Glad Tidings PA Church Abducts Teens in Fake Raid at Gunpoint.

[DamagedGoods]

Just to note, the gun was unloaded, but there is no way the kids could have known this. They would literally have believed they could be about to die. From what I can tell no charges have been laid.

http://www.abc27.com/story/17241883/...oups-fake-raid

County prosecutors have begun an investigation into a church function where members of a youth group were tied up and blindfolded as part of a lesson in religious persecution.

Fran Chardo, First Deputy District Attorney of Dauphin County, said there could be consequences if teens didn't know what was going to happen, and didn't agree to be a part of the event at the Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church in Lower Swatara Township.

"It's actually quite serious," Chardo said. "False imprisonment of a child, someone under the age of 18, is a second-degree felony punishable up to 10 years on prison."

ABC27 News has learned that an off-duty police officer acted as one of two kidnappers who raided the Wednesday night meeting. The gun used by the officer in the fake raid was unloaded, but real.
[...]

The teen told abc27 News she thought she was going to die when the men burst into the room, put pillow cases over some of the people's heads and led them into a van.

"They pulled my chair out from underneath me and then they told me to get on the ground," she said. "I was the first person to go into the van. I had my hands behind my back they said 'just do as I say and you won't be hurt'."

The teens were taken to the pastor's house, where it appeared he was being assaulted. Eventually, she said the adults in charge revealed it was a staged event.

Who could possibly think this was a good idea?

To teach them about religious persecution? Why?

Pastor John Lanza said the lesson was a surprise "to secure the shock value of it and make it much more real."

"There are people in other countries that live under this environment on a regular daily basis," Lanza said. "They're not warned that their persecutors are coming in."

Unless you're planning on sending these kids to one of those countries, I fail to see that this was at all relevant to them. Show them a damned documentary if you want them to know that badly. And while you're at it, quit bitching about the violence in mainstream media if you're going to go about making kids believe you are going to do very violent things directly to them.

[newstarshipsmell]

You know, in any normal workplace this would be enough to guarantee that the parties responsible for this huge lapse of judgement never found demanding work that put them in charge of anything ever again. But it's church, so likely this will only benefit their careers.

[newstarshipsmell]

A couple months old, but just wanted to update that he was indeed charged:

March 27, 2012

Church Stages Kidnapping of Youth Group Members

A church pastor in Pennsylvania could face felony charges for staging a fake kidnapping of youth group students in order to teach them about religious persecution.

Teenagers at the Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church in Middletown, Pa., were surprised when they attended a youth group meeting at the church on March 21 and were ambushed by what seemed to be real kidnappers.

Adults, including an off-duty cop, brandished weapons and put bags over the heads of the children, ages 13 through 18, and forced them into a church van. The group was driven to the home of an assistant pastor, who was presented before the group with a seemingly bloodied and bruised face, according to Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo.

One of the adults used a real AK-47!!!, though the gun was unloaded, Chardo said.

[...]

One 14-year-old church member who was terrified by the kidnapping told ABC affiliate WHTM that she was outraged the leaders did not warn the children or stop the exercise once they saw how upset everyone was.

"They said, 'Just do what we say and you won't be hurt,'" she told WHTM. "I thought, 'Why not tell us that it was a joke?'"

The girl and her parents have filed a complaint against the church, citing both physical and emotional harm, according to WHTM.

The pastor, John Lanza, told the news station that the teens were not let in on the truth "to secure the shock value of it and to make it much more real because those who are threatened don't have a warning. It was a youth event to illustrate what others have encountered on a regular basis."
[...]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/church-stag...ry?id=16012844

July 30, 2012

Pa. church's mock kidnapping of teens brings criminal charges

(CBS/AP) PITTSBURGH - A mock kidnapping of church youth group members intended to be a lesson in religious persecution has brought criminal charges upon a southeastern Pennsylvania church and a pastor.

Authorities Friday charged the Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Middletown, Pa., and 28-year-old Andrew David Jordan of Elizabethtown, with false imprisonment and simple assault.

During the event in March, mock kidnappers covered the teenagers' heads, put them in a van and interrogated them. Neither the young people nor their parents were told beforehand.
[...]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_1...minal-charges/

Also, @Dakota Valkyrie, should this be moved into Crimes Against Children?

[DamagedGoods]

TY for updating NSS :) I'd forgotten I even posted this. Of course, I forget most of my posts, until I randomly find them again.

A real AK47?? JFC.

[newstarshipsmell]

TY for updating NSS :) I'd forgotten I even posted this. Of course, I forget most of my posts, until I randomly find them again.

A real AK47?? JFC.

No problem. I actually recalled this story when I read the staged intruder story with the group of armed teenagers, and drew a rather tenuous comparison between the two. Curiosity drove me to google him and find out what happened, though I didn't dig up anything beyond "charges were indeed filed."

But yeah - the AK47... I may be liberal, but I'm not some gun-fearing idiot. It wasn't merely the fact he was brandishing an assault rifle that bothered me, but the fact that it seemed like incredible overkill for the "point" they were trying to make to the teens. It's terrifying enough having strangers pointing hand guns at you, but at least you've got some hope of dodging bullets and surviving/escaping relatively intact if things turn south - with an automatic weapon in close quarters that hope becomes vanishingly tiny. I wonder if they made any effort to screen the kids for existing medical conditions that extreme terror might exacerbate. Probably not, considering.

The justification for it was completely bonkers too. If these teens had all in fact been preparing for foreign missionary work, and this just a lesson, with their foreknowledge and consent, in what they could/would be facing, then it would just be another bizarre Christian story to me. Instead, he just wanted to terrorize a bunch of kids so they'd "understand" what their brothers and sisters must live with spreading God's word overseas.

I am rather disappointed to read that only the pastor and the church itself were charged, apparently. Every single one of the adults involved ought to be held to account for what they did. Any single one of them could have spoken up and been the voice of reason, and averted this incident, getting outside help to prevent it if they couldn't argue the rest out of following through. It obviously required a good deal of planning ahead of time, so it wasn't a heat of the moment lack of discretion. They all did nothing to stop it. I wonder if the off-duty cop is still on his beat. He of all people should have fucking had a clue how wrong what they were doing was.

[TheFirstZev]

I really have no idea what would compel these adults to believe that this was a proper course of action in anyway. The way it went down I would have been sure to hell that something terrible was about to happen to me and the others in my group. The fact that their treating this as a joke to show the kids how people are persecuted is just beyond ridiculous. There was absolutely no reason they had to go as far as they did, even bursting through the door was enough to cause the impression that they wanted; pulling seats out from underneath them, putting pillows over their heads, forcing them into a van, taking them to see their "injured" pastor.... that was just complete overkill.

I'm glad someones suing their ass and bring charges against them. You have no idea how pissed I would be if that happened to one of my children; I would be saying all kinds of ungodly things. House of God or not, no one takes my babies without getting bitched out.

Just saw this btw:

A Pennsylvania church trying to toughen-up their young missionaries staged a mock kidnapping where they blindfolded youth group members, shoved them in a van, and subjected them to harsh interrogations.

But nobody warned the kids’ parents they were pulling this stunt.
[....]

Lanza defended the mock kidnappings, which involved an off-duty police officer and a retired Army captain, and that they’d done this twice before.

“It was a youth event, to illustrate what others have encountered on a regular basis,” said Lanza.

But the motorcycle-riding church leader admitted they never warned the parents of the 17 kids they were pulling this stunt.

Lanza said he “would love to” apologize to the girl and her mother but can’t until the police investigation is done. He also said he’s tinkering with his “shock” program.

“I would find a way that we could continue to keep the shock value, but I would find a way to inform the parents” ahead of time, the pastor said.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012...h-event-pastor

I don't know why they would "interrogate" the children; are they planning on catapulting them into Muslim countries as spies or some shit? The church pastor sounds like a total crazy. I can't believe that parents haven't complained before either; two other sets of kids were taken and subjected to this and no one stuck their neck out and said that it was fucking nuts?

This is the church site:
http://www.gtagpa.org/

And the pastor (with wifey):