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No, I do not think this is a legitimate way to win converts.
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In favor of religious schools: The parents enroll their kids there with the knowledge that they will be given a religious course. Therefore, the parents consent to what the children are taught. The Fellowship mentioned in the article, by contrast, holds their meeting in county fairs and some other places, and now want to bring their activities to the public schools.
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If I remember, one of the things many protestants denominations critizice(sp?) of the Catholic Church, is the fact that it practices child bastipsm. One of their beliefs is that the kids are not mature enough to accept the Lord as their saviour. Does not this Fellowship goes against that?
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I do not know how many of you have it, but I first read the article in the Time magazine(not online). They have some photos and captions explaining their activities.
What parent doesn’t actively try to mold their child? I don’t see how a parent can avoid actively instilling their own values upon their children.
Marc
If I added “against the childs wishes” would that make more sense?
Like cases where the child ** does not act like it is supposed to** and the parents try to force the child to act like how they think the child should act. Basically to try to make the child into something it is not.
Children at any age make up their minds about things and parents should not try to make a little duplicate of themselves in their children.
Sterra,
My apologies. I read your posting above as “there is” instead of “this.” Of course, it’s not a valid way to seek converts to poach children without the parent’s permission.
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When I was a child I wanted to eat candy all the time and avoid doing my homework. Instead my parents forced me to eat my veggies and do my homework. They set up certain guidelines according to their own values that I had to live by. I had very little choice when it came to living by those guidelines or not.
Children aren’t often capable of making the right decisions without some sort of parental guidelines. It is a parents job to instill in their kids certain values and that often times includes religious teaching. I might not like the values one teaches their child but others might not like the values I instill in mine.
Marc
Of course, studies have shown that children are much more likely to convert than adults or even teenagers. IIRC, only about 1-2% of people ever change their religious convictions once they pass age 18. If you want converts, you gotta get 'em young. This doesn’t make it right, but at least they’re being logical about it.
The kids aren’t as gullible as some people think. About a year ago, my niece started going to bible school on Sat. afternoons. Why? Candy. They get alot. If they show up 4 Saturdays in a row they can get double or sometimes even triple the amount.
When her and her little friends come home from bible school, do they talk about God and Jesus? No, they compare notes on who got what candy, how much they got, and they start trading with their friends.
Last Friday, when I was over to my brothers house, my niece checked to make sure she could go the next day because she was up for triple candy. Couldn’t miss out on that.
Conversion? No. Increasing business for dentists. Yes.
I told my son from an early age about God.
He is a christian and he wanted to get baptized last year (which he did).
He’s 8.
But, I don’t beleive this should be going on in school without first informing and getting permission from the parents.
My son recently had a computer thing going on in libary at school. I was sent a permission slip.
However, he didn’t want to, and told me not to sign it so I didn’t.
And to be FAIR, shouldn’t this school also then let in other religious proselitizers for the kids?
How about Atheists With Candy? 
Athiests with Candy—wasn’t that a show on Comedy Central last year? I’d love to see an “atheist recruiting group” try an hold meetings after school and see what hits the fan . . .
Just curious, Vanilla, what would your reaction be if your son decides at, say, 18, that he’s an atheist? I think I know you well enough to say you wouldn’t disown him, but would you try and reconvert him at every opportunity?
That’s what I was getting at with my post before. Apology accepted.