No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition!
An unnamed 14-year-old girl thought she was about to die at church: armed men burst into the room where the youth group of the Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church in Middletown, Penn., were congregated. The men put pillowcases over the kids’ heads, tied them up, and dragged them out to a van. “I had my hands behind my back,” the girl said. “They said ‘just do as I say and you won’t be hurt.’” The group was taken to the pastor’s house, where he was being beaten. But it was eventually revealed as all fake: one of the kidnapers was a police officer; his gun was real, but unloaded. The kids weren’t warned about the stunt “to secure the shock value of it and make it much more real,” says Pastor John Lanza, who explained the whole thing was to teach the kids “a lesson in religious persecution.” It may turn into a lesson of prosecution: Dauphin County’s First Deputy District Attorney Fran Chardo called the event serious. “False imprisonment of a child,” she warned, “is a second-degree felony punishable up to 10 years on prison.” She — and local police — have started investigations. (RC/WHTM Harrisburg) ...And let’s hope Pastor Lanza won’t have any advance warning when the arrest warrant is issued, or the lawsuit is filed.Story Update: After a four-month investigation, youth pastor Andrew Jordan and, interestingly, the church itself, were charged with one count of false imprisonment and one count of simple assault. Pastor John Lanza, who approved of the fake crime, was not personally charged. Both pleaded no contest and, in a plea deal, the church paid a $10,000 fine, and Jordan was sentenced to community service. “They’re not bad people,” said Chardo. “What they did wasn’t malicious. It was just foolhardy.” Only one count of each crime was charged because only one parent — the mother of the 14-year-old girl, pressed charges.
Original Publication Date: 22 April 2012
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 18.
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 18.
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