The Good News Club is popping up at public elementary schools all over the Inland Empire.
What is the Good News Club? On paper it is a Bible Study group. It is sponsored by the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF).
They are in hundreds of thousands of schools across the nation. The CEF is a fundamentalist Christian Organization. They interpret the Bible literally. If you do not adhere to their specific brand of Christianity you are not truly saved. The purpose of The Good News club is to evangelize.
They are using public schools to do this. Public school is supposed to be a secular environment, free from religious indoctrination of any kind. Kids can not yet understand an afterschool activity, taking place on school grounds is not still school. What they learn at school is true. It does not take much of a leap for them to believe everything they hear at the Good News Club because it is happening at school, and that’s what the Good News Club is hoping for.
Although the flyer's handed out will say the school does not support or sponsor the club, in essence they are. No public school should have any religious groups present for after school programs. In fact no groups not directly sponsored by the school should be allowed on school property. The flyer's are passed out during school hours, yet another illusion to this being a school sponsored event.
The true problem here is the message of the Good News Club. There is no good news at all. If parents truly knew what they were teaching, they would not want their children to attend. Lesson after lesson teaches kids they are sinners, destined for hell, if they are not saved by the Good News.
Lesson after lesson teaches blind obedience to the authority of the church and God.
Some lessons endorse the Genocide of the enemies of God, or non-believers. Such lessons include The Amalekites, the battle of Jericho, and how Israel has suffered by not following God's command to get rid of the Caananites.
The Good News Club is intent on evangelizing children. CEF believes this can only be done by persuading children through shame and terror of their “need for salvation", the GNC mentions the “Second Commandment” to love one’s neighbor as themselves just once, and includes no references to the Golden Rule at all. They teach children from pre-school age to 12 that they “deserve to die” and go to hell because they were born with a sinful nature. Every lesson mentions the "Dark Heart" that all kids have, unless they are saved. This is despicable. They endorse the Bible as a literal and infallible word of God, teach that conversion to their own version of Christianity is the only path to
salvation, while other types of Christians are not actually Christian, and they heavily emphasize the role of Satan in everyday life.
They teach kids to go out and recruit other kids on the playground to come to the club after school. They use tricks and gimmicks to lure kids into the club like food and prizes. They create division within the schools and communities they invade. The long term goal of this club is simple, to undermine the public school system which they see as an affront to Christianity.
They have large, powerful national organizations behind them like the Alliance Defense Fund, and The Liberty Counsel, among others. These group works nationally to blur the lines between the separation of church and state.
I have no problem with Bible study but it needs to be kept at home and/or with your desired church/religion not at public school. School districts that don't want the Good News Club on campus are unable to fight them. The CEF has deep pockets, the school districts do not.
If you receive a flyer from this group, I hope you do as I did and throw it in the trash, or get angry! Join me in stopping them from coming onto to public schools. Show people what this group really is, The Bad News Club. I do not want my children or their classmates believing they are sinners, destined for hell, and born with a dark heart.
Kids are beautiful. Kids are amazing. It is time to set them off in this world believing they are worthy, capable, awesome, incredible, and marvelous!
