MO District Will Pay Over $150K for Illegal Field Trip to Christian Ministry

[NeoGreen]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/07/04/mo-district-will-pay-over-150k-for-illegal-field-trip-to-christian-ministry/

?1

MO District Will Pay Over $150K for Illegal Field Trip to Christian Ministry
July 4, 2017 by Hemant Mehta

In 2015, to celebrate their hard work preparing for and taking the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests, the eighth-graders at North Middle School in Joplin were taken to a sports complex with a climbing wall and video games.

Good times!

Here’s the form the parents had to sign:
?1

You can see that parents were told the kids were going to “Victory Sports Complex”… but that’s a little misleading. Because that’s not the place’s name. It’s actually called Victory Ministry & Sports Complex. Which — wait for it — is a ministry.

That wasn’t necessarily a deal breaker. As long as the staffers stuck to watching the children as they played, and there was no attempt to proselytize, there wouldn’t be a problem. It’s really no different from the way churches sometimes host public school graduation ceremonies when they’re the largest venue in town — there’s usually no legal consequence as long as everything is kept secular.

But when you looked at the liability form provided by the ministry (and which parents also had to sign), it became clear that the employees there had every intention of converting these children while their parents weren’t around. This is item #6 on the list:
?1

Quote:

We (I) understand that the officers, officials, agents, other participants and employees of Victory Ministry and Sports Complex may be inviting me or (my) our students to Bible studies and local churches of the Christian faith. While at any Victory Ministry and Sports Complex location or event (my) our student(s) has permission to participate in worship services, Bible studies or any other activities that may pertain to the Christian faith.

Endquote:

Way to sneak that into the middle of the form, right? Also note #10, which essentially says the ministry can take and use pictures of students to promote their Christian agenda.