Friday 1 May 2009

Out in the sticks no-one can hear kids scream

There was more in this week’s local paper about the plans for a new redneck brainwashing centre (sorry, ‘Christian youth facility’) at a former country pub out in the sticks where no-one can hear the victims scream. You can read it at
http://www.iomtoday.co.im/south-news/Lancashire-Hotel-gets-new-lease.5216133.jp if you have a strong stomach.
I howled with laughter at comments like….

‘You can see their excitement and the relationship between them and the volunteers growing. The one that sticks in my mind is it's boys who do not have fathers, they have no male role models ... the volunteers are successful guys that can operate as role models’.

Since when is a bumpkin with a bible a ‘role model’, unless you’re planning on becoming a professional bigot when you’ve failed school?
And how about….

'There is a generation of fatherless boys. Single mums do a fantastic job but they can not be fathers. Well over 50 per cent of our volunteers are males, it's often women who do this kind of work, so it's good to see guys stepping up to the plate and putting in an effort there. It takes time to listen to their stories and want to share their stories and feed into their lives. I was able to share about God being the heavenly father who never rejects us, it's a lovely parallel.’

Oh, pass the sick bag! And if you are responsible for a young person, then do NOT let these voodoo-merchants into the same room as your loved one.
EVER!!!!!
Look, I happen to know that this ‘role model’, while involved in a ridiculous ‘mentoring’ scheme in a local high school, sent text messages to a girl in her early teens who had previously, and emphatically, rejected his ‘offers’ of ‘help’. He is an unwelcome religious parasite, and the subject of at least one complaint sent directly to the Director of Education for this and similar incidents. I saw one of the letters, and there was even talk of a petition to get him banned from any school premises.
You have to ask yourself; how does a ‘youth pastor’ (not a member of school staff so there as a guest and with no access to confidential pupil records) get hold of a mobile number not given to any except the girl’s closest friends and otherwise known only to key staff for emergencies?
The answer should have led the Director of Education to investigate staff collusion with evangelical cults, and in particular staff openly connected with the Southern Daft Cult. It didn’t, and as far as I know ‘youth pastors’ are still trolling around certain school corridors looking for fresh victims.
Another worrying thing is the way that kids from non-conventional families are targeted by such klingons as needing ‘pastoral help’, and that the Department of Education turns a blind eye to illegal activity which, to be blunt, most of us would regard as ‘grooming’. Ironically, while this is an offence under the very same Sexual Offences Act which a couple of years ago equalised the age of gay consent with the UK, it was only included in the first place to keep prominent local Christian homophobes happy.
I also happen to know that local evangelicals see it as ‘legitimate tactics’ to try and split such kids from their families because non-Christians (and even Catholics) are seen as a ‘bad influence’. I have that from an evangelical in a key government position who openly admitted it as ‘background information’ for a story when I worked for the local press.
People with a serious interest in child welfare need to ask themselves if, the way things are going, we need better protection for our kids. Not just from superstitious halfwits like Porter and his lawbreaking teacher buddies, but the Education Department’s plans for‘Multi Agency Teams’ where similar flat-earthers will be over-represented.
That you can take as a depressing certainty, so better start idiot-proofing your offspring now.

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