Sarasota News Leader
March 1, 2013
Page 33
and believes wholeheartedly that ���the Bible geon���s sermons which stated, ���A child of five,
is worth studying,��� so she did not think twice if properly instructed can as truly believe and
about it.
be regenerated as an adult,������ the Fellowship
website states. ���The Lord used this statement
���But then I started to hear stories from parin Mr. O���s life to lead him to begin the ministry
ents in town whose kids went to Good News
of Child Evangelism Fellowship when he was
Clubs,��� Stewart says, stories that often in60 years old.���
volved attendees ���targeting their peers for bullying and bigotry.��� One little girl approached Over the decades, the organization grew
a classmate and said, ���You don���t believe in Je- slowly, holding Good News Clubs meetings
sus and so you���re going to go to hell.��� When in churches, homes and parks, but its influthe other student rebuked her, telling her dif- ence did not fully explode till 2001, when a
ferent religions have different beliefs, the girl Supreme Court decision said it was OK for the
was distraught. According to Stewart, the girl organization to enter public schools.
asked, ���How can this be true? I learned this
���Can we really teach the Bible in public
in school.���
schools?��� a section of the Fellowship website
asks. ���Yes! The Gospel
That experience led
has been taught freeStewart, an investigaly in public schools
tive reporter by trade,
Whether or not they���re talking to all over the world for
deep into research
kids about same-sex relationships the level some time. Now chilabout the Good News
of contempt and scapegoating of LGBT dren in the U.S. have
Club, the Child Evanpeople that goes on in this organization is that opportunity, too!���
gelism Fellowship and
just bound to filter through.
the surprising intersecThe site says Good
tion of faith and pubKatherine Stewart
News Clubs can meet
Author
lic schools in America
���after school hours
today. The result? Her
on the same terms as
2012 book, The Good News Club: The Chris- other community groups,��� but it notes that
tian Right���s Stealth Assault on America���s children may attend ���only with their parents���
Children, which she will be discussing this permission.���
Sunday, March 3, at a Sarasota event hosted
by Americans United for the Separation of Stewart says the Supreme Court victory ���was
part of a long strategy by the legal advocacy
Church and State.
groups of the religious right: the Alliance DeDoes Stewart���s topic seem remote? Academic? fending Freedom, Liberty Counsel and (the
It should not. There is a Child Evangelism Fel- American Center for Law and Justice.���
lowship chapter right up the road in Bradenton that proselytizes to 100 students a week. What bothers Stewart the most about how
Good News Clubs operate is what she calls
The Child Evangelism Fellowship was found- the ���deceit��� that lies at the heart of their taced by Pastor Jesse Irvin Overholtzer in 1937. tics ��� the use of public school space to sug���Mr. Overholtzer read one of Charles Spur- gest to students that the Club���s lessons are
