Why Would a Church Youth Group Pretend to Kidnap Teens?
A Pennsylvania church and its youth pastor were charged last week with false imprisonment and assault for pretending to kidnap youth group members in order to teach them about religious persecution. You know you’re an evangelical when your first reaction to that news isn’t shock but, “Man, I can’t believe fools are still doing that.”
Let me explain. When I was growing up in southeastern Michigan, I was an enthusiastic Jesus nerd, attending all manner of Baptist youth fellowship conferences, winter retreats, summer church camps, and a year-long leadership program for young Baptists. And at nearly every one of these, someone would inevitably share a rumor of a youth group they’d heard about. (Only rarely did a teen claim to have witnessed it themselves.) According to the story, this youth group’s leaders had staged a mock terrorist raid of a meeting, wearing masks and storming in with weapons while they demanded to know who in the group was a Christian. The implied threat was that if someone stood up and declared she was a Christian, she could be killed.
Hard as it may be to believe, whenever this story was told, no one ever responded, “Good God—I’m glad my church isn’t that insane!” Instead, the point was to make us reflect on what we would do in a similar situation. Would we be cowards and deny our faith? Were we already hesitant to admit we were Christians in everyday life? Or were we strong in the spirit, proud of our faith, no matter what the risks?