Charges Dismissed Against the Gideons

MP can speak for himself. As for me, I'm on the side of my children, and I have no need to apologize for that. I don't want strangers talking to them, engaging in conversations about religion or anything else.

I don't think the Gideons should have been arrested, of course. But I still don't want them to talk to my kids.

peace to youraying:

 

Amen! How can you teach children to avoid strangers, except for some. Sure, most strangers are not predators, but you, and your kids, don't know who is and who isn't. Little League coaches, scoutmasters, priests, and yes, Baptist ministers have been found to be pedophiles. I will not take a chance, and I also am on the side of my kids and grandkids.

 

If I thought we'd be allowed to talk about it, I could show you instance after instance of public school teachers doing that which is unseemly to children. I would defy you to show me an instance where the Gideons have offended a child while they were passing out Bibles. I don't want public school teachers talking to my children for I have great confidence that there is a high likelihood that they will corrupt them spiritually and a lower but existent likelihood that they will corrupt them physically. I have strong confidence by track record that the Gideons will do far less harm to those children, then the school teachers will. Further, the Gideons in this instance were targeting the very age students that we all need to be targeting. They were not "accosting", "preying on", or doing anything otherwise harmful to these children. They were handing out Bibles and preaching the gospel in public, on a public sidewalk and in daylight. Only, in this age could this ever be considered a bad thing.

 

This thread is just amazing.

 

Very good point!:thumbs:

In this day and age I do not want strange adults speaking to my children outside of my supervision.

 

They would offend me by not asking for my permission to speak to my minor children.

Then you should most certainly remove your children from public schools.

I won't be giving up my God-given duty to oversee the welfare of my children based on your confidence the Gideons won't hurt my children quite as bad as the school teachers.(not a ringing endorsement, BTW)

I disagree. We ought not be "targeting" children.

They were talking to kids without their parent's permission. That is, IMHO, a bad thing.

peace to youraying:

 

I guess that's where we disagree, I believe Christians should preach the gospel to every creature.

 

I don't believe I should target a child on the street to preach the gospel to them without their parent's permission.

We will disagree.

peace to youraying:

 

The Gideons in our town do not preach to the children or anyone else.

They simply ask the child if they would like a New Testament. Period. End of conversation.

There are countries where Bible's are not allowed to be handed out.

How long before we lose that freedom here???

 

If the paranoia shown by this thread is any indication, it won't be very long!

 

Paranoia is an unjustified fear. Having a fear of unknown adults approaching our children without our knowledge or consent is not unjustified. I am not sure what color the clouds and sky are in your world. But in the real world where the sky is blue and the clouds are white children are snatched off the street every day and have horrific things done to them.

What is unjustified, irresponsible, negligent, and completely insane is to ignore these facts and ignore who approaches our children.

 

Agreed, BUT, unless you are prepared to be with a child 24/7 you're going to have to trust God to keep them safe somewhere/sometime, or they will NEVER grow into a functioning adults.
I don't mean that you don't keep reasonable supervision over them, but I say that the fear shown here by a Gideon, in a public setting, simply handing out a bible, is PARANOIA!

If you disagree, then I respect that, but I don't see the problem. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this point, since I do agree with you on many others.

 

Handing out Bibles is innocent enough. But many pedophiles make attempts to appear innocent. I do not deal with children outside of parental knowledge unless it is absolutely necessary. If a child at church wants to make a decision for salvation I will go to the Parent and let them know what they decided to do and what the next step is.. I lead them in that decision but I never hide it form the parents. I always meet with them and let them know what books or materials I have given them. Parents must always be in the loop. If they want to hand stuff out to children then they should only do it with children with parents available or at least another adult with them. But in this day and age an uninvited adult standing out in front of the school looks creepy and suspicious. We can disagree but any concern or suspicion where the saftey of our children are concerned is always justifiable. Thank God for paranoid parents and teachers.

Now if we can just get teachers to stop sending elementary school age children out into open hallways alone our schools would be much safer.

 

Why doesn't that paranoia cut the other way? Isn't it frightening to send Christian children to schools where their peers have never heard the loving gospel message of Jesus Christ? Without this message, isn't it possible that we'd be seeing some horrid things like drug use, fornication, and violence, (including school shootings) in our public schools? It seems like if we cared about the safety of the children that go to those institutions, then we'd be desperate to have someone share the love of Jesus Christ with them. Ultimately, what is really more dangerous to the children, creepy, suspicious, Christians giving Bibles to children on a public sidewalk or is it more dangerous if no one did this at all?

 

I don't know he's a Gideon. He didn't ask my permission before he started speaking to my kid.

For all I know, he's a J.W. or a Mormon, or maybe even a Freewill Baptist .

The point is, they shouldn't be talking to minor children without their parent's permission.

peace to youraying:

 

Amen! :thumbs:

 

And still without the parent's permission.

Obviously, there was an adult supervising the children, hence the asking them to leave the children alone, hence their refusal to do so, hence their being arrested, hence the topic on this thread.

I don't think you can assume you know what the person who supervised the children leaving the school were thinking or what their motives were. There motives might very well have been concern for the children's safety (and probably was). That was probably their job.

peace to youraying: