Anti-gay, complementarian church advertizing at my child's middle school

[FilleMondaine]

I haven't seen this church on Free Jinger, yet, and it would be so good to hear your thoughts. Does anyone know anything about Crossroads Church in Ohio? On Friday, I had to go to the middle school, and it was advertizing all over the place--even in the student bathrooms. While it didn't explicitly say "church", there were lots of coded words and coded images. When I looked it up, I saw that they did a better job hiding their awful beliefs, but from what I can tell:

• May be quiverfull, based on one of their "7 hills we die on" 
  • "Reproduction is about recognizing something that God has created and then reproducing it in his name. Crossroads wants to be a place where Christ-followers reproduce Christ-followers, leaders reproduce leaders and churches reproduce other churches. (From Matthew 28:19-20 in the Bible)"
• Grifting, although they seem to speak in code in their "tithing FAQ", it is easy to read between the lines
  • You obey got when you give 10 to the church--specifically Crossroads Church
  • Giving money to the church Crossroads and not telling your spouse is ok
  • If you are in debt, you honor God Crossroads by giving money
• More Grifting with "90 day tithe challenge"
  • In an earlier print sermon of the current page, they valued "living sacrificially" yourself so that you could tithe give money to Crossroads.
  • They ask you to "trust God Crossroads with your finances"
• LGBTQ+ is bad. They brought in a number of speakers, and do weird weird things against their queer parishioners via this study
  • Kicked out a gay youth pastor
• Sex before marriage is bad in their Date Without Drama printed sermon
  • "Having sex while dating is like driving while blindfolded."

On the other hand, some things sound...ok?

• There are rumors of complementarian, male-headship, but their Statement of Faith doesn't immediately say so. I even looking up the bible verses!
• Apparently, there is a lot of work done around "racial solidarity", especially through this pastor.

 

[Howl]

I'm seeing a big red flag on this one: "We want to grow by really “doing life together.” People who grow in their relationship with God also grow in their friendships with each other, moving beyond the Auditorium in Groups — both in-person and virtually, and through serving." 

Not sure about Crossroads, but reports from some other churches about small groups -- people are encouraged/required to be 100% revealing about personal struggles, without any assurance that personal boundaries are respected or that this information is confidential. 

Also, a church advertising in a school while trying to mask their affiliation is a massive red flag that they will manipulate in any way possible to influence children. 

If possible, make sure those flyers get torn down and try to find out who is posting them.  Public  schools shouldn't tolerate that. 

Edited Sunday at 04:34 PM by Howl

[gustava]

Why is any advertising allowed in public school?  Did the school allow it?  Or was it "snuck" in?

[FilleMondaine]

I have no idea how it got in. I heard that they have been doing something there for YEARS! So many red flags. But I can’t do anything about it at this time, unless there is an anonymous way to report it.

Our school board sucks! They took away anti-bullying protections against LGBTQ+ kids just because. And they decided to arm teachers, but secretly.

I don’t know what to do.

But thank you FJ for confirming that something is definitely not-right.

[Audrey2]

I just looked them up as well and I feel really uncomfortable with what I've read on their website. I'm not surprised though that they're in Ohio. Ohio is the same state that allows students to attend LifeWise academy once a week during school hours. This also makes me extremely uncomfortable. Here is a link to the LifeWise website. https://lifewise.org/

If you just scroll through their website without clicking on any links I think you can see why I feel this is problematic. I see so much loaded language there.

[FilleMondaine]

19 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Ohio is the same state that allows students to attend LifeWise academy once a week during school hours. This also makes me extremely uncomfortable. Here is a link to the LifeWise website. https://lifewise.org/

We moved to Ohio from Texas. So it was a move better, but I still cried when I learned that we would be living in Ohio. Ohio kind of sucks.

[Alisamer]

1 hour ago, FilleMondaine said:

I have no idea how it got in. I heard that they have been doing something there for YEARS! So many red flags. But I can’t do anything about it at this time, unless there is an anonymous way to report it.

Our school board sucks! They took away anti-bullying protections against LGBTQ+ kids just because. And they decided to arm teachers, but secretly.

I don’t know what to do.

But thank you FJ for confirming that something is definitely not-right.

My suspicion is someone in school admin and/or school board is associated with this church. Could be a teacher but I think that's less likely than admin. Which is not cool, but makes it harder to combat. And with the way the lines between church and state are getting stomped on related to schools lately, it might be harder to push against there, as well.

Just brainstorming ways to go up against this:

Is there a local religious group that would oppose this, who might be willing to make a stink? A Jewish or Muslim congregation, perhaps the Catholic diocese, pagan groups, Church of Satan?  Someone who isn't big on proselytizing who would oppose to "their" kids being tricked into attending a church like that? 

Is there a local TV news station that takes on "fighting injustice" sorts of stories? The "on your side" sort of segment where they go after the local bodyshop who scammed one of their viewers? I wonder if tipping off a local news reporter or two might inspire them to do a segment on it... it seems just the sort of thing they might like having a scoop on to stir up discussion and views.

Similarly an anonymous letter to the editor to the local newspaper might not be a bad thing.

Surprisingly what might be most effective, but which might take a little effort if you want to be truly anonymous - create a new throwaway Reddit account and post about it on the local subreddit. Reddit can be a cesspit but they can get things DONE if they're riled up. Possibly also post as a question in an "ask teachers" sub there - teachers themselves may have advice on how to push against it more specifically. 

Alternatively, what often works best is when the students themselves push back against things like this. It's risky, hard, and nobody wants to be the squeaky wheel - but if there's any sort of LGBTQ+ ally group, or a teacher (preferably a tenured one) who openly makes their room a welcoming space, or some other group of kids who would push against this, they might be effective in getting it changed. My guess is that they just ignore the advertising and may not have any real idea it's even a church. They're bombarded with ads so much these days it takes a lot to get past the apathy, but I bet there are kids who would be appalled to know they're being proselytized to in school. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

2 hours ago, FilleMondaine said:

We moved to Ohio from Texas. So it was a move better, but I still cried when I learned that we would be living in Ohio. Ohio kind of sucks.

The big cities like Cinci, Columbus, and Cleveland are fantastic. Unfortunately there are a lot of smaller towns where religion and public school aren’t totally separate. I purposely live in a religiously diverse area because of this. We are agnostic so we don’t want a public school pushing Christianity on our kids. 

[FilleMondaine]

@Alisamer thank you so much for the suggestions. My first thought was also Satanic Church, too. But I think that your Reddit idea is best, and I will try that. The part that I cannot get out of my head is that they advertise in bathrooms. So disturbing.

Has anyone else seen churches in public schools?

[gustava]

Consider contacting Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

[Antipatriarch]

6 hours ago, gustava said:

Consider contacting Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Or the Freedom From Religion Foundation (Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker). They have been in the trenches for years confronting and educating school districts on these issues, and filing lawsuits when necessary.