give your blessings to. Not at all unlike someone picking which color of skin on a person is ok with them. Major parallels here you bigots.
Some questions:
Is the trailer being parked on school property? In the past, the Bend-LaPine School District forced the group to park off-site (basically, just inches over the property line) in what I recall was a fascinating bit of legal gymnastics.
What evidence do you have that the line is “becoming more hazy”? Although case law is continually tested in this and other constitutional areas, this has remained constant: That government may neither establish nor discriminate against religion.
As a practical matter, I would much prefer that the schools NOT provide the limited public forum that allows the Good News Club and others to inform students about their activities. The Boy Scouts (anti-gay and religious bigotry is built into their organization) also make their way onto school campuses through this vehicle.
There are a couple things in James article that are either “misquotes” or lies intended to paint a negative picture of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), an organization whose sole purpose it to share the love of Jesus Christ. I was also at the CEF conference attended by Ms. Stewart. Therefore eye witness to the very things she was quoted as observing. Guest speaker, Dr. A. Charles Ware's presentation followed the theme of the conference and CEF's goal of serving together regardless of age, sex or ethnicity. His speech was not “filled with anti-interracial marriage rhetoric”. Since Dr. Ware is a black man married to a white woman (pictures of his family were shown at the conference on a very large screen. How Ms. Stewart missed that is beyond me). He has also co-authored a book entitled “One Race-One Blood”. If Ms. Stewart (as quoted by James) has misrepresented CEF on this very important point, is it not probable that her entire book is also intended to negatively misrepresent CEF?
Unfortunately, perhaps James and other readers of the Source may not understand the love of Jesus Christ. One thing we should all be able to agree with, recognize and value is the freedoms we all share as American citizens. One of which is the freedom of religion (not from religion). Parents have the right, and freedom, to either register their child in a Good News Club or not. God forbid that He should turn His back on this great nation.
This is sad and delusional that Schools would even allow this type of behavior on or near their campus. Thankfully, we have organizations like the Freedom From Religion foundation that helps keep dogma and brainwashing (also called evangelizing) OUT of our schools. Might I remind everyone that public schools are part of the State and we have clear laws that separate church and state.
If church’s want to prey on young minds do so in their own organization or at the homes of the kids…..
The not-so-obvious effect, however, that Christians don’t quite understand is something called human psychology…the more you push this crap at our kids, the more they realize it’s just myths and silliness so keep pushing and they will keep getting farther away once they use logic/reason.
If I’m not mistaken, and I may be as it has happenned before, doesn’t the student require the permission some type of a legal guardian to attend not just this, but anything off of school property? If this is indeed the case, what is offered inside the trailer is irrelevant, unless it’s criminal. Thus, if you are offended, worried, or otherwise discombobulated about this situation, your ire should be directed at the parents who willingly allow their children to attend said trailer.
Dr. Ware’s speech itself was not filled with filled with those characterizations. However, the book he wrote, “Darwin’s Plantation,” which was selling briskly in the lobby of the auditorium in which he was speaking, was filled with hate. “The homosexual agenda is spreading its tentacles throughout the United States culture…” he writes. In that same book, he asserted that interfaith marriages should rightly be referred to as “interracial marriages,” and should be categorically condemned.
Ware’s presence at the convention proves that the new inclusiveness really just means a shift in the lines of demarcation between inside and outside, between “pure” and “impure” — lines that are patrolled with as much fury as ever.
As a substitute in C.O having lived in two state who take education WAY more seriously than OR does,, I am not worried about the kids actually learning anything! The poor test scores, the foul language used right in front of-and to-teachers, the lack of dress code and discipline…Oregon should be ashamed of itself calling any of it “education.”
That said, religious teachings belong at church-NOT in a public school setting. Cannot wait to move out of this backwards state ASAP. Thank the universe my kids were not students here…
The CEF advocates bigotry, just as white nationalist groups have historically advocated bigotry. However, the bigotry of the CEF relies less on skin color than on religion and sexual orientation.
For instance, quoting from page 131 of his 2007 book, “Darwin’s Plantation: Evolution’s Racist Roots,” Child Evangelism Fellowship keynote speaker Dr. Charles Ware writes,
“If one wants to use the term “interracial,” then the real “interracial” marriage that God says we should not enter into happens when a child of the Last Adam (one who is a new creation in Christ — a Christian) marries one who is an unconverted child of the First Adam (one who is dead in trespasses in sin — a non-Christian).”
On the same page, he writes, “Now that the ‘race’ issue has been dealt with…Christians are only to marry Christians, so wisdom obviously tells us that Christians should only date other Christians.”
On page 168 of the same book he writes, “The homosexual agenda is extending its tentacles throughout the United States culture via media, entertainment, education, and the political system,” and goes on to decry TV personalities like Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen Degeneris.
This book was selling in the lobby of the came chapel where Dr. Ware delivered his speech. This was far from the only instance of homophobia and faith-based bigotry that I witnessed at that convention, and that I write about in my book. But I expand on this one here to address the comment from the woman who asserts that Dr. Ware is not a “racist” bigot because he is African-American himself.
I believe that many people who send their children to Good News Clubs, and perhaps even many of CEF’s workers, are neither bigoted nor racist, and I am sure they mean well for the communities in which they live. But I would encourage them to take a closer look at an organization that, at its core, not only tolerates such faith-based bigotries, but encourages them — and worse, seeks to inculcate them in little children.
Thank you,
Katherine Stewart, author of “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children” (PublicAffairs)
http://www.thegoodnewsclub.com
I’ve never heard of these in trailers before, but in many states they are offered in the schools after school hours just like any other program. The reason they are allowed is to offer that equal access to everyone. There is a reason their case won at the supreme court level.
To those of you putting this down – Permission slips are REQUIRED! IF you don’t want your child going then DON’T sign the slip. The teachers are not brainwashing them, just telling them the truth about what the Bible says. If you don’t want your kid to know what the Bible says then don’t send them. Please do not give negative comments to any organization you don’t know enough about! Schools that offer these often come back and tell the teachers that their students are behaving better in school and caring increases. Schools that offer these to their students are nothing but better.
If you really question these clubs, check them out for yourselves and you’ll see how much everyone at the school appreciates them.
well its plane to see you have never met the God who created you and for that i am sorry people like you call Jesus a cruch well i will tell you from my own life yes he is a cruch and there is no way i could have made it thrue my life without him. are very DNA tell the story oh who made us, if you look into an electron microscope you will see a proteen that holds even an athiest together it is called lamanen so you may not belive in a creater but when you go on line to see what this is you will be shocked to know that you my friend have been made with the fingerprint of God you and you will have to answer for every act word and deed Jesus died for you my friend he also died for me even a reched sinner like me. i will pray for you and your news paper
Why the anger and name calling? I don’t understand. I see words like “wacked out, nutcases, predators, wonks, negative terms like dogma, crap”. Christians are hateful bigots? This is double minded rationalization. I fear to think what kind of grace or tolerance might be extended to my child who says to you “I love the Lord God with all of my heart, mind and soul”. Standing on the truth of God’s word is not a crime and does not deserve this kind of backlash. The children at these Good News Clubs are there because they want to be. Their parents have signed a very descriptive permission slip saying they want their children to be there. There is no conspiracy to exploit, recruit, or brainwash these children through bribery.
Regarding the atheist comments, your religion is being taught in our schools on a regular basis. You have the freedom to exercise your rights, your desire for tolerance is being respected. Why is it that same tolerance is not being extended to the Christian community? It is not about “religion” it is about a relationship with Christ and the truth. Yes, the truth.
God is logic and reason, not myths and silliness. But you have the freedom/right to believe what you believe. God will never force His truth on you. It is up to all of us as individuals to seek and accept or deny the truth. What I would say is that no one has the right to speak hateful negative things on either side, or to put people down about what they believe. If you don't believe that God is your creator, I respect your choice. I know that He is my creator John 3:16-17 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
There are terrible, hateful, hypocritical, sinful human beings in all Christian, religious and secular cultures. There is absolutely no excuse for it on any side of the subject. We are commanded to love! Mark 12:30-31 says And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. 31 The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these.”
Lord I pray that as people read this that your word would not return void. John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Well Dionne…for one thing….Christians don’t support full equal rights for all humans. They refuse to support same-sex marriage or even love those of us who are gay/lesbian, etc. It’s pure bigotry and delusional for them to think they are better and then start slinging bible versus when they don’t even follow their own bible…sorry but when christians can start being human and love EVERYONE without letting dogma creep in as they do in Europe and all other sane countries then perhaps real peace will prevail 🙂
Although skewed clearly to one point of view, thank you James for writing the article and informing parents that there are options for their children to learn about God while at school. Your readers are obviously very passionate about this topic and that’s great, there are many others just as passionate on the other side of the “fuzzy line”.
Bottom line, from what I can gather, the Good News Club does as the law allows and is not deceptive in any way I know of. Children get permission by their parents, the child attends, and God Willing, learn something new and will be better for it.
If there was a Good News Club at my children’s school, Bear Creek, they would attend.
Bigot is an interesting word that is thrown around a lot these days. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives a two-part definition:
[1.] a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially :[2.] one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.
This blog is a perfect example, almost without exception the posts are from people who are obstinately devoted to his own opinion. So each person on here is a bigot to some degree (including myself). The second definition is a little more hazy because intolerance is easy to throw around and we are told that intolerance is evil yet every person on this planet is intolerant. Some of the posts on this blog are intolerant of Christians teaching children with parental permission (because they are devoted to their own belief) others are intolerant of same-sex marriage (because they are devoted to their own belief) and still others are intolerant of those who oppose same-sex marriage (because of their own belief).
Intolerance is a necessary part of society. If you don’t believe me then consider what would happen if we started treating all criminals with tolerance and didn’t punish them for their crimes-it would lead to chaos and mayhem.
Hatred on the other hand not a necessary part of society. While there are Christians who do hate (which is sin by the way), most Christians do not hate those who are gay or lesbian. Actually, as has already been quoted the Bible commands us to love ALL people regardless of race, gender, belief, or lifestyle. Showing love to someone doesn’t mean helping them harm themselves. If I see someone running towards a cliff with the intent of jumping off (with rocks below), it would not be love to help them on their way. It also would not be love to ignore them. At the very least I should shout out a warning to them.
To Ms Stewart:
Until you rewrite the English dictionary, it is lying (also known as slander) to say someone is a racist because they say there is a difference between someone who is “pure” or “impure” in their behavior or belief. The dictionary says someone is racist because they hold someone’s race (not belief or behavior) as making that person superior.
And if it is bigotry to decide to marry (or not) someone based on their beliefs then it is just as bigoted to decide to marry someone based on their looks, behavior, etc. I believe this is how everyone decides who they will marry (or partner with).
You also accuse Dr Ware of bigotry because he talks about what the homosexual agenda is doing and labels certain individuals within that agenda? If this is truly what you call bigotry (and I beg to differ) then your entire book (or at least the first 5 chapters) is full of this same type of bigotry because you say what the Christian right is doing and why (supposedly) and then you name numerous individuals within it.
I know you don’t believe or understand this but the driving force behind the Christian “grassroots” movement that you talk about is God (that is the Creator God) and His love for ALL people.
We just received a flyer last week that was in our 5 year old sons school folder. My other son is a 3rd grader and we never received anything for him in the past 4 years. As others have said parents must give permission for their children to attend. Needless to say I quickly began to educate myself with this group and their teachings. As same sex parents my concern is that CEF is permitted to teach these kids that its their belief that homosexuality and same sex marriage is wrong. They have the right to their belief but by teaching kids this at such an early age flows over into the classroom. My kids do not need to have these kids tell them their dads are going to hell. We have experienced that already from a classmate that had obviously been taught by their parents. Kindergarten kids cant even grasp the full consent of same sex families and all the dynamics of those families. I plan on going to meet with the principal to see what other groups are permitted use of school after hours as I have never seen any fliers. Who knows maybe I will start a same sex group and send out a flyer throughout the elementary school. I wonder if anyone would bat an eye?