AIBU about these religious nutters?

[PatriarchyPersonified]

So I'll admit immediately that I am a pretty active atheist, which I generally restrict to debates/discussions online. I have engaged with some people on this website about religion so many of you will know I have pretty firm views. Hence why I am testing the waters on here to see if people irl will be as bothered about this issue as I am.

So, for the first time I feel motivated irl to try and make people aware of something that is happening in my local town. (Small, market town in the south of England, pretty boring by all accounts but we like it).

My DD has recently come home from school having spoken to some classmates who are attending a (relatively) new church group in the area. They are very keen on recruiting from the school and encouraging the older children who attend to convince the younger ones to start going to their youth groups, summer sports events etc.

The issue with this is their beliefs are at the very extreme end of the Christian sphere, we are talking young earth creationism, biblical literalism etc. Some of the older children have openly challenged the schools biology teachers about evolution etc. They have apparently been encouraged to do so by their parents. The group are very insular and once in encourage members to not interact with non-members for any reason other than recruitment or challenging 'secularism'.

I'm not any kind of atheism activist, but this kind of stuff crosses a line for me. Religious belief and church attendance is one thing, but active recruitment of the young under the guise of 'summer activities' is quite another, especially with the emphasis being on scientific denialism and speaking in tongues etc. (All imported direct from the US, as I'm sure you already figured out, but it was confirmed for me when I researched their church online)

If you someone made you aware of this activity happening in your children's school, how would you feel?

Where more issues are likely to come into play would be their teaching on the status of women and homosexuality. Does their website give any clues? Chances are if they are that extreme then they think being gay is a sin. Can the school push back on that with regards to equality?

YANBU I would flip if this was going on at my kid's school.

I remember I had a friend at school who belonged to an Elim Pentecostal Church - they spoke in tongues etc etc & she was always trying to get me to go to religious events (I didn't).

This kind of church sounds very similar.

It is definitely a safeguarding issue and comes under the PREVENT strategy - please tell the governors.

OP I unfortunately have experience with these churches. Be wary in case there's also an element of prosperity teaching involved. Basically teaching that if you give the church money God will make you rich. Its common in the mega churches in the US.

I remember about 25 years ago, our school was 'infiltrated' by young, charismatic youth pastors from the local happy clappy church. The RE teacher invited them in and they seemed to be allowed to roam the school unhindered, culminating in a 'rock concert' in the school hall. I was more into Slayer and Sabbath back then, so obviously took the piss, but I do recall my parents (themselves teachers) writing a letter of complaint and suddenly they weren't there any more.
Since then I've always been suspicious of warehouse based evangelical churches - they give me the creeps.

Quaffley yes thats the other thing, they tithe regularly and expect their members to do the same. They haven't made their thoughts on homosexuality common knowledge yet, although I expect they will be depressingly familiar.

I'm in the US. We had a problem with a group here "Young Life" actively sending non parents to volunteer for school activities and using that time to talk to kids about "Young Life." They also ran a lot of summer camps, water balloon fights, etc., We eventually got the volunteers banned from bringing up Young Life at school but the children recruiting children has been going on for like 15 years where I am from, I remember being subjected to it and my sister got involved for a time. Insidious groups.

I don't know if the UK has as strict of laws in regarding seperation of church and state. i.e. school is though. We were able to argue it was unconstituntional and a violation to our school policies. We also got the local Jewish community involved as they had a little more pull (i.e. a lawyer who would write a letter up or something, and a non-christian but still of the Book religion viewed as a protected minority that objects to their children being proselytized to really helps. People tend to take other religions more seriously than a lack of religion. Boo :/)

Pardon any typos

The school have said its nothing to do with them as there is no official recruitment taking place, just children talking to other children on breaks etc.

That's not good enough. Take them to task, don't be out off.

Perhaps speak to your MP. It's not good enough that the PTB turn a blind eye to open proselytising.