Viral video shows church staging fake execution during Vacation Bible School

[muriel_volestrangler]

In a bizarre, disturbing scene that’s gone viral on TikTok, a church appeared to stage a fake execution of a man—involving realistic-looking guns and military uniforms—during Vacation Bible School. As the man is being murdered, the children are cheering in unison, “Take him out! Blow him up!” The military men then take the body outside (and out of view), where it’s suggested by the pastor they’re going to “blow him up.”
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This apparently took place at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky—the backdrop of the clip matches the backdrop seen in other images of the church. I attempted to reach the pastor, Dewayne Walker, but the church didn’t respond to an email or my multiple phone calls.

According to various commenters, the church was trying to show how “sin” needed to be destroyed, which is why all the kids and their parents seemed to go along with the cosplay and paintball guns. But still. What the hell is wrong with everyone involved in this potentially traumatizing charade? At a time when mass shootings are rampant, what’s the educational value of any of this—and, yes, they can be traumatized by being exposed to realistic scenes like this even if they’re “safe” in the scene.

And think about what the skit is attempting to teach even in the best case scenario: that sin needs to be destroyed. The problem with that mentality is that Baptist churches like this one routinely tell children that LGBTQ people are sinners. And doctors who perform abortions are sinners. And people who vote for Democrats are sinners. What’s the line between murdering Satan-In-Human-Form and committing real acts of violence against whoever your pastor tells you is evil? It’s not hard to see the thread connecting skits like this with all-too-real faith-based violence.

https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/viral-video-shows-church-staging?hide_intro_popup=true

This is appalling - the "pastor" did later respond, saying the person killed was Satan, so it's all cool. But this is not someone wearing horns and a red bodysuit with a tail; he's in a normal hoody and tracksuit bottoms. They pepper him with paintballs, as he writhes as if shot - it's the kind of thing that would get an "R" rating for a movie if they used fake blood. And they've got pre-schoolers cheering it on.

And you know these are people who will happily call real people "devils", "demons" or "Satan".

Video at the source, but I can't embed it.