Well wonder no more!  Out here in the real world, the “god given open door to children and young people” that is part of what Evonne Paddison calls “Australia’s Largest Mission Field” (and we call “the Public Schools”) is holding training sessions with leading thinkers on “Children’s Ministry” and here, for short time, at least until this goes viral and they take it down … is proof.

One of the things that we need to face up to about our tolerant stance toward allowing volunteers into schools to teach children is that these volunteers are evermore drawn from the mold of the evangelical right in the USA.  Not all are, but the attitudes and agenda of the leaders of ACCESS Ministry definitely are.  The people most motivated to “go and make disciples” are people like Margret Spicer … and they don’t care what you want for your child.

The pleadings today in the Australian, by ACCESS Board Member Ian Harper are really a fig leaf to hide the obvious Evangelical and simplistic nature of what is actually going on the ground level.  Men like Harper, who no doubt knows how bubbles are made, provide a kind of civil and refined veneer to what is really very shallow and totally American style right wing Christianist nuttery.

Need evidence?  Well watch the video below … Think this is correlated with learning and knowledge?   Well if you do, I have a plantation in Mississippi that you might want to buy.   This is the kind of person who is active in “children’s ministry” and this is the whole point of these lessons, just what you see here.  This person trains people who volunteer for ACCESS, and her church conducts CRE classes!!

Contrary to what you hear the Arch Bishop say about helping children understand art and literature, these people couldn’t tell you the difference between Romeo and Rapunzel if their life depended on it.  This is just what they claim it is, “a god given open door to disciple children and young people” … and they don’t care about what kind of religion you want for your kids … because guess what, they know what is best … even if they can’t tell you the first thing about soap bubbles … they know WHO made them.

Here is another example of a “Crossway Baptist” lesson pitched at a 5 year old … it is never too early to brain wash a child into believing they are sinners!

Note:  If you are wondering if the influence here really is from Evangelical MegaChurches in the USA … well here is proof of that too:

The keynote speaker is Margaret Spicer, formerly of Promiseland (Willow Creek), most recently the director of Willow Creek New Zealand and now the Children & Families Ministry Director at Crossway Baptist Church. The elective streams across the day encompass Leadership, Practical Skills, Learning, Demonstrating Care, Worship, Playgroup/Pre-School and CRE (See the attached drafts for more details).

 

So, yes, Willow Creek is an Evangelical Mega Church in the Chicago area … which believes that the bible is “infallible” … so gone are the days when the nice Anglicans would tell stories about Jesus to kids … in are the days when people who want to scare the living daylights out of your children and tell them about sin, how everything in the bible is true, and how they can talk to God are “in” … and Martin Dixon is making it all possible.